Baby Jesus Heads to the Supreme Court (Sort Of)
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court justices are used to seeing some of the nation's most famous attorneys appear before them. But on Wednesday, if they looked out to the plaza in front of the high court, they'd see that Mary, Joseph and the Baby Jesus had come calling.
It was the annual Live Nativity presented by the activist Christian group Faith & Action. Its offices are located on the street behind the Supreme Court.
Every year just outside those offices, a camel or two, donkeys and sometimes sheep gather with a number of folks dressed up like shepherds, the Wise Men, Mary, Joseph and the Christ child. Then they march in procession passed U.S. Senate office buildings till they reach the Supreme Court plaza, where they recreate the manger scene.
They've done this for 12 years. But below freezing temperatures and a strong chill wind made this year's Live Nativity event one of the colder ones. Still, Faith & Action's Peggy Nienaber told CBN News this was the largest, most well-attended Nativity they've ever presented.
Right outside the nation's highest court, the participants prayed, sang and read aloud the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke.
"In 2005, when we started Operation Nativity in Washington, D.C., we had a large outdoor plastic manger scene," Nienaber explained. "Within a couple of years we went to a Live Nativity and found that the presentation of a Live Manger Scene, along with a procession of the Holy Family and animals through Capitol Hill, brought the birth of Christ to the forefront and impacted our elected officials in ways that we never could have imagined.
