-By Warner Todd Huston
A faux nativity scene featuring a makikin of a bleeding Trayvon Martin.
A California church has sponsored a “nativity scene” that outrageously turns violent Florida teen Trayvon Martin into a Christ figure showing him bleeding above the slogan “a child is born, a son is given.”
The faux nativity scene features wooden cutouts of traditional nativity figures but instead of a baby jesus, the display has a life-sized African American manikin wearing a black hoodie. The manikin has a stream of blood oozing from its chest and onto the ground staining its hands red.
The outrageous scene is part of a display by Claremont United Methodist Church in Inland Valley, California, which is about 30 miles east of Los Angeles.
According to the “artist” that created the display, the death of Trayvon Martin made him think of Jesus.
Artist John Zachary told the media that since the nativity was a story centered around King Herod’s campaign to kill all the infants in Bethlehem in an attempt to kill the newborn Messiah, he naturally thought of the death of Trayvon Martin.
Zachary said that when he was looking for photos of Trayvon Martin, one of the teenager lying dead on the pavement really sparked his interest. “What if Jesus was lying there bleeding to death? I was kind of thinking of that,” Zachary said.
Instead of tidings of comfort and joy, Christmas in Bethlehem would have witnessed “other parents in agony because their children had just been killed,” a plaque near the display explains.
Of course, the main title under the display shows Zachary’s ignorance of the Bible. The line “a child is born, a son is given,” is more apropos of Easter, not Christmas.
When his mixing of holidays was mentioned, Zachary blew it off saying, “Easter and Christmas should be tied together. It’s all the same story.”
Hardly.
The artists sits near his creation.
The pastor of the church, Sharon Rhodes-Wickett–not surprising this is a progressive woman pastor–supported the obscene display saying, “I think the value of this is that it stretches us to think, what does the birth of Christ call us to do?”
Unfortunately, this has become a tradition of sorts at this left-wing church. Zachary has been creating his “updated” nativity displays since 2007. One year he even turned the nativity into an platform to push gay marriage.
Of the rather blasphemous displays, pastor Rhodes-Wickett said, “Some people think it’s too edgy. I understand that point of view. I don’t know what the future will bring, but at this point it’s an annual thing.”
Of course, it is absurd and outrageous for this artist to intimate that Trayvon Martin, a thug who was beating a man when he was shot, is somehow just like Jesus who died for our sins.
What do you think of this “tradition” at this liberal church?
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, MrConservative.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, Wizbang.com, among many, many others. Huston has also appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, and many local TV shows as well as numerous talk radio shows throughout the country.
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