Nearly a decade ago, I began the tradition of recounting the Christmas story in a way that puts to rest all of the loony claims Leftists generally make during this festive season.
I was initially inspired to write my column, “Big Government: Inconveniencing Families for 2000 Years” after then-president Barack Obama in 2014 referred to Joseph and Mary as “undocumented immigrants.”
Every Christmas since, some other little brain Leftist comes along to spout the same kind of nonsense about the Christmas story, and every year I’ve felt obliged to republish my counterpoint column.
Despite suffering from a very painful eye infection that makes staring at a computer screen a misery, I was compelled once again to republish my column after I saw a post on Twitter from a guy boasting about a sign he put in the front yard of his new home to inform his new southern neighbors that he too celebrates the birth of a “brown-skinned,” “Palestinian,” “undocumented immigrant.”
What a dick.
Palestine didn’t exist at the time of Jesus’ birth in Judea, you dope. I mean, his name is Y’shua, which is Hebrew for Joshua. That alone is a big clue that Jesus was Jewish. Maybe if this guy wasn’t so focused on lifting his leg on the religious observances of his new neighbors, he could’ve taken the time to learn a thing or two.
Anyroad.
There is one reason Mary and Joseph were in Bethlehem at the time of Jesus’ birth and it isn’t because they were “undocumented immigrants.”
They were in Bethlehem because Big Government has been inconveniencing families for 2000 years.
In the days of Caesar Augustus, when Quirinius was the Governor of Syria, Rome decreed that a census be conducted throughout the empire.
Unlike a US census, no Roman Postal Service was delivering 20-page forms to everyone’s door for them to fill in and mail back to the Roman Census Bureau.
Instead, people were required to return to the city of their birth to register for the census.
Since Joseph was born in Bethlehem in Judea, he and Mary had to leave their home in Nazareth in Galilee to return to Bethlehem to register.
Pretty damn inconvenient, especially since Mary was very pregnant and about to give birth.
So many people traveled to Bethlehem for the census that Joseph and Mary couldn’t even find a place to stay.
Bethlehem isn’t Vegas or Orlando, you know. It wasn’t famous for its ample hotel accommodations. The best thing Joseph could find for his pregnant wife was a place inside the stable.
Joseph and Mary were not sneaking out of Galilee to illegally cross the border into Judea so Mary could become an au pair while Joseph worked construction in Bethlehem while getting paid under the table.
They were just people living under Roman rule being inconvenienced by the Roman Empire.
Some Leftists like to claim that Joseph and Mary stayed in the stable because they were “people experiencing homelessness.” Um, no. They were “people with a home experiencing Big Government.”
If Rome hadn’t forced everyone to return to the city of their birth, Joseph and Mary would have welcomed their baby from the comfort of their own home in Nazareth.
But God works even through those who deny His existence.
God told his prophet, Micah, that the King of the Jews would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). Imagine how the Romans reacted to discovering that their officious, Big Government census decree fulfilled the prophecy of a God they didn’t believe in.
Take that, Caesar Augustus!
The Left never tires of trying to use Jesus as a cudgel to attempt to shame Christians into agreeing with the Left’s latest issue du jour.
This year, the pro-Hamas/pro-open borders Left wants us to believe that Joseph and Mary, both descendants of Israel’s King David, were “Palestinians” and “undocumented immigrants.”
In 2015 when states were defying the Obama administration by refusing to accept Syrian refugees, Jesus was a brown-skinned, Middle Eastern “refugee.”
It’s what these guys do. They treat Christmas as a “write your own adventure” and Jesus as the Biblical equivalent of “Build a Bear.”
Joseph and Mary were not homeless, “undocumented” “refugees” who jumped the border into Bethlehem for housing, Medicaid, education, and the Roman equivalent of EBT cards. They weren’t “Palestinians” because there was no such thing at the time of Augustus.
The “brown-skinned” clarifier gets tossed in because most Leftists assume all Christians think Jesus looked like a blond, blue-eyed, bearded Swede.
Spoiler alert: We don’t.
But this is what Leftists do. They crap on every holiday, be it a religious holiday like Christmas or an American holiday like Thanksgiving or Independence Day.
They go through life like a giant wet blanket trying to make you feel stupid and small by smugly insulting and demeaning everything you hold dear, completely oblivious to the fact that in doing so, they expose themselves as uneducated idiots.
Ignore them. Keep Christmas as you always do, knowing that the God you worship is so powerful that He can even work through the unbelieving Romans to ensure the promised Savior was born in Bethlehem.
A very Happy Christmas to you all.
Unto us, a Son is given.
Merry Christmas and I so love what you do. You're my best Christmas present to read. Thank you so much for all you say and do and keep it coming next year!
And a Merry CHRISTMAS to you and your family and a very Happy New Year.