A Catholic church in Massachusetts stirred controversy after placing a baby Jesus figurine in a cage to bring attention to the U.S.’ immigration policies, HuffPost reports.
St. Susanna Parish said the nativity scene was meant to shed how Christians view on the controversial migrant situation south of the border and other parts of the world. “We wanted to put a mirror image of the world into the stable,” Steve Josoma, a parish priest, told HuffPost.
In the nativity scene, baby Jesus is seen in a cage while his parents Mary and Joseph look on, and the three wise men are blocked by a fence that has a sign that reads “deportation” on it.
The church says that it is not meant as an attack on President Donald Trump, but that his administration’s policies are not aligned with the gospel, per the report.
“Soldiers firing tear gas at the border doesn’t seem to be the way to go to bring out healing and reconciliation,” said Josoma.
The Trump’s administration’s tough immigration stance has seen families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border, with some kids placedin detention centers and cages.
Conservative Fox News personality Sean Hannity addressed the nativity scene on his show on Dec. 5, writing on Twitter that “CHRISTMAS IS UNDER SIEGE. A Massachusetts church puts baby Jesus in a cage to make apolitical statement.”
Josoma said that he received a lot of message calling him blasphemous after the segment aired
“People think children in diapers getting tear-gassed is OK, but this [Nativity scene] is totally sacrilegious?” the priest said. “All we’re trying to do is put the two together.”
