Posted on 07/18/2025 3:01:55 AM PDT by Morgana
RNS) — The United Church of Christ passed a resolution at its General Synod this week denouncing what it called “domestic terrorism” by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and accusing the Trump administration of weaponizing the Constitution.
The denomination’s criticism focused on immigration raids “carried out by ICE agents working without uniforms, wearing masks or refusing to identify themselves.”
The resolution of witness, titled “Responding to the federal government’s attack on immigrants, migrants, and refugees,” also officially calls for the UCC to divest from “for-profit private detention businesses,” naming three such businesses — CoreCivic, GEO Group, and Management and Training Corp. — without limiting churches’ divestments to those companies.
The measure was approved by a vote of 627-8, with one abstention, at the UCC’s 35th biennial General Synod, which began Friday (July 11) and continued through Tuesday in Kansas City, Missouri. The resolution reaffirmed a prior resolution from the 31st synod, in 2017, “On Becoming an Immigrant Welcoming Church.”
The measure was filed as an emergency motion due to the current immigration crackdown by the Trump administration. It was presented to the synod by the Rev. Clara Sims, assistant minister at First Congregational UCC in Albuquerque, New Mexico, representing the Southwest Conference.
Sims, 28, told Religion News Service that the resolution arose from discussions among members of her church who view seriously the call to be an immigrant welcoming community. First Congregational UCC has created an apartment at the church to house immigrants and its members offer food and other aid to immigrants arriving on buses from El Paso, Texas, as they are shuttled by U.S. Border Patrol to destinations around the country.
“Our faith has always called us into spaces of risk on behalf of the vulnerable,” said Sims, “especially when people are being made vulnerable by really corrupt systems of power.”
Sims’ church is part of the UCC’s National Collaborative on Immigration, a group of immigrant welcoming churches, many of them in the border region. After input from other churches in the collaborative, the resolution was adopted by the Southwest Conference and presented to the synod as an emergency resolution to fast-track a vote.
“There was a pretty significant concern surrounding human rights violations that have been going on in these detention centers,” said Abigail Cipparone, domestic policy advocate for the UCC’s Office of Public Policy and Advocacy in Washington.
In addition to affirming the 2017 resolution, the current synod’s resolution encourages churches to “pray with and serve immigrants, migrants and refugees, as well as speak prophetically, even as they face extreme threat by the federal government, as well as certain state and local governments, putting at risk the safety of their place of worship, their financial stability, and their very existence.”
But Cipparone said the resolution was particularly important “for the congregations all across the country that are already doing this work — that are welcoming immigrants in their worship services during a time when the sensitive-locations guidance has been lifted and now churches are a place where ICE raids could occur.”
“It is important for us to rededicate ourselves to protecting immigrants and refugees, also because of our call as Christians,” Cipparone added. “Because of our call to love our neighbor, to welcome those who are really struggling right now. It was really inspiring to see the synod come together in this vote. To see so many people really speak out against what we see as a violation of our Christian values, as a violation of our faith.”
ICE is going after lawbreakers and parasites who
hate America......a very noble unrewarding work.
Thank you, ICE.
👍👍👍👍👍
I think throwing illegals out would be the best job on the world.
I think throwing illegals out would be the best job on the world.
They even get paid for doing it.....chuckle.
ICE is going after lawbreakers and parasites who
hate America......a very noble unrewarding work. Thank you, ICE.
Would it be wrong of me to speculate if their minds would change if any of their wives or daughters were raped by illegals, or if other family members were killed? Would that be wrong?
ICE is enforcing the law. I haven’t heard of any proposals to change the law.
“ICE is going after lawbreakers and parasites...”
... going after lawbreakers and cowbird people.
“Brown-headed cowbirds don’t build their own nests or raise their young. Instead, females sneak into the nests of other bird species, lay their eggs, and then leave the host birds to incubate the eggs and raise the young cowbirds.”
“In some cases, cowbirds have been observed exhibiting “mafia behavior” where they destroy host nests if their eggs are removed. This behavior is thought to be a way to ensure the host birds continue to raise their eggs. “
(H/T to a FReeper whose name I can’t remember.)
I have dreams of being an ICE agent driving bus loads to the border.
Yup - gay people GUD - enforcing the laws and making sure the civilian populace is safe - bad.
Cute
Well, it’s just a matter of time before the United Church of Christ (and Catholic charities, too, while they’re at it) are declared domestic terrorists themselves for aiding and abetting and human trafficking of illegal aliens.
Arrest, charge, sue fully into bankruptcy, imprison, rinse, repeat.
The “christian” NGO’s undermining our Constitutional Republic’s rule of law have GOT to stop.
This isn’t John Brown vs. Slavery, it’s ending an invasion which is destroying our country’s economy.
And arrest Francis Fox Piven too, while you’re at it (if she’s still alive) as the ringleader in this conspiracy.
https://churchleaders.com/news/514949-united-church-of-christ-synod-denounces-ice-rns.html
They are NOT the “church” of Christ. They are the church of Satan. They revel in homosexual acts and depravity. It is an organization of the damned.
Folks, there’s always Congregationalism...
😇
The UCOC has long been an uber-liberal denomination that drop kicked scripture out the back door for the “vain philosophies of men” decades ago.
This cup of coffee is domestic terrorism
Wonder how much finding this “church” has lost and just how many of its members have personally taken responsibility to house and feed these “poor folks”😎
Libs driving followers away from the Church.
According to Christianity Today, 40% of the people leaving Mainline Denominations report they can no longer accept Radical Liberals controlling the Church hierarchy.
The Churches are literally driving away followers of Christ.
For years the UCC has meant nothing about Jesus or Christianity.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.