The Lonely Nativity

"Once a bustling cultural and spiritual centre hosting tourists and pilgrims from around the world, Bethlehem has become an isolated town, with boarded-up shops and abandoned development projects," the UN reports.


The beautiful sound of Christmas music, the scent of Gingerbread cookies, Eggnog and Pine trees fill the air of many American homes this year, as it has for many Christmas seasons past. We are consumed by the thoughts of who to buy for, what to ask for and who is in need. It may be down played in our media but the story of Christ's birth is still a central topic in modern American gatherings. This coming week will see many young children sitting on grandpa's knee to hear stories about Jesus and his birth in a far off town named Bethlehem.

What will likely be ignored by many well meaning Christian Americans is the story of modern day Bethlehem.

This small town in Palestine has long been a bastion of Christian tourism. As recently as 1999 Bethlehem was home to hundreds of Souvenir shops, restaurants and hotels owned by Christians who bolstered their local economy while catering to a large number of visitors from around the world. In 1948 Bethlehem was home to more than 100,000 people and more than 85% of them were Christians. Today the town watches it's population drop below 60,000. However the most alarming statistic is that a mere 12% of them are Christian. In the past six months 28 hotels, 50 restaurants and 240 souvenir workshops have closed.
One of the most sacred and regularly visited places in all of Christianity is the spot marked by a silver star where Christ was born. According to recent Palestinian records, the place stands empty of visitors this Christmas season.

The 'Daily Mail' reported, in a stunning piece yesterday, that since the radical Muslims have taken over the town Christians who remain in the wake of a mass exodus are trapped and have little to no hope of survival. Please read the piece HERE.
The 'Daily Mail' article, O' Muslim town of Bethlehem.. reports on how some residents are living in the new climate.
"Jeriez Moussa Amaro, a 27-year-old aluminum craftsman from Beit Jala is another with first-hand experience of the appalling violence that Christians face.
Five years ago, his two sisters, Rada, 24, and Dunya, 18, were shot dead by Muslim gunmen in their own home.
Their crime was to be young, attractive Christian women who wore Western clothes and no veil.
Here is another testimony from a resident in the birth place of our Lord,"Bethlehem's hotel owners estimate that tourist numbers have dropped sharply, from 91,276 each month for the millennium celebrations in 2000 to little more than 1,500 a month now.
Samir Qumsieh is general manager of Al-Mahed - Nativity - which is the only Christian television station in Bethlehem.He has had death threats and visits from armed men demanding three acres of his land - and he is now ready to leave.
"As Christians, we have no future here," he says."We are melting away. Next summer I will leave this country to go to the States. How can I continue? "I would rather have a beautiful dream in my head about what my home is like, not the nightmare of the reality."

Israel separates it's self from Palestine with a massive concrete wall. This wall not only offers Israel protection from Palestine, it forms a sort of prison cell for the Christians who live there.
This 400 mile barrier was built because, of all the suicide bombings that killed innocent Israeli citizens, more than half of the murderers came from Bethlehem!
I bring this story to you because I believe Americans are ignorant, and in some cases willfully, of the mass genocide, torture, rape, land theft and all-out religious apartheid that is occurring in places such as Palestine, Africa and other places around the world. Christians are being slaughtered and pushed out of these places by the thousands every day! It is this, our choice to ignore it as a nation and as a society, that will not only allow it to continue but that will permit it's spread to our own American homeland.

Some of you may think that America is too predominately Christian to allow such a thing. I would simply point out to you that Liberalism, Humanism and even the fastest growing religion (by percentage) Wicca (Neopaganism) has dwindled our numbers to astonishing lows. As recently as the 1950s Christians were in the 90 percentile group. By 1990 the Christian population fell to 86% only to continue declining to less than 77% in 2001. No more than 7% are Evangelicals. Protestants make up just less than 50% of our population.

While Muslim or Islamic adherents are on the rise, only 24% adhere to Roman Catholicism.

What other group is rising as fast as Christianity is declining?
The Non-religious. More than 15% of America's population claim to adhere to no religion at all. This is up from 8% in 1990! All this, while we see a constant in-flux to our country of Christians from around the world. Christians are being pushed out of other nations and escaping to America, yet our numbers continue to drop.


This Christmas season, remember the Christ child, as well you should remember him, but while you do so, please remember our brethren in Christ's birthplace and elsewhere who tremble at the dawning of each new day!

Some say an American revival is needed........ I worry the time for revival has passed and the time of preparedness is upon us!