Let’s work together for a better world in 2021 – and a Christmas when we can truly sing of peace on Earth and good will to all people As many Americans pause to celebrate the Christmas holiday this weekend, it is tempting to wish for a momentary pause in our public life of ceaseless conflict. Between a president who has refused to accept the reality of his defeat and an entire subculture that has made denying science a culture war in the midst of a global pandemic, an incredible amount of energy has been invested in division this year. While it may feel good to romanticize the spirit of the season and wish everyone a “Merry Christmas”, it would be more faithful to both the original Christmas story and our present circumstances to wish one another a “Mourning Christmas”.Two thousand years ago, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, inequality was rampant. Client state rulers like King Herod in Judea used their power to accumulate wealth from poor subjects. Jesus, the son of God, was born to a poor family who could not find a room to rent in Bethlehem. His birth was not celebrated by the wealthy or the politically powerful, but by migrant farm workers and foreign religious minorities. The movement of hope and new life that Jesus came to inaugurate was attacked by a paranoid and narcissistic ruler who was willing to kill innocent children in a desperate attempt to cling to power. The first Christmas was not merry and bright, but a mournful sight.It would be a rejection of that story in our present season to turn away from the pain and suffering that we have witnessed throughout 2020. More than 300,000 Americans have died from Covid-19, a disease which has spread through the fissures in our society, revealing the inequalities that were already rampant. One in 1,000 African Americans have died from the virus, and poor people are three times as likely as their higher income neighbors to contract the disease. Nine months after the first economic impact of the pandemic, the US economy still has 10m fewer jobs than it did in February. These lost jobs are almost all low-income service jobs, leaving the most vulnerable unemployed as the richest among us continue to watch their profits soar.When Americans who could not deny these realities took to the streets this past summer after the public lynching of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, the world witnessed a historic uprising for racial justice. Like the movement that was born in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago, this racial justice movement’s hope was rooted in public mourning. “A voice is heard in Ramah,” the Scriptures record, “refusing to be consoled.” The cry of public mourning was the original Christmas greeting, and it has been the honest response of tens of millions of Americans to 2020. As WEB DuBois wrote over a century ago, “Through all the sorrow of the Sorrow Songs there breathes a hope – a faith in the ultimate justice of things.”> The movement of hope and new life that Jesus came to inaugurate was attacked by a paranoid and narcissistic rulerBut, like King Her