CHICAGO – Vandals decapitated and smashed the statue of Mary in an Evanston church’s outdoor Nativity scene Friday, and the church responded, according to an associate minister, by replacing it with a sign saying Mary was beaten and dragged away in front of her son and is being held in immigration detention.
Lake Street Church of Evanston began sparking discussion in late November when it created the immigration-themed Nativity scene, with masked Roman centurions dressed as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, Mary and Joseph wearing gas masks to protect against ICE tear gas and baby Jesus with zip-tied hands. The centurions were also destroyed in Friday’s vandalism, but the church rebuilt them.
Church leaders have said the Nativity is meant to draw a parallel between the Holy Family, who were immigrants or refugees to Egypt when they fled Bethlehem to escape King Herod’s bloodshed, in Biblical texts, and ICE’s “Operation Midway Blitz” this fall, in which agents pulled hundreds of immigrants and some citizens off Chicago-area streets, sometimes violently, detained them in harsh conditions and deported many…