<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail-row" style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(60,55,54);font-family:"Open Sans";font-size:16px;letter-spacing:0.125px"><div class="gmail-col-sm-12 gmail-content-section" style="box-sizing:border-box;min-height:1px;padding-right:15px;padding-left:15px;float:left;width:850px"><div class="gmail-row" style="box-sizing:border-box"><div class="gmail-col-sm-12 gmail-story-section" style="box-sizing:border-box;min-height:1px;padding-right:15px;padding-left:15px;float:left;width:850px"><div class="gmail-story-full-content" id="gmail-story-full-content" style="box-sizing:border-box"><div class="gmail-row" style="box-sizing:border-box"><div class="gmail-story-intro-wrapper gmail-width-xl" style="box-sizing:border-box;line-height:24px"><div class="gmail-col-sm-12" style="box-sizing:border-box;min-height:1px;padding-right:15px;padding-left:15px;float:left;width:850px"><div class="gmail-story-column" style="box-sizing:border-box;float:right;width:660px"><div class="gmail-story-intro gmail-story-content" style="box-sizing:border-box"><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 10px"><br></p><div><img src="cid:ii_k407lke30" alt="image.png" width="452" height="255"><br></div><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 10px">A Christmas nativity display <a href="https://www.foxla.com/video/633354" target="_blank" title="" style="box-sizing:border-box;text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(153,107,61)">outside a Methodist church in southern California</a> features a separated and caged Holy Family, in direct criticism of inhumane administration policies that have included attacks on refugees and the forcible separation of thousands of asylum-seekers and their families at the southern border.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 10px"><span style="box-sizing:border-box">Karen Clark Ristine, senior pastor at Claremont United Methodist Church, originally posted a photo on her Facebook page depicting Jesus, Mary, and Joseph separated from one another and jailed in cages. Lining the top is barbed wire fencing. Mary and Joseph, on either side of Jesus, are both turned to him with arms outstretched, clearly longing to hold their child once again.</span></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 10px"><span style="box-sizing:border-box">“In a time in our country when refugee families seek asylum at our borders and are unwillingly separated from one another, we consider the most well-known refugee family in the world. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, the Holy Family,” <a href="https://mashable.com/article/claremont-umc-nativity-scene-family-separation/" target="_blank" title="" style="box-sizing:border-box;background-color:transparent;text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(153,107,61)">the church said in a statement.</a> “Shortly after the birth of Jesus, Joseph and Mary were forced to flee with their young son from Nazareth to Egypt to escape King Herod, a tyrant. They feared persecution and death. What if this family sought refuge in our country today?”</span></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 10px"><span style="box-sizing:border-box">Claremont United Methodist Church, which has a history of pro-immigrant advocacy, then invokes the thousands of kids who have been torn from their families by the Trump administration<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/11/5/1897387/-Nearly-5-500-migrant-kids-were-stolen-from-their-families-by-Trump-admin-since-2017-ACLU-says" target="_blank" title="" style="box-sizing:border-box;background-color:transparent;text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(153,107,61)"> since 2017.</a> “Imagine Joseph and Mary separated at the border and Jesus no older than two taken from his mother and placed behind the fences of a Border Patrol detention center as more than 5,500 children have been the past three years. In the Claremont United Methodist Church nativity scene this Christmas, the Holy Family takes the place of the thousands of nameless families separated at our borders,” the statement continued. </span>Churches across the nation have taken aim on the administration’s inhumane—<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/12/9/1904462/-Advocates-remember-seven-year-old-Jakelin-Maquin-on-one-year-anniversary-of-death-in-U-S-custody" target="_blank" title="" style="box-sizing:border-box;background-color:transparent;text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(153,107,61)">and deadly</a>—immigration policies for several years now.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 10px">Last year, St. Susanna Parish near Boston, Massachusetts, <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/12/5/1817227/-Massachusetts-church-s-nativity-scene-features-infant-Jesus-in-a-cage-wise-men-separated-by-fence" target="_blank" title="" style="box-sizing:border-box;background-color:transparent;text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(153,107,61)">also depicted Jesus in a cage</a> as the three wise men were separated from the Holy Family by fencing. <span style="box-sizing:border-box">A sign<span style="box-sizing:border-box"> </span></span><a href="https://www.wcvb.com/article/church-sends-political-message-in-nativity-scene/25403183" target="_blank" title="" style="box-sizing:border-box;background-color:transparent;text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(153,107,61)">reading,</a><span style="box-sizing:border-box"><span style="box-sizing:border-box"> </span>“Peace on Earth?” hung above the display. </span>“Is this what peace on earth looks like?” Father Steve Josoma asked at the time. “It’s hard to say we are a people of peace when we are sending soldiers with tear gas to stop people.”