Liberal Christian denominations condemn US actions in Venezuela, call for peace

(RNS) — Four days after the raid that extracted the Venezuelan leader and his wife and brought them to face federal charges in New York, nearly every mainline Protestant group has condemned the US actions.

Protesters demonstrate outside the White House, Jan. 3, 2026, in Washington, after the U.S. captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife in a military operation. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Yonat Shimron
January 7, 2026
RNS

(RNS) — Four days after the U.S. military seized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife in a strike on Caracas that took nearly everyone by surprise, liberal Christian denominations have begun to criticize the raid.

The bishops of the United Methodist Church on Wednesday (Jan. 7) issued a statement “condemning all acts of violence, military aggression, and violations of national sovereignty” and urging its members to pray for the Venezuelan people.

The United Methodist Church does not have churches in Venezuela, a mostly Catholic country with growing numbers of Protestants and other faiths, but it does have autonomous Methodist churches.

In the letter, the United Methodist bishops pointed to their social principles that oppose war and violence. It did not mention the deposed Venezuelan leader by name. Neither did it mention President Donald Trump, who ordered the raid that extracted Maduro from the country and brought him to a New York City jail. On Tuesday, he pleaded not guilty to federal drug and weapons charges.

The Episcopal Church was quicker to respond. An Action Alert released Saturday — the same day as the raid — by its Office of Government Relations condemned the use of military force “aimed at disrupting a non-imminent, uncertain military threat.” It also called on Congress to investigate the operation, which it said “marks a striking and unprecedented escalation of conflict.”

RELATED: Vatican faces ‘complicated’ balancing act in responding to US arrest of Maduro

The Episcopal Church has more skin in the game. The denomination has a diocese in Venezuela with 17 congregations and several more missions. The diocese’s provisional bishop, Cristóbal Olmedo León Lozano, is stationed in Ecuador.

“The Episcopal Church called for an investigation and accountability, first because of our 2009 resolution condemning ‘the first use of armed force in the form of a preventive or preemptive strike that is aimed at disrupting a non-imminent, uncertain military threat.,” said Rebecca Linder Blachly, chief of public policy and witness for the Episcopal Church. “Also, we are firm supporters of the United Nations, and this operation lacked legal authorization under international law, per the UN charter. Additionally, there was no congressional authorization for the use of military force nor advance notice to all required members of Congress.”

The Rev. Canon David Ulloa Chavez, the Episcopal Church’s partnership officer for Latin America and the Caribbean, said he has spoken via phone with the provisional bishop and has been assured that no church members have been injured so far.

“From what I understand, everyone is safe,” Chavez told RNS. “There is this sort of ambiguity around what is actually taking place. There’s sort of a nervous calm at this stage.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told members of Congress on Wednesday that the Trump administration has plans for a prolonged mission in the country that included taking control of its vast oil reserves.

Many Venezuelan migrants to the U.S. celebrated Maduro’s capture. Political and economic insecurity under Maduro’s authoritarian rule has led to an exodus of some 7.9 million Venezuelans as of December 2024, according to the Migration Policy Institute. As of 2023, some 770,000 Venezuelan immigrants had entered the U.S. In 2021, the Biden administration designated Venezuela for Temporary Protected Status, which grants legal immigration status to people fleeing countries facing armed conflict or humanitarian crises. Trump ended the program last year.


Venezuela, red, is located on the northern coast of South America. (Map courtesy of Wikimedia/Creative Commons)

But inside the country, some have described an uneasy quiet and deep fears about what might come next.

Chavez said he and leaders in the Episcopal Church’s province that covers Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic and Honduras, are talking about how to better support Venezuelans who are leaving via its long western border with Colombia. “How do we partner for the sake of our migrating neighbors that are coming into not only our province, but throughout the region?” Chavez said.

Other liberal Protestant denominations have also condemned the U.S. action. The United Church of Christ and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) released a joint statement condemning the attack, saying it posed a “troubling pattern of unlawful U.S. military activity, including the December 25, 2025, airstrikes in Nigeria.”

The World Council of Churches also condemned the raid and Maduro’s capture, saying the U.S. actions constituted “stunningly flagrant violations of international law.”

And Pope Leo XIV voiced “deep concern” over the situation. “The good of the beloved Venezuelan people must prevail over every other consideration,” he said in a Sunday address, with an appeal to end the violence and guarantee the country’s sovereignty.

Caracas Residents Describe Terror of US Invasion as They Worry for What’s Next

“It was a massacre against defenseless people,” a mother of three said of the US operation to abduct Maduro.

By Rodrigo Acuña , 

Truthout

January 9, 2026

A woman attends a march to demand the release of kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, in Caracas, Venezuela, on January 8, 2026.Federico PARRA / AFP via Getty Images

“Several helicopters were dropping bombs, and the windows shattered from the shockwaves,” Caracas resident Paola Rosal told Truthout, describing her experience of the U.S. attack on Venezuela on January 3.

Rosal, a mother of three who lives in Ciudad Tiuna, a massive government-built housing project located in the Fuerte Tiuna military complex in Caracas, said she was alone getting ready to take a shower when “the power went out, and the first bomb fell near my building.” Feeling a sense of terror and panic, Rosal describes how she fled and, for a while, was alone in a carpark. Her mother, who was in her own apartment with her daughters, witnessed a bomb drop in front of her apartment which shattered all of the windows.

“When we went outside to take cover, the next bomb fell,” Rosal told Truthout. “People didn’t know where to go for shelter. It was so awful that my daughter doesn’t want to go back, and like her, many other people feel the same way.” Rosal, a married 40-year-old owner of a bodega, has long voted for the leaders of the Bolivarian revolution: first President Hugo Chávez (1999-2013), and then President Nicolás Maduro, who won his first election by a narrow margin in early 2013.

Rosal said she has concrete criticisms of Maduro’s government: For example, she is concerned that the government’s decision to distribute weapons to citizens in preparation for a full-scale U.S. invasion could result in pro-government civilian armed groups (colectivos) gaining more power, and that worries her.

But Rosal was vehement in her outrage and fury in response to the U.S. attack.

Experts Say Even Average Venezuelans Critical of Maduro Won’t Back Regime Change
A US military attack “would bring more chaos, more poverty,” one Caracas resident said.
By Rodrigo Acuña , Truthout  December 16, 2025

“It was a massacre against defenseless people,” Rosal told Truthout, expressing that she is still frightened, angry and uncertain about the future and adding that the U.S. military attack “damaged the infrastructure, the buildings where we live, and killed civilians,” including “the elderly.” Full data has yet to come out on the ages of all the people killed in the strike, but The New York Times confirms that 80-year-old Rosa González was among the dead.

