GRAPEVINE (RNS)—Normally more likely to voice support for President Donald Trump’s decisions, conservative Christian broadcasters expressed ambivalence about the White House’s resolve to bar The Associated Press from presidential events.

Speaking during a panel on “values-driven media” at the National Religious Broadcasters conference on Feb. 26, Cheryl Chumley, an opinion editor at The Washington Times, said she was “optimistic” after hearing the Trump administration was “booting a lot of the legacy media” out of the White House press corps and “opening the doors for alternative media.”

But fellow panelist Raymond Arroyo, a prominent host on the Catholic-focused Eternal World Television Network and occasional host of Fox News programs, disagreed, saying, “I’m not so sure I like that idea.”

Arroyo, who worked for AP early in his career, added later, “I would prefer seasoned reporters. A podcaster coming in, a comedian sitting in the chair once occupied by the AP, I don’t think that’s a good tradeoff.”

Arroyo said he once wrote for newsroom veteran Bob Novak, whom he described as “the dean of the Washington press corps.” He said Novak told him: “These people are your sources. They’re not your friends. Don’t forget that.”

“I never have,” Arroyo concluded. “When you get too close to the power of the source, it corrupts your vision.”

Dispute over what to call the Gulf

Earlier this month, the White House banned AP reporters from access to the Oval Office, Air Force One and events held at the White House. The reason cited was AP’s announcement it would continue to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by its traditional name, rather than the Gulf of America, the name Trump designated for it in a Feb. 9 executive order.

In a previous order, signed on Inauguration Day, Trump had directed the secretary of the Interior to “take all appropriate actions” to rename the gulf.

The AP updated its style guide soon thereafter to clarify that, while “acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen,” it plans to refer to the region as Gulf of Mexico.

In response, the White House blocked an AP reporter from covering certain Oval Office events, and on Friday AP filed a lawsuit in federal court to overturn the ban.

Some conservative outlets, including Fox News and Newsmax, have joined an effort to defend AP, signing a confidential letter addressed to the White House, according to Status News.

“The First Amendment prohibits the government from asserting control over how news organizations make editorial decisions. Any attempt to punish journalists for those decisions is a serious breach of this Constitutional protection,” the letter reads.

Change in press pool selection

The White House also announced it no longer would allow the White House Correspondents’ Association to decide which organizations can take part in the designated press pool on Air Force One and at other events that can accommodate only a few reporters.

A wider range of outlets, such as podcasts and streaming services, should be included in the pool, which traditionally draws only from major newspaper and TV outlets and wire services, the White House asserted.

That decision also was opposed by liberal and conservative-leaning outlets alike, with a Fox News White House reporter blasting the decision on social media.

On Feb. 24, a federal judge allowed the White House’s ban to stand for now, though more legal action is promised by AP.

“As we have said from the beginning, asking the President of the United States questions in the Oval Office and aboard Air Force One is a privilege granted to journalists, not a legal right,” the White House press office said in response to the ruling.

Some of those at the Gaylord Texan convention center this week backed the White House’s ban, expecting it would be temporary.

NRB member Jeffrey Anderson, who has worked in Christian broadcasting for more than a decade, said while he supports freedom of the press and free speech, he remains frustrated by what he described as liberal media.

“The Associated Press, they have been very liberal for decades, and the Trump administration, I believe, is just giving them a swift kick in the butt,” he said, adding that he expected the outlet would be back in the press room within weeks.

But while most NRB members approached for comment declined to be quoted, claiming either ignorance about the situation or not being authorized to speak on behalf of their media organization, they nonetheless described unease with Trump’s actions.

Thomas Graham, CEO of Crosswind Media in Austin, said while he celebrated the White House’s decision to grant podcasters, influencers and other content creators access to the halls of power, singling out one outlet for punishment can be a “slippery slope.”

“Anytime you get in a role where you’re pushing or punishing someone for reporting their view of the facts, that is not freedom,” he said, noting his background as a reporter. “Freedom should be freedom of speech, freedom of the press.”

Graham added that he opposed a “punitive approach, rather than open-expression approach.”

(RNS)—Martin E. Marty, an eminent church historian, prolific chronicler and interpreter of religion and its role in public life, died at the age of 97 on Feb. 25 in a Minneapolis care facility where he spent his final years.

Marty, who was also a friend, mentor and pastor to many, taught for 35 years at the University of Chicago Divinity School and published a constant stream of books, articles, essays, newsletters and columns. His book Righteous Empire: The Protestant Experience in America won top honors at the 1972 National Book Awards in Philosophy and Religion.

