Church joins immigration protest
Indiana parish puts Holy Family statues in cage.
Nativity statues of the baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph, which usually mark Christmas, were incarcerated Tuesday on the lawn of Christ Church Cathedral behind a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire.
The Rev. Stephen Carlsen, dean and rector of the church on Monument Circle, said the caged Holy Family is a protest to President Donald Trump’s zero tolerance policy that is holding families in detention centers at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“I know what the Bible said,” Carlsen said. “We’re supposed to love our neighbors as ourselves.”
The Rev. Lee Curtis, who came up with the idea for the demonstration, said the biblical trio was a family of refugees seeking asylum in Egypt after Jesus’ birth.
Said Curtis: “This family is every family, and every family is holy.”
The church set up the caged Nativity scene Monday night as part of its# Every Family Is Holy campaign.
This is not the first time the church has weighed in on social issues.
The clergy of the self-described “progressive” Episcopal church, Carlsen and Curtis, attended Saturday’s Families Belong Together rally in downtown Indianapolis to protest family detention.
In March, Curtis brought a group of youth to the March for Our Lives rally in Washington.
Carlsen said the church has become progressive in recent years, especially since deciding to marry same-sex couples when Indiana legalized such marriage in 2014.
He said immigrant advocacy stems from the church’s diverse congregation.
“This is an easy one for us,” said Carlsen, a member of the local organization Faith in Indiana that advocates for immigrants. “It doesn’t feel like we’re out campaigning. This is about people I know and love, and I’m going to stand with them.”
Mark Reckart, who is a member of Christ Church Cathedral, said he is proud of his church for putting up the demonstration. “It’s a perfect way to show what’s happening. It’s families in cages. This is a family that resonates with a lot of people.”
People walking by said the display was a powerful way to bring awareness to the situation at the border.
“I think it’s bold,” Matthew Roberts said. “It just makes me think about those families that are separated and pray for them.”