Charlotte, North Carolina
—
In the week since a Nativity scene was installed outside of the Missiongathering Church here in Charlotte, Pastor Andrew Shipley said he’s often found himself doing a double take.
Not to reflect on the kneeling statues of Mary and Joseph as they gaze upon baby Jesus – instead, it’s the figures looming over the Holy Family that Shipley said gives him pause.
This year, statues of tall men clad in all black with masks drawn up to hide their faces are disrupting the serenity of the church’s Nativity scene.
The figures – dressed in flak jackets emblazoned with the acronym for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, are depicted approaching the Holy Family and the Wise Men with handcuffs, as if preparing to make an arrest.
The scene is an overt reference to the Trump administration’s recent immigration enforcement crackdown in the city, which saw hundreds of people arrested in recent weeks, according to the Department of Homeland Security, and sparked a groundswell of activism and support for the local immigrant community.
But moments after CNN arrived to take pictures of the Nativity Thursday afternoon, an unidentified man walked onto the church grounds and began forcefully knocking over the effigies of ICE agents.
“This is disgusting,” he said, as he slammed one of the statues to the ground. “Disgusting.”
He then walked to the church’s “Know your rights,” lawn sign, pulled it out of the ground, got into his truck and drove away.
When Shipley spoke to CNN earlier this week, he conceded the Nativity would likely make some uncomfortable. But that was the point.
“It’s supposed to be disturbing because what’s happening in our city is disturbing – what’s happening in cities all over the country is disturbing,” he said.
“To me, the story of the Nativity is the story of God coming into the world through humble folks; state violence was visited upon them, and they had to flee as refugees to Egypt.”
Viewed through that lens, he added, the allusion to the administration’s immigration enforcement efforts is not that far-fetched.
The pastor arrived at the church Thursday soon after the man drove away in his truck.
Missiongathering had partnered with a local art collective to create the Nativity scene and the artists were able to reassemble the display, he said. Shipley vowed to continue to speak up for those who have been impacted by the immigration raids.
“This is a faithful Biblical witness,” he said of the display. “This is just a parable for our times and if people can’t deal with that, maybe they need to sit with that.”
But the dismantling of the Missiongathering Church Nativity underscores why some faith leaders are grappling with whether they can – or even should – marry politics and piety this holiday season.
Where some faith leaders see this political moment as an opportunity to draw parallels between the birth of Christ and modern day, others find such Nativity displays to be sacrilegious affronts.
Indeed, the Archdiocese of Boston formally requested that St. Susanna’s Catholic Church in Dedham, Massachusetts, remove its Nativity scene, which replaced the figures of Jesus, Mary and Joseph with a sign that proclaims “ICE WAS HERE.”
Below the sign, in smaller text, an asterisk notes, “the Holy Family is safe inside the sanctuary of our church,” along with a phone number for an immigrant defense network hotline.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons praised the archdiocese for “taking a stand against such a dangerous and extremist narrative,” in a statement to Fox News. CNN has reached out to the agency for comment.
But Father Steve Josoma, pastor of the parish, has so far refused to remove the Nativity, arguing at a recent news conference that the commentary is in keeping with the Bible.
Over the years, the church has often used its Nativity to comment on social and political issues like gun violence and climate change, Josoma told CNN affiliate WCVB.
During the first Trump presidency a Nativity scene placed baby Jesus inside a cage, in a nod to the administration’s family separation policy.
At the news conference Tuesday, Josoma said any divisiveness that arises from this year’s Nativity display “is a reflection of our polarized society.”
“That some do not agree with our message does not render our display sacrilegious or as the cause of any scandal to the faithful,” he said.
Christmas carols herald the joy of Jesus’ birth, and traditional hymns proclaim, “peace on Earth.”
The popular imagination of the Christmas story often stops at the birth of Christ, said Andrew McGowan, president and dean of Yale’s Berkeley Divinity School.
But, he said, it’s in the Biblical verses that immediately follow that some faith leaders have found parallels to the plight of asylum seekers and immigrants.
The Gospel of Matthew, McGowan said, recounts how King Herod – upon learning that a child born in Bethlehem was destined to one day take his throne – issued an edict for all male children in the city to be executed.
And so, Mary and Joseph were forced to flee with their newborn son to Egypt, where “they become asylum seekers, in effect,” McGowan said. They remained in Egypt, according to the Bible, until Herod’s death.
Although overtly political Nativity scenes have drawn controversy for depicting the Holy Family as immigrants, McGowan said the comparison to Biblical canon is apt.
