Politically charged Nativity scenes are not new, but tension over them is escalating this year as pastors express opposition to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement in public displays that commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ.
In Charlotte, a man was caught on camera knocking over characters in a Nativity scene that the pastor said was intended to “disturb” passers-by.
The Nativity scene at Missiongathering Church showed masked ICE agents holding handcuffs and standing behind Mary, Joseph and Jesus.
“The goal is to disturb, to make people feel something,” the Rev. Andrew Shipley told The Charlotte Observer. “What’s been happening to Charlotte families… is disturbing and is graphic and horrifying.”
Meanwhile, a priest in Dedham, Massachusetts, is refusing to alter an ICE-themed Nativity scene despite an order from the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston to do so.
In that display at St. Susanna Parish, the Holy Family is missing from the traditional tableau and the manger contains a sign that says “ICE WAS HERE.” The display also contains a sign urging people who see federal immigration agents to contact a local advocacy group that tracks federal immigration activity in Massachusetts.
It is thematically similar to a Nativity scene at an American Baptist church in Illinois that depicts a baby with his hands bound with zip ties, Mary and Joseph wearing gas masks, and centurions dressed as ICE agents.
Per The New York Times, the Archdiocese of Boston said in a statement that people “have the right to expect that they will encounter genuine opportunities for prayer and Catholic worship — not divisive political messaging.”
The Times noted that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement last month about the Trump administration’s efforts to remove people who are in the country illegally.
“We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement. We are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants,” the USCCB statement said in part.
St. Susanna’s pastor, the Rev. Stephen Josoma, has noted that the Vatican has displayed nontraditional Nativity scenes that evoke social issues. “Our hope was to similarly evoke dialogue around an issue that is at the heart of contemporary life.”
Some of the Vatican’s displays have also been controversial, including one in which the baby Jesus lay in a manger draped with a black-and-white keffiyeh associated with Palestinians. The keffiyeh was later removed, after objections from Jewish leaders and groups.
Nativity scenes like the ones at St. Susanna’s and Missiongathering church are sometimes called “protest Nativities,” and they often turn up at the same churches year after year.
In years past, for example, St. Susanna has placed the baby Jesus in a cage, listed victims of mass shootings and showed the Nativity characters being subsumed by water, the latter a statement about climate change.
