Pastors at a protest? That's the scene at anti-Trump rallies across the US.

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: USA Today

Oct. 26, 2025, 5:05 p.m. ET


Federal officers recently shot Rev. Jorge Bautista with a pepper ball at close range, sending him reeling, with orange powder caking his face and clothing. A month earlier, Presbyterian pastor David Black was hit in the head with a pepper ball while praying outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Chicago. The video, which circled the globe after it was reported on by Religion News Service, caused an outcry.

Since early summer, pastors, ministers, imams, rabbis and priests have stood between police and protesters in Los Angeles. They've been arrested by ICE agents in Chicago and Portland, and taken into custody at the U.S. Capitol and in congressional offices. On Oct. 18, leaders of all faiths spoke, prayed and marched at the peaceful "No Kings" rallies, held in thousands of communities across the U.S.

Conservative evangelical Christians have long been a dominant force in U.S. politics and overwhelmingly back the Trump administration and its current actions. But increasingly, moderate and progressive Christians and other faith communities are pushing back, saying it's time to remind the country of religion’s role in caring for the poor and the stranger, especially as segments of the Republican Party increasingly embrace Christian Nationalism ‒ the belief that the secular government should favor Christianity or even be replaced by it.

And the Trump administration's intense focus on deporting immigrants, taking away health coverage for millions of Americans and walking back human and civil rights makes this a moment for religious leaders to return to their historic role at the front of protest movements, leaders across a variety of faiths told USA TODAY.

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/10/26/faith-leaders-trump-ice-tactics-immoral/86817168007/

[BlueKota]

1. I am glad there are ministers of many

denominations taking a stand. They need to make it clear that christian nationalism and Christianity are not the same thing.

[travelingthrulife]

8. They are so late to the game though. They knew how their religion was being distorted

and said nothing.
At least they are being louder now.

[BlueKota]

10. I agree they should have spoke out earlier.

[LSparkle]

2. My father was a minister and went to protests in the '60s

Met MLK Jr. when he spoke to a Chicago area ministerial group and when we moved to southern CA he participated in the Chicano moratorium march (that was when he began wearing a clerical collar to denote he was clergy). I remember listening nervously to radio news with my mother and sister after shots were reported at that protest but I was never more proud of him for putting faith into action. When I saw the pastor who was shot with the pepper balls, I couldn’t help thinking of Dad.

[hlthe2b]

3. Only underscores that for the RW and MAGAts, religion is merely something to exploit for their own aims...

No sincere "believers" among them.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. It's about time. Gold and Ego are not the most Christian of values.

If the populace followed Christian teachings we wouldn't be in this mess.

[hoosierspud]

5. I'm a member of the United Methodist Church.

I attended Spokane’s Pride Parade and the first No Kings rally with my pastor and another female pastor. I ran into my pastor and one of our former pastors at the second No Kings rally.

[Deep State Witch]

6. We Had a Priest and a Nun

At our local protest a couple weeks ago. I gave the nun one of our kazoos.

[Civic Record]

7. Standing in the Gap

When I see pastors, rabbis, and imams standing between police lines and protest crowds, I don’t just see clergy — I see protectors of the people. I see faith doing what it was meant to do: defending life, conscience, and human dignity.

Jesus didn’t back down from the powers of His day. He healed the sick when the law said not to. He defended the outcast, stood with the poor, and faced the empire without fear. He stood with the people no one else would stand with — and that’s exactly what these modern faith leaders are doing now.

They’re out there for the mother afraid of losing her son to deportation. For the worker who can’t afford care. For the protester who still believes this country can be kind again. They stand there because love demands it — because silence is complicity.

This isn’t about clergy making a statement; it’s about conscience defending the vulnerable. Every tear they wipe, every body they shield, every prayer they whisper in the chaos — that’s the gospel alive and breathing in America.

When Jesus stood up to the powers of His time, He wasn’t protecting His own safety. He was protecting ours — the right of every human being to be seen, loved, and free.

✝️

Lord of mercy and justice,
we lift up every soul caught in this storm — the ones who were harmed, the ones who stood in harm’s way, and even the ones who caused it. Heal the bodies of the wounded and calm the hearts still trembling in fear. Strengthen the clergy and all who stand for peace, that they may keep their courage without losing their compassion.

And for those who struck out in anger or followed orders without conscience — open their eyes, Lord. Let remorse become redemption, and violence turn to mercy. Teach us all that Your kingdom is not built by force, but by love that refuses to die.

Amen.

[ificandream]

9. We had a group of nuns at ours.

They were there for the previous one as well.

[BlueKota]

11. I read a group of nuns

wrote a protest letter to Cardinal Dolan about his support of tsf and and his silence on the brutality against immigrants.

I hope Pope Leo appoints a replacement soon.

[ancianita]

12. It's never too late to witness to Jesus, who himself was a refugee whose parents fled with him to Egypt

to avoid being killing by Herod.

True Christians, and pastors, ministers, imams, rabbis and priests know that right wing christians and racists are fighting to turn away foreign refugees and asylum seekers, all while worshipping Jesus, who was once a foreign refugee. They also know that
a) Joseph and Mary most certainly did not "respect the governing authorities," and
b) Jesus of the Bible spent his formative years as an undocumented kid.

Jesus, as a fervent Jew, later summed up of two thousand years of law and scripture in his Two Great Commandments:
1. Love God.
2. Love your neighbor as yourself.

Right wing christians ask "Who is my neighbor?" Jesus answers: EVERYONE.
America's Christian clergy know this.

[CTyankee]

13. I marched with CALC; Clergy and Laity Concerned (about Vietnam, originally) back in the anti Vietnam War days.

It's all coming around again, it seems...