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| Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio/AP Clergy members and community activists gather at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in Minnesota to protest deportation flights and to urge airlines to call for an end to the Department of Homeland Security's operation in the state, Jan. 23, 2026. Loading…

Feb. 09, 2026, 5:00 a.m. ET

One Sunday, shortly after federal immigration agents shot and killed Alex Pretti last month, the Rev. Doug Pagitt looked to his Lectionary, a liturgical calendar, to see a timely excerpt from the book of Isaiah beginning, “Shout out, do not hold back!”

Mr. Pagitt has been doing that for weeks now, in words and actions, alongside fellow Minnesotans. The congregation he pastors in southern Minneapolis includes immigrants and people hosting Afghan refugees. Two of his children have Mexican heritage and now carry their passports everywhere they go. He regularly gathers with other faith leaders at churches where, he says, federal officers hover on Sunday mornings. The clergy, sporting clerical collars, appear to create a buffer, and federal agents often leave, he says. (Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, in an email to the Monitor, said federal agents do not raid churches, adding that law enforcement uses “common sense” to decide whether to enter a church to pursue someone the administration says is a threat to public safety.)

Thousands of America’s clergy have joined the hundreds in Minneapolis standing with immigrants and communities against federal immigration enforcement. The clerics’ faiths share an imperative to “welcome the stranger.” But how Christian denominations interpret and prioritize that mandate differs.

The Bible’s instructions to welcome the stranger and also obey governing authorities appear at odds regarding immigration enforcement. As Christian faith leaders address the tension between the two, many are being led toward prominent roles of resistance.

“Depending on how you read the Bible, you [can] read it as a resistance movement of people under tyranny,” says Mr. Pagitt. In his reading, scriptural commands to welcome the stranger and to obey authorities aren’t necessarily at odds.

This past week, House Speaker Mike Johnson, who is a Southern Baptist, posted a lengthy statement presenting what he called the “Biblical case” for border security. “The Bible is clear that Christians should practice personal charity – but also insist upon the enforcement of laws,” he wrote.

The best immigration policy would combine those two Biblical directives, says Matthew Soerens, the national coordinator for Evangelical Immigration Table, a coalition of Evangelical groups that advocate for Biblically informed immigration policy. “Churches often feel pushed to embrace one of those biblical values or the other, when I think the reality is what most Christians want … is to bring those pieces together.”

Since the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term, a sizable segment of U.S. clergy has opposed his mass deportation campaign with nonviolent protest. They have been arrested – including about 100 at the Minneapolis airport two weeks ago – opened their church doors to people seeking shelter, and accompanied asylum seekers and others to immigration court. They can be affected, too: For example, during a protest in Chicago, a federal officer shot one pastor with a pepper round.

In the weeks following the killings of Renee Good and Mr. Pretti in Minneapolis, faith communities have intensified their response.

In New Hampshire, an Episcopal bishop called for clergy to finalize their wills and be prepared for “a new age of martyrdom.” Two civil rights and religious leaders in North Carolina labeled the killings of Ms. Good and Mr. Pretti “lynchings” and called for Americans to “build a moral movement” in response.

Others make it clear that targeted immigration enforcement is necessary, as the Trump administration pursues one of the largest domestic deportation efforts in U.S. history.

“We support the detention and deportation of violent criminals. But we do not support indiscriminate enforcement actions,” said the Rev. Gabriel Salguero, president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, who was in Minneapolis last month.

Many clergy have long advocated for immigration reform, and the language they use evolves, says Lloyd Barba, a religious historian at Amherst College. Lately, Dr. Barba has noticed more use of phrases such as “righteous anger” and “steadfast hope” – both drawn from the Bible. He also sees an emerging emphasis on dignity, a concern clergy also raised during the Obama administration and the first Trump term.

During those years, the language of “caring for the stranger” fell out of favor in some circles as clergy sought to emphasize that many immigrants were not strangers, but had made their homes in the United States for years.

Now, Dr. Barba says, there’s a renewed emphasis on “welcoming the stranger,” a phrase based on language found in Leviticus, Matthew, and other books of the Bible. Many people targeted for deportation, including those who entered illegally, are seeking asylum.

The frequently quoted verse from Romans – saying to obey the “governing authorities” – doesn’t contradict the directive from Matthew, says the Rev. Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, assistant director of the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale University.

It was written, he says, by the apostle Paul while imprisoned for preaching about Jesus and his teachings, something Mr. Wilson-Hartgrove reads as Paul modeling nonviolent civil disobedience. “It’s Paul’s ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail.’”

J. Scott Applewhite/AP U.S. Capitol Police officers escort activists who conducted a civil disobedience event in the Hart Senate Office Building near the Capitol to protest the violent methods used by immigrations officers in Minneapolis, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. Mr. Wilson-Hartgrove was arrested alongside the Rev. Bishop William Barber II last spring while praying in the U.S. Capitol, an action he says is drawn directly from Romans 13.

Governing bodies representing major denominations, including Catholics, United Methodists, and Episcopalians, have issued statements opposing the Trump administration’s current immigration enforcement tactics. While no major denominations have expressed support, some figures on the Christian right – such as pastor and theologian Doug Wilson – have offered endorsements.

“What the left is encouraging in Minneapolis is destructive,” wrote Owen Strachan, provost of Grace Bible Theological Seminary, in a Jan. 19 post on X. “Illegal immigration is wrong, and as a believer, I am thankful it’s being addressed, even as we pray for peace to prevail.’’

In St. Paul, a Southern Baptist congregation was disrupted by protesters during Sunday services in January. One of the pastors is reportedly a local official with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Justice Department is now investigating the protest as a civil rights violation, and multiple people have been arrested.

“Disrupting a church’s worship service to make a political point is disgraceful,” wrote the Rev. Clint Pressley, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, on X. The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the public policy organization for the Southern Baptist Convention, didn’t respond to questions about broader unrest in Minneapolis.

Other clergy are joining the protest.

Some Bible scholars and clergy took note when Fuller Theological Seminary, an evangelical institution, issued a statement echoing the call to “welcome the stranger.” The United Methodist Church bishops, the Pope, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have also expressed concern. And in a recent letter, 154 Episcopal bishops called for action, expressed “grief, righteous anger, and steadfast hope,” and asked, “Whose dignity matters?”

“What we are witnessing is a great injustice,” he told the assembled. “It is not a partisan issue. This is a kingdom-of-God issue.”

Mr. Ellenburg, speaking Sunday with the Monitor, said that, as a pastor, he “can’t wait till (the issue is) black and white to say something.”

Since the sermon, he’s gotten about 15 emails from congregants disagreeing with what he said, and more trickling in.

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He welcomes the conversations. And some congregants do too. "My calendar has filled up into March already."

Monitor reporter Sarah Matusek contributed to this story.

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