What If Jesus Had Been Born into the American Police State?

Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

“When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flocks, the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among the people, to make music in the heart.”

—Howard Thurman, theologian and civil rights activist

The Christmas story of a baby born in a manger is a familiar one.