Thursday, December 17, 2009
To help Hispanics overcome fears of participating in next year’s census, the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO) distributed to more than 7,000 churches posters depicting Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem … to take part in a census. NALEO claims this really did happen, citing Luke 2:1-4, which talks about Jesus being born during a census ordered by Caesar Augustus. Historians have questioned this biblical account, and some Christian leaders are not at all happy with NALEO using the birth of Jesus to help the U.S. census.
“The Bible establishes clearly that we are not supposed to use the name or God or Jesus in vain for any other purposes than worshiping,” Reverend Miguel Rivera, leader of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders, told The Washington Post. “The census would never do the same thing using the name of Muhammad during Ramadan.”
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Hispanic Leaders Disagree Over Christmas-Themed Census Poster (by Carol Morello and Ed O'Keefe, Washington Post)
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