Pirate's Cove

They’ve missed the reason for the season, and should have their tax exempt status pulled for getting political

Church Nativity scenes add zip ties and gas masks to protest immigration raids

One baby Jesus lies in a manger in the snow, wrapped in a silver emergency blanket with his wrists zip-tied. Mary stands nearby outside the Lake Street Church in Evanston, Illinois, wearing a plastic gas mask and flanked by Roman soldiers in tactical vests labeled “ICE.”

In another Chicago suburb, not far from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility that has drawn protests over detentions, a sign at the manger outside the Urban Village Church says “Due to ICE activity in our community the Holy Family is in hiding.” And more than a thousand miles away, the Christ child went missing from a Nativity scene at St. Susanna Parish in Dedham, Massachusetts, replaced by a hand-painted sign: “ICE was here.”

These and other stark reimaginings of Christ’s birth are drawing praise and outrage as churches turn the Christmas tableau into a commentary on federal immigration enforcement under the Trump administration. Their creators say they are placing the ancient story in a contemporary frame, portraying the Holy Family as refugees to reflect on the fear of separation and deportation that many families — including their own parishioners — are experiencing today.

Supporters of the displays say the Bible is on their side, but critics call the scenes sacrilegious and politically divisive, accusing the churches of abusing sacred imagery and some arguing they should lose their tax-exempt status. The archdiocese in Massachusetts ordered that the manger must be “restored to its proper sacred purpose.”

Was all this necessary? Can’t they just do Christian stuff as it is meant to be?

St. Susanna parishioners locked baby Jesus in a cage in 2018 to protest how President Donald Trump’s first administration was separating families at the border. Another year, they depicted the infant floating in water polluted with plastic to highlight climate change.

Did they do that when Obama was building those cages and separating illegal alien families? I cannot find one story on it.

Josoma (priest at St. Susanna) said the display’s purpose is to move “beyond static traditional figures and evoke emotion and dialogue” in response to the fear many parishioners face as federal forces arrest more than undocumented immigrants, sweeping up longtime legal residents and spreading anxiety.

The display’s purpose should highlight the miracle of Jesus’ birth. That’s it. Nothing else.

The controversy in Evanston drew volunteers from a nearby synagogue, who stood outside during Lake Street’s services to help worshippers feel safe. Reactions outside the Dedham church ranged widely.

Walter Niland snapped a selfie and said he disagreed with the display. “I believe that the church enjoys a tax-exempt status,” said Niland, a Catholic from a neighboring town. “We should speak to spiritual matters, not matters of political division.”

Exactly. But, Liberalism is a mental disease, and makes some unhinged.