Pastors at a protest? That's the scene at anti-Trump rallies across the US

Federal officers recently shot the Rev. Jorge Bautista with a pepper ball at close range, sending him reeling, with orange powder caking his face and clothing.

A month earlier, Presbyterian pastor David Black was hit in the head with a pepper ball while praying outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Chicago. The video, which circled the globe after it was reported on by Religion News Service, caused an outcry.

Since early summer, pastors, ministers, imams, rabbis and priests have stood between police and protesters in Los Angeles. They've been arrested by ICE agents in Chicago and Portland, and taken into custody at the U.S. Capitol and in congressional offices.

On Oct. 18, leaders of all faiths spoke, prayed and marched at the peaceful "No Kings" rallies, held in thousands of communities across the United States. 

Conservative evangelical Christians have long been a dominant force in U.S. politics and overwhelmingly back the Trump administration and its current actions. 

But increasingly, moderate and progressive Christians and other faith communities are pushing back, saying it's time to remind the country of religion’s role in caring for the poor and the stranger, especially as segments of the Republican Party increasingly embrace Christian nationalism ‒ the belief that the secular government should favor Christianity or even be replaced by it.

And the Trump administration's intense focus on deporting immigrants, taking away health coverage for millions of Americans and walking back human and civil rights makes this a moment for religious leaders to return to their historic role at the front of protest movements, leaders across a variety of faiths told USA TODAY.

“We cannot be ministers in this moment and ignore what's going on,” Bishop William J. Barber II told USA TODAY. "If you can't stand up now, when you're talking about the death of the democracy, the death of human beings and the denial to the least of these, then you relegate yourself and your religion, your faith, as being terribly suspect."

'This is a moment for religious folks to show up'

Standing up to power is one of religious leaders’ “most vital functions,” said religion and the media expert Diane Winston, a professor at the University of Southern California. 

“The Founding Fathers kept religion out of the government on purpose because they did not believe religion should be part of the ruling process. However, they did believe religion was vitally important to the well-being of the nation and especially keeping the government in check,” Winston said. “In other words, the role of religion was to make sure that our political leaders were virtuous, ethical and moral.” 

Religious leaders played a key role during every major social movement, including the Revolutionary War, abolition, workers rights, suffragism, equal rights and civil rights, she said, and the symbolic value of their presence now cannot be understated. 

“Religion does not support one side or the other in political battles. It can be marshaled to support both sides or neither side. But it's good to remember that from the beginning of the founding of this country, religious leaders have often stood up for social issues,” she said. 

The Rev. Paul Raushenbush, president of Interfaith Alliance, which works to counter the religious right, mobilized faith groups nationwide to participate in "No Kings" protests and connected local religious leaders with local activists. The protests were as much about religious freedom as they were about the rest of the First Amendment, he said.

“We’re not inventing anything. We’re actually just recognizing how important faith leaders and moral commitments have played in every moment when the country has needed to push back against authoritarianism or targeting of marginalized communities,” Raushenbush said. “This is a moment for religious folks to show up.” 

People are waiting, he said, for Christians to push back on the idea of Christian nationalism, which has gained increasing influence among Republican politicians since Trump's first term. 

The Trump administration's actions in the first 10 months of this year have alienated multiple denominations, Raushenbush said.

“What we’ve really clearly seen is that they have decided religious freedom, and the way that they’re understanding religion, is either 'you’re entirely lockstep with us or you’re out,'” he said. “What has unfortunately happened is that the Republican Party has crystalized into this very, very intractable Christian nationalist understanding of what it means to be Christian or religious at all."

Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy said Oct. 20 that those who turned out for the "No Kings protests" can't deal with the fact that the president and his administration are religious.

"The truth is the Marxist, the radicals, and the Islamists the Democratic Party promoted this weekend, they cannot handle the truth. The truth is that there is a king and that king is Jesus. And the president has been willing to say it, his administration has been willing to say it," Roy said.

The presence of religious leaders of any faith can inspire and motivate other people to take a moral stand, said Billie Murray, an expert in civic engagement at Villanova University in Pennsylvania.

"In probably the majority of movements, progressive or not, the role of faith becomes an issue … because it's such a part of our culture,” she said.

Immigration enforcement catalyst

Though religious leaders have actively held prayer vigils and attended rallies and protests for months, in the past few weeks as immigration enforcement has ramped by, they have become more visible in their defiance.

