I’m not a Christian. I’m a Jew and a Pagan and a Witch, among other things, and, I like to think, a pleasant and kindly sort of person, but I am definitely not a Christian. So the pleas to put Christ back into Christmas generally leave me cold, and the attempts to make the U.S. a Christian nation leave me somewhere between pissed off and terrified.
However, in this Christmas season I can’t help but think what it would be like if America became a truly Christian country. Not MAGA Christian or Christian Nationalist, but a country committed to following Christ’s actual teachings.
Our first act would be to stage a mass, national redistribution of wealth. After all, it was Jesus who said it was easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to get into heaven. Picture it, maybe on the National Mall, or perhaps symbolically at Zuccotti Park, where Occupy Wall Street began, or in town centers all across America: billionaires and multimillionaires standing up, confessing their wealth, turning over their stacks of stock options, hedge funds, jewels, deeds to their second, third, fourth houses and yachts, stripping down to their undershirts and being baptized anew!
We wouldn’t necessarily require them to take a vow of poverty. Let them keep a home or two and a few million—we’d still have plenty to give to the poor, which is what Jesus would have done. If Jesus were here today, wouldn’t he be hanging out in the homeless encampments and giving aid and comfort to refugees? We could take those billions and house the unhoused. Imagine beautifully designed complexes for elders, with warm and cozy homes and lots of friends, activities and support services around. Imagine apartments for families and single parents clustered around playgrounds and with good schools nearby—schools that inspire students with a love for learning, that awaken curiosity and encourage critical thinking. And that education would be free, through university and beyond, out of the recognition that the growth of knowledge benefits us all.
Jesus said, “Suffer the little children to come unto me,” which did not mean, “Make them suffer” but rather, “Let me comfort them!” Jesus would never let a child go hungry. He would not support using starvation as a weapon, or supporting a regime that bombed homes and hospitals and left babies dying of hypothermia in winter storms. A truly Christian nation would make the protection and nurturing of children our prime priority—all children, not just those of a certain racial tone or income bracket or national identity. We’d have exquisite parks and playgrounds and programs that brought city kids out into nature and brought country kids to museums and theater and concerts. T
Jesus, who fed the multitudes on a few loaves and fishes, would be in favor of feeding the hungry. Letting people starve, while food aid rotted in warehouses, would be a mortal sin in his book. A truly Christian country would honor the farmer—not the giant, corporate factory farm but those small-scale and family farms that could be the foundation of a truly regenerative agriculture, one that would care for the soil, regenerate habitat and restore forests as well as growing food for our tables. We’d honor those who tend the crops and pick them, and recognize that grueling work as a vital service to all of us, and those laborers would receive generous compensation, health care and pension plans and the thanks of a grateful nation—not masked thugs chasing them out of the fields and disappearing them into gulags.
In honor of Jesus, who healed the sick, wouldn’t a grateful nation provide free health care for all as a human right? We’d pour money and resources into medical research, and restore those programs that once did make America great, at least in some respects, before Musk and DOGE fired everybody. We’d develop medical knowledge that could encompass mind, body and spirit—without losing our common sense and the values of rigorous scientific procedure. And we’d provide the care that people need as we grow older, when we suffer injury or illness or simply lose our capacity to do the heavy lifting we once could do.
And finally, if we really believed in the Prince of Peace, we’d stop seeing war as the ultimate arbiter of every conflict, the final answer to every unsolved dilemma. We’d stop funding and enabling the bullies, and instead look to address the root causes of instability and insecurity by demanding equity and justice.
As I said, I’m not a Christian, and I’m sure if Jesus and I sat down and talked, we’d disagree on a lot of things, like how to negotiate the fraught politics of 1st Century AD Palestine under Roman Occupation. And overall, I believe we’re far better off seeing America as a country founded, not on any particular religion, but on those great principles enshrined in the Constitution of freedom of conscience, freedom of worship, and freedom of speech.
But if you really want to put Christ back into the season, if your true desire is to feed the hungry, house the unhoused, nurture the children, heal the sick, and bring about an end to war and peace on earth…well hey, I can live with that!
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This post has been syndicated from Starhawk’s Substack, where it was published under this address.