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(RNS) — At first glance, the Nativity scene outside Lake Street Church in Evanston, Illinois, has all the traditional hallmarks: Figures resembling Mary and Joseph stand near a baby Jesus, who rests in a manger.
But this year, the details are decidedly different. For starters, Mary and Joseph are wearing gas masks. Jesus, who typically is depicted lying in hay, is instead nestled in a reflective blanket often used by immigrants in detention, with his hands bound with zip ties. And behind the family stands three Roman centurions wearing vests with a very modern label: ICE, or U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Rev. Michael Woolf, senior minister at the church, said the Nativity was meant to reference the recent influx of ICE into Chicago and the surrounding area as part of President Donald Trump’s ongoing mass deportation effort. The pastor noted Department of Homeland Security agents have tear-gassed protesters in the area and that locals reported seeing children among those detained with zip ties by federal agents during a recent high-profile immigration raid in a nearby apartment building. DHS has denied the latter claim, although evidence of similar actions has been reported elsewhere.
“We know that Jesus was born into a Roman imperial occupation, and pretty much immediately becomes a refugee in Egypt, has to flee and faces political violence,” he said. “So we have to ask: what would it be like if Jesus were born here today?”
The Nativity is one of multiple immigration-themed religious displays that have popped up in different parts of the country in recent weeks, with at least one live-action depiction of Christ’s birth slated to take place outside an ICE facility later this month. Amid rising faith-based pushback to Trump’s mass-deportation campaign, religious leaders say they are hoping to make the Christmas story relevant to modern believers by recalling the dire circumstances faced by Jesus and his parents as recounted in the gospels.
Churchgoers at Saint Susanna Parish in Dedham, Massachusetts, recently erected a similar immigration-themed Nativity just outside their building. The display includes traditional depictions of the magi, stable animals and other figures, but the banner above reads “Peace on Earth?” And propped up in the center of the arrangement, where Mary, Joseph and Jesus would normally appear, sits a sign that reads: “ICE was here.”
A Nativity outside Saint Susanna Parish in Dedham, Massachusetts. (Photo courtesy of the Rev. Steve Josoma)
The sign, in smaller font, notes that “the Holy Family is safe inside The Sanctuary of Our Church.” But it goes on to encourage viewers to call a local immigration justice hotline if they see ICE officers.
The Rev. Steve Josoma, the priest at Saint Susanna, said he understands some people would rather have “a nice little place for baby Jesus and his family to celebrate Christmas” and “leave it at that.” But he argued religious art should engage the viewer.
“It’s not supposed to be something that you look at and admire,” he said. “It’s supposed to challenge you, to move you, to help you see things differently, to maybe force some questions that you know need to be answered.”
He added: “I think Pope Francis used to always say, if you want to hear God, you’ve got to go to the margins of life, in the stables and with the shepherds. You couldn’t get more to the margins of life.”
Woolf and Josoma said their churches have erected Nativity scenes with political themes in the past, touching on the treatment of Palestinians in Gaza or past immigration debates. But while those displays garnered media attention and even criticism, the clergymen suggested blowback to their latest efforts has been more intense — especially after Fox News host Sean Hannity dedicated an entire segment of his show to condemning Lake Street’s Nativity scene.
“A woke church set up a truly horrifying Nativity scene,” Hannity said on his show. “I guess the war on Christmas is back, isn’t it?”
Hannity’s guest, Allie Beth Stuckey, decried the display as “blasphemy.” Stuckey, a conservative author, has garnered a following in certain far-right circles this year, particularly for her argument that Christians can be misled into embracing “toxic empathy” for immigrants.
After Fox and other conservative media outlets picked up the display, Woolf said his church has received an avalanche of calls — many supportive, but others decidedly not.
“There’s been some suggestions that I should kill myself,” Woolf said.
Josoma reported a similar influx of messages.
“You get a lot of support, but as it goes on, most — not all, but most — of the negative ones aren’t really conversational,” he said. “They’re just swearing and yelling.”
Yet the displays follow months of public — and often confrontational — faith-based pushback to Trump’s mass-deportation effort. Pope Leo, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and clergy from a range of traditions have spoken out against the administration’s immigration agenda throughout 2025, with some denominations even filing lawsuits challenging the government’s policies. Faith leaders have been injured after being shot with non-lethal pepper balls and pepper rounds while demonstrating outside ICE facilities, and others have even been arrested — including Woolf, who became a fixture on social media last month when an image of him being detained by police outside an ICE building went viral.
The same faith-fueled movement is inspiring another immigration-themed Nativity scene on Christmas Eve, this time featuring real-life participants. The Rev. Dave Woessner, an Episcopal priest and congregational coordinator with the Massachusetts Council of Churches, said his team is organizing a Christmas worship service outside of an ICE facility in Burlington that will feature a real-life recreation of Jesus’ birth — including, potentially, a donkey.
“It is a full Christian worship service celebrating Christmas, telling the story of Jesus’ birth, and telling the story of the Holy Family as a refugee family,” Woessner said. “We celebrate knowing that our Savior comes into the world as a person who is oppressed, a person who is persecuted and fleeing government violence into a family that is under the thumb of tyranny and empire. Yet God comes into the world — the light of the world comes into the darkness.”
Woessner, who works with communities impacted by deportation efforts, said he and others have convened a weekly vigil outside the ICE facility for 33 weeks straight. The faith leaders have also attempted to accompany immigrants who are appearing for ICE check-ins, but have been repeatedly denied. At least one immigrant Woessner accompanied to the building’s door, he said, entered the building and was promptly deported.
The Massachusetts Council of Churches is also a plaintiff in one of the faith-led lawsuits against the Trump administration, challenging the government’s decision to rescind an internal policy that discouraged immigration raids at churches and other “sensitive locations.”
Asked if they coordinated efforts or even spoke with each other about their immigration-themed religious displays, the three pastors said no. But none expressed surprise that Nativity scenes criticizing ICE would become popular this season.
“We’re learning from Christ’s story so that we can see more clearly how that is playing out in our midst today,” Woessner said.
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