At Christmastime, Christians all over the globe reflect on who Jesus is to them, while we also see some examination of who Jesus was historically. Leftists love to take that historical examination of Jesus and overlay a leftwing narrative onto His life.
"Jesus was a refugee," the left says when it wants to tie Jesus to illegal immigration. "Jesus didn't specifically mention homosexuality" is the cry when it comes to pushing the LGBTQ (and sometimes Y) agenda. Leftists love to label Jesus a social justice warrior, a revolutionary, and a mystic, none of which is true.
Since Israel has dominated the news cycle after the Hamas attack on October 7, the latest leftist lie about Jesus is that He was a "Palestinian." CNN had Fr. Edward Beck on the air making that ridiculous claim on Christmas morning.
“The story of Christmas is about a Palestinian Jew born into an occupied country, having to flee as refugees into Egypt.” - Father Edward Beck @FrEdwardBeck on @CNN a few minutes ago. @NY_Arch @CardinalDolan pic.twitter.com/EFVsU3i1p4
— Avi Kaner ابراهيم אבי (@AviKaner) December 25, 2023
"One would think that a Catholic priest would know the history of the region better than that," pointed out Ed Morrissey at our sister site Hot Air. "That name didn’t even come into being until about a century after the death of Christ when the Romans put down the last of the Judean rebellions and drove the Hebrews from the region."
On top of that, CNN's Vatican correspondent Christopher Lamb tweeted on Christmas Eve that “If Jesus were born today, he would be born in Gaza under rubble.” He deleted the tweet when people called him out for being ridiculous and geographically inaccurate.
"Both men attempted to use Jesus Christ to make political points, and both men presuppose Christ would be born a Palestinian, which is a very subtle way of suggesting Israel does not pre-date territory referred to as 'Palestine,'" Erick Erickson notes. "It is a very subtle form of anti-Semitism used by the Western elite to rewrite the history of the Middle East."
Related: America's Largest Evangelical Magazine Continues to Drift to the Left
Even ostensibly evangelical outlets are getting in on this ethnicization of Jesus. Christianity Today, that bastion of barely concealed left-tinged coverage of evangelical Christianity, got in on the ethnic Jesus game with a bizarre piece tying Jesus to an Asian heritage "but not to ancient Israel."
Jesus was born in Asia. He was Asian.
— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) December 24, 2023
The artists in this photo essay bring him back to Asia—but not to ancient Israel.
These nine artworks "proclaim the expansiveness of Christ’s kingdom." https://t.co/qGmeOo79Ak
It's pretty obvious where this is going. Yes, there has been a preponderance of "white Jesus" artwork over the past few centuries. Most of it dates back to the Renaissance and other eras where European art flourished far and away above art from other regions, although the Kenny Loggins Jesus portrayals are equally laughable. But while European portrayals of Jesus are gauche because they're ethnically inaccurate, Christianity Today hails these Asian portrayals of Jesus as a unique form of cultural expression.
"Some may object to depicting Jesus as anything other than a brown male born into a Jewish family in Bethlehem of Judea in the first century, believing that doing so undermines his historicity," writes Victoria Emily Jones, barely disguising a "how dare they" tone. "But Christian artists who tackle the subject of the Incarnation are often aiming not at historical realism but at theological meaning."
"By representing Jesus as Japanese, Indonesian, or Indian, they convey a sense of God’s immanence, his 'with-us–ness,' for their own communities — and for everyone else, the universality of Christ’s birth," Jones continues.
So why wasn't it "aiming not at historical realism but at theological meaning" when Italian masters pained Jesus as European? Why does "universality" only apply to certain ethnicities and their depictions of Jesus?
I'm reminded of the somewhat obscure Christmas carol "Some Children See Him." The lyrics describe how children from different ethnic groups picture Jesus, but the last verse reminds listeners that what matters most is that we worship Jesus as God: "The children in each different place / Will see the baby Jesus' face / Like theirs, but bright with heavenly grace / And filled with holy light / O lay aside each earthly thing / And with thy heart as offering / Come worship now the infant King / 'Tis love that's born tonight."
The problem is that leftists want to project their policies on Jesus anytime they want to. The only thing they don't want to do is acknowledge Him as God.
So many of the people who will say Jesus was from Palestine will not say Jesus is God. They use Him as a political prop, but will not worship Him.
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) December 26, 2023
When all is said and done, it doesn't do anyone any favors to try to copy and paste some ethnic identity onto the person of Jesus of Nazareth. While on Earth, He was fully God and fully man, and He was Jewish because He was born among God's chosen people.
Related: Christmas Day Thoughts: Promises Fulfilled
Erickson reminds his readers (and the nuts at CNN) that Jesus was born into Israel, noting (with emphasis added) that Jesus "was born [in] 'Bethlehem, in the land of Judah' (Micah 5:2) and would come as 'a ruler who [would] shepherd my people Israel.' (Micah 5:4)"
"Those aren’t my words. Those are God’s own words. So get it right next time," he continues. "He was, after all, executed in Jerusalem with a sign over his cross that read, 'The King of the Jews,' not the Palestinians."
We don't do service to anyone when we try to change who Jesus was here on Earth, and we detract from the gospel when we try to slap any agenda on it. The sooner we can all learn these truths — and the sooner we can focus on bringing people to Jesus rather than to an agenda — the better off we'll all be.
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