Nativity scenes around the world have added a new accessory this Christmas season: the keffiyeh.
In a controversial display of the classic holiday, some churches have replaced the traditional swaddling blanket of baby Jesus with a black and white scarf that has become a symbol of pro-Palestinian activism. Meanwhile, a manger used as a crib is surrounded by piles of rubble.
Even Pope Francis got in on it. But many Christians and pro-Israel supporters are outraged by the apparent politicization of a sacred religious symbol.
The so-called “Christ in the Rubble” exhibit became so popular that it popped up everywhere from St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., to All Saints Episcopal Church. located in Pasadena, Californiato the Vatican.
According to the Palestinian pastor who started the trend, the scene is meant to send the message that if Jesus were born in the same place today, it would be war-torn Palestine.
Although Bethlehem is located in present-day Palestine, Jesus was not a Palestinian.
Many Christian faith leaders are offended, including Pastor Mark Burns of Harvest Faith Center in Easley, South Carolina.
“The fact is that Jesus was Jewish…To suggest that Jesus was Palestinian is to advance a very aggressive political agenda,” Burns told the Post. “The Nativity is for everyone. It should be above politics.”
Johnny Ellison, pastor of Chatto Valley Church in Phenix City, Alabama, added, “If the Pope and others are trying to use the infant Jesus as a metaphor for Palestinian resistance, they've failed before they even started.'' That's it,” he agreed. It is a flawed Biblical model to make the baby Jesus a symbol of military resistance. ”
Anger erupts online after Pope Francis started the nativity sceneDesigned by two artists from Bethlehem, it depicts a keffiyeh wrapped around Jesus' manger in St. Peter's Square on Saturday.
“Dressing the baby Jesus in a keffiyeh is not only a cynical use of the manger scene for political and propaganda purposes, but also an absurd rewriting of history,” said Sacred Heart University's Old Testament and Biblical Language. said Dr. Andre Villeneuve, professor at A major seminary in Detroit told the Post. “Everyone knows that Jesus was a Jew, a son of Israel. If he had been born in our generation, he would have prayed in a synagogue instead of a church or a mosque.”
Luke Moon, executive director of the Philos Project, which promotes Christian-Jewish relations, told the Post: [nativity] A story as told in the Bible — the story of a Jewish girl who gives birth to a very special Jewish baby in a manger in the Jewish town of Bethlehem. This is a story that the Vatican should not politicize. ”
Photography became especially difficult after the Pope's inauguration. proposed in november It is possible that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
“Other popes might also have been under suspicion,'' says Lazar Berman. wrote in the Times of Israel. “But for Francis, this scene is part of a worrying pattern, embedded in a contemporary narrative that seeks to erase the connection between Jews and the Judea where Jesus was born.”
The exhibit, which is not part of St. Peter's Square's main Nativity scene, was removed from display on Wednesday after backlash. According to Times of Israel.
The Nativity in the Rubble has been seen around the world since Munter Isaac, a Palestinian pastor at Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church, devised a new interpretation of the Nativity scene last Christmas season.
“This is what Christmas looks like in Palestine” Munter Isaac told Middle East Eye Last December. “If Jesus were born today, he would be born under the rubble of Gaza…For us, this is a message that Jesus identifies with our suffering.”
Isaac is the author of a forthcoming book titled “Christ in the Rubble: Faith, the Bible, and the Gaza Genocide.” According to the publisher's explanationclaims that Palestinians suffer “racism worse than South Africa's apartheid regime.”
His message is now being echoed by Christians around the world who are setting up copycat displays, such as Lindsey Jones Renaud, a member of St. Mark's Church in Washington, D.C., who helped set up the church's own display. .
“At Christmas, we sing about Bethlehem, decorate the manger scene and talk about themes of peace, love, joy and hope,” she said. told Religion News. “But there is a huge disconnect between all of that and what is actually happening in Bethlehem and the surrounding area today.”
Some pastors, while not participating, are more sympathetic to the intentions of this trend.
“Jesus was born in a conflict where Rome was essentially the overseer of Jerusalem,” Pastor Lorenzo Sewell of Detroit's 180 Church told the Post. “So you could say that those who hint at conflict in the Nativity scene are helping to remind us of where Jesus was born… There is no Nativity without politics.”
Still, many Christians and supporters of Israel say the exhibit pushes modern politics onto ancient traditions and propagates a false narrative.
“This is politics disguised as history,” Boston University Bible scholar Paula Frederiksen told the Post. “Visual images convey the narrative that Palestinians are victims of Jewish aggression.
“The Palestinian Authority is gone – two bloody intifadas, constant acts of random violence, stabbings… and, most brutally, the recent massacre of 1,200 Israelis by Hamas terrorists rampaging from Gaza. That current context has been completely erased by the narrative of Palestinian victimhood.”
