Instead of nestling the infant in a cozy bed of straw, Lake Street Church of Evanston’s Christmas Nativity scene depicted newborn Jesus swaddled in a foil blanket with his hands zip-tied together. Looming behind the manger were three armor-clad centurions. Their only discernible feature was the word “ICE,” referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, scrawled across their chests.
The anti-ICE Nativity scene on the corner of Lake Street and Chicago Avenue garnered global attention last month for comparing the story of Christ’s birth to contemporary federal immigration enforcement.
“By witnessing this familiar story through the reality faced by migrants today, we hope to restore its radical edge, and to ask what it means to celebrate the birth of a refugee child while turning away those who follow in his footsteps,” read a statement pinned above the manger by church officials.
The congregation has installed public art displays on its lawn for years, according to Assistant Minister Jillian Westerfield. Its goal, she explained, is to spark conversation and internal reflection.
“As the world has become increasingly challenging, I think the art has become increasingly challenging,” Westerfield said. “So it started out as very like, ‘Look for the divine spark in yourself,’ and has evolved to asking harder questions.”
Two years ago, the church’s Nativity scene placed Jesus in a pile of rubble. Taking inspiration from a church in the West Bank, it sought to convey the plight of children in Gaza, she added.
This holiday season, the congregation wanted to comment on increased federal immigration enforcement in Evanston, and the Nativity scene — plus the Christmas story of persecution and refuge it conveyed — was a perfect conduit, Westerfield said.
Volunteers and church leadership began gathering supplies around Halloween, she said.
“It was a lot easier to find Centurion helmets back then,” Westerfield said.
The zip-tied Jesus depicted children who were allegedly restrained similarly during a federal immigration raid in a Chicago apartment complex last September. Mary and Joseph, donning gas masks, referenced tear gas deployed by law enforcement on anti-ICE protesters throughout the Chicago area last fall.
“The Nativity scene that they were preparing, it struck me as like a lightning rod of truth that needed to come into this moment,” said Reverend Jason Coulter of the neighboring First Congregational Church of Evanston.
Some viewers, however, took issue with the church’s portrayal of the holy family. A week after the Nativity scene was installed, the statue of Joseph was damaged by vandals. Shortly afterward, Mary was struck also, and the rest of the Nativity scene was flattened. Eight days later, Jesus was stolen from the manger.
“It was a desecration,” said 1st Ward resident Leigh Bailey. “Nothing like that has happened around here before.”
LSC also received phone calls from Christians outside of Evanston, angered by the Nativity scene’s message, according to Westerfield.
The conflict thrust LSC into the global spotlight. Westerfield recalled news coverage from National Public Radio, Fox News and several Spanish-speaking publications from South America and Spain.
The repeated vandalism, Westerfield said, gave the church a unique opportunity to bring further attention to federal immigration enforcement in Evanston and beyond.
“It was almost a gift that the vandals were giving us — to be able to keep evolving our story and telling even more about the situation,” Westerfield said.
To LSC, the damaged Joseph that church volunteers removed from the scene represented all who had died or disappeared on their immigration journeys, and Mary’s mistreatment became a symbol of inhumane treatment at ICE detention facilities.
After the third act of vandalism, the church wrote in a statement on Instagram that vandals couldn’t prevent the church’s “critique of (the Trump) administration’s cruelty using (its) most sacred symbols.”
FCC offered prayers in solidarity, and members of the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation synagogue volunteered to keep watch during Sunday service should church members feel unsafe.
On Christmas Eve, churchgoers and neighbors alike were met with a delightful surprise, Westerfield said. Jesus, Mary and Joseph were reunited, and the ICE agents became shepherds. A trash can appeared, holding their old armor with the label “Love your neighbor, Love your God, Love your soul, Quit your job.”
“Anyone at any time can make a better choice. It’s never too late to choose love and to choose kindness and to choose all these things that we lift up during the Christmas season,” said Westerfield.
The church does not plan to file any police reports over the acts of vandalism, she said.
Since becoming a sanctuary church in 2014, LSC has provided resources and shelter to Evanston’s undocumented immigrants, Westerfield added.
“We don’t need justice for the dolls,” she said. “The justice that we would imagine would be for the people who are actually experiencing these terrors.”
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Related Stories:
— ‘We cannot be silent’: Evanston businesses stand up to ICE amid escalated enforcement
— Lake Street Church of Evanston declares sanctuary for immigrants fearing deportation
— Evanston leaders, lawyers recommend best practices for encounters with immigration enforcement
