First of all, angels don't appear to just anyone, so Joseph was no doubt a righteous man as the scriptures attest. God wouldn't have given Jesus the perfect Mom and a lousy Dad. Both figures are vital to Jewish family life. Through Joseph, the lineage of Jesus goes back through David to Adam, the Son of God, just as it does through Mary.

If Joseph wisely invested the wise men's (not kings, and most likely Zorastrians from Persia) gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, the family would have had a tidy nest egg for the future.

Of course Mary and Joseph together had the siblings of Jesus, both brothers and sisters. Only evil old men would suggest that marital sex is sinful. "The wedding bed is undefiled." But, then, Catholicism is a truly bizarre pagan religion, especially because it claims to be Christian.

Another puzzling aspect of the nativity scene is why are the wise men displayed there? They didn't show up until Jesus was about two years old, back living in Galilee. Also, why do the paintings of Jesus and his family all look like goys instead of Jews?