Month: February 2026
You Must Stand Against Racism, Even Trump’s
I don’t play the “priest card” very much on social media, but today’s an exception.
There are ridiculing and insulting memes and images posted on social media every single day. Many of those in recent years have focused on Donald Trump, and it’s a sad commentary on our shared lack of decorum and inability to imagine reconciliation. I don’t post those kinds of images and memes, though I’m very clear on my moral and ethical objections to Donald Trump’s words and actions. I’m unequivocally opposed to his policies and politics. I take his moral and ethical failures as an elected leader far too seriously to play insult games, and as a priest of God I’m held to a higher standard of behavior. I’m not perfect by any stretch, but I am given high expectations and aspirational values with which to guide my words and actions.
It’s indefensible for Donald Trump to post such a racist trope of Barak and Michelle Obama. It is irrefutable proof of Donald Trump’s unfitness to lead anything, much less our nation. As a priest, I condemn that posting and I condemn that racism. We have a word in church circles for that kind of racism and moral failure: sin. And sin calls for repentance and atonement.
If you’re a Christian, claiming to follow Christ, then I ask you to consider the timing; in the middle of Black History Month and just a matter of days before the penitential Season of Lent begins, our elected president makes a mockery of both with this public display of racism. This isn’t just someone on the street being a racist, but the person in the highest office of our nation. This man’s time and energy is spent pulling our nation down and trapping us in his moral and ethical failures. We must all repudiate those words and actions immediately, and begin holding him accountable. He’s not been held accountable so far, and it’s destroying us. It’s also doing terrible damage to the credibility of our Christian faith as so many refuse to hold him accountable and to repudiate his moral and ethical failures. To date, as of the time I’m writing, he refuses to apologize for or to repent of that racist post in any way, just as he has dodged the moral and ethical implications of his other questionable social media posts, his continued lying about voter fraud, his felony convictions, his notable appearances in the Epstein files and his words which will forever haunt his legacy and our entire nation, “You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.”
No, you cannot. You cannot do anything. You cannot continue to perpetuate racism from our highest office. You cannot drag our country into this kind of constant moral and ethical failure, even if too many citizens fear to call you out and hold you responsible. For the dignity of and value of all our neighbors of color, for the sake and safety of all women, especially the young and vulnerable, and for the defense of what is right and good, we call for you to be held accountable for your words and actions.
Our faith has earned a bad reputation for talking too much about sin, mostly because we fail to talk as seriously about the other great words we have like repentance, atonement and transformation. The story of our faith doesn’t begin and end with sin, but it is filled with invitations and opportunities to be transformed, with wisdom about making up for and fixing the injuries we have caused, and the strength to grow into the good human beings we are intended to be. That transformed life begins with a recognition of failure and a choice to change, a choice to be better.
As a priest of God, I must condemn that racist post and his choice to share it, as I condemn the message it sends and the license it grants to others to also perpetuate such racism. I must call for accountability and for change. The highest office of our land must not be the purveyor of such moral and ethical decay. Donald Trump needs to change and we need to change our national dialogue. Donald Trump needs to be held accountable and he needs to resign.
Humbly, Reverend Larry Todd Thomas
Praying for ICE Aggressors
Praying for those who are the aggressors in the current immigration focused violence across our nation.
To start our discussion about praying for ICE aggressors I want to recognize how triggering this might be for some, especially if you are closer to the brutality we’ve see on our streets. Praying for an aggressor should never be an exercise of excusing what they have done or ignoring the pain of the victim. If the very thought of praying for them only brings pain and confusion for you, please take a step away and breathe deep. This conversation will be here when you’re able to continue with it.
I’m writing from the perspective of a follower of Jesus Christ, and that brings an emphasis on what he himself taught about challenging things like forgiveness, reconciliation and mercy. I’ve been praying and advocating in my own small ways for the victims of ICE aggression spreading across our country, for the families and individuals of color unjustly targeted, for all detained and held without due process, and especially for those who have lost their lives in detention centers and on our streets. It has been growing in my heart and mind that I should also pray for ICE.
We pray, then we peaceably protest. We pray, then we speak truth to power. We pray, then we oppose the aggressors. We pray, then we stand in solidarity with our most vulnerable neighbors.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” Jesus in Matthew 5:9
That this federal administration can so easily find and hire all these agents, these willing aggressors, points to a moral, ethical and spiritual illness within our society. The violence is especially painful because the aggressors are also our neighbors and represent themselves as law enforcement. We’re sickened by their decision to hate and to do such violence, and we unequivocally oppose and condemn their actions. We also stand in a faith tradition that has always taught us that we do not return hate with hate or violence with violence. We chase after a better way. We chase after peace.
