A California church has left passers-by stunned with a nativity scene that includes Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, a manger, and … Black Lives Matter protesters.
Claremont United Methodist Church features your more-or-less typical Christmas nativity (less in the case of the Vatican, whose nativity this year includes an astronaut and Darth Vader). But they’ve added a mural behind the scene which features protesters carrying signs, some of which read “I can’t breathe,” “Say their names,” and “Black Lives Matter.”
Mary is also joining the protesters with arms raised.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
“We couldn’t think of any other issue that we wanted to keep under the light of the Bethlehem star than the need to address racism,” Rev. Karen Clark Ristine told the Los Angeles Times.
How about … oh, I don’t know – the birth of Jesus?
Seems like an important issue. Perhaps even the only issue that needs a light shone upon it on December 25.
This isn’t the first time that the uber-liberal Claremont United Methodist Church in California has garnered attention for their nativity scenes designed more to seek attention for themselves than Jesus Christ. One year, they placed Mary in a sleeping bag at a bus stop, sitting beside a shopping cart and holding a baby to address homelessness. Last year, they put the Holy Family in individual cages to symbolize children being separated at the border. Odd how they didn’t do that between 2009 and January of 2017.
This year, the theme is “white supremacy.”
“We don’t want the need for continuing conversation of racism and white supremacy to get lost in news cycles,” Ristine said. “This is a centuries-old issue that we need to keep wrestling with.”
Not Exactly an Accurate Depiction
Genaro Cordova, the church’s facilities engineer, explained that racism is a more important issue than even the pandemic, thus the need for a Christmas Black Lives Matter nativity.
“We thought that racism was really worse, the worst epidemic that maybe we had around the world,” Cordova told the Times. “COVID is going to pass, but the struggle [of] our brothers and sisters, Black Americans, is going to continue for a long time.”
Racism one, pandemic two. We’re still trying to figure out where Jesus’s birth ranks with this church.
Not to mention, the depiction of the protesters isn’t accurate. Where in this mural is the image of a Black Lives Matter protester looting for Christmas gifts? Or an Antifa thug trying to torch the stable? If you’re going to go social justice warrior, go full social justice warrior.
Cross posted at the Mental Recession
