Does a "Christian Nation" Call God "Garbage"?
Is God garbage to us? asks Michele Naar-Obed, as she meditates on the empty mangers, Christ in the face of our immigrant neighbor, and shares her community's response to the harassment of immigrants
Today and tomorrow, Roundtable will be sharing writings of Catholic Workers on the ways in which the state has been persecuting migrants. Michele Naar-Obed wrote about her community’s preparations to support immigrants in Minnesota before the federal government deployed 2,000 ICE agents to Minneapolis on Monday. Michele wrote the following piece before an ICE agent shot Renee Nicole Good, 37, point-blank as she apparently attempted to drive away in her car. Michele’s challenge to readers is even more poignant in the light of current news. She writes:
Will we be wise enough and have the courage to ignore the King’s order to report back and snitch on the Holy Family? […] Will we be like the angel who warns the Holy Ones that orders have been given to wipe them out? Will we be the ones to help them to find safety and help keep them safe until our country can return to its senses?
peace,
Renée
No More Empty Mangers
By Michele Naar-Obed, Hildegard House Catholic Worker, Duluth MN
“On earth, there is no room for God if there is no room for the human person. To refuse one is tantamount to rejecting God himself”. Pope Leo, Christmas Eve, 2025.
Is this what we are doing? Have we rejected God by allowing our government to hunt down, torture and deport Black and brown-skinned people, referring to them as animals? Our current administration has specifically targeted immigrants from certain nations calling them “garbage” and saying they come from “s—hole countries, all the while claiming the United States to be a “Christian nation.” Are we a Christian nation that rejects God, calling God garbage?
Who are we as we re-enact the incarnation of God in human form? Are we like King Herod sending out the “wise men” to track down this stranger born in a manger and threatening the Empire? Will we be wise enough and have the courage to ignore the King’s order to report back and snitch on the Holy Family? Will we be like the soldiers, the National Guard slaughtering all babies under the age of 2? Will we be like the angel who warns the Holy Ones that orders have been given to wipe them out? Will we be the ones to help them to find safety and help keep them safe until our country can return to its senses?
What role will we play in this ongoing human tragedy? History does in fact repeat itself and those who don’t know their history are condemned to repeat it. What version of history will we remember? The Hallmark Card version, the Holly Jolly Christmas version, or the version that God came into a world of violence in the form of a poor, brown-skinned refugee to help us out of our violence if we would only let him live and take heed of his words and actions.
In 2024, following the election of Donald Trump and while watching him form his administration, many of us came to the conclusion that an authoritarian government was in the works. Its first victims would be the migrants. He made that clear when he ran his campaign on making America great again by wiping out “the other.”
Trump has repeatedly claimed that migrants (the other) are “poisoning the blood of our country,” a phrase critics and historical experts have noted echoes language used in fascist writings.
In December, I received a copy of The Deportation Defense Manual. The authors spoke of knowing our rights, forming rapid response teams, forming mutual aid groups, working with an immigration legal aid network, preparing ourselves for the worst possible outcome; a fascist, authoritarian government that would wipe out democracy, and rewrite a constitution that would defend the white supremist empire backed by its own privatized and militarized militia.
For many people, this was hard to fathom. Most people hoped that democratic principles would hold strong against this madness, that there were more people of goodwill than there were “haters”, that our Constitution would hold up against lawlessness, that our system of checks and balances would even things out.
As more and more people began to see the unraveling of democracy, particularly how it applies to the migrants in this country, preparing for the worst became inevitable.
In Duluth, our Interfaith Committee For Migrant Justice (ICMJ) kicked into gear by offering “Know Your Rights” training. We formed networks with other organizations and grassroots groups throughout the State of Minnesota. We held potlucks and picnics with the migrant community trying to tighten up a safety net by getting to know each other more deeply. We found food has a way of bringing people together. We publicly celebrated World Refugee Day and honored the refugees and asylum seekers that were living amongst us in Duluth. Many of them were offered hospitality at Hildegard House and in Christ rooms (Peter Maurin’s vision) scattered throughout the city. We opened a Welcome Center where refugees and asylum seekers and all migrants regardless of their immigration status felt safe enough to come to play board games, practice their English skills or just hang out.
And then the ICE raids began. Starting in Los Angeles, moving into Portland, then making their way into the Midwest through “Operation Midway Blitz.” It was like a tidal wave of hate, fear, and chaos riding over the country. We felt like the best we could do was to keep as many as possible from being swept out to sea. We watched how ordinary people, people of goodwill came together to shield their migrant neighbors to be in solidarity with them, to give them warning when ICE bombarded their neighborhoods, to document the heinous abuses of ICE and other federal agents, and to sometimes take a beating, or attacks with chemical weapons and arrest for their acts of solidarity and humanity.
On Friday, October 24, 2025, Kristy Noem descended upon Minneapolis, MN for a press conference at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building to discuss Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations and immigration enforcement efforts in the area. We knew we were next.
We had already begun the process of forming a rapid response team in Duluth. We were trained and supported by the Immigrant Defense Network based in Minneapolis. We got word that 300+ ICE and federal agents were coming to Minnesota. We didn’t know if, when, or how many of them would come to Duluth.
It was at that point that we decided to make our Twin Ports Rapid Response Team known to the public. We held a press conference and publicly announced our hotline number and made our team visible. We were joined by about 100 allies and community members and received excellent press coverage from many media outlets.
We handed out packets containing the hotline number cards, know your rights cards and our website information so that people would be able to contact us to find out about future training, community building events, and other news and updates.
We also provided everyone with a whistle and taught them how to use it. Three short blows means ICE is in the area. Three long blows means ICE is arresting. The whistle alerts those who need, to find safety and those who can, to come out to witness and to expose Constitutional and civil rights violations and criminal activity of ICE.
Who are we? We are people of faith, we are people of goodwill, and unless we are the Indigenous people of Turtle Island, we are all immigrants from somewhere. We are Democratic Socialists, we are anarchists and even a few elected officials. We are the old and the young. We are trans, gay, bi, straight and of nonbinding gender identities. We are the ones who will warn the Holy Ones of impending danger, who will offer safety and refuge, who will confront the power of the empire. We will make sure that our history is truthfully recorded in hopes that we will not have to repeat this again. We will not reject God in our midst.
Michele Naar-Obed is a member of Hildegard House Catholic Worker in Duluth, Minnesota.