The Powerful Reason This Holiday Card Went Viral

Greeting cards are a staple of the holiday season, and if you celebrate Christmas, they usually follow a pretty formulaic template: "Wishing you a merry Christmas," "Happy holidays," "Merry Christmas and a happy new year!" But one woman in Kansas used hers to send a message you might not expect to receive — and it's going viral. "This Christmas season we would like to remind everyone that Jesus was a Middle Eastern refugee," reads the card sent by Whitney Roberts Logan and her family. In light of the election and the difficult times that have followed, the 33-year-old didn't want to send out a holiday card with what she felt was an empty message. "I couldn't bring myself to say something like, 'Wishing you and yours a blessed season and a happy new year!'" she told Refinery29. "I thought it would be insincere and out of touch and pretty disconnected from the actual message in the Christmas story itself." So she typed out the message and asked her husband if it was okay with him.

He agreed, and the couple sent out the card to family and friends, all of whom she said welcomed it with open arms. Then she decided to post the picture on Pantsuit Nation, the formerly "secret" Facebook group composed of Hillary Clinton supporters that has grown into a virtual community of almost 4 million users. Roberts Logan's goal was to show support to other people who feel out of tune with their faith-based communities supporting President-elect Donald Trump. "I wanted to encourage others to be more bold about their own spiritual perspectives," she said. "We need, maybe more than ever, more spiritual and religious voices who are willing to say, 'Look, it's our responsibility to help those who are the most vulnerable of our society.'" So far, the post has accumulated over 175,000 Likes and thousands of comments supporting Roberts Logan. Many people have asked her if they can share the picture on their social media feeds. But for Roberts Logan, this is not only an opportunity to create conversations, but also to educate others about the refugee crisis. "I hope that if people want to, they turn their attention to the Syrian refugee crisis," she said. "I want this to be more than a thought-provoking meme."