SojoMail - Clergy won't let ICE hide

View this email in your browser By Betsy Shirley Editor in Chief, Sojourners Last week I went to a press conference in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. It was an especially swampy summer day and I was one of two, maybe three, members of the media in attendance. The faith leaders who spoke about voting rights were passionate, even with a thin crowd that was mostly half-curious tourists and a very sweaty Sojourners editor slathered in sunscreen. The topic changes, but the dynamic is often the same: People: “Why aren’t faith leaders speaking out about [insert topic here]?” Faith leaders: “Um, well, we have been speaking out, actually.” As people committed to faith and justice, we know this is how it goes sometimes. This work isn’t always (ever?) glamorous. But still: We go to the trainings, we show up, we speak out. We do the thing, even if no one seems to listen. It often feels like nothing seems to change. Until one day, it does. As Bekah McNeel recently reported, faith leaders across the country have noticed a shift in the past few months: People are listening. Though clergy have long been speaking out against the violence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, there’s a new boldness driving faith-based organizing efforts. More clergy are showing up and they’re getting noticed, which makes their work more effective. “The stoles and the collars really do have power,” one organizer told McNeel. This new wave of energy is just in time: The Department of Homeland Security has been quietly investing in alarming new surveillance technology that seems to eerily echo Jesus’ promise to his disciples that “even the hairs of your head are all counted.” Meanwhile, Mary Fontana reminds us that the militarized tactics of DHS and ICE—while reprehensible on many levels—aren’t even effective. “We cannot solely enforce our way to a functioning immigration system,” she writes. Elsewhere this week: In Idaho, questions about religious liberty, dignity, and inclusion are playing out in church bathrooms. A Netflix retelling of Little House on the Prairie has multiple episodes directed by Indigenous filmmakers. And though I’ll admit the first paragraph of this review grossed me out, it’s well worth reconsidering the Bible’s most reviled disease. Finally, a very online editor considers the social media phenomenon of filming oneself “going analog.” ICE Is Moving More Quietly. Clergy Resistance Is Not (by Bekah McNeel) From Texas to Maine, people of faith are active on every front of resisting deportations and detainment. Read the full article Advertisement Community Notes Last week we shared Tyler Huckabee's article about reckoning with the youth groups that raised us, the cover story in the latest issue of Sojourners magazine. Many of you responded by writing in to tell us about your youth group experiences. Here are a few of your thoughts: “Loved this article! I grew up in a similar timeframe and have worked to sort out the good bad and ugly of my youth group experience. I still have a strong faith now as a 31 year old, but that came with a serious series of reckonings with purity culture, nationalism, shame, etc. etc. that youth group handed me. Thx for writing!” —Amy L. “I really enjoyed the article. My experience in an evangelical youth group from 1978-1982 (when I should have been gone at 19) was maybe not as rigorous but still filled with a lot of the mess that seems to come from that subculture. And there was good to be had, too. But I really related to the question your Walk in the Woods friend asked. Thanks.”—William H. “I’m the product of an evangelical/Calvinistic (not-quite)-mega church youth group. I am one for whom it mostly worked — until it didn’t. Thus began my long road to become an Episcopal priest. I’ve only ever worked as solo clergy and I have recently taken the job as an associate rector for youth and family ministries. Between that and stumbling across my old youth retreat devotional booklets, I’ve been thinking about what does healthy, life-affirming, spiritual formation for youth look like? My experience deviated from the stereotype in some meaningful ways: our youth pastor wasn’t interested in being entertaining or being our friends, he modeled and taught us to take faith seriously, there were committed leaders who invested in and built relationships with the youth. And yet, there was plenty of guilt, plenty of purity culture, and religious experience was ultimately equated with positive feelings. I have some thoughts and ideas, some half-baked, some not yet in the oven. One bedrock principle I’m beginning with is that it is not my job to make anyone good, much less perfect, and especially not on the basis of what anyone’s parents imagine is good in the year of our Lord 2026. My job is to be there, and to give people the permission to be there however they need to be.” —Lars S. We are real people who read everything you send to us (yep, really). Hit ‘reply’ to email us and keep the conversation going—we can’t wait to hear from you. And who knows? You may just see your name featured in a future edition of this newsletter. Our Latest Stories Netflix’s ‘Little House on the Prairie’ Is More Than an Adaptation (by Georgia Coley) The new series reimagines Laura Ingalls Wilder’s beloved pioneer story as a reckoning with faith, colonialism and the myths of American self-reliance. Read more Will Idaho’s Law Criminalizing Transgender Bathroom Use Affect Churches? (by Emma Maple) Progressive faith leaders are challenging a law forcing trans people to use bathrooms according to their sex assigned at birth. Read more Making Immigration Illegal Ignored the Real Issues (by Mary Fontana) Criminalizing migration also created new problems. Read more God Numbers Our Hairs. Now DHS Is Trying To Do the Same (by Julie Polter) Resisting the surveillance state at home and in the streets. Read more How Christians Learned the Wrong Story About Leprosy (by Cassidy Klein) Oliver Basciano’s Outcast takes a historical look at ‘the disease iconic of Christian charity,’ shifting the lens to the patients themselves. Read more Can We Reform Our Souls by Going Analog? (by Olivia Bardo) As a social media editor, most of my day is spent online. People across the internet are looking for stillness and peace. Here’s how I’m learning to reclaim my attention. Read more Advertisements Tell States: Don’t Roll Back Vaccination Requirements School vaccine requirements are one of the greatest public health successes in American history. They are why deadly childhood diseases stopped ripping through classrooms and why millions of children grew up healthy. Protect kids, follow evidence, and keep communities safe. Tell Corporations: Stop Collaborating with ICE Every deportation flight, corporate contract, and service agreement that keeps Immigration and Customs Enforcement running sends the same message: corporate America is choosing profit over human lives. Donate Subscribe Unsubscribe or update email preferences Copyright © 2026 Sojourners. All rights reserved. 611 Pennsylvania Ave SE #342, Washington, DC 20003 Email: sojourners@sojo.net | Tel.: 202.328.8842