It never fails that around this time of year another self-described "authority" tries to denigrate the story behind Christmas.
This year brought with it more than its usual share of "authorities" — two of them columnists in The New York Times.
According to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, Jesus was conceived within a Jewish virgin named Mary through the power of the Holy Spirit — an Immaculate Conception.
Mary then married Joseph, a Jewish carpenter, and in the latter stages of pregnancy the couple traveled to Bethlehem to take part in a census ordered by Caesar Augustus, which is where Jesus was born.
The story is so settled that even Muslims accept the virgin birth of Jesus as fact. Not today’s liberals, however.
Less than a week before Christmas Elaine Pagels, an early church historian, claimed that Jesus was the product of a rape.
She even named the rapist, Panthera, a Roman soldier stationed near Nazareth.
She made the claim to New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, who noted that "These accounts are mostly from early writers trying to disparage Jesus, it seems, so perhaps should be regarded skeptically.
But he nonetheless went with it.
And the Times wasn’t finished. On Christmas Eve it ran another opinion piece, this one written by Peter Wehner, claiming that Jesus came from a dysfunctional family.
"One of the forgotten facts of the story of Jesus’ life is that he came from a profoundly dysfunctional family," he began, and referred to Matthew 1:1-17, "The Genealogy of Jesus the Messiah."
It traces his family back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Verse 16 ends, "Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah."
It goes through 42 generations in all, which included "murderers, adulterers, prostitutes and people who committed incest, liars, schemers and idolaters," according to Wehner.
He went on to quote a senior pastor at a New York church as remarking, "It’s Jesus’ DNA — because your family, your lineage, was your résumé."
But even assuming that’s all true, it had nothing to do with Jesus.
Once you accept the Christian foundational doctrine of an immaculate conception and a virgin birth, Joseph wasn’t his blood father — God was.
Under that doctrine the only earthly parent of Jesus was Mary, which brings British TV newscaster India Willoughby into the conversation.
She referred to an article from The Telegraph a month earlier claiming that "Jesus could have been transgender," according to a dean at Cambridge.
He made this claim solely on the basis of several paintings depicting Jesus — inclusive of one from 1400, and one from 1991.
Willoughby, who is a biological male, transgender woman, said, "Self impregnating organisms — Mary — give birth to genetic copies of themself, so Jesus must have transitioned to male at some point. Just as Eve was probably XY chromosomes, given she was cloned from Adam’s rib."
This brought a bit of mockery from J.K. Rowling, a novelist best known for her "Harry Potter" series of books.
Although not known for being especially religious, she referred to Willoughby’s claim that Mary was a "Self impregnating organism" and came up with an organism that has both male and female reproductive organs.
"Soon to rival 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' as a heartwarming Yuletide tale, I give you India Willoughby's Mary Was An Earthworm,'" she said.
Commenting on the exchange later, Rowling concluded, "If life has taught me anything, it's that it's a huge mistake to think things can't get any more insane."
And it’s not just Christianity.
Jews go through the same nonsense.
This year marked the first time in two decades that the first night of Hanukkah occurred on Christmas, and detractors often claim that the holiday celebrates Jewish occupation.
It doesn’t.
It’s in recognition of a miracle from the 2nd century BC.
Hanukkah means "dedication" and marks the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem, after a small group of Jewish fighters liberated it from Greek occupying forces. They only had enough purified, sacramental oil to celebrate the event for one night.
Miraculously, the lamp burned for seven nights, which today is represented by the seven candles of the menorah.
A 2023 Gallup poll found that 68% of Americans identify as Christian, including:
- Protestant: 33%
- Catholic: 22%
- Other Christian religions: 13%
Christianity is defined by two Biblical events: The virgin birth of Christ, and His resurrection following His crucifixion and death 33 years later.
That makes Christmas and Easter, the two holiest days of the Christian calendar.
Insulting more than two-thirds of the population by reimagining historical events 2,000 years after they were recorded is no way to "Win Friends and Influence People."
The same goes for insulting nearly 4,000 years of Judaism.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and a Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.
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