A Claremont, California church has done it again. Known for its striking Nativity scenes, this year, Claremont United Methodist Church seated the Holy Family in front of a mural of masked protesters holding signs that read “I can’t breathe!” and “Black Lives Matter,” along with Bible verses.
“We couldn’t think of any other issue that we wanted to keep under the light of the Bethlehem star than the need to address racism,” Rev. Karen Clark Ristine, the church’s senior minister told The Los Angeles Times reporter Faith E. Pinho.
"Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a young Jewish woman, who lived in a remote part of the Roman Empire. As a Jew, Mary was marginalized with few personal rights and significant obliga3ons to the Roman ruling class. As a woman, Mary was powerless in the face of those who ruled, both the Roman authori3es and the Temple leaders who conspired with them," the church's theological statement reads.
"The brutal killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers in the summer of 2020, along with so many other unjusfied killings of unarmed Black Americans, galvanized a wide coalition of Americans to seek equal justice under the law and equal treatment in our society for people of color. We affirm and join the call for justice and equity by the Black Lives Matter movement to ensure that Black lives matter as much as any other life. Our faith in Christ challenges us to stand with Mary in her call for justice for the poor, the marginalized, and the oppressed," the statement adds.
The church has a history of connecting political events of the day with its Christmas Nativity scenes.
One year, the church placed Mary in a sleeping bag at a bus stop, sitting beside a shopping cart and holding a baby to address homelessness.
Last year, the church placed the Holy Family in cages to symbolize the families separated at the US-Mexico border.
And another year, the church placed a hooded and bloody “Trayvon Martin,” the 17-year-old fatally shot by George Zimmerman in 2012, kneeling beside the virgin mother.
“We don’t want the need for continuing conversation of racism and white supremacy to get lost in news cycles,” Ristine said. “This is a centuries-old issue that we need to keep wrestling with.”