{"id":8498,"date":"2023-12-01T09:01:13","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T14:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=8498"},"modified":"2023-12-01T09:01:13","modified_gmt":"2023-12-01T14:01:13","slug":"christian-leaders-in-bethlehem-face-criticism-after-canceling-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2023\/12\/christian-leaders-in-bethlehem-face-criticism-after-canceling-christmas.html","title":{"rendered":"Christian Leaders in Bethlehem Face Criticism After Canceling Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Adobe Stock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Christian leaders of various Christian denominations in Bethlehem are fielding criticism after canceling the town\u2019s annual Christmas celebration as a mark of \u201csolidarity\u201d to the people of Gaza. The controversy began when city officials in Bethlehem, the famous birthplace of Jesus and site of the first Christmas, <\/span>announced<\/span><\/a>\u00a0via Facebook that Christmas decorations would be dismantled as an act of \u201csolidarity with our people in Gaza.\u201d A spokesperson for the city called the festivities \u201cnot appropriate\u201d during the escalating war between Israel and Hamas. \u201c[P]eople are not really into any celebration, they are sad, angry and upset; our people in Gaza are being massacred and killed in cold blood. Therefore, it is not appropriate at all to have such festivities while there is a massacre happening in Gaza and attacks in the West Bank,\u201d said the spokesperson.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, in addition to municipal leaders, faith leaders joined in the consensus to halt festivities. In a statement from the interdenominational Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem, the group also shared his growing concern for the humanitarian situation in Gaza. \u201cSince the start of the War, there has been an atmosphere of sadness and pain. Thousands of innocent civilians, including women and children, have died or suffered serious injuries. Many more grieve over the loss of their homes, their loved ones, or the uncertain fate of those dear to them. Throughout the region, even more, have lost their work and are suffering from serious economic challenges.\u201d The statement encouraged believers to \u201cstand strong with those facing such afflictions\u201d and \u201cto focus more on the spiritual meaning of Christmas.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Although it is being framed as a concern for the situation in Gaza, this cancellation highlights the lessening Christian influence in the Savior\u2019s birthplace. Bethlehem is in the West Bank, which is controlled by the Palestinian Authority and is largely Muslim. <\/span>The Catholic Register<\/span><\/a>\u00a0reported that in 1950, 86 percent of the people living in Bethlehem and the surrounding villages were Christians. By 2016, that number was below 12 percent. In 2019, Open Doors USA noted the\u00a0<\/span>violence and pressure that Christians face<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in the region. The Palestinian Authority has made Islam the official religion of Gaza, although other faiths like Christianity and Judaism are supposed to receive the same respect. All Palestinians are required to list their religious affiliation on their identification forms.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Palestinian Christian by the name Lara wrote about the decision to cancel Christmas for <\/span>Premier Christianity<\/span><\/em><\/a>. While she stated she agreed with the sentiment of \u201cmourn with those who mourn,\u201d as found in Romans 12:15, she called the statement\u2019s politicization of the issue a \u201cmissed opportunity. \u201cThe problem is, when the announcement was made that the annual Christmas display would be cancelled, our leaders said it was exclusively in honour of Palestinian \u2018martyrs\u2019 in Gaza and the West Bank,\u201d she wrote, adding, \u201cIt is a tragic, missed opportunity for the Church to show that it values all life – across every ethnicity and religion, without any discrimination or prejudice. A much more Christ-like statement would have highlighted solidarity with the devastating losses of lives on all sides.\u201d She also wondered if fear might be an underlying factor. \u201cWe should remember the context – the vast majority of Palestinians are Muslims, who do not celebrate Christmas. And so I can\u2019t help but wonder how much freedom churches have in the region to be as transparent to their beliefs and callings and whether the decision to cancel all festive displays came from a place of complete agency or more of a place of fear.\u201d As of this writing, Israel and Hamas have\u00a0<\/span>extended a temporary cease-fire<\/span><\/a>\u00a0as more hostages are being returned to Israel.