Political Nativity: California Methodists Display Caged Holy Family

The Institute on Religion & Democracy ^ | 9 December A.D. 2019 | Jeffrey Walton

[lightman]

A Progressive United Methodist congregation in Southern California is marking the Advent season with an outdoor nativity display featuring the holy family in cages.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the depiction of Jesus, Mary and Joseph as refugees in cages likens one of the most well-known images of the Christmas season to photos that have become synonymous with criticism of the Trump administration’s border separation policies.

“We don’t see it as political; we see it as theological,” Claremont United Methodist Church lead pastor the Rev. Karen Clark Ristine told the Times.

“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,” Ristine posted on the church’s Facebook page, likening economic migrant detainees to those fleeing persecution as refugees.

The United Methodist Church has an official stance opposing any immigration restrictions.

This isn’t the first time Claremont has politicized a nativity display. In 2013, the church depicted Trayvon Martin, a young black man shot and killed in Florida, in place of the infant Jesus, in a black hoodie, bleeding from an apparent bullet wound. That 2013 display, according to the artist who fashioned it, was intended to spur discussion on gun violence.

The church’s annual bid for publicity appears to be successful: in 2013 the Trayvon Martin-themed display was reported in national as well as local publications. This year, the Times is joined by CBS News, the Washington Post and several local TV affiliates offering coverage.

IRD has previously covered a transgender nativity. Any choice to replace Christ with a political statement or gender-swapping affirmation is just that – making our own statement, rather than coming to worship the Lord who arrived in a humble manger.

[A strike]

I’m sure these faux religious churches are making sure everyone knows that these are OBAMA cages, right ?

[the OlLine Rebel]

Methodists have been aberrant for a long time. AFA Pastor Don Wildmon scared me straight on that in the ‘90s. I had never know how lame Methodists were before joining the AFA.

[A strike]

spawn cankles is in mythology a Methodist;

although with this, maybe not .

[Karl Spooner]

I certainly can see Obama doing that to the holy family, being the good Muslim that he is.

[Telepathic Intruder]

I believe Jesus was born in Bethlehem legally.

[A strike]

Nailed it !!

[golux]

All of the re-posts of this story need to be placed in one cage and burned alive.

[CMSMC]

There’s a reason I left the Methodist Church 50 years ago and never looked back.

[Rebelbase]

Ain’t that the truth.

[GOPJ]

LOL - how embarrassing...

[miserare]

Cheap theater. Schmalzy, too.

[GOPJ]

http://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2019-12-11.html Since 2013, an average of 34 illegal aliens have been charged in North Carolina with 151 counts of raping or sexually assaulting a child per month -- and that’s based on police data from less than a third of the counties in a single state.

Shocking child sex crimes that you’d expect to happen about once a century now come at a clip of “every few years.” Within a five-year timespan, for example, the same California judge presided over these two cases:

-- Guatemalan Willy Alejandro Jimenez grabbed a 4-year-old girl in a Palo Alto parking lot, raped her, beat her unconscious, then threw her naked body from a moving car.

-- Fifty-year-old immigrant Paul Narvios repeatedly raped his girlfriend’s 9-year-old daughter, getting her pregnant and making her one of only four girls under the age of 10 to give birth in the United States.

Since 1990, the media have reported on 53 specific girls aged 10 or younger who have given birth in Latin America. In the United States, with a population about 70 percent the size of the nine countries where those births occurred, there were four reported births to girls that young.

MORE AT LINK:

Ann Coulter

http://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2019-12-11.html from link

Just two months ago, at an illegal immigrant flophouse in Immokalee, Florida, a teenaged girl got up to use to the bathroom in the middle of the night and caught an adult man in the act of raping a toddler, with blood running down both their legs.

Although the victim’s age was redacted from the police report, the child was wearing a blood-soaked diaper when she arrived at the hospital. The infant was injured so badly that she’s been in the hospital since the attack, undergoing multiple reconstructive surgeries -- with more to come.

We know the child’s rapist was an illegal alien -- there was no one else in the trailer. At the moment, it appears that the primary suspect is her “father,” Hector Gabriel-Jimenez, 23, who has been arrested for child neglect.

[shanover]

As someone just mentioned,this is what happens,in a broader sense,when liberal women control entities.

[Inkie]

Exactly. They were law abiding citizens duly going to Jerusalem for the census, as required by the Roman government. She went into labor early, that’s all. But they were LEGAL CITIZENS.

[fproy2222]

A cousion denomination to your denomination is being talked about.

[LouAvul]

Stupidity on display. Joseph, Mary and the Christ were in Bethlehem because they were citizens and had to participate in the census for the sake of taxation.

Methodists ignore the Bible, but this attention whoring virtue signaling antic is particularly egregious.

Methodists have never been Christian. Let's not confuse the issue. They are desperately seeking relevance by parading a hot topic political and social issue.

[Elsie]

A cousion denomination to your denomination is being talked about.

It IS???

---

Today, there are as many as 100 organizations claiming to be a part of the Latter Day Saint movement, most centered in Utah or Missouri. Most regard their own group, however small, to be the only legitimate Christian church. Most of these organizations are very small, but overall, but the second largest denomination, the Community of Christ, reports over 200,000 members.

• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (a.k.a. The Church of Jesus Christ, and the LDS) is by far the largest Mormon denomination. It is a continuation of the "Rocky Mountain Saint" branch of Mormonism.
• The more liberal Community of Christ (formerly called the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) is second in size. It is a continuation of the "Prairie Saint" movement. Although generally referred to as "Mormons," they do not use the term themselves, because of its association with polygamy and because they believe the name was not part of the original church.
• Many additional small Mormon faith groups, including:
  • Aaronic Order: unknown membership; 6 centers; 20 ministers
  • Apostolic United Brethren: about 7,000 members. They disagree with the LDS' decision to allow ordination of African-Americans and allowing women to assume leadership positions.
  • Church of Christ (Fetting/Bronson): about 2000 members
  • Church of Christ (Temple Lot): about 2400 members
  • The Church of Christ "With The Elijah Message," established anew in 1929 12,500 members worldwide
  • Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite): about 2700 members
  • The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: about 11 million members
  • The Community of Christ: about 250,000 members. This denomination was formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints -- the "RLDS Church". It was formed in 1860 by remnants of the original church who did not make the trek to Utah. They reject certain beliefs and practices of the LDS church, including marriage sealing for eternity; they allow both men and women into the priesthood; their services are open to the public. They have about 250,000 members.
  • United Order Effort: a polygamy practicing group, excommunicated by the main LDS church, of perhaps 10,000 members
  • The Restoration Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It split from the Reorganized Church in 1991 because of the latter's liberal theology. It is centered in Independence, Missouri, and had an estimated membership of 2,500 in mid-1996. They publish a periodical "The Restoration Advocate" six times a year

[Elsie]

Dang!

I guess the above list was put together before the FUNDEMENTALIST LDS* folks made the news!

* (A cousin denomination to the big dog on the porch, headquartered in SLC.)

[Elsie]

...and that He said people should pay taxes, too.

I think He actually said to "...render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's…"
--Matthew 22:21

The 'tax collectors' of the day took a LOT more than what was legally Caesar's!

[Elsie]

 "Where is He that is born King of the Judeans?"
    Matthew 2:2


That's what the Magi told Herod.


   "But you, Bethlehem Ephrath, who are little to be among the thousands of Judah, 
out of you shall come forth to Me that is to be ruler in Israel; 
whose goings forth are from of old, from ancient days." 
Micah 5:1