Christmas inspires us to welcome strangers with hope, not fear

At Christmastime, the story of Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem is predictably invoked by cartoonists, pundits and pastors in commentaries about immigrants, refugees and the homeless. A nitpicker, though, will point out that Mary and Joseph were not homeless; they had a house, employment and family in Nazareth. Neither were they immigrants or refugees since they were traveling just 70 miles between two villages within their own country. They were merely a pair of travelers who, in an era long before there was a Super 8 and a Holiday Inn on the outskirts of every town, could not find a room to sleep in and ended up bunking in a barn like a couple of Old West cowboys.

The message being conveyed in the Christmas story is really about the ordinariness of these strangers in a strange place — two unremarkable young people no one would expect to be parents of a child destined to reconcile God with humankind.

So, my cartoon today is about more than the immigration debate. There is nothing to indicate that the Maria and José in my Christmas tale are immigrants, whether documented or not. It is just as possible that their ancestors were living in California or somewhere in the Southwest long before Americans began emigrating from the East. No, the cartoon is not about the status of the young couple in need of a room, it is about the reception these strangers receive from the innkeeper.

The man working the night desk at the motel greets José with anger, suspicion, paranoia and instant stereotyping. In his eyes, José and Maria cannot be anything other than “illegal aliens” looking to drop an “anchor baby” in the United States. Only after he has run them off does he make a connection with their names and the fact that it is Christmas Eve. As Christmas is prone to do, it jolts his hard heart and reminds him there is another way to look at strangers in need.

People have had hard hearts and suspicious minds forever, of course, but what my cartoon suggests with its final line is that right wing talk radio has given negative, narrow-mindedness an especially loud voice in this country in recent years. Every day, hundreds of haranguing hosts cloud the airwaves with rage, xenophobia, conspiracy theories and malign interpretations of normal political events. Talk radio is not really conservative, at least not in the intellectual tradition of William F. Buckley, nor in the optimistic spirit of Ronald Reagan. Talk radio is a caustic form of entertainment, an intentionally exaggerated, grossly negative narrative about our national life that plays on fears and stokes prejudice.

To a significant extent, the nasty polarization of American politics can be blamed on talk radio performers changing the tenor of public discourse. After years of them telling their audience that compromise is evil, Democrats are traitors and good, white Americans are being pushed aside in their own country by dark-skinned people, immigrants and sexual deviants, it is no wonder Americans cannot talk to each other about politics without screaming. This phenomenon explains the disturbing allure of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Hardly a conservative by traditional measures, Trump is, instead, the embodiment of the talk radio ethos: angry, rude, taunting, bilious and mendacious. There is no room at his inn for strangers -- or for anyone who does not agree with him.

The Christmas story should remind us that strangers bring to us infinite opportunities. Yes, it is a risk to welcome them, but the rewards far outweigh the risks. The entire history of the United States gives evidence of that, from an English immigrant named Thomas Paine who penned the most powerful argument for American independence to Steve Jobs, the son of a Syrian refugee, who helped lead an American technological revolution. Fear and paranoia have always been with us, but they should not be allowed to warp our reality. It’s time to switch off the anger on the radio. For both conservatives and liberals, cultivation of hope and open hearts will better serve our country.

After all, we can never know what will become of a child born to strangers.