At Bethlehem\u2019s Church of the Nativity \u00a0\u00a0(Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the specific request of the Deseret News<\/em>, I wrote this column back in December 2010. \u00a0I include the editors\u2019 introductory note:<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
LDS Church history sites that dot the eastern half of the United States all prepare for Christmas with lights, Nativity displays and other decorations.\u00a0This week Mormon Times highlights Christmas at LDS Church historic sites from Sharon, Vt., to Nauvoo, Ill. Also, BYU professor Dan Peterson helps give insight to what the holiday season is like in the Holy Land.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nChristianity is dying in its birthplace.<\/span><\/p>\nNazareth, a predominantly Christian Arab town within living memory, is now mostly Muslim, and \u2014 though few realize it because the writing is in Arabic \u2014 tourists visiting the massive Roman Catholic Basilica of the Annunciation are confronted by banners denying the deity of Christ.<\/span><\/p>\nBethlehem was 85 percent Arab Christian when the state of Israel was proclaimed in 1948. Now the city\u2019s Christian population has fallen to perhaps 10 percent.<\/span><\/p>\nMiddle Eastern Christians have always found it relatively easy to immigrate to Europe and the Americas because they feel religiously comfortable there. The political instability and violence of the past several decades in Palestine, coupled with the more recent rise of militant Islamic fundamentalism and \u2014 in Bethlehem \u2014 the decline of the Palestinian economy (strangled, in part, by Israel\u2019s security fence), have impelled many to leave.<\/span><\/p>\nAnd yet, Christmas continues to be celebrated by the beleaguered Palestinian Christian community and a relative trickle of Christian tourists. Christmas services are still conducted in Bethlehem\u2019s literally fortress-like Church of the Nativity and Manger Square before the church is ablaze with Christmas lights.<\/span><\/p>\nVisiting choirs sing, Palestinian Boy Scout bagpipers play and one or two young Palestinian boys will be dressed as Santa Claus.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cMay Peace Prevail on Earth!\u201d reads one bullet-riddled sign, in English. Within walking distance, at the Shepherds\u2019 Fields of Beit Sahour, a large electric star shines overhead. A few years ago, the Anglican archbishop of Canterbury and the Catholic Cardinal of Westminster jointly visited Bethlehem to show their solidarity with local believers and to urge other Christians to come and support Palestinian hotels and shops.<\/span><\/p>\nIn the contemporary Middle East, our need for a Savior seems particularly acute because the fact of the fall is especially obvious. Generations of human effort have failed to produce anything resembling peace. Yet, mercifully, the brilliant, warm light shed by the advent of the Prince of Peace shines forth from the region\u2019s gloom with exceptional clarity.<\/span><\/p>\nThree decades ago, I sat on the Mount of Olives watching a column of Israeli tanks move slowly down the main road in the Kidron Valley. The yearning words of the agnostic Oxford classicist and poet A. E. Housman came forcefully to mind. Addressing Jesus, he prayed:<\/span><\/p>\nIf in that Syrian Garden, ages slain,<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nYou sleep, and know not you are dead in vain,<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nNor even in dreams behold how dark and bright<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nAscends in smoke and fire by day and night<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nThe hate you died to quench and could but fan,<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nSleep well and see no morning, Son of Man.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nBut if, the grave rent and the stone rolled by,<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nAt the right hand of majesty on high<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nYou sit, and sitting so remember yet<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nYour fears, your agony and bloody sweat,<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nYour cross and passion and the life you gave,<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nBow hither out of heaven and see and save.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nNot far from Bethlehem is Golgotha, where, after the infant cradled in that manger had grown to manhood, he confronted evil and, in some incomprehensible manner, defeated it.<\/span><\/p>\nSteps away, he rose from the dead.<\/span><\/p>\nThough we sometimes despair, in the end \u201cthe wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth, good will to men.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted from Salt Lake City, Utah<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 At the specific request of the Deseret News, I wrote this column back in December 2010. \u00a0I include the editors\u2019 introductory note: \u00a0 LDS Church history sites that dot the eastern half of the United States all prepare for Christmas with lights, Nativity displays and other decorations.\u00a0This week Mormon Times highlights Christmas at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"Nativity,](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/05\/800px-Church_of_the_Nativity_Bethlehem_2008.jpg\")
<\/a>