As the holiday season approaches and we find ourselves inundated once again with manufactured emotion, saccharine sentimentality, and consumerist excess, we mustn’t be lulled into forgetting that the true story of Christmas is a story of unspeakable violence. With the magi’s visit, King Herod is confronted with the illegitimacy of his position as Rome’s imperial puppet in Jerusalem, and he lashes out in a genocidal rage worthy of Pharoah himself. 

The contemporary parallels would be uncanny, if they weren’t so horrifying.

The Herods of our time and their imperial patrons must never be allowed to silence the cries of the innocent. We must continue to hear their cry, refusing to be comforted by the lies and enticements of privilege; we must amplify their plea, ensuring that the powerful be forever haunted by the cries of their victims.

As the magi read the words of the prophets, they find hope, seeing in them the promise of new life, of deliverance and liberation. Herod, meanwhile, instrumentalizes the very same prophecies to enact unimaginable terror in an attempt to prolong his idolatrous reign. Again, we can’t help but notice the contemporary parallels:

The court prophets of Christian Zionism continue to subvert the promises of Christ’s reign, as they provide ideological cover for imperial violence and settler-colonial conquest.