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.