“The way the helicopters attacked indiscriminately is unacceptable,” Rosal added, calling Trump a “violator of all rights,” and decrying how Trump “enters our country as if nothing is wrong, and no one says a word to him.”
The Trump Administration’s Attack on Caracas

At around 2 am on January 3, the bombs ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump commenced falling on Venezuela. The bombs hit the country’s largest military complex, Fuerte Tiuna, whose perimeter contains the civilian Ciudad Tiuna housing project, which is far larger than the military facilities and which is home to tens of thousands of people. The capital’s electricity was also cut off for several hours in sectors of the south, center, and west of Caracas.

Near the capital, the Generalissimo Francisco de Miranda Air Base (La Carlota) was hit, as was the Port of La Guaira — the primary maritime gateway for the Caracas. According to the Venezuelan News Agency, in La Guaira, warehouses of the Venezuelan Institute of Social Security, which holds supplies for dialysis and nephrology programs, were also bombed. Outside of the capital, the Barquisimeto F-16 Base was reportedly hit, as was the Charallave Private Airport and the Higuerote Military Helicopter Base in the state of Miranda.

On January 7, DW News (the international news branch of Germany’s public media outlet) said 24 members of Venezuela’s Bolivarian National Armed Forces were killed, as were 32 members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba and the Ministry of the Interior who were serving an international security mission in a sister Latin American nation. (Due to several agreements between Caracas and Havana, since 1999 thousands of Cuban doctors, nurses, teachers, and sports trainers have been working in Venezuela. By 2009, the number stood at 42,000 Cubans, several of whom have been on military missions.)

Officially, on January 8, the Venezuelan government said 100 people were killed with a similar number injured. On January 3, The New York Times reported that, on the U.S. side, “about half a dozen soldiers were injured” in the operation.

Roughly two-and-a-half hours after the bombing commenced, Trump publicly declared that the United States had “successfully carried out a large-scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolás Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the country.” The first image to be released of 63-year-old Maduro showed him in a Nike tracksuit, handcuffed and wearing blackout goggles, with his ears covered. On January 5 it was noted that Maduro’s 69-year-old-wife, Cilia Flores, in a New York court, had a bandage on her head, bruises on her face, and was suffering “significant injuries,” according to her lawyer.

Venezuela Residents and Political Analysts Express Fears for the Future

Jessica Falcon, a Caracas state employee in her late thirties, is deeply worried about the future of Venezuela and the actions of the Trump administration. Asked by Truthout what she thought about the act of war by the United States toward her homeland, Falcon said:


Once again, the U.S. is doing whatever it pleases with the complicit gaze of the rest of the world and multilateral organizations. Venezuela is experiencing a period of great tension, and this violation of our sovereignty seems outrageous. Archaic colonialism in the 21st century — a true step backward.

Corporate media outlets in the United States, Britain, and Australia have focused on the military details of Washington’s illegal actions in Venezuela, using words like “capture” or “arrest” rather than “kidnapping” to describe what the U.S. did to Maduro and Flores.

In contrast, within Venezuela state media have focused on interviewing injured soldiers and civilians. Venezuelan media have also covered Delcy Rodríguez, formally the vice president, being sworn in as the acting president of Venezuela, saying, “I come with pain for the suffering that has been caused to the Venezuelan people after an illegitimate military aggression against our homeland.”

On the streets and online, two key questions are repeatedly asked: How was the U.S. military able to completely disable Venezuela’s air defense systems? And were there people inside Maduro’s inner security circle that betrayed him?

Speaking to Truthout, Clinton Fernandes, a professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia who assess the threats, risks and opportunities that military forces face in the future, said: “Over the past 10 years, there has been a revolution in sensing and precision technologies, eroding the survivability of air defenses and the targets they seek to protect.” Fernandes claims that “new sensors in all domains, including air, space, and cyberspace, have increased enemy transparency.” This development, he said, shaped the course of events last year when Iran’s nuclear facilities were bombed in June 2025, and also shaped the outcome of the U.S. attack on Venezuela.

Fernandes added:


The U.S. has been at the cutting edge of technological advances in stealth, sensing, and precision. Stealth allows it to approach targets undetected. It has guidance systems with advanced inertial sensors relying on stellar updates, sensors, data processing, communication, artificial intelligence, and a host of other products of the computer revolution. Its advantages allow it to create openings for disarming strikes against enemy positions and forces.

Caracas-based Ricardo Vaz, who is a writer and editor at Venezuelanalysis.com, told Truthout that the outcome of the U.S. strike is forcing analysts to reassess previous “expectations concerning Venezuela’s military capabilities and readiness.” Vaz added:


There was an assortment of Russian-supplied short-, medium- and long-range surface-to-air weapons which failed to offer much deterrence to the invading U.S. forces. It is possible that U.S. air power, including bombers and electronic warfare planes, managed to completely neutralize air defences.

Meanwhile, speaking recently to journalist Jeremy Scahill, Venezuela’s ex-Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for North America Carlos Ron said that while he did not want to speculate that someone inside Maduro’s security detail betrayed him, “you can’t rule out that something to that effect happened.”
What Comes Next for Venezuela?

Back in Washington, during his first press conference after Maduro and Flores’s kidnapping, a gloating Trump declared: “We are going to run the country,” in reference to Venezuela. He added: “We’ll have the greatest oil companies in the world going in, invest billions and billions of dollars. … And the biggest beneficiary are going to be the people of Venezuela.” When asked about installing opposition leader María Corina Machado, who claimed the 2024 presidential election was stolen from Edmundo González, who ran on her behalf, Trump replied: “She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.” On January 9, Trump claimed he would meet with Machado in the next week.

Asked to comment on the ramification of Washington’s actions in Venezuela, Luis F. Angosto-Ferrández — a scholar at Sydney University and the author of the book Venezuela Reframed — predicted that the Trump administration “will use the kidnapping of President Maduro (and the forthcoming theatralisation of his trial) as another mechanism of destabilisation and pressure on the Venezuelan government.” Still, Angosto-Ferrández argued, “it is evident that they continue to fail in their attempts at making the government collapse.”

While a clearer picture will develop as future events unfold under the pressure of the current U.S. economic blockade on Venezuela, Angosto-Ferrández says:


What is clear is that the U.S. government’s expectations of an immediate collapse of Venezuelan governance and institutionality are not going to happen even with the kidnapping of Maduro. Other than that, the U.S. may decide to continue with its illegal attacks, and perhaps even invade the country with the goal of controlling it in part — basically, enclaves that give access to oil and perhaps minerals.

Constantly paraded in front of the global media in a humiliating manner as he is being transported (it is illegal to publicly degrade prisoners of war under the Third Geneva Convention), Maduro has shown himself to be cordial with his captors while making a two-handed symbol — one hand forming a “V,” the other pointing toward it — meaning “Nosotros venceremos,” or “Together we will win”.