The highest example for living that better way is Jesus Christ.
In the midst of his own unjust and painful execution he could still look down upon an angry crowd who put him on a cross and pray, “Father forgive them.” (Luke 23:32-34) We want to also have the kind of eyes that can look upon an aggressor and see their humanity, even while deploring their actions and injustices. We also want the kind of heart that remains unstained by their anger and stronger than their hate. Jesus could see within that violent crowd people who themselves needed a better way.
Jesus asks us to make prayer our response to persecution and love our gift to those who would be our enemies.(Matthew 5:43-48)
That’s not a posture of weakness or a capitulation to violence, instead it’s a starting place from which we break the cycle of violence and hatred multiplying through our interactions. In that Matthew 5 passage Jesus lifts love and prayer out of the usual system of transactional reciprocity, just giving some to get some. He realigns love and prayer to be transformative and reconciling, able to bring about something new and unexpected.
The Apostles Peter and Paul (1 Peter 3:9-12 & Romans 12:13-21) both continue this teaching from Christ in letters to the church by reminding us to resist the all too easy reflex of repaying evil with evil. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. brings this wisdom home for us in our own time, in his amazing work, Strength to Love (1963).
“Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.”
To pray for ICE agents we begin by praying for ourselves.
We begin by asking for the Spirit of God to soften our hearts and to open our minds. It will take some imagination and effort to see past the masks, guns, grenades and tactical gear of war. Somewhere in all that mess is a fellow human being. We pray for the grace to see that valuable person, as broken and sick as their aggression might be. We ask for help because this is not an easy task.
“O God, help us to see the value and humanity in all our neighbors; even for the aggressor we would have a capacity to love and give mercy. Give us eyes to see them as more than their aggression. Help us to find within our hearts a sincere love for them, as undeserved, as unasked for and as unexpected as it might be.”
We pray for their healing.
A friend of mine used to always remind me of the axiom that hurting people hurt people. What kind of brokenness has moved these human souls to such aggression and violence? What kind of hurt causes a one to be so blind to the pain of others? Their willingness to put on all that gear and invade people’s homes and places of work points to some deep brokenness.
“O God, forgive them for their blindness to the evil they do. Give them healing from their fears and insecurities, and give them insight into the pain and fear they cause. Bring people of healing and wholeness into their lives, people who can show them the strength of love.”
We pray for their conviction and courage.
It’s so clear when we watch the videos that these aggressors are deeply insecure and afraid. The posturing, the escalation of violence and their willingness to follow bad-faith orders show how badly they crave acceptance and validation. The extremes of their bigotry and violence show a complete lack of self-reflection. Their moral and ethical compasses have been lost.
“O God, we ask you to open their eyes, ears and hearts to the pain caused to others by their actions. Weigh down their every waking moment with deep doubts about their choice to harass, divide and persecute. Awaken them to the shame of their chosen path.”
We pray for them to experience a conversion.
The word conversion carries a lot of baggage for some people, but it’s a good word for what we want for these souls. They need to be converted, changed, moved to a whole new way of being a human. We pray for a true interior reorientation. We’re wanting a Damascus Road kind of experience for them, like the one that stopped a murderously aggressive Saul in his tracks and turned him 180 degrees in life. (Acts 9:1-22) We pray for these souls to be shook.
“O God, draw them to yourself to be made new and transformed. May they be shaken from the fortress of ignorance and bigotry which blinds their hearts and fuels their violence. Humble them and bring their aggression to a standstill. Uproot them from the fear that binds and the hatred that drives.”
We’re believing in and calling for the best humanity in the aggressors and in ourselves.
Fighting them with reciprocal hatred and violence will not solve our shared societal illnesses. Again, from Strength to Love, Dr. King so powerfully defines the call, the work and the hope of being a peacemaker.
“At times we are able to humiliate our worst enemy. Inevitably, his weak moments come and we are able to thrust in his side the spear of defeat. But this we must not do. Every word and deed must contribute to an understanding with the enemy and release those vast reservoirs of goodwill which have been blocked by impenetrable walls of hate.”
We pray, then we peaceably protest. We pray, then we speak truth to power. We pray, then we oppose the aggressors. We pray, then we stand in solidarity with our most vulnerable neighbors.
“O God, we’re all broken, but we would be made whole. May our reservoirs of goodwill be found and opened wide. Bring us all together in greater humility do kindness and mercy. May we always be peace-makers, peace-seekers, peace-doers and peace-speakers. Amen.”
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