Historically, mainline Protestant Christianity has been reluctant to stray too far from scripture and into the realm of the overtly political. Even those churches that wouldn’t hesitate to describe themselves as progressive or which seek to apply the social gospel of Jesus to modern-day injustice have been wary of speaking too explicitly on controversial issues in the news, issues that, in our nation’s ever-growing political divide, run the risk of alienating a portion of their parishioners.
Evangelical Christianity has shown little such reticence.
Beginning with the Moral Majority movement of the late seventies and the televangelism of Jerry Falwell a few years later, Evangelical churches became full-throated supporters of conservative candidates, specifically when it came to cultural matters. It has been that way pretty much ever since, reaching its apotheosis with the first candidacy of Donald Trump, when conservative evangelical leaders explicitly endorsed him. They have done so in his two candidacies since, often directly urging their members to vote for him. Evangelical Christianity remains one of the loudest, most influential and most pervasive political voices in the country.
Stepping up, speaking up
But with the recent actions of Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) and Custom and Border Protection (CBP) in Minnesota over the past several months a group of mainline Christian, Jewish, Catholic, Islamic and progressive faith-based communities have decided the safe, traditional message no longer meets the demands of the moment.
Warrantless arrests, deportations in defiance of judge’s orders, the rounding up of immigrants who have no violent criminal records and, finally, the murders of Rene Good and Alex Pretti, have sparked a backlash and a call to action from churches all across the country. The prod came from ISAIAH, a multicultural, faith-based organization out of Minnesota, which launched Palm Sunday Path, a nationwide march of parishioners, church leaders and concerned citizens on March 29. Its mission is to call attention to “rising authoritarianism and white Christian nationalism,” which, they fear, has overtaken much of evangelicalism in America.
For Breanna Illene, Director of Ecumenical Innovation and Justice Initiatives for the Wisconsin Council of Churches, Palm Sunday Path provides an opportunity for mainline Christianity to re-enter the arena of social justice activism. While she argued that some Christian churches have always been so engaged – she points to Black churches during the Civil Rights movement and Latino churches, which have fought for workers and immigrants rights – mainline Protestant churches have been much more cautious in recent history.
“I think it is a muscle that, in some places, has atrophied a bit, and people are now exercising it in new ways,” Illene said. “And I think it’s exciting. There are new things happening. There are people who are saying, ‘Oh, we didn’t know the church did this.’ And there are new people who are now engaging that maybe didn’t find the church relevant years ago.”
Prophets of God … or custodians of Empire
In Appleton, parishioners and clergy from downtown churches will march from their churches to Houdini Plaza beginning at 1 p.m. Members of churches in outlying areas are expected to meet at various downtown churches and join them in the march.
At one participating church in the Fox Cities in late January, the pastor filled the moment of silence that traditionally begins the service with a reminder of Jesus’s own example of non-violent resistance as call to action.
“As citizens of this nation, if we do not feel concerned for the freedom and liberty of our brothers and sisters or fear for our own safety, then we live in the warped isolation of white privilege,” he said. “And as Christians, if we do not feel compassion or anger at these injustices we have chosen to stick our heads in the sand when Jesus begs us to follow him down the beach.
“Any church that remains unilaterally silent in this time is spiritually complicit,” he continued. “Any church that is unilaterally supportive is theologically corrupt. Any clergy that remain neutral (are) just selling out their calling for worldly security. We are either prophets of God or we are custodians of Empire but we cannot be both, and we have to make the choice.”
The planning for Palm Sunday Path began in December when more than 5,000 civic and faith leaders met at the Minneapolis Convention Center for a program entitled, “Be a Light in the Storm.”
In Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Council of Churches, along with such faith-based organizations as WISDOM and ESTHER, have taken up the call and are organizing marches all around the state on Palm Sunday. The march comes a day after the No Kings Rally, which is expected to be one of the largest protests against the Trump administration since he reclaimed the White House 14 months ago.
While organizers in Wisconsin continue to wrangle over what type of message they want to convey as a faith-based community, ESTHER spokesperson for the event Steve Hirby said he thinks it’s time to stop waffling.