“The parallel being made here is not just that ICE shows up to anybody’s home … it’s specifically the idea of the Holy Family themselves being refugees,” he said.
McGowan, who himself is an Anglican priest and historian of early Christian communities, said modern interpretations of the Nativity story tend to overlook the violence driving the narrative “because we want it to be about comfort and joy.”
“I feel that being honest about what people are struggling with – as well as being honest about the aspect of struggle and suffering in the ancient story – makes (the Nativity) more powerful and helps us to know why we need to hear the story again,” he said.
In 2016, the official Vatican Nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square featured a traditional Maltese boat crossing the Mediterranean.
At the time, Pope Francis said the boat was included in the Nativity to “recall the sad and tragic situation of migrants on boats headed for Italy.”
“In the painful experience of these brothers and sisters, we see that of the child of Jesus,” he said in remarks.
But nearly a decade later, Nativity scenes with similar messages have drawn the eyes – and ire – of both the curious and the faithful.
In Illinois, less than 30 miles from the controversial ICE Broadview Detention Center, the Nativity outside the Lake Street Church of Evanston depicts the baby Jesus in zip-ties and wrapped in a foil blanket.
Mary and Joseph gaze at him from behind gas masks, a nod to the recent clashes between demonstrators – including clergy – and law enforcement outside the nearby immigration facility.
“I guess the War on Christmas is back,” Fox News host Sean Hannity lamented during a recent segment about Lake Street Church that decried the Nativity scene as “blasphemous.”
“It’s not only a ‘War on Christmas;’ it’s been open season on people of faith,” Hannity said.
But the Rev. Dr. Michael Woolf, pastor of Lake Street Church, told CNN nothing could be further from the truth. Woolf said he believes his faith calls Christians to care for “the most vulnerable in our midst,” and that’s why he’s joined demonstrations in support of the local immigrant community.
Last month, he was among those arrested and charged during demonstrations outside of the Broadview facility.
Despite the bracing Chicago cold, several dozen people gathered around the Lake Street Nativity Wednesday night as Woolf held a prayer vigil.
He encouraged those gathered to reflect on “the ICE terror” that has dominated Chicago for several months.
“We have to find some way not only to grieve that, but also build capacity and resilience and use our faith – and to use our saved symbols – to do that work,” Woolf said of the Nativity display.
But taking such a visible stand also comes at a cost: Woolf told CNN since the church was featured on Fox News, they’ve received multiple death threats. Undercover officers were also present at Wednesday’s vigil, he said.
Still, “we’re never going to back down from anything,” Woolf said.
Caught between government and gospel
But not everyone believes politics has a place at the pulpit.
Back in North Carolina, the Rev. Dr. Scott Suskovic, senior pastor of Christ Lutheran Church of Charlotte, has long refrained from preaching about politics – he even published a 2022 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal defending his view.
But this year, as immigration officers descended on his city, Suskovic told CNN he felt compelled to speak to his congregation about balancing the inherent tension between the laws of man and the Gospel.
“The law is the one that tells us how to act and behave and perform; and the Gospel comes with love and forgiveness,” Suskovic said. “You have to have both for them to really have any kind of meaning.”
In a blog post published on the church’s website, Suskovic rejected the idea that there are only two choices in the immigration debate: completely open borders or military-style patrols and racial profiling.
“When it comes to this issue of immigration … we want to love the stranger among us, we want to give those opportunities, and at the same time we want to support the laws of the land,” Suskovic explained.
And so, he asked his congregation to both encourage law enforcement in their efforts to target criminals and to have compassion for immigrants by uplifting and supporting their local communities.
“We have one foot in the state, but we also have one foot in the Kingdom of God,” Suskovic said. “God has a clear mandate to love and forgive, particularly for the widow and the orphan and the stranger among us.”
The push and pull between government and gospel, he noted, is also present in the Nativity story, as Mary and Joseph initially set out for Bethlehem to be counted in the Roman census. While attempting to obey that law, Suskovic said they were ultimately welcomed, despite being strangers, and given shelter in a manger.
Suskovic wrote that he doesn’t claim to hold the solution to immigration reform. But during the Advent and the Christmas season – which is meant to be a time of celebration and reflection – the pastor reminded his congregation of a fundamental Christian principle: love thy neighbor.
“This need not fracture our fellowship,” he wrote. “If we disagree, let us do so in love.”
CNN’s Bill Kirkos and Toni Odejimi contributed to this report.
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