That Christmas Carols event and remembering the birth of Jesus
Dec 8, 2024
Is your local community, like mine, preparing for that enjoyable Christmas Carols event? Will there be a reference to the place where it all began and, if so, what will be said? Will there be any reference to the current plight of its citizens?
Most of us attend our Christmas Carols event as an opportunity to affirm the real reason for Christmas – to celebrate the beginnings of Christianity in that town called Bethlehem but, in all likelihood, there will be no reference to the plight of its current citizens.
We will probably not be told that celebrations in Bethlehem have again been cancelled due to settler violence and displacement, and out of respect for the plight of the citizens in Gaza, just 70 km away.
We will probably not be told that if Jesus were born today it would probably be on a pile of rubble.
There just might be reference to the massacre of Jewish male babies that was to follow within a couple of years of Jesus’ birth but I’ll bet there will be no reference to today’s genocide and the plight of newborns and their mothers in Gaza.
If we enquire why, we might be told it is a local event, but why can we not reach out to acknowledge at the very least, the ongoing persecution, displacement and killings occurring in Bethlehem. Why cannot we not be told that the very survival of Palestinians in their traditional lands is under threat?
If we enquire why, we might be told it is ‘Political’ and events like this should be ‘non-Political’, but Jesus called out and acted on injustices. He was not afraid to be ‘Political’. What does it say about today’s Christianity if it takes the silent, ‘non-Political’ pathway in the face of such atrocities?
If we enquire why, we might be told that the organisers don’t want the event to be seen as ‘anti-Semitic’. To accept such a premise is to agree to be silenced in the face of genocide. It is accepting that mass starvation and killings, apartheid, expulsions and destruction, in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories is ok or that we are simply afraid of ‘name calling’.
It’s a standard we should not allow to pass by. Surely we can do something to at least have recognition of the current conditions in Bethlehem mentioned at this event.
I urge you to contact your Christmas Carols Event organiser and suggest a few sentences that could be included when remembering the birth of Jesus. To do nothing is to remain silent. Which side are you on?
Judy Attwood
Judy Attwood is a retired Secondary School Science Head of Department and curriculum writer with a long standing passion for Social Justice.
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