Separated by cages. That is how one Methodist church in Claremont has chosen to portray the Nativity scene this year. They have the holy family separated to show what it's apparently like for families at the border.
Only Jesus didn't break the law and enter into other countries illegally. So how does this make any sense at all? It doesn't. There isn't any correlation between the two.
It's a nativity scene with a contemporary message- set up outside the Claremont United Methodist Church. It shows Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus separated by border fences. Leah Uko is live at the church where people are weighing in on the controversial images.
The display shows each Holy Family member confined inside chain-link fencing with razor wire on top.
The image was posted to Karen Clark Ristine’s Facebook page on Saturday with a lengthy caption.
The image of the scene went viral, but not exactly for good reason. Many people were appalled by the untraditional scene of Jesus being separated from Joseph and Mary.
In the viral post, Ristine wrote that she was "stirred to tears" by the nativity.
Stirred to tears by the Claremont UMC nativity. Inside the church, the Holy Family is reunited. The theological...
Posted by Karen Clark Ristine on Saturday, December 7, 2019
"Stirred to tears by the Claremont UMC nativity. Inside the church, the Holy Family is reunited." She said, "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?" Ristine continued, "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, " she added. "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," the senior concluded.
I guarantee you that if Jesus came in modern times, he would have done things the right way, which is legally.
