U.S. Churches Discover Holy Family Were Refugees, Sort Of
U.S. churches, as Axios dutifully notes, are now reimagining Nativity scenes with ICE agents and zip-tied baby Jesuses to protest immigration crackdowns. It's a touching display, nearly 2,000 years after the Holy Family themselves fled Bethlehem as refugees from state violence. One might conclude they've finally connected the dots. However, this sudden surge of Christian activism might feel a tad
belated to the millions deported by administrations past and present, many with vocal church support in the pews if not from the pulpits. The same Bible these churches read also outlines clear directives for welcoming the stranger, yet we’ve endured generations of politicians, often loudly Christian, advocating for walls and cages—a historical amnesia that mainstream reports, naturally, gloss
over. The media frames this as a new 'protest trend,' rather than an overdue, selective awakening by institutions that too often align with power rather than the persecuted. It's almost as if empathy becomes newsworthy only when it's visually jarring. How many displaced families had to suffer before a zip-tied Jesus became the necessary prop for moral outrage?