In front of a judge in New York on January 5, President Maduro in Spanish declared: “I am innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man.” He described himself a “prisoner of war” and said he was illegally captured.

The four charges that the U.S. has made against Maduro are narcoterrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machineguns and destructive devices.

Maduro has hired Barry Pollack — the distinguished U.S. trial lawyer who spent years representing Australian WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange — to join his legal team.

Meanwhile, with Maduro’s next court appearance set for March 17, the U.S. armada continues to sit off the coast of Venezuela while crushing economic sanctions are imposed on the Latin American country.


This article is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), and you are free to share and republish under the terms of the license.

Rodrigo Acuña
Rodrigo Acuña holds a PhD on Venezuelan foreign policy from Macquarie University. Together with journalist Nicolas Ford, last year he released his first documentary Venezuela: The Cost of Challenging an Empire. Rodrigo has been writing on Latin American politics for close to 20 years and publishes a newsletter on Latin America. He works the NSW Department of Education and can be followed on X (Twitter) @rodrigoac7.

EVANGELICAL ANTI-VAXXERS

Noah’s Ark museum visitors hit with 'highly contagious' measles exposure warning

Williamstown, KY, USA,10- 5-19: Ark Encounter features a full-size Noah’s Ark, built according to the dimensions given in the Bible.This modern engineering marvel amazes visitors.

David Badash

January 02, 2026

ALTERNET


Recent visitors to Ark Encounter, a Christian theme park that has drawn controversy over the years, are facing a new challenge. Kentucky health officials are warning of possible exposure to measles, after an unvaccinated individual reportedly visited the museum and a local hotel earlier this week.

“Measles is a highly contagious disease,” Northern Kentucky Health District Director for Health Jennifer Mooney, PhD, MPH, said in a press release, according to NBC affiliate WLWT. “Being around so many people at a place such as the Ark Encounter creates the potential for wide exposure. We want to make sure everyone who visited during that time is aware they may have been exposed to the measles, and they should monitor themselves for symptoms.”

“We also want to remind people that measles is preventable through the highly effective MMR (Measles, Mumps & Rubella) vaccine,” Dr. Mooney added. “The vaccine has been administered to millions of people over several decades and has a proven health and safety record.”

WDRB reported that “Measles, a highly contagious respiratory virus, can cause serious health problems, especially in young children, according to the CDC’s website. The virus spreads through the air after someone infected coughs or sneezes. It can then linger for up to two hours after the infected person leaves.”

According to the CDC, the U.S. saw 2065 cases of measles in 2025, up from 285 in 2024 and just 59 cases in 2023.

“Measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000. This was thanks to a very high percentage of people receiving the safe and effective measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. In recent years, however,” CDC reported, “U.S. national MMR coverage among kindergarteners has decreased and is now below the 95% coverage target—with much lower coverage in some communities.”

Hemant Mehta of The Friendly Atheist wrote that “Ark Encounter offers free tickets for children,” and warned of “the possibility that unvaccinated kids will pay the price because of one irresponsible person’s ignorance.”

“It’s already happened in South Carolina,” he noted, “where one particular church is now the epicenter of a measles outbreak.”

Outside White House, faith leaders mourn Renee Good, call for accountability

(RNS) — 'A system that relies on fear, force and death to manage human beings is not broken at the edges. It is broken and rotten at the core,' the Rev. Abhi Janamanchi said. 'Stop excusing violence. Start protecting life. Abolish ICE.'

Bishop Dwayne Royster, right, asks attendees to call their elected officials during a vigil assembled by interfaith network Faith in Action, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in front of the White House in Washington. (RNS photo/Aleja Hertzler-McCain)

Aleja Hertzler-McCain
January 9, 2026
RNS

WASHINGTON (RNS) — A group of more than 50 faith leaders gathered outside the White House Friday (Jan. 9) morning to mourn the death of Renee Nicole Good, who was shot and killed by a federal agent Wednesday on a residential street in Minneapolis. The interfaith gathering also called for accountability for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“This is what fear as policy looks like. It confirms what too many already know — that systems with enormous unchecked power can take life and then move on as if nothing has been broken,” the Rev. Abhi Janamanchi, senior minister at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Bethesda, Maryland, and an advisory board member of Hindus for Human Rights, said to the crowd, after describing the chest tightness and shortness of breath that he said many in immigrant neighborhoods are feeling.

The group, assembled by interfaith organizing network Faith in Action, echoed the demands of ISAIAH, their Minnesota affiliate: that Jonathan Ross, the ICE officer who shot Good, be charged and prosecuted, that federal authorities allow Minnesota investigators to take part in the investigation to ensure its integrity and that ICE cease its operations across the country.

“ A system that relies on fear, force and death to manage human beings is not broken at the edges. It is broken and rotten at the core,” Janamanchi said. “ Stop excusing violence. Start protecting life. Abolish ICE.”

The Rev. Starsky Wilson, the president and CEO of the Children’s Defense Fund, called the crowd’s attention to the stuffed animals in Good’s car that presumably belonged to her children.

“ Those implements of comfort were splattered with blood,” he said. “We come because this terror has reached our children,” he said, adding someone must “give account for the trauma to our children.”

A bullet hole is seen in the windshield as law enforcement officers work the scene of a shooting involving federal law enforcement agents, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)

“ When we think of this past year in Minneapolis, we feel like it’s an attack on childhood,” Wilson said, mentioning the detentions of parents and the Trump administration’s threats to funding that supports children.

RELATED: Minneapolis clergy exposed to pepper spray after rushing to scene of deadly ICE shooting

The religious leaders, who were largely Protestant Christians, also connected Good’s death to the violence of other ICE operations and actions taken by the Trump administration, including strikes in Nigeria and the military operation in Venezuela that captured Nicolás Maduro, where the Venezuelan government has said more than 100 people were killed. At least nine people have been shot by ICE since September.

“God is not neutral about violence. God is not neutral about state power,” said the Rev. Cassandra Gould, political director for Faith in Action. “God is also not a God of silence, and neither is the church.”

Bishop Dwayne Royster, the executive director of Faith in Action, has been coming to the White House every Wednesday over the past few months. He told the crowd he kept returning to the White House because “somebody’s gotta hold Donald Trump accountable for all the evil that’s happening in this country.

“I  pray that no peace comes into that place until they do right by the people of God,” he said. “ I pray that they can’t sleep at night until they do right by the people of God.”

Faith leaders join a vigil organized by Faith in Action, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in front of the White House in Washington. (RNS photo/Aleja Hertzler-McCain)

Faith in Action advocates in 24 states through 40 affiliate organizations, as well as 13 countries throughout the world, Royster said.

They began to sound the alarm about the Trump administration’s planned mass deportation campaign a week before his 2025 inauguration in a Newark, New Jersey, day of prayer and dialogue hosted by Catholic Cardinal Joseph Tobin, and they have continued to carry out immigration advocacy throughout his first year.

