A coalition of churches in Memphis, Tenn., has joined the chorus of voices demanding justice for lawfully resettled Afghan refugees targeted for detention and deportation by federal immigration authorities. “The challenge we’re finding is that many of the of the…
Maladjustment and resistance
Jan. 15 marked the 97th birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. The American Baptist Home Mission Society celebrates his legacy as the foremost prophet of the 20th century, who also was an activist for biblical and social justice, liberator, truth…
Protest at St. Paul church ignites cries of religious persecution
In a year of political divisiveness, a Sunday protest at a Southern Baptist Church in St. Paul, Minn., has drawn a new line in the sand. Protesters led by former CNN anchor Don Lemon entered Cities Church during Sunday morning…
‘This is a five-alarm fire’
Civil rights advocates are protesting the arrests of lawfully resettled refugees as part of the Trump administration’s widening mass detention and deportation campaign. Federal immigration agents have arrested dozens of refugees who were cleared by extensive security screenings before being…
A dispatch from the USA to Christians in Italy (and beyond)
The editor of Riforma, an Italian-language newspaper published by and for Baptists, Methodists and Waldensians in Italy, invited me to contribute a front-page article for this week’s edition sharing my perspective on recent events in the United States. This is what…
We do not know all the names
I need to say this plainly: We do not know all the names. That is part of what has been sitting so heavily with, or maybe even on, me. Over the last 12 months, approximately 32 people have died in…
More Americans turning angry eyes on ICE
Despite what President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance are saying, most Americans do not believe an ICE agent’s killing of a Minneapolis mom was justified. In fact, that incident has pushed even more people into the camp of…
Kentucky church foregoes FEMA aid because of demands made
A Baptist church in Frankfort, Ky., turned down a much-needed federal grant for facilities repairs because the award mandated cooperation with immigration enforcement efforts and elimination of diversity, equity and inclusion policies. First Baptist Church on St. Clair was awarded…
Update on proposed human warehouse in Texas
Ever since the Washington Post broke the story on Christmas Eve that the Trump administration is converting warehouse spaces across the country into literal human warehouses, the towns named in the story have been playing catch up. Last Friday, the…
Lessons from Minneapolis and beyond
On Jan. 7, federal law enforcement officers in Minneapolis were “doing an enforcement operation.” At 9:35:05 a.m. local time, witnesses observed Renee Nicole Good’s Honda Pilot stopped diagonally on Portland Avenue. Roughly a minute later, a woman who would later…
243,000 more children died last year due to Trump’s tactics
Almost a quarter of a million more children are projected to have died in 2025 than in 2024 following a decline in global aid from the U.S. and other nations, reversing steady declines in child deaths dating back to 1990….
Trump preparing to warehouse immigrants like cargo
On Christmas Eve, the Washington Post broke the news that the Trump administration plans to convert seven large warehouses across the country into holding pens to collectively hold 80,000 humans. One of the selected sites is Hutchins, Texas, 30 miles…