A church in Indiana is making headlines after placing a statue of the baby Jesus with Joseph and Mary inside a chain-link cage to protest President Trump’s zero-tolerance immigration policy.
The policy in question was first implemented back in April and refers anyone detained at the U.S.-Mexico border for prosecution. It was expanded in May to include the president’s abusive child separation policy, which forcibly removes children from their families and places them in separate juvenile or “tender age” immigration prisons while their parents await a court hearing. The administration claimed it was simply following the law, despite the fact there is no law in place that requires families to be separated at the border.
The policy also applies to asylum seekers fleeing violence, war, or death threats in their home countries, who have typically been exempt from prosecution.
Criticism of the president’s “zero-tolerance” policy reached a tipping point after several photos of immigrant children and families being held in chain-link cages at a border detention facility were published online; although the photos were taken in 2014 during the Obama administration, the Trump administration later released video footage supposedly featuring current detention center conditions, which revealed officials were still using those same cages to lock up families, but in higher numbers.
On Tuesday, Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis — pro-cathedral for the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis — decided to take a stand on the issue, placing a statue of the baby Jesus with parents Mary and Joseph on its front lawn, surrounded by a chain-link cage, to protest the president’s immigration policy. The display was intended as part of the church’s “Every Family is Holy” campaign, according to local ABC affiliate WRTV.
“They were a homeless family with nowhere to stay,” church dean Steven Carlsen said. “I think our faith tells us where we need to be. The fact that it’s controversial isn’t because I want to be controversial. What’s controversial is that we’re turning away from the values that should be guiding us.”
He added, “The point of a religious icon is to move our hearts. If at first, people are upset by it, that might just be God trying to move their hearts. I hope their hearts soften.”
Holy Family #Detention: Indy's @CCCathedralIndy puts Joseph, Mary & Jesus inside a fence on its lawn. When asked how long the display will remain, Dean @Steve_Carlsen said "My greatest hope would be that we, our nation, will search its heart & say this is not who we want to be." pic.twitter.com/AgcOZv4xSz
— Michael R. Hartz (@MikeThePhotog) July 3, 2018
The Rev. Lee Curtis, who came up with the idea for the display, recounted the Bible’s story of Jesus, Mary and Joseph while speaking with The Indianapolis Star.
“An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, ‘Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him. When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt,” he said, quoting Matthew 2:13-14. “This family is every family, and every family is holy.”
Carlsen echoed those comments, speaking with the Star. “We’ve heard scripture quoted to support these [immigration] policies. I know what the Bible says. I know what our faith traditions say. I know how we’re supposed to treat our neighbors. We’re supposed to love our neighbors as ourselves. Our scripture is very clear how we’re to receive those families who come to us, seeking safety for their children seeking safety for themselves — it’s the same thing my family wanted three generations ago, when they came here from Norway.”
The Rev. Stephen Carlsen on the Holy Family in ICE Detention @indystar @CCCathedralIndy pic.twitter.com/luKr171DFF
— Vic Ryckaert (@VicRyc) July 3, 2018
#CadaFamiliaEsSagrada #EveryFamilyIsHoly pic.twitter.com/0yiHAZywV0
— Stephen E Carlsen (@Steve_Carlsen) July 3, 2018
Asked by WRTV reporters Tuesday how long the church intends to keep the display on its front lawn, Carlsen responded with a question of his own. “How long are we going to keep detaining families indefinitely?” he said.
Christ Church Cathedral, with its self-described progressive clergy, has a long history of activism and charity work. The Star noted that both Carlsen and Curtis attended the Families Belong Together rally over the weekend to protest the administration’s family separation policy, and the two also attended separate March for Our Lives rallies this spring, to protest inaction on gun control, following the Parkland shooting.
“It doesn’t feel like we’re out campaigning,” Carlsen told the Star of the clergy’s most recent display. “This is about people I know and love, and I’m going to stand with them.”
The Trump administration has made moves to discontinue the practice of separating families at the border in recent weeks, with President Trump signing an executive order supposedly ending the practice he began in April — replacing it with indefinite family detention — and a judge ordering the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to reunite children with their parents within 30 days, or 14 days for children younger than 5.
However, there is currently no real plan in place to accommodate that demand. With the reunification deadline looming, anonymous officials from the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) told Politico Monday they’d been given “no instructions on how to proceed” had didn’t have “a lot of direction from leadership” on the matter.
Officials have also not said whether they will halt the practice of holding families in chain-link cages as they await their court hearings.