The Claremont United Methodist Church in California is raising a lot of eyebrows with its Nativity scene — a rebuke to Donald Trump and conservative Christian cruelty in general — which features Joseph, Mary, and Baby Jesus… all separated in their own cages.

Because that’s how Republicans are treating refugees.

Senior Minister Karen Clark Ristine explained in a Facebook post:

What if this family sought refuge in our country today?

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. Inside the church, you will see this same family reunited…

For what it’s worth, this isn’t just symbolic. The church has worked with refugees at the border and donated $10,000 toward legal counsel to help those refugees.

This isn’t the first church to make a statement like this. Just last year, an Indiana church put the entire holy family in a cage in protest of the GOP’s zero-tolerance policy when it came to families seeking asylum. They later replaced the family with a mirror for added symbolism.

If conservative Christians get riled up over it, too damn bad. They don’t care when actual refugees are kept in cages, but a fictional family they supposedly admire? That’s apparently a bridge too far.

