Photo: Nativity Scene Shows Holy Family Separated, Caged at U.S. Border

The Claremont United Methodist Church has erected a Nativity scene portraying the Holy Family separated and held in cages at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Rev. Karen Clark Ristine, senior minister at the church, posted a photo of the Nativity scene on Facebook, saying the depiction had stirred her “to tears.”

“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,” Rev. Ristine wrote.

“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,” she said, calling this the “theological” interpretation of the scene.

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“What if this family sought refuge in our country today?” she asked.

“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,” she said.

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The Rev. Ristine is not alone in comparing contemporary American politics to the rulers of the time of Jesus. Several days ago, Pope Francis compared President Donald Trump to King Herod, the ruler who massacred male infants in an effort to kill the baby Jesus, as recounted in Saint Matthew’s gospel.

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