Wednesday, December 27, 2:00 PM EDT

On this week’s Coffee and a Column, Jim Zogby discusses this week’s column A Merry But Meaningful Christmas

Excerpt: With genocide unfolding in Gaza, Christians in the Holy Land are having a difficult time feeling joy this Christmas season. Bethlehem has canceled its traditional celebrations. There will be no tree-lighting or festivities. Instead of setting up the traditional Nativity scene of Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus in a stable surrounded by shepherds and their sheep, Rev. Munther Ishaq, a Lutheran pastor in Bethlehem, has erected the birth scene with the baby Jesus laying in rubble. Rev. Ishaq said that this was an appropriate representation because “if Jesus were born today, he’d be in solidarity with the suffering humanity of Gaza.” 

… As Rev. Ishaq notes, Jesus is to be seen in solidarity with and giving hope to suffering humanity. The baby in the rubble offers “hope of a new beginning coming out of destruction.” 

…As I write this, I am reminded of the fact that more than 30,000 Palestinian women in Gaza are pregnant. Like Mary, they have no comfortable place to go to deliver their babies. Their homes are destroyed. From day to day, they are on the move to escape the relentless bombing. They, like Mary, live in fear. 

And so, Rev. Ishaq’s action is, in fact, the most appropriate way to commemorate Christmas, because the story of the birth of Jesus is an act of identification with suffering humanity and an expression of hope that comes with each new life. With this in mind, please have a “Merry but meaningful Christmas.” 

Read the full column here: A Merry But Meaningful Christmas

To discuss this column with Jim, please register here for his next ‘Coffee And A Column’ event Wednesday via Zoom.