Fighting authoritarianism doesn’t require being violently forced to the ground and handcuffed by police outside an immigration detention center, said Michael Woolf, a Chicago-area Baptist pastor, author and activist who experienced that very thing.
“There’s something for everybody to do, and I think it’s really important as we struggle with fascism that we do our best to live out our faith in the world and find some way to bring our values into the public square and as Christians to try to redeem this country and to try to put it on the right path,” Woolf said during the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty luncheon at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly in Jacksonville, Fla.
Of his own experience during an anti-immigration enforcement protest in Broadview, Ill., Woolf said: “I wouldn’t actually recommend getting slammed on the ground and getting arrested. It’s not that fun. But sometimes you have to, and other times you’re going to feel called to something else, whether that’s advocacy or that’s education or that’s preaching about it.”
A national news photo of him being assaulted by law enforcement went viral last year.
Woolf serves as senior minister of Lake Street Church, an Alliance of Baptists and American Baptist Churches USA congregation in Evanston, Ill., is co-author of Confronting Islamophobia in the Church: Liturgical Tools for Justice” and is a sanctuary church leader.
“I remember my first thought was, ‘Man, my wife is going to be pissed.’ I’m just absolutely just like, ‘Oh man, I’m going to be in such trouble.’ And I was. I was in really, really big trouble when I got home.”
A mannequin representing the Mother Mary wears a mask and Baby Jesus is wrapped in and ICE detention warmer in the Nativity scene outside Lake Street Church of Evanston, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025, in Evanston, Ill. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
The heat was turned up on his congregation a few weeks later for displaying an immigration-themed Nativity scene with a zip-tied Baby Jesus laying in a reflective blanket like those given immigrant detainees. The display was featured on The Daily Show.
“For the first time, we actually had to have armed security for people to worship at church,” he said. “It was a really tough decision because, for me, I don’t want anyone armed in church. And at the same time, that’s not really my call to make — people deserve to be safe when they come to worship.”
But for Woolf, who was among several activists interviewed about faith-based advocacy during the BJC event, all the extra attention and death threats had to be taken in context for a mainly white congregation.
“It might be our first experience with having to think about our safety in this way and make these tradeoffs, but for minority religious communities in America, this is an everyday thing and we have a lot we can learn from that,” he said.
Libby Grammer
Having to stand up to Christian nationalism in another form was an uncomfortable experience for Libby Grammer, senior minister of Lakeside Church and the parent of a public school student in Rocky Mount, N.C.
Grammer shared how she had to intervene upon learning students at her daughter’s school were being directed by teachers to recite distinctly Christian prayers at school events. “I have witnessed my child’s school repeatedly cross the line that should be separating state and church and thus infringing upon the religious liberty of our elementary age students and their families.”
Grammer sent a letter to school and district leaders observing that teacher-directed sectarian prayer in school settings violates the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause and is detrimental to schools and religion.
“I worried I wouldn’t be heard at all, but to me it was worth it because the children deserve the freedom to not be compelled by the state on matters of faith,” she said. “Thankfully at the school, both the principal and the assistant principal expressed gratitude to have learned a little something about protecting religious freedom in schools, and the response from the district was hopeful as well.”
This is another example of what activism can look like, she explained. “I hope none of us take for granted just how fragile this freedom really is. To keep us all free to exercise our faith, we must continually step up and take risks to protect it and our communities, even in small ways, from our littlest public-school students to our elected leaders and to everyone in between.”
Brian Kaylor
It’s also essential that people of faith do not allow their advocacy to fail before it even begins, said Baptist minister Brian Kaylor, editor of Word&Way, author of The Bible According to Christian Nationalists: Exploiting Scripture for Political Power, and a consistent progressive religious voice in Missouri political and religious debates.
“I speak, write and testify in the state legislature all while doing so in a red city, in a red county, in a red state,” he said. “While more difficult than in other communities and states, it is precisely in such context that politicians and others need to hear the historic Baptist perspective on religious liberty for all people, and that includes the healthy separation of church and state.”
“DHS frequently kidnaps Bible verses out of context to justify kidnapping people.”
And if Baptists and other people of faith do not speak up, who will? Kaylor asked.
“In a time like this, our voices are particularly needed. Not only are our immigrant neighbors being racistly targeted and subjected to family separations, inhumane treatments, concentration camps and violence in the streets, the (Department of Homeland Security) leaders have the audacity to claim they are doing so in the name of God. Through propaganda videos and social media posts, DHS frequently kidnaps Bible verses out of context to justify kidnapping people.”
Patsy Meier, a longtime member of Royal Lane Baptist Church in Dallas, also told how she became involved in religious liberty advocacy and how her church has embraced the work as well. Royal Lane is especially involved in a BJC project to fight Christian nationalism in North Texas.
Varying examples of courageous activism are needed as the nation prepares to observe its 250th anniversary, BJC Executive Director Amanda Tyler said during the luncheon, which also celebrated her organization’s 90th year.
“The 250th celebrations already have and will continue to perpetuate the myth of the United States as a Christian nation, a glorified and fictional account that sanctifies the founders and sacralizes the founding documents,” she said. “We have to tell the truth about who we are. This takes vulnerability, bravery and openness on everyone’s part. It takes a culture that is willing to complicate a narrative that has been propped up by divine sanctions to justify all kinds of evil in God’s name.”
Related:
A conversation with Michael Woolf about ICE and Chicago | Opinion by Mara Richards Bim