Posted on 12/11/2025 8:45:18 PM PST by Morgana
A Chicago-area church has updated its already controversial nativity scene following damage from vandalism and inclement weather, removing Joseph, the father of Jesus, and replacing him with a memorial to those who have been affected by raids and arrests conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
Lake Street Church of Evanston, Illinois, made headlines earlier this holiday season with a nativity scene that depicts baby Jesus as lying in a manger with his hands zip-tied together. The infant is wrapped in what appears to be an emergency blanket. Mary and Joseph are standing near the manger wearing gas masks. And the young couple is flanked by three Roman soldiers who are wearing sunglasses and vests emblazoned with “ICE.”
The church, which is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA (ABCUSA) denomination and practices “a progressive Christian theology that embraces people from all different religious denominations and religious traditions,” said in a social media post that the scene is “not subtle because the crisis it addresses is not abstract.”
“The Holy Family were refugees. This is not political interpretation, this is the reality described in the stories our tradition has told and retold for millenia,” the church said of the scene. “By witnessing this familiar story through the reality faced by migrants today, we hope to restore its radical edge, and to ask what it means to celebrate the birth of a refugee child while turning away those who follow in that child’s footsteps.”
Rev. Michael Woolf, the church’s pastor, said, “Christians have to look at the birth story—not just a sort of a rosy sort of tale that we can just read in Scripture—but actually sort of wrestle with its coming into being in context.”
Following heavy snowfall and apparent vandalism, Joseph has now been replaced by a sign that says, “Joseph didn’t make it.”
“We hold this space to honor and remember all the victims of immigration enforcement terror,” the sign reads. It continues:
Everyone who has been deported. Everyone who has disappeared. Everyone who has been denied medical care. Everyone who has had to go into hiding. Everyone who has seen these things happen to friends, family, and neighbors. Everyone who has had chemical weapons deployed in their neighborhoods. Our children whose schools have had to go on lockdown. For the Dreamers, the permanent residents, the people with legal status whose futures are also in jeopardy. For everyone, regardless of documentation status, who sees the suffering of God’s children at the hands of our government and feels their hearts break as we weep alongside God.
The Joseph figure was replaced after it was damaged to the point of not being able to stand. Woolf told the Chicago Tribune that the zip ties that had been around the infant Christ’s wrist had been removed and that the gas masks previously worn by Mary and Joseph were also missing.
In particular, Woolf said that the updated scene is dedicated to the memory of Silverio Villegas Gonzalez, a 38-year-old father of two who was shot and killed by ICE agents in October.
Jillian Westerfield, the associate minister for Lake Street Church who designed the Nativity scene, told the Chicago Tribune that the installation is meant to be provocative.
“It is offensive, because this is happening to real people,” Westerfield said. “The things that we’re showing are not imaginary, and you should be offended that this is happening to God’s children right now all over our country.”
“Some people disagree with what we’ve done here, and some people agree with us far away,” Westerfield added. “I think it’s natural that this kind of thing is going to evoke emotional responses in people.”
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Here is an update. They are still at it with even more antics.
I think they’d be more accurate if the “memorial” said “Jose didn’t make it.”
I love you guys!
Yay, I came up with a good one! :)
Do that to Mohammed.
......The Holy Family were refugees. ....
When they went to Bethlehem, they were NOT refugees. Then went to their native city to be taxed!
When they later fled to Egypt, they were refugees. But they went from one Roman province to another, is they were NOT “illegal aliens”! The same applied when they went to Nazareth.
Leftist Christians should stick to the straight Nativity story, and celebrate Advent and Christmas with the rest of us, in peace and with love!
Yup
They had to travel to their ancestral home, as well as other relatives. The way the homes were made then they had an inner courtyard area where a manger for family animals were. Considering the family home there was full up with other relatives from other places, by the time they got there, the only room left was in the courtyard area, the manger.
From the same leftist mindset that smugly tells us G-D is dead and mocks Jesus as an imaginary friend until they need favors from them. Such as pushing the current narrative. Jesus was a socialist. Jesus was an undocumented immigrant. Jesus was trans. Jesus was a vegan. Jesus was a Palestinian. Surprised I haven’t heard a libtard say Jesus performed abortions. At least not yet
And see what happens.
My thoughts exactly.
“Leftist Christians should stick to the straight Nativity story, and celebrate Advent and Christmas with the rest of us, in peace and with love!”
For leftists everything is about politics. EVERYTHING.
Is Leftist Christian an oxymoron?
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