There Are Actual Persecuted Refugees That the Woke Nativity Scenes Won't Show

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. (Matt 6:5)”

Another day, another activist “pastor” or “priest” or “minister” taking it upon himself, herself, or zheself to very un-Christianly pass judgment on half the country on issues they seem to have spent very little time critically assessing. And I suppose it wouldn’t be an American Christmas without these thinly-veiled Marxists using the story of the Nativity to further push a radical left-wing agenda.

• In Illinois, a Reverend Michael Woolf at the Lake Street Baptist Church displayed a Nativity scene with Baby Jesus’s hands zip tied, with Mary and Joseph wearing gas masks. In a Facebook post, the church said, "This installation reimagines the nativity as a scene of forced family separation, drawing direct parallels between the Holy Family's refugee experience and contemporary immigration detention practices. The Holy Family were refugees."

• Over in Dedham, Massachusetts, Father Stephen Josoma of St. Susanna Catholic Church organized a Nativity display with an empty manger. A sign “ICE was here” is displayed in place of the infant Jesus. When asked why he did it, Josoma replied, "It's supposed to affect people deeply, it's supposed to move people, it's supposed to change people. So, if this evokes a strong reaction, it's maybe good to take a look at that." He said that the display looks at “what would it be like if Christ was born into the context of the world today, what would he be facing?"

• Another Massachusetts priest, the Episcopalian Reverend Dave Woessner, leads weekly vigils outside. This Christmas season, he’ll be holding an upcoming Nativity-themed vigil that presents the Holy Family as, of course, a “refugee” family.

• In Charlotte, North Carolina, the Missiongathering Church depicted a Nativity scene showing the Holy Family being surrounded and handcuffed by ICE agents. The Rev. Andrew Shipley told a local paper: “The goal is to translate the Christmas story into a modern context. If the Holy Family had been in Charlotte two weeks ago, they would have been putting the baby Jesus in handcuffs because he wouldn’t have his papers."

 All this is so, ahem, “alien” to me. See, the story of the Nativity that I’m aware of is the version presented in the Bible, not the Huffington Post. And, as such, I thought that the Holy Family came to Bethlehem not as “refugees.” I had no idea that the Holy Family suffered “forced separation.” I didn’t know they needed “papers.”

Rather, I was under the impression that bureaucrats in a faraway, hubristic capital city had decreed that everybody must register in person for the tax rolls, no matter how difficult the journey, no matter how poor the taxpayer, and no matter how pregnant the young woman.

Not to politicize religion, my dear church leaders, but if you had to take a wild guess, which political party do you see supporting such a scheme “if Christ was born into the context of the world today”? Which political party would stand accused of ignoring the persecution of Jews and Christians?

See, I really don’t have a problem with these “Christian” leaders making sophomorically vapid and intellectually dishonest arguments. Had any of them had been as willing to walk onto a debate stage as they are to virtue signal from the pulpit, their silly charades would have imploded very quickly. But they won’t debate on a stage. Ever. Because they’re cowards. So they hide behind bumper sticker theology and see the world through the most simplistic, unnuanced, and infantile manner possible.

It’s ok. Let them. Lions don’t lose sleep over the opinions of sheep.

But what’s upsetting is that, ignored in their sanctimonious finger wagging about “refugees” and “persecution,” there is actual persecution of Christians taking place across the globe that they never, ever mention.

I’ll keep it simple for these mental midgets. I won’t go over the systemic massacres of Christians by Islamic invaders since the 7^th Century across Asia, North Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. I won’t discuss the execution of innocent Christians and the dismantling of churches across Jacobin France by the original leftists. I won’t bring up the Armenian genocide which, to this day, the Turkish government denies occurred.

I’ll keep it to the 21^st Century. Real refugees. Real persecution.

Is there a Nativity scene for the 200,000 Assyrian Christian refugees who were driven out of Northern Iraq by Barack Obama’s JV team in 2014, marking the complete destruction of the 1800-year-old Christian community in Mosul? Is there a Facebook post from any of these churches about the Assyrian Christians who were raped and murdered?

No? Well, surely you had a Nativity scene for the Darfur genocide, which peaked in 2005 but still continues to this day? Any sermons about the persecution of black Christians by the government-backed Islamic Janjaweed militia, which resulted in the murder of nearly half a million people?

Oh, but that was all under Obama’s watch and your goal is to make Trump look bad? Ok then, how about Nigeria? Since 2023, the Boko Haram terrorist group has murdered anywhere between 50,000 to 100,000 Christians and displaced millions more. Where is their Nativity scene?

Nothing? Hmm…maybe I’m picking on the “religion of peace” too much. Ok, how about China? Any Nativity scene for the Chinese Christians forced to practice their faith in secret? Any display cages for those families that actually do suffer “forced separation” at the hands of Beijing? (On a side note, the Christian community in China is growing by leaps and bounds, currently at approximately 67 million, despite the government persecution. Meanwhile, your pews sit empty. Maybe that’s something to think about).

Wait, you can’t criticize China because you take your talking points from them? Ok, how about India? Do you have a Nativity scene for the systemic rape and murder of Indian Christians by militant Hindu groups like Manmohan Singh and Bajrang Dal? Maybe a lawn recreation of the destroyed churches and terrorized villages?

Maybe I’m picking on brown people too much. Ok, let me pick on upper class, urbanite white people, right here in America. Like the ones who murder children in Christian schools. Or who murder Christian speakers on college campuses. Or who attack Christian pregnancy centers. Or who burn down churches. Can we get a Nativity scene with a burnt down manger with an Antifa flag planted in the ashes?

If the “persecution” of “refugees” were really a concern of the hypocrites, they would direct some of their activism, any of their activism, to illustrate the plight of those who actually know what those words mean.

People looking for a better life or higher paying jobs aren’t “refugees.” People fleeing genocide are. The deportation of drug dealers and wife beaters who snuck into this country illegally is not “persecution.” The massacre of innocent civilians with machetes is. The hypocrites know this. But they ignore the real refugees and the actual persecution because it carries social risks. The woke concern themselves not with the judgment of God, but with that of their fellow activists.

And as you “priests” and “reverends” and “pastors” are moral cowards, your sacrligious Nativity displays in deep blue suburbia make sense, because it is about as safe, as riskless, and as protected an act of “rebellion” as possible. It’s actually not rebellion at all. It’s snotty ingratitude in its basest form. The ICE agents you demonize are actively risking their lives to protect you, and to protect the freedom of speech you use to so arrogantly denigrate them.  

For the rest of us, this is a useless distraction. This Christmas, keep your eye on the ball. Focus on the message. Focus on being better servants of God. And direct your prayers and efforts towards alleviating the suffering of our Christian brethren who, unacknowledged in these woke Nativity scenes, are struggling to endure murder, rape, torture, and even crucifixion.

Remember our brothers and sisters in Christ, even if some of our “Christian” leaders won’t.

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