Every Family is Holy

The Artdog Quote of the Week

A new display outside of @CCCathedralIndy is bringing awareness to the “zero tolerance” immigration policy. Jesus, Mary and Joseph are now in “ICE detention.” #EveryFamilyisHoly #CadaFamiliaEsSagrada pic.twitter.com/jgtmEvH6Sf

— Ryan Liggett (@RyanLiggettNews) July 3, 2018

The "quote" is a little harder to see in this week's Quote of the Week. It is "Every Family is Holy," the theme of a campaign created last summer by Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis, IN (Vice President Pence's home state).

Read the Statement from our Dean and Rector, Steve Carlsen. The Holy Family, held in detention, is now on the Cathedral’s lawn facing Monument Circle. #EveryFamilyIsHoly https://t.co/Sd5ZJ5saB1 pic.twitter.com/5bEAtMAJh1

— CCC Indy (@CCCathedralIndy) July 3, 2018

The Trump Administration may no longer be separating families and caging children, but it doesn't hurt to remember that the Christmas story in the Bible tells us Mary and Joseph (who may or may not have been poor, although pastors all through my life have made a point of emphasizing that they were) had to go pay taxes and register, then couldn't find any safe place to stay but a barn. That can't have been their most positive family story to share.

The Flight into Egypt by Giotto di Bondone (1304–06, Scrovegni Chapel, Padua) By © José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro /, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52228577

After that, on reliable intelligence, they fled in terror to Egypt from persecution. Again, those with a political agenda will point out that they weren't technically refugees, in part because no such definition existed at the time. However, if you apply today's definition they certainly were.

My point in bringing all of this up for today's Christmas Eve post is deeply grounded in my own Christian faith (so be warned). No matter how hard you proof-text, it's really hard to dance around the fact that today's so-called Christian Right often espouses harsh, judgmental, and all-too-frequently-racist positions, in stark opposition to the message of inclusion that Jesus taught. You have every right to disagree with me, but you're not going to change my mind on this. And I--thanks to the First Amendment--have every right to say something about it.

IMAGES: Many thanks to Ryan Liggett's Twitter post for the first embedded Twitter image in this post, and to Christ Church Cathedral of Indianapolis's Twitter post, for the second. Giotto's Flight into Egypt is courtesy of Wikipedia and José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro. Many thanks to all!