Sign up for The Agenda, Them’s news and politics newsletter, delivered Thursdays.
A Dallas Methodist church that has been known for making political statements has continued that tradition into the holiday season with a pro-immigrant message built into its Christmas Nativity scene.
Rather than the usual tableau — featuring Joseph, Mary, and Jesus surrounded by barn animals, straw, and eventually, the Three Kings — Dallas’s Oak Lawn United Methodist Church erected an outdoor Nativity scene that features an image of Mary and Joseph caged inside an immigration detention center, according to United Methodist News. The church is located in Dallas’s Oak Lawn neighborhood, which is known as an LGBTQ+ district.
While Mary and Joseph are stuck inside the metal cage, which is adorned with razor wire at the top, they await the baby Jesus, who is not added to Nativity scenes until Christmas Day. The cage itself includes signs in Spanish and English that say “Holy are trans lives,” Holy is the refugee,” and “Holy are our unsheltered neighbors.” The display, according to church leadership, is meant to make parallels between the Biblical story we all know and our present day world.
“At Christmas, we remember that God chooses to be with those the world pushes to the margins. May this scene call us to make room — in our hearts, in our city, in our policies — for the Christ who comes as an unhoused immigrant child,” the Church wrote in a Facebook post. The entire scene is at the top of the church’s front stairs, which were painted the colors of the LGBTQ+ Pride flag in another political statement from earlier this year.