Activist Church Stuns: Nativity as Protest

Group of people holding various protest signs outdoors

(LibertySociety.com) – An Illinois church has turned the Nativity into an anti‑ICE protest piece, using a zip‑tied baby Jesus to preach politics instead of the Gospel.

Story Snapshot

A progressive Evanston, Illinois church installed a Nativity scene showing baby Jesus zip‑tied, wrapped in a foil‑style blanket, and guarded by figures labeled as ICE agents.
The display is part of a years‑long pattern of politicized Nativities at the church, which previously used the manger to comment on Gaza and other left‑wing causes.
Supporters call the scene “prophetic” immigration‑justice art, while critics see it as blasphemous and a distortion of Scripture to attack lawful border enforcement.
The controversy highlights a growing trend of activist churches using sacred symbols to undermine respect for U.S. law, immigration enforcement, and traditional Christian teaching.

How the Nativity Became a Political Stunt

Lake Street Church of Evanston, a historically progressive congregation north of Chicago, unveiled an outdoor Nativity where the infant Jesus is laid out like a detainee, bound with plastic restraints and covered in a metallic‑looking blanket while flanked by masked figures in green vests clearly marked as ICE. The church’s stated goal is to draw a direct line between the Holy Family and migrants in federal custody today, turning what is normally a scene of worship into an explicit policy protest display.

Reports note that Mary and Joseph were originally shown wearing masks, including a respirator‑style mask on Mary, amplifying the image of a militarized, dehumanizing environment surrounding the Christ child. After public backlash and national media coverage, observers say the church quietly altered some elements, cutting the zip ties from the baby figure and removing Mary’s mask, yet leaving the ICE‑branded “centurions” and the core message attacking immigration enforcement firmly in place.

A Pattern of Activist Nativities and Left‑Wing Theology

This stunt did not emerge in a vacuum. Lake Street Church has spent years branding itself as a social‑justice congregation, covering its building with advocacy banners and using worship imagery to advance progressive causes ranging from Black Lives Matter to foreign‑policy critiques. In 2023, the church staged a Nativity placing baby Jesus in rubble to evoke suffering civilians in Gaza, deliberately recasting the Christmas story as a running commentary on global conflicts rather than a proclamation of the Savior’s birth.

The new zip‑tied Jesus scene fits that pattern by deliberately equating a federal law‑enforcement agency with Roman oppressors and casting modern immigration policy as moral persecution. Church leaders explicitly tied the display to a Chicago‑area immigration raid earlier in 2025 that reportedly involved zip‑tied children, insisting that “enforcement terror” can fall on anyone regardless of legal status. That framing treats ICE not as an agency charged with upholding duly enacted law, but as an almost spiritual enemy to be condemned from the church lawn.

Immigration Politics at the Manger

Supporters of the display, including progressive clergy and activist commentators, praise it as powerful art that forces comfortable Americans to face the hardships of migrants and detained children. They argue that the Holy Family’s later flight to Egypt makes Jesus the ultimate “refugee,” claiming that casting him as a modern detainee is a faithful way to highlight God’s identification with the oppressed. For them, using the Nativity to attack immigration enforcement is not partisan but “prophetic” and necessary to advance their preferred vision of social justice.

Critics, however, see something very different: a core Christian symbol emptied of its biblical meaning and rebuilt as a billboard for left‑wing immigration activism. Many conservative believers point out that at the time of Jesus’ birth, Mary and Joseph were travelling in obedience to a census order, not fleeing border agents; calling them refugees at that moment rewrites Scripture for the sake of modern talking points. To those observers, portraying ICE as moral heirs of Herod or Caesar is not only unfair to agents enforcing the law, it weaponizes the Gospel against legitimate national sovereignty.

What This Means for Faith, Law, and Culture

The controversy around Lake Street Church’s Nativity exposes a broader divide inside American Christianity over whether churches should function primarily as houses of worship or as permanent protest stages for progressive politics. Activist Nativities like this normalize the idea that every sacred story must be refitted to serve the cause of the moment, whether on immigration, race, or foreign policy. For traditional believers, that trend erodes reverence for Scripture and turns shared holy days into yet another front in the culture war rather than a unifying call to repentance and hope.

Illinois church faces criticism for Nativity scene showing baby Jesus zip-tied by ICE agents https://t.co/TDGMVnCP7R

— News Span Media (@newsspanmedia) December 5, 2025

The display also feeds a narrative that lawful immigration enforcement is inherently cruel, even when agents are carrying out statutes passed by elected representatives and now being strengthened after years of chaos at the border. Under the current Trump administration, restoring border security and reining in illegal immigration are central promises, and scenes that cast ICE as villains and Jesus as a stand‑in for any detained person work against respect for those efforts. For many conservatives, using the manger to shame Americans into accepting open‑borders rhetoric crosses a line, cheapening both faith and public debate.