Churches are preparing for multiple Christmas services and activities for children. Not guarded by farm animals and without the star of Bethlehem to point them out, can we ensure their safety and well-being in the world? Before you respond, answer this.
How can North American Christians love sweet baby Jesus, whom they’ve never seen, but not the baby racialized as black under the colonizing terms of white supremacy, not the baby crushed under the rubble caused by the indiscriminate bombings in Palestine, not the baby caught in the crossfire of a civil war in Yemen and Sudan, not the baby mining cobalt in the Congo whom they see on the news every day?
How do we love not just the “chosen” children of privilege but unexpected children like Jesus and John the Baptist, whose births were unplanned but miraculous indeed? How do we help the child who doesn’t have her own means of salvation?
“For just 25 cents a day, you can feed these starving children.” A Feed the Children commercial of my childhood played on white saviorism and the myth that Africa is the face of need instead of a victim of the greed of empire.
Their bloated bellies and sunken faces were part of an incessant commercial mixed in with late-night television. What was I supposed to take away from this as a young and impressionable African American?
Now, as an adult, I see how much is taken away to satisfy the tastes of the rich. The only way to accumulate massive wealth is to take it from others through labor exploitation of the most vulnerable populations and by harming the environment. There is no ethical way to become a billionaire.
Elon Musk is the poster- child for the super-rich. He is more interested in investing in social media platforms and taking outer space trips than solving world hunger and other issues closer to home.
“We need the help of billionaires who have made so much money during COVID – unprecedented wealth – this is a one-time ask. Please help us. Please help us save little girls and little boys,” U.N.’s food and hunger agency chief David Beasley