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What does the future hold for Bethlehem?

I drove by a Lutheran church yesterday morning when the bells were chiming this classic Christmas hymn. Then I ran across an excerpt in the St. Gregory parish bulletin about the current state of Bethlehem.

The article was originally published in the Sept. 1, 2008 issue of America, a weekly Jesuit Catholic magazine. The full version is only available to subscribers, but the online version of the magazine offers a teaser here. Be patient with St. Gregory’s Webmaster and you might ultimately find the full article in the Dec. 28 bulletin.

“Bethlehem isn’t just little — it’s getting smaller and smaller,” according to an intro to the bulletin’s article. “Today’s Christian inhabitants of the royal city of David are a lonely people.”

A 30-foot wall between Bethlehem and Jerusalem is partly to blame. It doesn’t help that the town’s resident’s have long depended on Jerusalem’s economy, “yet they can no longer pass through the checkpoint without a special permit that is seldom granted,” the article said. That makes tourism a challenge.

Hundreds of square miles of land has been confiscated by the Israleis. More than half of the townspeople are unemployed and some 3,000 Christians have left in the past few years, according to the story. That has skyrocketed the number of people who line up for their daily bread outside a Salesian-run bakery. The chief baker has worked there for 60 years — since he was 8 — noticed the difference. They give out 3,000 loaves now compared to serving 320 families just four years ago. Plus, the loaves are lighter than usual due to rising flour prices.

“The wall is strangling Bethlehem and its Christian population,” the article said. “It will come down only when Christian public opinion in the United States awakens to that fact and issues an S.O.S. for the birth town of Christianity, putting pressure on Washington to enforce international law.”