Catholic priest goes on CNN to rewrite history and make the story of Christmas about progressive politics

A Catholic priest raised eyebrows on Christmas for describing Jesus in highly political modern political terms unrecognizable to the ancient world.

On Christmas morning, CNN anchor Poppy Harlow asked Catholic Fr. Edward Beck, a CNN religion commentator, to speak to anyone feeling "hopeless" during the holiday season.

At first, Beck hit the nail on the head. "I think the message of Christmas is that God enters into it with us, and we're not alone in it," he said. But then he entered into the land of progressive politics.

"What I'm so struck by is that the story of Christmas is about a Palestinian Jew," he said.

"Now, how often do you find those words put together? A Palestinian Jew born into a time when his country was occupied, right? They can't find a place for her to even give birth. They're homeless. They eventually have to flee as refugees, into Egypt no less," Beck continued. "I mean, you can't make up the parallels to our current world situation right now. And so in some way, that is who we believe God becomes, born into that situation."

There are several problems with Beck's declaration.

First, Jesus was not a "Palestinian Jew." Beck uses "Palestinian" to describe Jesus' ethnicity when, in fact, "Jew" describes both Jesus' religion and his ethnicity. Jesus was Jewish because he was a descendant of David in the tribe of Judah and because he was born in Judea.

Second, the emergence of the "Palestinian" identity is a modern development, taking root in the 20th century. No one living in the first-century Roman province of Judaea would have described themselves as a "Palestinian." The province, in fact, was renamed to "Syria Palaestina" in the second century, about 100 years after Jesus' death, following the Bar Kokhba revolt.

Third, Jesus was not born in an "occupied" country. The Roman Empire won de facto control of Judea in the first century B.C. and retained control of the region (later through the Byzantine Empire) until the Muslim conquests of Syria in the seventh century. Thus, the land into which Jesus was born was as "occupied" then as the U.S. is "occupied" today.

Fourth, there is no evidence that Mary and Joseph were "homeless." Luke 2, which recounts the birth of Jesus, does not describe Jesus' family as such.

Beck is the same Catholic priest who two years ago said that Christians who did not receive the COVID-19 shot should not attend Christmas church services.

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