In early October, Pope Leo directly questioned if Trump's immigration enforcement actions were in line with the Catholic Church's pro-life teachings.

"Someone who says I am against abortion but I am in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States, I don't know if that's pro-life," he told reporters.

On Oct. 17, more than 200 Chicago-area clergy – Protestants, Catholics and evangelicals – signed a letter decrying ICE's efforts and saying they are willing to put their "bodies on the line" for migrants. 

"What (Homeland Security Secretary) Kristi Noem and her ICE agents are doing is immoral," the letter stated. 

That same day, United Methodist pastor Hannah Kardon of United Church of Rogers Park, Illinois, was arrested, and she says, hit repeatedly with a baton while she prayed.

“I hope if anyone sees (the video of the arrest) and is disturbed by it, what they think about is that if they are willing to do that to a clergy in broad daylight, imagine what they are doing to detainees in the dark," she told Baptist News Global.

On Oct. 21, Cardinal Blase Cupich, the Archbishop of Chicago, issued a statement declaring that Chicago "communities are shaken by immigration raids and detentions. These actions wound the soul of our city. Let me be clear. The Church stands with migrants." 

In the hours before federal immigration enforcement officials were slated to arrive in California's Bay Area, Bishop Austin K. Rios, the Episcopal Bishop of San Francisco, issued a statement that said, "when fear moves through our streets, the Church must move with something stronger. We stand with the vulnerable not because it is popular, but because it is the way of Jesus, and because when one part of our body suffers, all suffer with it."

Putting faith and morals at the forefront

Civil action by religious leaders will become even more visible in the next few weeks, Barber said.

On Oct. 30, a group of faith leaders will meet with House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York to tell him “you must in this moment frame this as a moral fight, not just as a partisan fight,” Barber said.

They also hope to meet with Speaker Mike Johnson from Louisiana, to ask Republicans to make the same argument, he said.

When asked by reporters Oct. 16 about federal agents shooting faith leaders with pepper balls in Chicago and what is the limit of what he considers acceptable conduct, Johnson said "I've not seen them cross the line yet."

Barber began Moral Monday protests in 2013 in North Carolina, which have spread to other states as an effort by religious leaders of all faiths to push back on legislative moves to cut the social safety net.

On Nov. 20, prominent progressive activists will call for people of faith to publicly take "moral action, moral resistance," Barber said, such as praying in large groups in public.

Barber said Christian nationalism shouldn't even be a term, because the Bible doesn't support the idea of loyalty to a country or a person.

"Your religion might be tax cuts, but it is not Christian, and it's not Jewish and it's not Muslim,” he said. “You cannot label it Christian without a challenge. And if Christians don't challenge it, then we become just as much to blame for it existing,” 

'We have to be paying attention to our neighbors'

Hannah Elyse Cornthwaite, priest at Holy Innocents Episcopal Church in San Francisco, said faith leaders have an obligation to show up when they see people's dignity being attacked.

She said that means praying at protests, helping transgender people transition, standing vigil outside of immigration court hearings and even accompanying people inside those hearings if asked.

"It's just a part of the baptismal covenant that I have made, and there's no – for me – real question about what is right and what is wrong, and what's needed from me at this time," Cornthwaite said.

Castleton United Methodist Church pastor Matt Landry said also he feels a responsibility to be actively engaged wherever people are being harmed, including where it may not impact him or his Indianapolis congregation directly.

"For all of us who are faith leaders in our communities, we have to be paying attention to what's happening to our neighbors," Landry told USA TODAY.

Landry and others began lobbying lawmakers and the governor's office to improve conditions at the Miami Correctional Facility, an immigration detention center in Indiana. Prayer vigils they held outside the facility drew more than 100 leaders of various faiths. The events intentionally cross denominations, Landry said, including Menonites, Lutherans, Catholics, Jews, Episcopalians, United Methodists, and Disciples of Christ.

"This is kind of a movement of prayer," he said. "People want to do something and we're giving them the opportunity to stand together, to feel that inspiration and power in the group and singing together, praying together."

On Oct. 27, they will be back outside the facility, praying and walking along Highway 31 to draw attention.

"People are noticing and that's a good thing. It's trying to shed light on some darkness in our state," he said.

Sarah D. Wire is a senior national political correspondent and can be reached at [email protected].