What to Know
Because of the Trump administration, several churches are reimagining their Nativity scenes this year. The churches made the decision to change their Nativity scenes because of how President Donald Trump’s deportation campaign is impacting families around the country this holiday season. One church in Evanston, Illinois has said that its Nativity scene, which includes Mary and Joseph in gas masks and a zip-tied baby Jesus, “is not subtle because the crisis it addresses is not abstract.”
In a post about the Nativity scene, the church, Lake Street Church, wrote, “The Holy Family were refugees. This is not political interpretation, this is the reality described in the stories our tradition has told and retold for millennia. By witnessing this familiar story through the reality faced by migrants today, we hope to restore its radical edge, and to ask what it means to celebrate the birth of a refugee child while turning away those who follow in that child’s footsteps.”
Lake Street Church said its Nativity scene is “a scene of forced family separation.”
The church explained its use of zip ties, writing, “The zip ties on the infant’s wrists directly reference the children who were zip-tied by agents during a raid on a Chicago apartment building earlier this year, where most residents were U.S. citizens: a stark reminder that enforcement terror does not discriminate by documentation status.”
They chose to have Mary and Joseph wear gas masks because of “the documented use of tear gas and other chemical weapons deployed by ICE agents against peaceful protesters, journalists, and community members advocating for immigration reform and bearing witness to human rights abuses within the system.”
Per Forbes, when wind damaged the figure of Joseph, the church chose not to replace it. Instead, they put up a sign that reads, “Joseph didn’t make it. We hold this space to honor and remember all the victims of immigration enforcement terror.”
Other churches have created similar displays.
Another church in the Chicago area, Urban Village Church West, has gone viral for an outdoor Nativity display that Mary, Joseph, and Jesus are all missing from. In their place is a sign that reads, “Due to ICE activity in our community, the Holy Family is in hiding.”
The church’s pastor, Rev. Abby Holcombe, told the Chicago Sun Times that the Nativity scene is accurate. “We remember that Jesus was born to us as a vulnerable person, and it helps us remember the vulnerable people in our community,” she told the publication.
Saint Susanna Parish in Dedham, Massachusetts also removed Jesus from its Nativity scene and replaced him with a sign. The sign in the middle of the Nativity scene reads, “ICE was here.” Another sign below that one says, “The Holy Family is safe in our Church… If you see ICE please call LUCE at 617-370-5023.”
Father Stephen Jasoma explained that the display exists to “show the dynamic of what’s happening in the world today,” per Boston 25. He told the publication that he hoped other churches would follow suit. “This is a stance I’d hope all churches would take,” he said. “We should be a welcoming community.”
Unsurprisingly, the Trump administration doesn’t appreciate these displays.
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin has reacted to the trend. In a statement shared with Forbes, she claimed that Nativity scenes like these are “offensive to Christians” and are “also depicting something that NEVER happens.”
She said, “ICE does not zip tie infants or children. This demonization of law enforcement is contributing to a more than 1,050% increase in assaults on ICE. Get a grip and seek help.” In a statement shared with People, she also claimed that “ICE is not separating infants or children from their families.”
