[ad_1]
Claremont United Methodist Church transformed its Christmas nativity scene into a powerful statement about family separation by depicting Jesus, Mary and Joseph as a family separated at the U.S.-Mexico border.
A photo posted Saturday on Facebook by a senior minister at Claremont United Methodist Church, east of Los Angeles, showed the Holy Family inside three chain-link cells topped with razor wire.
In a statement posted by the minister, Karen Clark Ristine, the church said that after fleeing a tyrant king, Jesus, Mary and Joseph became “the most well-known refugee family in the world.”
“What if this family sought refuge in our country today?” the church said. “Imagine Joseph and Mary separated at the border and Jesus no older than two taken from his mother and placed behind the fences of a Border Patrol detention center.”
Read Ristine’s full statement below:
Stirred to tears by the Claremont UMC nativity. Inside the church, the Holy Family is reunited.
The theological statement posted with the nativity: In a time in our country when refugee families seek asylum at our borders and are unwillingly separated from one another, we consider the most well-known refugee family in the world. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, the Holy Family. Shortly after the birth of Jesus, Joseph and Mary were forced to flee with their young son from Nazareth to Egypt to escape King Herod, a tyrant. They feared persecution and death.
What if this family sought refuge in our country today?
Imagine Joseph and Mary separated at the border and Jesus no older than two taken from his mother and placed behind the fences of a Border Patrol detention center as more than 5,500 children have been the past three years.
Jesus grew up to teach us kindness and mercy and a radical welcome of all people.
He said: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” Matthew 25:35
In the Claremont United Methodist Church nativity scene this Christmas, the Holy Family takes the place of the thousands of nameless families separated at our borders.
Inside the church, you will see this same family reunited, the Holy Family together, in a nativity that joins the angels in singing “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and good will to all.” Luke 2:14
While the vast majority of comments were supportive, several conservatives blasted the church for taking a shot at President Trump.
In response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Trump immigration authorities said in October that 5,400 children had been separated from their families beginning in July 2017.
[ad_2]
Source link
