When Faith Meets the State: Bearing Witness at Broadview
BPFNA board member Michael Woolf was pushed by officers of the Illinois State Police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement during a peaceful protest. (Courtesy of Richard Cahan/Evanston RoundTable)
In early October, I went to a protest outside of the ICE processing center in Broadview, Ill. I went because I believe that Christians must resist what is happening there. A mere 35-minute drive from my church, conditions are horrific, with reports of one meal a day, denial of medication, and a completely opaque system that allows no accountability. It is a literal concentration camp in my back yard.
I dressed in my collar, and was easily identifiable as a clergy person and a completely nonthreatening presence dedicated to peace. Dressing in a collar did nothing to protect me from the brutality of ICE and the Illinois State Police, who pushed me with truncheons, grabbed my neck, and attempted to inflict as much pain as possible. The next morning, I awoke with bruises all over my chest. If they are willing to do that when news cameras are watching, what are they doing in a facility that has no oversight?
Jesus is being tortured in ICE detention centers around our country. He is being teargassed right here in Chicago, as resisters to the authoritarianism of the Trump regime face brutal repression. No one is coming to save us—even the politicians we like. We will have to keep our communities safe, and the good news is that I think we can do it.
It will take bold acts of peacemaking that glorify the name of God, and it will likely mean risking arrest, sanction, and approbation. That must be a risk we are willing to take. Otherwise, the brutality of the present administration will remain unchallenged. State-sanctioned terror will continue in our streets unabated and illegal kidnappings will mar our country.
This is a time of rising fascism in the United States. By my reckoning, we are in 1933 Germany. If you have ever wondered what you would do in a moment of great historical importance – Would you be on the right side of history or not? — you are finding out right now.
