Reply #12: alright, so I said I'd post something and here it is

[nuxvomica]

This is the germ of an idea. I know the whole religious angle is kind of jejune, but, whatever…

The town has a rip in time and space and the freepers have learned to navigate it. At first, they tried to change history (opening scene: stormtroopers at the Continental Congress) but discover that whenever they do so, a completely improbable event prevents it. This then is the odd solution to the “grandfather paradox” of time travel. But they can retrieve things from the past as long as history doesn’t miss them. To realize their vision of the world turned into a totalitarian militaristic corporate slave state, they decide to capture Jesus Christ and exploit His influence on the world's Christians to foment a religious war from which their fascist overlords would rise victorious.
But each time they try to capture Him He eludes them (by some improbable event as I said before). Someone gets the bright idea that there was a specific time during His existence on Earth when He would be most vulnerable – the Crucifixion. They replace Him when no one’s looking and fake an ascension with a theatrical dummy so that history doesn’t change.
In the barn is a large cross on which our Lord still hangs, suffering.
Why don't they remove him from the cross?

I think this would play as a metaphor of how fascist interests in this country exploit Christianity for un-Christian purposes.