United Methodists (UMC) have taken a stand for justice in many ways throughout the church’s history, from opposing slavery to supporting the labor and Civil Rights movements, as well as the 1980s sanctuary movement for Central American refugees. Methodists have also perpetuated injustice and evil throughout history, including the early church splitting over slavery, deep involvement in Indian boarding schools, and the UMC’s long-held stance against the ordination of our LGBTQIA+ siblings and refusal to marry same-gender couples— which was officially overturned less than two years ago (and, again, involved another church split).
Now, our nation stands at another crossroads that demands a strong moral voice speaking against the atrocities being committed by our government toward immigrants and citizens.
Last week, we learned of Nurul Amim Shah Alam, a refugee from the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar and the victim of another death at the hands of Trump’s mass deportation ICE regime. After being wrongfully detained, ICE agents left Shah Alam, who was blind, on a New York street in brutally cold weather without a cane. He died trying to find his way home.
Earlier in February, news broke that ICE killed U.S. citizen Ruben Ray Martinez nearly a year ago on South Padre Island, Texas, where he was celebrating his 23rd birthday with friends. While his death was reported locally at the time, it was only a few weeks ago that the nation learned he was shot multiple times by an ICE agent.
As White Christian Nationalism has emboldened the Trump administration to carry out such egregious acts under the guise of “securing our borders,” it is urgent for people of faith to take a strong public stand against these harmful ideologies and actions.
Last week, The United Methodist Church stood on the right side of history. Over 2,000 UMC faith leaders from across the nation, joined by friends of various denominations and faiths, traveled to our nation’s capital to worship, “pray with our feet,” and demand our elected officials treat all people, including immigrants, with dignity. The event, titled “Faithful Resistance: A Public Witness for Immigrant Justice,” was hosted by the denomination’s Task Force on Immigration and allies.
Bishops, clergy, and laity alike filled three churches for a joint worship service and call to action, then flooded the streets to march in the tradition of justice-seekers throughout history. Singing “We Are Marching in the Light of God,” the mass of faithful leaders marched around the Capitol. Their journey took them past the United Methodist Building, which houses the UMC’s General Board of Church and Society and the Commission on Religion and Race offices, sits next door to the U.S. Supreme Court, and is across the street from the Capitol.
Bishop LaTrelle Miller Easterling of the Baltimore-Washington and Peninsula-Delaware Area of The United Methodist Church preached a rousing message to participants in the churches and to a large livestream audience. She implored all who could hear to remember:
“God’s love is not restricted to citizens, nor the documented, nor those with visas and passports… Do we not understand that the Bible is relentless about the stranger? ‘You shall love the foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt.’ Jesus crossed borders, fled violence and depended on hospitality. But Christianity baptized nationalism. We wrapped exclusion in Scripture. We built walls and called them wisdom. Beloved, when we fear the migrant, we must remember that Jesus was one himself.”
After the march, the more than 2,000 participants visited their congressional leaders’ offices to remind them that people of faith believe all people are created as beloved, with dignity and worth; that God calls us to welcome the stranger; and that we are called to love our neighbors as ourselves—because we need one another for a thriving community.
We also reminded them that the way immigrants are being treated is harmful, unconstitutional, causes people to live in fear and makes our communities less safe for all. We asked them to support legislation protecting sensitive locations and to vote “no” on future funding for ICE.
United Methodists, along with all Christians, must continue to educate ourselves and our children about the ways our beloved church has sided with and perpetuated injustices upon marginalized and oppressed communities throughout history. We must also engage in reparations and seek restoration with all of God’s beloved children whom we have harmed.
It is equally true that on this matter of dignity and humanity for immigrants, the United Methodist Church stands for justice. Our Social Principles (the denomination’s guiding document on a wide range of justice concerns) are clear on this point:
We affirm the dignity, worth and rights of migrants, immigrants and refugees, including displaced and stateless people… We oppose all laws and policies that attempt to criminalize, dehumanize or punish displaced individuals and families based on their status as migrants, immigrants or refugees. Additionally, we decry attempts to detain displaced people and hold them in inhumane and unsanitary conditions. We challenge policies that call for the separation of families, especially parents and minor children, and we oppose the existence of for-profit detention centers for such purposes.
I was inspired by my time with my UMC siblings in D.C. last week. But I know this work is only the beginning.
We must not allow one march or one round of congressional visits to serve as our sole point of agitation or voice of moral clarity on this issue. We must find ways to move our congregations and join our sibling denominations and various faith traditions in rising together against White Christian Nationalism and fascism.
In each of our home states and local communities, we must continue to embody these principles of human dignity and hospitality, doing all in our power to continue this faithful resistance until “justice roll[s] down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24).
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Dr. Rebecca M. David Hensley holds a PhD in religious studies, with an emphasis in theological and social ethics. She is a member of the adjunct faculty for Iliff School of Theology and an ordained Deacon in the United Methodist Church.