I’m in Texas at my Mom and Dad’s house as I type this — about to enjoy a festive Christmas Eve breakfast with chocolate syrup and pancakes, white gravy and biscuits, sausage, bacon and assorted other fixings.
My wife, two of my children, my brother, sister, sister-in-law and various nephews and a niece will join me in line as we start our Christmas celebration by eating way too much.
I mention the above mainly because it’s all I can think about at the moment, but also because it may help explain why this post will be pretty quick and to the point.
I’ve got somewhere else to be, don’t you know.
Seriously, I want to highlight two New York Times stories real briefly this morning — both about nativity scenes, but one a much more compelling read than the other.
The first story was featured on Sunday’s front page with the headline “Cameras, Bolts and an Elusive Goal: To Sleep in Heavenly Peace.”
It’s a creative, timely piece about a national trend of baby Jesus being swiped from Nativity scenes nationally, and the dateline — the setting for the story — is pure brilliance:
BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Away in a manger on Bethlehem’s public square, a woman approached a statue of the baby Jesus one dark, December night. Then she stole it.
The theft, from a Nativity scene outside City Hall, raised alarm in this eastern Pennsylvania city that shares a name with the real Jesus Christ’s birthplace.
When the missing baby Jesus was found, it had been damaged, and Bethlehem’s police chief had to glue its leg back on. Then the city took action, positioning a concealed security camera exclusively on baby Jesus and assigning police officers to monitor the footage. In the two years since, the statue has been left at peace, asleep on the hay as the camera, nicknamed the “Jesus cam” by some residents, rolls.
“If anybody looks real close, they’ll see a crack in his leg,” said Lynn Cunningham, a leader of the local chamber of commerce.
Such manger larceny, in glaring violation of the Eighth Commandment, is also part of a sad national trend. This year, thieves have raided Nativity scenes in Tennessee, West Virginia, Minnesota and plenty of other places, and made off with Jesus figurines (and sometimes Mary and a donkey, too).
In terms of clever writing, there are nice touches throughout. As for religion, the reporter doesn’t neglect it, including lines such as this:
(Though, in keeping with Jesus’ teachings, several Nativity-set owners said they would be eager to forgive the culprit.)
The other story? It’s straight out of the Times’ Department of One-Sided Progressive Views of the World. Or something like that.
It’s a puff piece on an Oklahoma pastor putting a chain-link fence around a Nativity scene to protest President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. The basic storyline is not new.
And it’s a fine subject for the Times to cover, I guess, although it impresses me as something less than national news. But if it is news, why not go all the way and cover the other side, too — those Christians who would view the immigration issue differently and not see baby Jesus as a pawn to play in a political debate?
Just asking.
Merry Christmas, everyone.