“It’s explicitly political,” he said of the march. “We think things are off the rails in our country. We think that the wrong values are being emphasized. We’re thinking that the voices that have the megaphone are not reflecting values that come out of the Judeo-Christian tradition
“Evangelical churches dominate the religious landscape in America today, but places like First Congregational (of Appleton) and the Lutherans and Presbyterians and United Methodists still have a lot of energy and a kind of different way of understanding the calling of our faith. So it’s a response to those values of being good neighbors and taking care of each other.”
Illene echoed that sentiment, calling the Gospels “extremely political,” but not necessarily partisan.
“And as Christians, we are called to be political, because politics are about how we interact with our neighbor,” she said. “Like, there is no neutrality. We are either supporting a system or pushing against it.”
‘We are called to feed the hungry …’
Illene suggested the contrast painted by the Bible between the Roman and Christian understanding of Palm Sunday still has resonance today. The contrast, she pointed out, was between empire and military might – conveyed by Roman soldiers marching through the gates on stallions – and the faith of Christians, who marched into the plaza waving fronds in a sort of counter-protest, not as weapons but as symbols of peace.
Likewise, Illene sees Palm Sunday Path as a counter-protest of sorts against the conservative movement’s co-option of White Christian Nationalism. She points out, as an example, ICE ads that display Bible verses.
“It is like our faith is overtly being used to lift up this image of a powerful government that cuts health care, cuts hunger, deports or disappears people,” she said. “And so what does it mean for the church to stand up and say, ‘No, that’s not the message of Jesus, that’s not the pathway we are on. That is not who we are and not what we are called to.’
“We are called to feed the hungry, care for the sick, and welcome the neighbor.”
Eleven faith communities from various denominations around Appleton are participating in the Palm Sunday Path, along with non-faith-based citizens who share their concerns. The plan is for sing-alongs, speeches from both lay people and clergy and, of course, people holding signs along College Avenue.
For Hirby, who serves as Co-President of ESTHER, the Palm Sunday Path represents the biggest undertaking of the grassroots, faith-based social justice organization.
“This is the first time I’m aware of any effort to kind of draw lots of faith communities together in a way that has public action and public visibility as a goal and so it’s a different thing,” he said. “There have been clergy associations in the Fox Valley, but they pretty much faded away, in part, I think, because of the mainline/evangelical divide, and it’s been hard for clergy to find common ground. So this is trying to build up from an idea into a real thing over a few months.”
Anointing into action
Various states across the country will participate in the event. While individual communities will have autonomy when it comes to what their own events will look like, Illene thinks the emphasis should – and likely will – be on what Christians stand for rather than what they are against. She makes a distinction between the No Kings Rally the day before and Palm Sunday Path, which she hopes will be liturgical in nature. That could include, as it will in Madison where Illene will be participating, the anointing of willing attendees into specific actions, such as dedicating oneself to social justice and being welcoming neighbors, Illene said.
“And another would be more immigration-focused around the 287g agreements with the counties (that involve some limited cooperation between ICE and sheriff departments). Or encouraging businesses to be fourth amendment workplaces (which would protect undocumented workers).”Illene used as another example of the type of ongoing action she hopes the Path will encourage is more active engagement with how county government works, specifically around the critical funding demands that will be thrust upon county boards when HR1 (the Republicans’ Big Beautiful Bill which cuts significant federal money from safety net programs like food benefits) takes effect next year.
Hirby said that throughout ICE’s several-months long occupation, Minnesota provided the rest of the country a reminder of the importance of mutual aid and the sanctity of Jesus’s message. He said Palm Sunday Path is an opportunity to reclaim some of those values as a society.
“I think it’s very important,” he said. “I think their voices are a reminder about neighborliness as a value. And I think to be able to do that in an interfaith way matters because (those values) cut across all kinds of religious traditions. And just remembering that people are our neighbors and we take care of our neighbors.
“That value is just really deep, but it’s sometimes hard to make that visible at a time of brutality and power and arbitrary action.”
