In the winter of 1986-87, I spent Christmas in Zimbabwe. While there, I saw numerous depictions of the Nativity, with many of these being constructed in stone. In all of these creches, there were of course Mary and Joseph, the baby Jesus in a manger, shepherd(s), animals, angels. Some had magi and/or angels, some didn’t. Yet in all of them was one figure, usually off to one side, with a scowl on his face.

This was so unlike the Nativity sets I’m used to, and so I asked one Zimbabwean–who himself had carved one of these scenes–about that frowning figure. He stated very matter-of-factly that it’s Herod! When I looked surprised, he in turn was surprised! He asked me: “How can you possibly tell the story of the birth of Christ without Herod?”

This was astounding to me, and I recognized that of course he was right. It suddenly washed over me that we Americans make our Christmas celebrations and related artwork and decorations out of a revisionist history. The original story is one of Imperial taxation. Of disregard for the poor people. Of making no provisions a poor pregnant teenager in labor. Filthy conditions for bringing to birth. And a murderous ruler, Herod, who became so rattled by reports of a “royal baby” that he ordered the mass execution of all infants under two years of age throughout the area he heard the Christ child might be found.

Alas, we live in a time where another political leader is worried about his grip on power, and has shown himself willing that children be ripped from their parents in an effort to consolidate support from his base…and children are dying. Even on Christmas Eve, one Guatemalan child whose family hoped he could find life in the United States died while ostensibly under our jurisdiction and care.

We must tell the truth. In fact, refusing to clean up our histories (whether of a birth in Bethlehem, of a death of a Guatemalan boy in Alamogordo, New Mexico, of how the United States came to be, or of our own journeys) is one concrete way to refuse even unwitting cooperation with evil and make possible discovering grace and engaging in healing. Holidays. Holy Days.