 Through Good’s death, the Rev. Holly Jackson, associate conference minister for the Central Atlanta Conference of the United Church of Christ, told attendees that the state wanted to discourage such efforts.

“ They want us to be scared and to give up. They want us to turn in our neighbors. They want us to cower when they come knocking on our doors,” Jackson said. “ They want us to worship a God of white supremacy and stop preaching about the dignity and worth of every human being. They want us to deny that this is a land built by immigrants where justice and equality are supposed to be for all.”

But she said, “ in Renee’s name and in the name of countless others whose lives and families have been destroyed, we cannot and we will not give up.”

Two attendees of the vigil, The Rev. Stephanie Vader, senior pastor of Capitol Hill United Methodist Church, and the Rev. Rachel Landers Vaagenes, pastor of Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church, told RNS they had attended to “make hope visible” and represent their faith values.

It’s just one way the two congregations have been responding to the moment, which includes providing food, clothing and toys to immigrants, as well as accompanying them to immigration appointments, the pastors told RNS.

The Rev. Julio Hernandez, who leads Faith in Action Washington-area affiliate Congregation Action Network, spoke about the budget increase for immigration enforcement that has led to an increase in immigration agents in U.S. streets.

In the U.S., he said, “ the less pigment one carries, the more human one is deemed to be,” and the country “ has poured billions of dollars into capturing, detaining and terrorizing those who do not fit this narrow definition of belonging.”

But he countered, “ This tapestry of prayer, practice and presence is stronger than any wall, deeper than any border and more truthful than any system built on fear.”

In one of many prayers at the vigil, the Rev. Audrey Price, the interim pastor of the United Church of Christ of Seneca Valley, prayed, “Strengthen your church for such a time as this. Strip us of the comfort that numbs compassion. Deliver us from neutrality that disguises itself as peace. Break the chains of fear that keep us quiet while injustice speaks boldly in the streets.”

'She could have been any of us': Faith leaders mourn Renee Good in Minneapolis

MINNEAPOLIS (RNS) — 'It's all just too much, but my faith requires me to show up,' said the Rev. Dana Neuhauser.

Clergy members sing the hymn “We Rise" at a memorial honoring Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer, near the site of the shooting in Minneapolis, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (RNS photo/Jack Jenkins)

Jack Jenkins
January 9, 2026
RNS


MINNEAPOLIS (RNS) — Earlier this week, the intersection of 34th Street and Portland Avenue was a chaotic scene of violence and tears. A mangled maroon Honda Pilot sat crushed against a telephone pole as its driver, Renee Good, lay dying after being shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. Bystanders, including a woman who identified herself as Good’s wife, screamed and sobbed.

Days later, the vehicle and ICE agents are gone. But the tears are not, and neither is the outrage.

On Friday morning (Jan. 9), dozens of mourners and faith leaders gathered at the same intersection for an impromptu memorial — one of multiple in the area — for Good. As neighbors and dignitaries such as U.S. Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., shuffled carefully over a patch of ice stretching alongside the growing mountain of flowers, candles and photos, three clergy members belted a rendition of the hymn “We Rise.”

Good’s killing by a federal agent has kicked off a wave of protests across the country. And while President Donald Trump’s administration has insisted the ICE agent who shot her was acting in self-defense, Minnesotans gathered at Good’s memorial who saw video footage of the incident were unconvinced and frustrated by the continued actions of ICE and Department of Homeland Security agents enacting the president’s mass deportation agenda across the city.

“We’re gathered because somebody was murdered by agents of the government,” the Rev. Dana Neuhauser, a United Methodist minister who sang with the group, said in an interview. “But we’ve been showing up in a variety of ways because our neighbors are being snatched. Parents being snatched in front of the school.”

She added, “It’s all just too much, but my faith requires me to show up.”

People gather around a makeshift memorial honoring Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer, near the site of the shooting in Minneapolis, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (RNS photo/Jack Jenkins)

Standing nearby was a man named James, who declined to have his last name published. James said he lives in the house directly in front of the memorial and witnessed the immediate aftermath of the shooting. He said he was angry about the government’s assessment of the shooting, which has included labeling Good as a domestic terrorist and accusing her of weaponizing her vehicle against an agent.

“She was not the problem here,” James said. “She is the victim 100%. And this community is a victim.”

A person of faith with a range of spiritual influences, James said he has tried to remain “strong for others” amid the outpouring of grief, but found himself profoundly moved when a group of faith leaders held a press conference in front of his house the day before.

“You could just see the raw emotion on their face, when these pastors and chaplains and everybody were speaking, and it started to get to me,” James said, his voice cracking.

Around the corner from the memorial, another group gathered in front of Park Avenue United Methodist Church, the nearest house of worship to the scene of the shooting. The Rev. Jennifer Ikoma-Motzko, a pastor at the church, opened what was described as a “solidarity service” by reflecting on her background as a Japanese American who grew up hearing stories of Japanese internment during World War II.

The Rev. Jennifer Ikoma-Motzko speaks during a solidarity service at Park Avenue United Methodist Church, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Minneapolis. (RNS photo/Jack Jenkins)

Her family, Ikoma-Motzko said, “saw personally what happens when executive order, when government weaponizes fear against its own people.” She recalled how her grandmother would send her stories and even comic books about the experience of internment.

“It astounds me and it grieves me to carry out her legacy consistently year after year, and even today to see that same sort of fear and violence happening here in our communities,” Ikoma-Motzko said.

She was echoed by the faith leaders back at the memorial, such as the Rev. Ashley Horan, the vice president for programs and ministries at the Unitarian Universalist Association who also lives just a block from where Good was killed. Horan was one of several people who rushed to the scene shortly after the incident, live-streaming as bystanders confronted DHS officials who responded with tear gas and pepper spray.

“I’m here because this is our city, and this is how we show up,” she said. “We have always taken care of each other because we know that the government is not doing that for us.”

Horan said Good was reportedly operating as an “observer” when she was killed — a practice that has sprung up around the country since the president began his mass deportation campaign. Observers often follow and monitor ICE agents in public places, blowing whistles to alert nearby people and filming officials to document their activities.

It’s a practice taken up by a wide range of advocates — including, Horan said, clergy like herself.

“She could have been any of us,” Horan said, referring to Good.

Observers still appeared to be operating throughout Minneapolis on Friday. Earlier that morning, the Rev. Susie Hayward — a United Church of Christ pastor who was among those shoved by DHS officials and hit with pepper spray the day Good was killed (Jan. 7) — pointed out a person with binoculars standing on a street corner in a nearby neighborhood. The person, she said, was an observer attempting to identify ICE agents in their cars, as the enforcement officials often operate in unmarked vehicles.

Nearby at the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport, faith leaders joined union members and advocates for a demonstration. Standing in front of a banner reading “Minnesotans were abducted here,” the Rev. Paul Graham, an Evangelical Lutheran Church of America pastor, condemned the detention and deportation of airport workers by ICE, as well as deportation flights operating out of the facility.

“Love of neighbor is essential for our communities to thrive and for us to live together as God intends,” Graham said. “The ICE activity in Minnesota is a violation of my faith as I understand it.”

He also demanded ICE leave the state of Minnesota “immediately,” and for the ICE agent who killed Good “to be held accountable.”

The Rev. Paul Graham speaks during a demonstration at Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. (RNS photo/Jack Jenkins)

“We call for peace and justice in our communities,” Graham said. Moments later, the airport group, which consisted of dozens of people, began singing “We Shall Overcome.”

Afterward, Graham talked with reporters alongside Rabbi Eva Cohen, who leads Or Emet, a local Humanistic Jewish synagogue.

“In Jewish tradition, when a person dies we say may their memory be a blessing,” Cohen said. “So thinking about Renee Good — a good person, a decent person, a mother, someone who cared about her community and standing up — may the loss of her life not be in vain. May her memory inspire us to continue to peacefully stand up for what is right.”

RELATED: How one conservative Christian family is pushing back against ICE

Cohen also said her young daughter, who was playing at her feet, was with her at the demonstration because of the actions of immigration agents. Schools in the city have been closed since Wednesday, when U.S. Border Patrol officers arrived at a local high school property and began tackling people and releasing chemical weapons on bystanders. According to Minnesota Public Radio, at least two school staff members were handcuffed during the incident.

“Many families of children at my daughter’s school are very frightened,” Cohen said.

Graham said raids at schools have impacted his daughter as well, who teaches first grade in the city. He said his daughter spent the day Good was killed “on lockdown” with her students and has personally observed people being detained.

“She witnessed a cafeteria worker hauled out of the school,” Graham said. “These things just should not be normalized, they’re not OK, and we need to keep saying that over and over and over again.”

Opinion

Neighborliness is a lived theology in Minnesota

(RNS) — The simple concept of caring for those in your proximity holds religious resonance.

People gather around a makeshift memorial honoring Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer the day before, near the site of the shooting in Minneapolis, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Najeeba Syeed
January 9, 2026
RNS

(RNS) — “I realized it was that Renee Good, our kids are in school together,” read a text I received in the last 24 hours from a friend in our Minneapolis community. I did not know Renee personally, but I feel the pain and sadness that’s now a lasting part of our city.

That is precisely the point of the lived theology of neighborliness, something uniquely Minnesotan that presses us to show up for each other. I do not need to know you to love you and show compassion; knowing you are my neighbor is enough.

This interconnectedness is reflected in the highest levels of our state government. In a press conference yesterday, Gov. Tim Walz said, “I saw it last night, I saw it during George Floyd, I’ve seen it throughout our history, when things look really bleak, it was Minnesotans first who held that line for the nation … to rise up as neighbors, and simply say we can look out for one another.” He connected this bond of neighborliness as a cornerstone for a healthy, thriving democracy that holds us together when we differ and disagree.

The simple concept of caring for those in your proximity holds religious resonance. And even for atheist Minnesotans, it holds an ethic of care that encompasses the unknown neighbor.

The late sociologist Robert N. Bellah gives us a directive for charting a course as a nation: “A chance for another course, another role for America in the world, depends ultimately on the reform of our own culture. A culture of unfettered individualism combined with absolute world power is an explosive mixture. A few religious voices have been raised to say so. The question of the hour is whether our fellow citizens, much less our leaders, are ready to hear such voices.”

Minnesota has the highest number of refugees per capita in the U.S. This hospitality is based on theologies of welcoming the stranger, enacted by Christian and other religious relief services dedicated to resettling refugees who flee violence and persecution. It’s a familiar story, and a truly American one.

Taking a neighborly approach to helping is not dependent on the legal immigration status of any community member. Describing people as “illegal” creates a dehumanized class in which withholding basic human rights becomes the norm. In Minneapolis, our close-knit communities already know this. In fact, Renee Good moved to the South Minneapolis area because she was seeking community, and her community is grieving her collectively.

Our ability to create bonds of humanity creates an empathy grounded in action. Embodied empathy is the basis of activism — it’s when you put your body on the line in non-violent action to support the continued living of another. Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas tied human interaction to our ability to act together for the dignity of another.

We see this time and again with leaders coming together to bear witness to the human rights abuses against immigrants, who are, at their core, our neighbors. Examples abound of projects across the Twin Cities of people organizing to provide food for neighborhood children, offering accompaniment to immigration court and standing witness as people are detained. We are operating out of this common category of neighbor, and in this day and age of toxic division, the simple category of “humanity” holds people together and fills them with courage.

One of the famous sayings of Prophet Muhammad is, “He is not a believer whose stomach is full while his neighbor to his side is starving.” And in Islam and in many other religious traditions, we do not typecast the neighbor as having to represent one’s own religion, race, national origin or history. At an interfaith meeting about a month ago at a church, convened by a pastor and imam concerned about anti-Somali rhetoric, a rabbi said to our group, “I am here because what is happening to your community happened to me in the past, and my Jewish teachings pressed me to be here.”

People are showing up, across faith communities, caring for one another in material ways because they see the neighbor as someone who is in proximity. Yesterday, as I was checking in with faith leaders around the area, an imam expressed deep sympathy for Renee and her family. He did not know her, share her belief system nor reflect her ethnic heritage. None of those connections mattered, though. Tears have been flowing for her from every faith community and from people without a faith community. The site of her killing is now a sacred one.

Beyond Minnesota, I often say the “flyover” part of our country is leading on interfaith action and care because these states are places where you still know your neighbor. In them, interfaith relations are building what I call casserole (or hot-dish) hospitality. Maybe it’s a samosa or shawarma plate, but hosting, holding space for and being in community are natural, intentional parts of the Midwest culture and ethos.

People across our state and region have made the practice of neighborliness a way of life. Maybe we are a test case for the future of America — one in which we could choose a future based on compassion.

(Najeeba Syeed is the El-Hibri endowed chair and executive director of the Interfaith Institute at Augsburg University in Minneapolis. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)

Opinion

Trump's lies are killing us: The deadly consequences of big and little lies everywhere

(RNS) — If we trace the chain of events that caused ICE agents to be deployed to Minneapolis in the first place, they are anchored in Trump’s lies.

People gather for a vigil after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a woman earlier in the day, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn)

Robert P. Jones
January 9, 2026
RNS

(RNS) — During the opening days of his first term, Trump achieved something remarkable: according to The New York Times, “He said something untrue, in public, every day for the first 40 days of his presidency.” His spokesperson, Kellyanne Conway, coined the Orwellian term “alternative facts” to try to justify Trump’s insistence, despite clear evidence to the contrary, that the crowd size at his inauguration was larger than Obama’s. By the time he was finally forced from office four years later, The Washington Post had logged 30,573 times that Trump had uttered false or misleading claims.

Trump’s lies, both big and small, have been corrosive to the foundations of civil society and democracy, which depend on a shared sense of reality. But the events of the first days of 2026 also show they are deadly. They are literally killing us.

Given Trump’s inclination to dishonesty, his authoritarian leanings and his inability to admit failure, it’s no surprise he would respond to electoral defeat with what became known as The Big Lie: his false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him. What is remarkable is how willing his followers, including his stalwart white Christian supporters, were to embrace this lie.

On Jan. 6, 2021, Trump’s endless “stop the steal” appeals produced the inevitable violent result in an attempted insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Public opinion polls confirmed Trump’s hold on the minds of his followers. Despite Trump losing all 62 lawsuits claiming fraud in the 2020 election, and even after witnessing the violence at the Capitol, fully two-thirds of Republicans and 61% of white evangelical protestants said they believed the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.

The Big Lie has had remarkable staying power among the MAGA base. Trump turned affirmation of the Big Lie into a loyalty test for administration appointments in his second term. And as they were casting their ballots in the 2024 election, PRRI data revealed that majorities of Republicans and white evangelicals (62% and 56% respectively), compared to only 31% of the public, continued to believe this false claim.


“The 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump.” (Graphic courtesy of PRRI)

Just this week, ahead of the fifth anniversary of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump installed his Big Lie onto an ominous-looking page at the official White House website. The page includes intentionally glitchy black and white photos of the members of Congress who served on the bipartisan “House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol,” while featuring cheery color photos of insurrectionists — several holding stuffed animals and their kids — who are labeled “patriots.” The narrative on that page turns the truth of that day on its head, reasserting the Big Lie and blaming the Democrats for the violence:


The Democrats masterfully reversed reality after January 6, branding peaceful patriotic protesters as “insurrectionists” and framing the event as a violent coup attempt orchestrated by Trump—despite no evidence of armed rebellion or intent to overthrow the government. In truth, it was the Democrats who staged the real insurrection by certifying a fraud-ridden election, ignoring widespread irregularities, and weaponizing federal agencies to hunt down dissenters….

These distortions of reality are not the first to happen on government websites under the Trump regime (see the widespread erasure of the contributions of women and people of color across various agency websites), but they are the most flagrant.

They represent a new stage in the backsliding of America away from democracy. This desecration of the truth is a signal that the White House and the U.S. government, under this regime, have now officially become the propaganda machine for a mythomaniac and would-be dictator.

It is a mark of our time, in this second coming of the Trump regime, that Trump’s lies are no longer surprising. His lying is so expected that I doubt we’ll see any media outlet attempting to quantify them as they did during his first term. Today, the lies aren’t just spewing from Trump’s mouth during rants at rallies or late-night insomnia-induced tirades on social media. They are now propagating on official government websites from the Oval Office to the Department of Homeland Security to the National Park Service to the Centers for Disease Control. We now must accept that nothing we read on official government websites can be trusted.



These cynical attacks on truth are also deadly. On Jan. 6, 2021, Trump’s Big Lie resulted in the deaths of one U.S. Capitol Police officer, along with four insurrectionists. It also contributed to the deaths of four other U.S. Capitol Police officers, who took their own lives after the experience of being violently assaulted by their fellow citizens.

And just yesterday, the evidence suggests that Renee Nicole Good — a U.S. citizen and mother of three — was shot and killed in cold blood by an ICE officer while trying to drive away. Trump is lying about the encounter. “She behaved horribly,” Mr. Trump asserted in an interview with The New York Times. “And then she ran him over. She didn’t try to run him over. She ran him over.” The video evidence — independently analyzed and verified by Bellingcat, The New York Times Visual Investigation Team and The Washington Post’s Visual Forensic team — clearly contradicts Trump’s claims.

(Screen grab from video by Caitlin Callenson, Minneapolis.)

While some media outlets continue to hedge, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is mincing no words. In a passionate and courageous public response, he said, “This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying, getting killed … What I can tell you is the narrative that this was just done in self-defense is a garbage narrative that is not true … It has no truth, and it needs to be stated very clearly.”

If we trace the chain of events that caused ICE agents to be deployed to Minneapolis in the first place, they are anchored in Trump’s lies. Trump has openly claimed that Minneapolis is being targeted because of its large Somali population, which is predominately Black and Muslim (a largely refugee population, by the way, that was assisted with resettlement by Lutheran Social Services with government support). At a cabinet meeting in December, as more than 2,000 ICE agents were first being deployed to Minnesota, Trump went on a racist screed, describing Somalia as a country that “stinks and we don’t want them in our country.” He went on to compare Somalis to “garbage” and falsely claimed that Somali gangs had “taken over” Minnesota and were “roving the streets looking for ‘prey.’”

We can trace a direct line from those racist lies by our president to the death of Renee Good. And to the 14 other shootings by ICE officers that have happened since late July. Just yesterday, ICE agents reportedly shot two more people at a traffic stop in Portland, Oregon, and then fled the scene before local police arrived. And I haven’t even mentioned the funerals for dozens of people, including civilians, killed in American strikes on Venezuela. Without Trump’s lies, all of these people would be with their families today.

There will be more of all of this to come in 2026: lies that beget violence and death, which beget more lies. We’ll need to grasp that living out the simple Christian dictum “the truth shall set you free” will be a dangerous task in Trump’s 2026 America.

With an ICE budget of $170 billion that was designated in Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” (a figure large enough to effectively end homelessness in America, by the way), Trump’s lies are being manifested in the president’s own shock troops, guns and concentration camps. And they are, eventually, coming for all of us if we do not rise up en masse in the name of truth this year.

(Robert P. Jones is president and founder of the Public Religion Research Institute and the author, most recently, of “The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future.” This article first appeared on his Substack newsletter. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of RNS.)

Trump's attacks on Renee Good part of MAGA's 'war on empathy': analysis

U.S. President Donald Trump reacts to a question about the the fatal shooting in Minnesota, in which a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 9, 2026. 

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Adam Lynch

January 09, 2026 

ALTERNET

Slate Senior Writer Christina Cauterucci says the right is waging a "war on empathy," and the fatal shooting of Minneapolis mother Renee Good shows just how close they’ve come to winning.

“Among their base, today’s GOP is trying to drum out any natural impulses toward compassion, such that there is no imperative to feel — let alone express — any dismay at the killing of an ideological adversary. If Good wasn’t on Trump’s side, the party line goes, she got what was coming to her,” said Cauterucci. “The rush to defend Ross is more than a political move to justify Trump’s personal militia run amok. It’s another round in the right wing’s mounting war on empathy.”

Influential Christian conservatives have been proclaiming empathy as toxic and sinful, arguing that using caring for others as a means to sway righteous Americans toward liberal causes, such as eradicating racism or feeding the poor. It’s the argument that makes letting 500,000 children die worldwide more palatable, in addition to “Medicaid cuts, SNAP freezes, ICE raids, refugee bans, and forced childbirth.”

She also noted that Tesla and SpaceX CEO (and Trump donor) Elon Musk calls empathy “the fundamental weakness of Western civilization.”

“In this worldview, anyone who poses a danger to those within the inner circles of human worthiness does not warrant much empathy. And it’s easy enough to argue that just about anyone is a threat to one’s family, town, or country, thus exempting them from our responsibilities of care,” said Cauterucci, who named examples such as “a drag queen” or “a liberal judge.” This, she said, could also apply to “someone wearing a Zohran Mamdani T-shirt at the grocery store” or, more recently, “a concerned Minnesotan who stopped to film the agents plucking people out of her community.”

“Once a person is no longer worthy of empathy, they become a justifiable casualty in service to any political aim,” Cauterucci argued. “There is no need to consider proportionality; killing someone for distracting ICE agents is just as defensible as ending a life on a battlefield. From the right’s perspective, Good’s political views made her fair game, so her gruesome, untimely death by the gun of a masked federal agent need not be met with outrage or remorse. Any empathy for her or her family imperils a greater project: cleansing Minneapolis of immigrants.”

From there, Cauterucci said there is a very short distance from “believing someone’s death is unworthy of mourning to believing they deserved to die.” And eventually to “inciting more death.”

“Every falsehood spun by Trump and his acolytes is an attempt to degrade their followers’ capacity for empathy past the point of flinching at an innocent woman’s death,” Cauterucci. “The goal is to diminish the ghastliness of Good’s death, and with it, the value of her life.”

Read Cauterucci's full slate column at this link (subscription required).

JD Vance Says Americans Should Actually Thank ICE Agent Who Killed Renee Good

“This is a guy who’s actually done a very, very important job for the United States of America,” Vance said.

By Sharon Zhang ,

Truthout

January 9, 2026

Vice President JD Vance speaks during a press briefing in the Brady Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, D.C. on January 8, 2026.Mandel NGAN / AFP via Getty Images

Vice President JD Vance said on Thursday that Americans outraged by the killing of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis should actually be thanking, not criticizing, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer who shot the 37-year-old mother of three.

In a press conference in the White House the day after Good was killed, Vance repeated the lie that Good hit the officer, identified as Jonathan Ross, with her car. He said that Good’s death was a “tragedy of her own making,” while the real victim is Ross, who he painted as an essential agent of the law.

“This is a guy who’s actually done a very, very important job for the United States of America,” Vance said, asking for prayers for Ross and condemning the media for reports on the killing. “He’s been assaulted, he’s been attacked, he’s been injured because of it. He deserves a debt of gratitude.”

Vance referred to an incident from June, in which court documents say Ross broke the car window of a man who wasn’t complying with a traffic stop and reached inside. The man tried to drive away, with Ross’s arm reportedly “stuck” inside the car, and Ross was dragged, requiring stitches.

“So you think maybe he is a little bit sensitive about somebody ramming him with an automobile?” Vance said, suggesting that Ross’s past trauma justifies him killing Good, the latter of whom he painted as “a victim of left-wing ideology.”

Trump Blames Woman Killed by ICE Agent in Minneapolis for Her Own Death
Analysis of the incident shows the ICE agent was in no real danger before opening fire on Renee Nicole Good. By Chris Walker , Truthout  January 8, 2026

During the press conference, Vance also said that Ross has “absolute immunity” to act under his job. Experts dismissed this as patently untrue.

But it suggests that Vance believes that not even the slightest amount of accountability — not even just public criticism — of Ross is acceptable, considering that the vice president believes that Ross shouldn’t be prosecuted for his actions. Nothing short of total fealty to Ross is sufficient, Vance’s comments seemingly suggest.

Reporting has found that Good was a poet, wife, and a devout Christian. She was on the way home from dropping off her youngest child at elementary school when Ross killed her.

Analyses from multiple news outlets, including The New York Times, NBC, The Washington Post, and more, have undercut the administration’s narrative that Ross was in danger. They have found that Good was, in fact, moving away from Ross when he shot her — and, further, have shown Good was trying to wave officers by, and that officers instead tried to stop her, with Ross purposefully positioning himself in front of her running car.

Further, CNN reported on Thursday that new footage of the shooting showed that Good had arrived minutes before ICE officers did, and wasn’t blocking any cars from being able to proceed on the street. It also showed that Ross was easily able to move out of the way of the car.

Critics have also noted, however, that Good’s use of lethal force was unjustified regardless of the details of the incident.

Trump's DHS has 'repeatedly been caught' in outright lies: analysis

President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in Florida on July 1, 2025 (DHS photo by Tia Dufour/Flickr)

Adam Lynch 

January 09, 2026 |

  ALTERNET

MS NOW data journalist Philip Bump says the public should no longer take the word of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) seriously anymore.

“The skepticism one ought to bring to any pronouncement of [President Donald] Trump should similarly be applied to those who work for and defend him. Particularly when — as in the case of the Department of Homeland Security — those officials have repeatedly been caught in fabrications of their own,” Bump said.

Trump is a liar, said Bump. And he hires liars to work for him, even in federal departments where credibility is central to function. This includes the justice department.

“The president has repeatedly demonstrated a willingness in the past decade to make false claims that impugn his opponents or celebrate his allies — or both,” said Bump. “This approach has permeated the government, carried into individual agencies by the loyal allies he’s installed as their leaders.

The Department of Justice offers countless examples of uttering blatant falsehoods. Trump officials claim DHS is targeting immigrants who have committed crimes, but Bump said the number of detainees “arrested by ICE without convictions or pending criminal charges rose from 842 on Dec. 1, 2024, to 21,892 on Nov. 30, 2025 — an astounding 2,500 percent increase.”

When the Cato Institute reported that only 5 percent of ICE detainees have convictions for violent crimes, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin claimed their pie chart was a lie. But when a Cato rep posted a DHS document confirming the data, McLaughlin knew better than to reply, and didn’t. McLaughlin has also lied that the U.S. does not arrest or deport U.S. citizens in defiance of proof. In fact, in November online news site Zeteo posted a list of seven incidents of McLaughlin being caught making false claims. That list did not include the department’s false claim that a U.S. mother shot and killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis was a “domestic terrorist” who tried to use her vehicle as a “weapon” despite video evidence proving otherwise.

Even federal judges have acknowledged the lapsing credibility of the DOJ, with U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis issuing a 233-page November ruling relating to a lawsuit over the excessive use of force in Chicago, by ICE agents.

“While Defendants may argue that the Court identifies only minor inconsistencies, every minor inconsistency adds up, and at some point, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to believe almost anything that Defendants represent,” Ellis wrote, adding in the same document that Trump’s department officials are “simply not credible.”

“One might wonder why agents of the federal government would consistently misrepresent the actions of their agency and its employees,” said Bump. “Some of it might be explained by their desire to show allegiance to their workforce. Some might be ascribed to errors or incomplete information. But we cannot assume that this is the sole motivation when the government agency at issue is part of the Trump administration.”

Read the MS NOW report at this link.

Opinion

After Renee Good, are you really going to keep pretending Trump and Vance are pro-life?

(RNS) — The deeds of the Trump administration have stood in sharp contrast to the reassuring words they have offered to religious believers.

Vice President JD Vance speaks as President Donald Trump listens during a meeting in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Steven P. Millies
January 9, 2026
RNS

(RNS) — Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross on Wednesday (Jan. 7), at the site of an ICE enforcement in Minneapolis. She was shot three times while driving away from Agent Ross.

“We vow to celebrate and support every heroic mother who chooses life.” — Vice President JD Vance, 2025, March for Life

Ms. Good was a U.S. citizen and an observer, one of countless people in American communities who have sacrificed their convenience and put their own safety at risk to ensure their neighbors might feel a little more secure during the Trump administration’s deportation campaign.

“We will always stand for the sanctity of life and protect the most innocent and vulnerable in our society.” — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, 2021

The enforcement action that cost Ms. Good her life was a part of the Department of Homeland Security’s “Operation Metro Surge,” which began on Jan. 5. It is too soon to know who the 150 or so detainees are who have been swept up by the 2,000 agents deployed to the Twin Cities. But the New York Times reports 70% of those detained by ICE since deportations began have no criminal convictions, and ICE operations have grabbed an unknown but not insubstantial number of U.S. citizens or others in the U.S. legally.

“I was saved by God to make America great again.” — President Donald Trump, 2025 Inaugural Address

This second Trump administration came to power on the strength of overwhelming support from Roman Catholics and other Christians who are motivated, pro-life voters. The support of important Catholic and evangelical leaders has been critical to make this second term possible.

“I was proud to be the most pro-life president in U.S. history.” — Donald Trump, 2022

No matter how clear the Bible is about welcoming the stranger — a theme to which the Old Testament returns over 90 times — there is some considerable, partisan division among Christians about immigration policy. Yet protecting human life, we can feel sure, has been something Christians of all stripes have generally found it easy to agree about.

“Every human life is a gift to the world.” — President Donald Trump, 2021

People gather for a vigil after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a woman earlier in the day, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn)

That is why, quite naturally, the tone coming from the Trump administration since Ms. Good’s life was taken by an ICE agent has been so jarring. President Trump described Ms. Good as behaving “viciously” and gives an impression that she had forfeited her right to her own life.

“Reverence for every human life, one of the values for which our Founding Fathers fought, defines the character of our Nation.” — President Donald Trump, 2018, Proclamation for National Sanctity of Human Life Day

Republicans who have long championed protecting human life have said shocking things. Texas congressman and Senate candidate Wesley Hunt suggested that “you get to keep your life” only if you obey government. That’s un-American. But it also does not sound much like the Rep. Hunt who has previously championed the sanctity of life.

“I am pro-life.” — Representative Wesley Hunt, June 20, 2019

Perhaps strangest of all is a zealous Roman Catholic like Vice President JD Vance, whose absence of sympathy for Ms. Good and her loved ones has been shocking. He called Ms. Good a “deranged leftist,” as though she were a member of some other, less worthy species without any sign that his Catholic faith found her killing in the least way to be problematic.

“Christianity, Imago Dei, the idea that we are all made in the image of our Creator, means that we must respect the free will of every single person.” — Vice President JD Vance, Oct. 30, 2025

When JD Vance speaks about unborn human beings and voices his opposition to abortion, he is uncompromisingly clear.

“We march to protect the unborn; we march to proclaim and live out the sacred truth that every single child is a miracle and a gift from God.” — Vice President JD Vance, 2025 March for Life

Ms. Good once was a child. She was born. She grew into an adult whose free will led her to observe ICE enforcements. Yet, where her killing is concerned, the vice president gives no sign of his respect for her free will or her life. Neither does he show any compassion for her family. Simply because he disagrees with her, he seems to say her killing was acceptable.

“President Trump will be the most pro-family, most pro-life American president of our lifetimes.” — Vice President JD Vance, 2025, March for Life

The Roman Catholic Church to which Vance belongs is unambiguous about deportations, authoritatively calling them “infamies” and a “supreme dishonor to the Creator.” Catholics can have good-faith disagreements about the best way to have a just immigration policy. But the inhumanity and violence (that includes denying rights to exercise religious belief) accompanying this administration’s immigration enforcement is not something Catholics should see very differently.

“I stand for everything that you stand for and that the church stands for.” — Donald Trump, 2024, interview with Raymond Arroyo (EWTN)

What is happening now — from masked agents acting with impunity to inhumane detention conditions to the shootings in our streets — was all foreseeable before so many religiously motivated voters gave Trump their support again.

“God has given you a sound mind, make wise decisions, use discernment and everything, but above all he’s called us to love each other.” — Gov. Kristi Noem, 2024, Speech at the Faith & Freedom Coalition

Even if the first Trump administration that ended with the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol weren’t enough to tell us what a vote for Trump and Vance would mean, the 2024 campaign was clear about their intentions when it came to immigrants and deportations, saying immigrants have “poisoned the blood of our country” and that his administration would “stop the invasion very quickly.”

“Every person is worth protecting. And above all, we know that every human soul is divine, and every human life — born and unborn — is made in the holy image of Almighty God.” — President Donald Trump, 2020, March for Life

Mass deportations — a phrase that conjures the darkest chapters in human history — was their goal. That has included people who came to the United States for protection, seeking asylum. There always were limits on who a second Trump administration would protect. Now we know a conscientious citizen like Renee Good, whose memory Trump again insulted today, was beyond their care.

“Today, we focus our attention on the love and protection each person, born and unborn, deserves.” — President Donald Trump, 2018, Proclamation for National Sanctity of Human Life Day

For too long, the deeds of the Trump administration have stood in sharp contrast to the reassuring words they have offered to religious believers. It has become impossible to ignore, but it should not surprise us. Years ago, Trump wrote in The Art of the Deal about telling people what they “want to believe” in order to get what he wants. The question for religious voters now is what they actually believe. So much effort went into electing Trump. The costs and the real meaning of all that no longer can be denied — maybe even by Trump.

“I think it’s horrible to watch. No, I hate to see it.” — President Donald Trump, Jan. 8, 2026, shown video of his administration’s agent killing Renee Good

Will it make any difference?