'We're going to sing and sing and try to touch the hearts of the ICE agents,' said the Rev. Jacqueline Lewis, senior pastor at Middle Church in New York.
It's at least the second lawsuit challenging the federal government's policy of barring faith leaders from accessing some Department of Homeland Security facilities.
The Justice Department’s swift investigation into the church disruption stands in contrast to its decision not to open civil rights investigations into killings by ICE officers.
This issue of A Public Witness explores what the Foursquare Church, a Pentecostal denomination, could learn from how United Methodists, Southern Baptists, and Catholics have spoken out against immoral politicians who sit in their pews.
An American Baptist church is just one block from where nurse Alex Pretti was executed Saturday by federal agents in the street. The church held a joint worship service the next morning elsewhere, but opened up its own building to serve those coming or leaving
Many faith leaders were dismayed when the government announced last January that federal immigration agencies can make arrests in churches, schools, and hospitals, ending the protection of people in sensitive spaces.
Hundreds of clergy from around the country gathered in Minneapolis to learn from Minnesota faith leaders how to protest against ICE enforcement. Then they took to the streets and helped block the city’s airport.
In 1845, a group of pro-slavery Baptists created the Southern Baptist Convention to defend enslavers serving as missionaries. One hundred and eighty years later, SBC leaders defend a pastor serving as an ICE leader. Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor reflects on this through line.
The faith leaders, who hail from across the country and represent a range of religious traditions, deployed to neighborhoods with significant immigrant populations, where DHS agents have been most active.
Viral video of the protest shows activists standing up during the middle of a service at Cities Church and calling for the ousting of David Easterwood, a pastor at the Southern Baptist church who is also acting director of the St. Paul ICE field office.