In 1987, he published the first of his three-volume survey of 20th-century American religion, in which he described the impact of fundamentalism on the religious landscape, depicting fundamentalism as a reaction not to liberal religion or textual criticism of the Bible alone but to modernity itself and its increasing secularism.

His work helped give birth to “Modern American Religion and the Fundamentalism Project,” a years-long study Marty led with religion scholar R. Scott Appleby of fundamentalism in seven major faiths around the world.

The project produced multiple encyclopedic books—five of which Marty wrote or co-edited with Appleby—plus several documentary films and radio episodes that appeared on PBS and National Public Radio.

“Righteous Empire and the Fundamentalism Project continue to shape academic discourse today,” said James T. Robinson, dean of Chicago’s divinity school, where Marty helped to found the Institute for the Advanced Study of Religion. Opened in 1979, it was named for Marty when he retired from the school in 1998.

Robinson said Marty, “a cornerstone” of the divinity school, influenced “the study of religion and public life with his visionary scholarship.”

Marty, who published some 60 books in all, served for a half-century as an editor and columnist for The Christian Century magazine and produced a biweekly newsletter, “Context,” for 41 years.

Disciplined and prolific writer

Dean Lueking, the longtime pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in River Forest, Ill., a friend of Marty’s for 75 years, remembered the prodigious industry behind his output.

“Marty had a well-ordered sense of time; every minute counts,” remembered Lueking. “He got up in the morning at 4:44 a.m. and started writing before breakfast. He was remarkably productive. He could take a 10-minute power nap and be completely refreshed.”

Lueking told of a day when a caller reached Marty’s assistant at the divinity school, who explained that the professor could not be interrupted because he was working on a book. To which the caller replied: ‘He’ll be done soon. Just put me on hold.’”

Born on the eve of the Great Depression on Feb. 5, 1928, in West Point, Neb., Martin Emil Marty was the son of a Lutheran schoolteacher who bequeathed orderliness, ambition and Swiss-watch punctuality to the youngster, while Marty’s mother, Anna, endowed the boy with a sunnier spirit of good-humored openness and inquisitiveness, according to Lueking, who attended seminary with Marty and knew his parents.

In 1941, Marty left home to study at Concordia Lutheran Prep School before earning his undergraduate degree from Concordia College (now University) in Wisconsin. After completing his theological training at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Marty was ordained to the ministry in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and began serving in suburban Chicago parishes, including one he founded, the Lutheran Church of the Holy Spirit in Elk Grove Village.

During those early years in parish ministry, Marty pursued postgraduate work at the University of Chicago, and in 1963 he was invited to join the faculty at the University of Chicago Divinity School.

Understanding religion in a pluralistic society

The shift from the pulpit to the academy was a springboard for Marty, who quickly emerged as an internationally known figure whose understanding of religion in a pluralistic society gave him insights beyond campus.

He served as a Protestant observer during the Second Vatican Council in Rome in 1964 and became involved in the Civil Rights Movement, marching in Selma, Ala., the following year with Martin Luther King Jr.

“He was impressive in the classroom, but that was just scratching the surface,” said Daniel L. Pals of the University of Miami, a graduate student of Marty’s in the 1970s.

“Marty was also a churchman in the most serious way,” Pals said. “Politicians paid attention to Marty. Norman Lear reached out to Marty when he launched People for the American Way. Marty just was so deft at navigating that intersection of faith and culture and how they inform and influence each other.”

For Pals, however, it was Marty’s decades-long friendship with his students and their families that left the deepest impression.

“Marty cared deeply about our scholarship and our academic achievements, but also about our spouses and children,” he said.

“He knew there was more to life than the world of learning. For Marty you were a student with a family. He was a family person himself. That’s the real measure of a Renaissance man—never a sniff of snobbery. He knew the names of the people in our families. He was so normal, so well adjusted.”

‘A clarion voice of faithful reason’

John Buchanan, the former publisher of The Christian Century who died earlier in February, described Marty in an interview as “one of the most grace-filled human beings I’ve met and a clarion voice of faithful reason in our culture which is so desperately needed today.”

Buchanan, longtime pastor of Chicago’s Fourth Presbyterian Church, also paid tribute to Marty as a “world-class scholar and a devoted churchman who was always skillful in bringing out the better angels in others.”

Emily D. Crews, executive director of the Martin Marty Center, praised Marty as “a devoted teacher and adviser who leaves a legacy of boundless energy and creativity. I’m surrounded by so many people who were influenced by his work—his advisees, fellow clergy, members of his former congregations. He lived a life of generosity—generous with his work, with his time, with his students and with colleagues, parishioners and friends.”

