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Though Donald Trump has overwhelming support from the Christianity community regardless of his past and present indulgence in the 7 deadly sins of man, there are still some in the religion who peep game and a methodist church in Claremont has not only put Trump on blast but all the Christian faithful who continue to turn a blind eye to his crimes against humanity such as his Child separation policy at the border.
The LA Times is reporting that this past Saturday night the Claremont United Methodist Church unveiled their annual Nativity scene, but with a Trumpian twist as the statues of Mary, Jesus and Joseph find themselves separated in individual cages. Needless to say many were taken aback by the revelation, but the truth is that’s exactly would’ve happened to the Biblical family had they migrated to America in the Trump era.
Methodist United Church pastor Karen Clark Ristine knew this to be true and decided this Nativity scene would be a proper representation of the times we’re living through today.
“We see this as, in some ways, the Holy Family standing in for the nameless families,” said the Rev. Karen Clark Ristine, the lead pastor at Claremont United Methodist Church. “We’ve heard of their plight; we’ve seen how these asylum seekers have been greeted and treated. We wanted the Holy Family to stand in for those nameless people because they also were refugees.”
Needless to say many were outraged and took to social media to not only justify Donald Trump’s family separation practice at the border, but even went as far as to say that Jesus and his family weren’t actually immigrants even though they fled their homeland to escape the slaughter of children who posed a future threat to the throne of King Herod. Never mind the fact that the indigenous people of this land would migrate up and down the continent before the Europeans came, killed off of the Natives, brought in slaves to build their nation, and ultimately drew up imaginary lines to claim America as their own. But that’s neither here nor there.
While many perceived this to be a political statement against the Trump administration, Ristine says that’s just isn’t the case.
“We don’t see it as political; we see it as theological. I’m getting responses from people I don’t know…. I am having people tell me that it moved them to tears,” she said. “So if the Holy Family and the imagery of the Holy Family and the imagery of a Nativity is something you hold dear, and you see them separated, then that’s going to spark compassion in many people.”
Compassion or anger. What you feel after seeing this Nativity scene will say a lot about your person. Sure it may be easy for MAGA supporters to brush off brown children orphaned at the border because their parents “broke the law” by looking for refuge in the United States, but to see their Lord and savior as one of those children is an entirely different animal for them. It’s like they almost forget that he was brown and an illegal immigrant too.
Claremont Church Unveils Nativity Scene Depicting Mary, Joseph & Baby Jesus In Cages was originally published on hiphopwired.com