</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 10px">While not a Christmas display, Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis, Indiana, <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/7/3/1777692/-In-Mike-Pence-s-home-state-church-detains-Holy-Family-in-condemnation-of-family-separation" target="_blank" title="" style="box-sizing:border-box;background-color:transparent;text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(153,107,61)">held the Holy Family “in detention”</a> during the height of media attention around family separation last summer. <span style="box-sizing:border-box">“Holy scripture is clear about how we are to treat people trying to find safety for their families,” Dean and Rector Steve Carlson said. “We are to show mercy and welcome them. Jesus, Mary and Joseph were homeless and fled danger to seek asylum.”</span> </p><p class="gmail-is-empty-p" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 10px;padding-bottom:22px"></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="gmail-col-sm-12 gmail-story-section-end" style="box-sizing:border-box;min-height:1px;padding-right:15px;padding-left:15px;float:left;width:850px"><div class="gmail-social-blocks-bookend" style="box-sizing:border-box;border-top:1px solid rgb(210,210,210);border-bottom:1px solid rgb(210,210,210);padding-top:10px;padding-bottom:20px;height:80px;margin-bottom:15px"><div class="gmail-social-blocks-wrap" style="box-sizing:border-box;float:left"><div class="gmail-dk-social-btn-unit gmail-show-recs-hover" title="" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:inline-block"><div class="gmail-dk-social-btn gmail-story-recommend-btn gmail-story-recommends" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:inline-block;outline:none;text-align:right;padding:4px 10px 6px 6px;margin-right:7px;line-height:24px;min-height:39px;background-color:inherit"><span class="gmail-recommends" style="box-sizing:border-box"><span class="gmail-counts" style="box-sizing:border-box"><span class="gmail-icon gmail-dkons gmail-glyphicons-star" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:inline-block;font-family:fondkons;line-height:1;speak:none;padding:10px;border-radius:20px;margin-right:5px;color:rgb(226,118,56);background-color:rgb(242,242,242);border:1px solid rgb(235,235,235)"></span> <span class="gmail-story-rec-count" style="box-sizing:border-box;text-overflow:ellipsis;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;font-weight:bold">175</span></span></span></div></div> <button class="gmail-dk-social-btn-unit gmail-dk-social-btn gmail-facebook-share" style="color:rgb(59,89,152);font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:24px;font-family:"Open Sans";margin:0px 7px 0px 0px;overflow:visible;outline:none;text-align:right;padding-top:4px;padding-right:10px;padding-bottom:6px;min-height:39px;border-width:initial;border-style:none;border-color:initial"><span class="gmail-dkons gmail-icon-facebook-f" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:inline-block;font-family:fondkons;line-height:1;speak:none;padding:12px;border-radius:20px;margin-right:5px;background-color:rgb(59,89,152);color:rgb(255,255,255)"></span></button> <a class="gmail-dk-social-btn-unit gmail-dk-social-btn gmail-twitter-share" href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailykos.com%2Fstory%2F2019%2F12%2F9%2F1904520%2F-Methodist-church-s-nativity-scene-depicts-Jesus-Mary-and-Joseph-as-separated-and-caged-family&text=Methodist+church%27s+nativity+scene+depicts+Jesus%2C+Mary%2C+and+Joseph+as+separated+and+caged+family" style="box-sizing:border-box;background-color:inherit;color:rgb(58,155,243);text-decoration-line:none;outline:none;text-align:right;padding:4px 10px 6px 6px;margin-right:7px;line-height:24px;min-height:39px;display:inline-block"><span class="gmail-dkons gmail-icon-twitter" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:inline-block;font-family:fondkons;line-height:1;speak:none;padding:12px;border-radius:20px;margin-right:5px;background-color:rgb(58,155,243);color:rgb(255,255,255)"></span></a></div><a class="gmail-dk-social-btn-unit gmail-dk-social-btn gmail-comment-counts-btn gmail-scroll-to-comments" href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2019/12/9/1904520/-Methodist-church-s-nativity-scene-depicts-Jesus-Mary-and-Joseph-as-separated-and-caged-family#comments" title="Comment count (total/new)" style="box-sizing:border-box;background-color:inherit;color:rgb(6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“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. 
Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance 
from another. This immaturity is self- imposed when its cause lies not 
in lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it 
without guidance from another. Sapere Aude! ‘Have courage to use your 
own understand-ing!—that is the motto of enlightenment.<br>
<br>
--Immanuel Kant<br>
<br><br></div></span></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>