Why We Celebrate Christmas

Two favorite Christmas stories from economist Brian Wesbury and radio talker Erick Erickson

Two things always strike me about Christmas. First, challenges to the story's veracity, and second, silly political narratives some try to draw from it.

Let me start with the latter. My friend and economist Brian Wesbury penned an excellent blog post 13 years ago that discusses an oft-used anti-capitalist screed about a “greedy innkeeper” that forced Joseph and Mary to occupy a stable - designed for animals - since there was no room elsewhere.

Greedy Innkeeper or Generous Capitalist?

By Brian Wesbury and Robert Stein, First Trust Portfolios

The Bible story of the virgin birth is at the center of much of the holiday cheer this time of year.  The book of Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem because Caesar Augustus decreed a census should be taken.  Mary gave birth after arriving in Bethlehem and placed baby Jesus in a manger because there was “no room for them in the inn.”

Some people think Mary and Joseph were mistreated by a greedy innkeeper, who only cared about profits and decided the couple was not “worth” his normal accommodations.  This version of the story (narrative) has been repeated many times in plays, skits, and sermons.  It fits an anti-capitalist mentality that paints business owners as greedy, or even evil.

It persists even though the Bible records no complaints and there was apparently no charge for the stable.  It may be the stable was the only place available.  Bethlehem was over-crowded with people forced to return to their ancestral home for a census – ordered by the Romans – for the purpose of levying taxes.  If there was a problem, it was due to unintended consequences of government policy.  In this narrative, the government caused the problem.

The innkeeper was generous to a fault – a hero even.  He was over-booked, but he charitably offered his stable, a facility he built with unknowing foresight.  The innkeeper was willing and able to offer this facility even as government officials, who ordered and administered the census, slept in their own beds with little care for the well-being of those who had to travel regardless of their difficult life circumstances.

If you must find “evil” in either of these narratives, remember that evil is ultimately perpetrated by individuals, not the institutions in which they operate.  And this is why it’s important to favor economic and political systems that limit the use and abuse of power over others.  In the story of baby Jesus, a government law that requires innkeepers to always have extra rooms, or to take in anyone who asks, would “fix” the problem.

But these laws would also have unintended consequences.  Fewer investors would back hotels because the cost of the regulations would reduce returns on investment.  A hotel big enough to handle the rare census would be way too big in normal times.  Even a bed and breakfast would face the potential of being sued.  There would be fewer hotel rooms, prices would rise, and innkeepers would once again be called greedy.  And if history is our guide, government would chastise them for price-gouging and then try to regulate prices.

This does not mean free markets are perfect or create utopia; they aren’t and they don’t.  But businesses can’t force you to buy a service or product.  You have a choice – even if it’s not exactly what you want.  And good business people try to make you happy in creative and industrious ways.

Government doesn’t always care.  In fact, if you happen to live in North Korea or Cuba, and are not happy about the way things are going, you can’t leave.  And just in case you try, armed guards will help you think things through.  

This is why the Framers of the US Constitution made sure there were “checks and balances” in our system of government.  These checks and balances don’t always lead to good outcomes; we can think of many times when some wanted to ignore these safeguards.  But, over time, the checks and balances help prevent the kinds of despotism we’ve seen develop elsewhere.

Neither free market capitalism, nor the checks and balances of the Constitution are the equivalent of having a true Savior.  But they should give us all hope that the future will be brighter than many seem to think.

Erickson’s post also strikes me because it reinforces a striking attribute of Christianity - that so many were willing to be persecuted, tortured, and killed for it, even those who initially denied Christ’s deity. I know of no one who dies for a lie.

The Path Through History

By Erick-Woods Erickson

Two thousand years ago in Bethlehem, a baby was born in a manger.  That baby would grow up to be the most consequential person in history.  Wars would be started in his name.  Civilizations would fall and rise in his name.  Many would co-opt him for their own purposes and ignore what he actually said.  “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” (Matt. 5:5)

One must write an extraordinary number of people out of history to write Jesus of Nazareth out of history.  There were twelve apostles, then two more.  Matthias replaced the betrayer, Judas.  Paul, on the road to Damascus, converted.  We know those men lived.  In some cases, we know where they are buried.

Then there is Polycarp and Ignatius, who studied under the Apostle John.  They testified to his ministry and claim as Christ’s best friend.  Polycarp died on a pyre, refusing to reject what John had taught him about Christ.  The Romans disemboweled Ignatius and fed him to beasts.  There is Clement, referenced in scripture, who knew the apostles, and who the Romans tied to anchor and threw into the sea for his refusal to reject Christ and all he had learned and seen.

There were Jesus’s own half-brothers (or first cousins, as some believe).  James and Jude both rejected Christ in life.  The gospels show that they refused to even show up at Jesus’s execution.  On the cross, the Apostle John notes that Jesus had to tell him to care for Mary.  But the Book of Acts, written by Luke, author of his eponymous gospel, tells us that James subsequently became a leader in the early church.

Read the rest here. Merry Christmas.

The Path Through History