The fake ‘war on Christmas’ examples ginned up by culture war talk show hosts in recent years are nothing compared to misusing the birth of Jesus — and Christmas celebrations in general — to justify anti-immigrant policies.
The cruel spectacle churns on for now, but Advent prepares us to see anew that there are countless ordinary acts of love happening quietly, out of sight, more than you and I will ever know.
We should all be concerned about government officials anointing themselves as the arbiters of what a Nativity scene should look like. Sadly, too many Christians today willingly side with Herod.
It must have seemed hopeless in first-century Palestine for plenty of people, but that is where the light of the world chooses to be born. God is still coming into being, even amidst the cruelty of ICE and the terror of state violence.
Jesus didn’t say ‘peace’ because the disciples were safe or because the soldiers went away, but precisely because they were waiting outside and yet peace was still possible.
It seems if we are to have an honest conversation about persecution against Christians, we should first and foremost consider the migrant who is our neighbor, who is made in God’s image, and who needs our collective voice and support right now.
As Christmas nears, may we continue to not run away from seeing the injustices in our communities. But hold that in tension with the joy that we should all be feeling as we anticipate Jesus’s birth.
‘We know that Jesus was born into a Roman imperial occupation, and pretty much immediately becomes a refugee in Egypt, has to flee, and faces political violence,’ the Rev. Michael Woolf said.