The National Association of Latino Elected Officials is distributing thousands of posters that encourage people to participate in the Census by depicting Mary and Joseph and Jesus (in utero) traveling to Bethlehem.
“This is how Jesus was born,” the poster states. “Joseph and Mary participated in the Census.”
No Census, no Jesus, apparently.
Never mind the fact that the two times that a census is mentioned in scripture (that I’m aware of), it’s a bad thing. In Luke, it’s just a scheme by Caesar Augustus (who called himself The Son of God) to help him collect taxes from the Israelites. After all, crucifying Jewish dissidents and slaughtering Essenes is expensive work.
In the Old Testament (NB: A Jewish friend says: “It’s not old to us, pal”), a census is portrayed as one of King David’s more sinful deeds when he orders his general Joab to number the people. In 2nd Samuel and 1st Chronicles, scripture is explicit that it was Satan who moved David to order a census.
9:18 pm on December 15, 2009
