Church Nativity Scene Features Zip-Tied Baby Jesus, Roman Soldiers as ICE Agents

Protestia ^ | December 1, 2025 | staff

[Morgana]

Lake Street Church of Evanston is a “progressive Christian theology that embraces people from all different religious denominations and religious traditions.” Led by Rev. Dr. Michael Woolf, they are affiliated with the American Baptist Churches in the USA, and proudly “cherishes its non-creedal tradition” and their bizarre church covenant.

For their Nativity scene this year, they depicted baby Jesus zip-tied in his cradle, while Roman soldiers/ ICE agents look on.

The church explains that “this installation reimagines the nativity as a scene of forced family separation, drawing direct parallels between the Holy Family’s refugee experience and contemporary immigration detention practices.”

“By placing the Christmas story (Christianity’s central narrative of refuge, sanctuary, and sacred family) within the visual language of immigration enforcement and detention, this work asks viewers to confront the disconnect between professed religious or moral values and immigration policies. The emergency blanket references the actual materials used in detention facilities.”

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 continue:

The gas masks worn by Mary and Joseph reference 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.

[No name given]

Blasphemy!

[No name given]

Blasphemy!

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Idiots! The Romans were the illegal invaders. The Israelites would be using their ICE team to deport the Romans. The idiot pastor Michael Woolf has it completely wrong.

[LukeL]

Jesus was a Roman citizen.

[RainMan]

How to tell your pastor has never read the bible without saying he has never read the bible.

[No name given]

Correct.

[No name given]

Exactly!

[EastTexasTraveler]

“Christian theology”

No it is not.

[Skywise]

So stunning and brave.

[ProgressingAmerica]

A whole lot here to get annoyed at, but one thing they accidentally admitted to.

The Government killed Jesus Christ.

(The Roman Government) Stupid progressives.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

"Jesus was a Roman citizen."

Some historical clarification for you...

• Jesus was born around 4–6 BCE in Bethlehem and raised in Nazareth, both in the Roman province of Judea. He was ethnically Jewish and lived under Roman imperial rule.
• Full Roman citizenship (civitas Romana) was a privileged legal status during Jesus’ lifetime. It was relatively rare in the eastern provinces and usually granted to::
  • Residents of Italy
  • Veterans of the Roman army
  • Members of local elites who received it as a personal favor
  • Or entire communities in some western provinces (but not yet in Judea).
• Judea was a client kingdom (under Herod the Great) and later a Roman province governed by prefects (like Pontius Pilate). The vast majority of its Jewish inhabitants did not have Roman citizenship.
• There is no evidence in the New Testament or any reliable historical source that Jesus or his family possessed Roman citizenship. When Jesus was tried and executed (c. 30–33 CE), he was treated as a provincial subject, not as a citizen. Roman citizens had significant legal protections (e.g., the right to appeal to Caesar, as Paul later did), and crucifixion was generally not used on citizens except in extreme cases. Jesus was crucified without any of those protections being invoked.

Living under imperial Roman rule in a client province was vastly different than (and inferior to) Roman citizanship.

[Jane Long]

Liberalism IS a mental disorder.

[Cowgirl of Justice]

Now that they are a political organization, revoke their tax exempt status.

[Larry Lucido]

That’s because that church couldn’t come up with three wise men or a virgin.

[mass55th]

When were Roman soldiers present when Mary gave birth to Jesus?

[doc maverick]

Sacrilege……why am I not surprised?
A lot of churches have gone to hell.

[NorthMountain]

When were Roman soldiers present when Mary gave birth to Jesus?

Probably a bunch of them in Bethlehem to keep order during the census ... probably none of them anywhere near the barn/cave/animal-shelter where the shepherds found Mary and Joseph and The Child.

Leftist pseudo-churches like to compare the Holy Family seeking refuge in Egypt to illegal aliens invading America. It's a poor comparison.

[Tell It Right]

Agreed. Nowhere in the Gospels does it describe Joseph as an illegal border crossin', welfare draining, pot-smokin', tax avoiding hebephile.

Quite the opposite. Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem to be in their ancestral town (as ordered by Caesar Augustus).

[mass55th]

"Leftist pseudo-churches like to compare the Holy Family seeking refuge in Egypt to illegal aliens invading America. It's a poor comparison."

They have to bastardize everything. I was born in 1947, and grew up in the 50's and 60's. There was none of this crap around back then. Just goes to show how far this country has fallen in less than 80 years.