Bruce Feiler - Where God Was Born, Abraham, Walking The Bible

And Mel Gibson for Prime Minister
Thursday, December 21, 2006

I spent a number of Christmases in Israel. The day is dissonant on a number of levels. For starters, it's not a holiday and business goes on as usual. Most Israelis, in fact, have no idea of the significance of December 25th. I'm always surprised how little they know about Christianity. Jews who grew up in America often take it for granted that everyone in the world knows about Christianity because it's so deeply ingrained in the calendar of the United States. But not so.

Bethlehem on Christmas Eve can be a special place. Different denominations have different services, in the church on Nativity Square, in the nearby caves, and elsewhere. For a number of years, the main square had a celebratory feel as a sort of Palestinian Independence Day, as December 25 is the day Israelis handed over day-to-day control of the city in the late 1990's.

But one feature of Bethlehem around this time of year is that it's swarming with American journalists who are asked by their imagination-free editors at home to write a story about the "town of Jesus' birth" for publication of Christmas day. Fair enough.

I was reminded of that trend this week with the news out of Poland that a few lawmakers have proposed making Jesus king of Poland. So silly that even the Catholic Church laughed at it. But it will have one sweeping impact, I predict: Journalists in Jerusalem will be making fewer treks to Bethlehem as a certain story out of Poland will be taking the place of the standard "Is-there- room-at-an-inn?" story out of Bethlehem this year.

Labels: Europe, Middle East

Posted by B Feiler at 3:05 PM
Permalink Digg this Post Email this Post

0 Comments: