Church puts Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus inside metal cage to protest Trump immigration policies

'People have been citing the Bible in ways I don’t understand'

A church in Indiana has placed a statue of Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus inside a metal fence, in order to its highlight opposition to Donald Trump’s immigration policy, which has led to the splitting up of families.

Steve Carlsen, Dean of Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis, said he and members of his team, came up with the idea to underscore that the Biblical story of Christ’s birth, was of a family in transit and struggling to find shelter.

“People have been citing the Bible in ways I don’t understand,” Mr Carlsen told The Independent. “The story is of a family being taken in. Sometimes we forget that the original original creche was not a great place to be.”

After Mr Carlsen and his colleagues placed the caged statues on a patch of grass outside the church where they usually place a nativity statue, a member of his team, Canon Lee Curtis, blessed them with holy water.

Mr Carlsen, who said his family had moved to the US from Norway four generations ago, said the church had a history of advocating on behalf of the vulnerable and threatened. The message on the church’s telephone switchboard, says: “Thank you for calling Christ Church Cathedral - all are welcome here.”

He said it was possible not everybody in his congregation would support the move. But he felt obliged to act in a way he felt that God had taught.

He said he and his colleagues had been given additional inspiration to act after learning that the Trump administration was seeking the blanket detention of all asylum seekers arriving in the US, including those who had passed a so-called “credible fear” test.

On Monday, a federal judge blocked the systematic detention of migrants. In a tersely worded ruling, Judge James Boasberg of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, found the government’s own directive calling for asylum applicants to be freed when appropriate while their cases are pending had been honoured “more in the breach than the observance”.

The ruling came after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other rights groups launched a joint class-action lawsuit in March, challenging the administration's policy of detaining asylum seekers.

The protest at Christ Church Cathedral comes two weeks after Mr Trump signed an executive order that ended his administration’s practice of separating families at the US-Mexico border.

Yet, several thousand young people have already seen separated from their families and the government appears to have little idea on how to reunite them.

Among those who have quoted the bible to defend the government’s immigration policy is Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

“I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained the government for his purposes,” Mr Sessions said, during a speech to law enforcement officers in Fort Wayne, Indiana, last month.

“Orderly and lawful processes are good in themselves. Consistent and fair application of the law is in itself a good and moral thing, and that protects the weak and protects the lawful.”

Press Secretary Sarah Sanders defended Mr Sessions when questioned by reporters. She said: “It is very biblical to enforce the law, that is actually repeated a number of times throughout the Bible.”