Newsweek Discovers Hypocrisy, Calls It 'Backlash'
Newsweek breathlessly reports that churches are sparking 'backlash' by depicting nativity scenes with ICE cages, drawing parallels between the Holy Family's flight and modern refugee crises. The article notes criticism from conservative circles for 'politicizing' Christmas. Unmentioned, of course, is the inconvenient truth that the Nativity story itself is a politically charged narrative of
displacement, a family seeking asylum from state-sanctioned violence. (Herod’s decree? Sounds remarkably similar to policies forcing families to flee violence today.) The media's framing of this as 'controversial' or 'sparking backlash' conveniently sidesteps the deep historical and theological resonance these displays carry. It’s not 'politicizing' Christmas to point out that Jesus, according to
canonical texts, was born to a family on the run, seeking refuge. It's simply applying ancient scripture to contemporary suffering—a discomforting truth for those who prefer their religious observances neatly separate from real-world injustices. What a shocking revelation, that a story about statelessness might resonate with ongoing statelessness.