Even churches are getting fed up with ICE and their inhumane raids, and what better way to show their disgust than by using their own nativity scenes to visually display their feelings!
Forbes has a great rundown of some of the more bold displays.
A Chicago-area church, Lake Street Church of Evanston, showed baby Jesus wrapped in a thin foil blanket “meant to resemble the emergency blankets used in detention facilities with zip-tied wrists” as masked centurions “wear sunglasses and green vests labeled “ICE” and guard a Virgin Mary wearing a gas mask.” The Joseph figure was knocked down by wind and instead of replacing him, the church put up a sign saying “Joseph didn’t make it. We hold this space to honor and remember all the victims of immigration enforcement terror.”
At Urban Village Church, also in the Chicago area, their nativity scene is missing 3 important figures: Mary, Joseph and Jesus. In their place there was a sign that read: “Due to ICE activity in our community the Holy Family is in hiding.” ZING.
Outside of a Dallas church, Oak Lawn United Methodist Church. Mary, Joseph and Jesus are housed behind a barbed wire fence with a sign that said “Holy is the refugee” and “Holy are the profiled and patrolled.”
At St Susanna parish in Massachusetts, Christ was removed from the nativity scene and replaced with a hand-painted sign reading, “ICE was here.”
In North Carolina, a church nativity scene showed masked ICE agents “standing over the traditional scenes wearing bulletproof vests and carrying handcuffs.”
ICE was very offended by the nativity scenes, but not enough to change their actions in any way, shape or form. Tricia McLaughlin, spokeswomen for DHS (who probably wears a large cross around her neck every day), said in a statement to Forbes: “Not only is this ‘nativity’ scene offensive to Christians, but it is also depicting something that NEVER happens. 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.”
For your brilliant protests, these churches win a GOOD GUY OF THE YEAR FOR 2025 AWARD!