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christian leaders of various Christian denominations in Bethlehem are fielding criticism after canceling the town\u2019s annual Christmas celebration as a mark of \u201csolidarity\u201d to the people of Gaza. The controversy began when city officials in Bethlehem, the famous birthplace of Jesus and site of the first Christmas, announced\u00a0via Facebook that Christmas decorations would be dismantled…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":8504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nChristian Leaders in Bethlehem Face Criticism After Canceling Christmas<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Christian leaders of various Christian denominations in Bethlehem are fielding criticism after canceling the town\u2019s annual Christmas celebration as a mark of solidarity to Gaza.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2023\/12\/christian-leaders-in-bethlehem-face-criticism-after-canceling-christmas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christian Leaders in Bethlehem Face Criticism After Canceling Christmas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Christian leaders of various Christian denominations in Bethlehem are fielding criticism after canceling the town\u2019s annual Christmas celebration as a mark of solidarity to Gaza.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2023\/12\/christian-leaders-in-bethlehem-face-criticism-after-canceling-christmas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christ News Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-12-01T14:01:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2023\/12\/church-christmas_credit-Adobe-Stock-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Christian Leaders in Bethlehem Face Criticism After Canceling Christmas","description":"Christian leaders of various Christian denominations in Bethlehem are fielding criticism after canceling the town\u2019s annual Christmas celebration as a mark of solidarity to Gaza.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2023\/12\/christian-leaders-in-bethlehem-face-criticism-after-canceling-christmas.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Christian Leaders in Bethlehem Face Criticism After Canceling Christmas","og_description":"Christian leaders of various Christian denominations in Bethlehem are fielding criticism after canceling the town\u2019s annual Christmas celebration as a mark of solidarity to Gaza.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2023\/12\/christian-leaders-in-bethlehem-face-criticism-after-canceling-christmas.html","og_site_name":"Christ News Today","article_published_time":"2023-12-01T14:01:13+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":576,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2023\/12\/church-christmas_credit-Adobe-Stock-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia Buchanan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2023\/12\/christian-leaders-in-bethlehem-face-criticism-after-canceling-christmas.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2023\/12\/christian-leaders-in-bethlehem-face-criticism-after-canceling-christmas.html","name":"Christian Leaders in Bethlehem Face Criticism After Canceling Christmas","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2023\/12\/christian-leaders-in-bethlehem-face-criticism-after-canceling-christmas.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2023\/12\/christian-leaders-in-bethlehem-face-criticism-after-canceling-christmas.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2023\/12\/church-christmas_credit-Adobe-Stock-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2023-12-01T14:01:13+00:00","dateModified":"2023-12-01T14:01:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#\/schema\/person\/77cb6eeb5c74ee0eb8c77ea1ebc43c6a"},"description":"Christian leaders of various Christian denominations in Bethlehem are fielding criticism after canceling the town\u2019s annual Christmas celebration as a mark of solidarity to Gaza.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2023\/12\/christian-leaders-in-bethlehem-face-criticism-after-canceling-christmas.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2023\/12\/christian-leaders-in-bethlehem-face-criticism-after-canceling-christmas.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2023\/12\/christian-leaders-in-bethlehem-face-criticism-after-canceling-christmas.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2023\/12\/church-christmas_credit-Adobe-Stock-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2023\/12\/church-christmas_credit-Adobe-Stock-scaled.jpg","width":768,"height":576,"caption":"Adobe Stock"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2023\/12\/christian-leaders-in-bethlehem-face-criticism-after-canceling-christmas.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Christian Leaders in Bethlehem Face Criticism After Canceling Christmas"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/","name":"Christ News Today","description":"Christian News From Around the Globe","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#\/schema\/person\/77cb6eeb5c74ee0eb8c77ea1ebc43c6a","name":"Leigh Pizzutilla","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/author\/lpizzutilla"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8498"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8510,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8498\/revisions\/8510"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}