Religion writers for daily newspapers counted on Marty as a go-to source of information, but also winsome wisdom and a generosity of spirit. He was prompt to answer calls and lent greater clarity and nuance to the often-obscure points of religion stories.

As with his students, his expertise often came with friendship, including invitations to lively wine-and-cheese gatherings in his John Hancock Building apartment in Chicago.

Marty is survived by his wife, Harriet; sons Joel, John, Peter and Micah; foster daughter Fran Garcia Carlson and foster son Jeff Garcia; stepdaughter Ursula Meyer; nine grandchildren; and 18 great-grandchildren.

(RNS)—The decline in American religiousness observed since at least 2007 generally has slowed over the past four to five years, a new study reveals. However, the Pew Research Center noted the country still is heading toward less religiousness.

Pew’s Religious Landscape Study’s 2023-24 edition, released on Feb. 26, points to changes in American religious observance—including those identifying as Christian—stabilizing after years of steady decline and to growth of the religiously unaffiliated leveling off.

 “The U.S. is a spiritual place, a religious place, where we’ve seen signs of religious stabilization in the midst of longer-term decline,” said Gregory Smith, a senior associate director of research at Pew, during a press briefing.

Now on its third edition, Pew released similar reports in 2007 and 2014, aiming to fill a gap in recognized, reliable data sources on America’s religious composition, beliefs and practices.

From July 2023 to March 2024, the center polled 35,000 adult respondents randomly selected from the U.S. Postal Service address registry. This third edition was to be published in 2021 but was postponed to avoid flawed results due to the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on religious life.

Number of US Christians fairly stable

After dropping from 78 percent to 71 percent between 2007 and 2014, the share of U.S. adults identifying as Christian has now dropped to 62 percent, according to the report.

However, it notes this figure has been relatively stable since 2019, oscillating between 60 percent and 64 percent.

Protestants are still the largest subgroup of Christians, with 40 percent of American adults identifying as such. However, all major Protestant denominations have declined since the first Pew Religious Landscape Study report in 2007.

The percentage of respondents who identify as evangelical Protestants dropped from 26 percent to 23 percent. Those who identify as mainline Protestants dropped from 18 percent to 11 percent. And those in historically Black Protestant denominations decreased from 7 percent to 5 percent.

Catholics are the second largest, representing 19 percent of the entire Christian population. Other denominations, including Greek and Russian Orthodox, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Jehovah’s Witnesses, represent 3 percent of the Christian population.

Members of the United Methodist Church declined from 5 percent to 3 percent of U.S. adults since 2007. The report also indicates similar declines in Baptist and Lutheran Christians.

However, those identifying as non-Christian religious adults rose from 4.9 percent in 2007, to 5.9 percent in 2014, and to 7.1 percent in 2023-24. Among them, 1.7 percent identified as Jewish, 1.2 percent as Muslim, 1.1 percent as Buddhist and 0.9 percent as Hindu, in addition to 2.2 percent who identified as “other non-Christian religions.”

Additionally, the growth of the religiously unaffiliated—also called nones—has plateaued after decades of rapid growth. In 2007, they represented 16 percent of U.S. adults, rising to 23 percent in 2014, and 29 percent in 2023-24.

This includes 5 percent who identify as atheists, 6 percent who describe themselves as agnostics and 19 percent who identify as “nothing in particular.”

More than 8 out of 10 American adults indicated they were spiritual or believe in the supernatural; 86 percent agreed people have a soul or spirit in addition to their physical body.

A large portion also believe in God or a universal spirit (83 percent) and/or something spiritual beyond the natural world (79 percent).

About 70 percent indicated they believe in heaven, hell or both. These figures are relatively the same across age categories.

Though this latest study shows a stabilizing religious composition in America, Pew researchers project a decline in religiousness in the future. Less religious younger generations are progressively expected to replace older, highly religious and heavily Christian generations.

“This means that, for lasting stability to take hold in the U.S. religious landscape, something would need to change,” the report explains.

“For example, today’s young adults would have to become more religious as they age, or new generations of adults who are more religious than their parents would have to emerge.”

While 54 percent of adults ages 54 and older said they pray daily, only 31 percent of ages 24-34 do so, and 27 percent for ages 18-24.

Younger cohorts also attend religious services less often compared with older generations and are also less likely to express beliefs in God or the universal spirit than other generations.

Shift is possible, but unlikely

The trend could shift if younger Americans became more religious as they age, which is unlikely to happen as such a trend never has been observed before, the report notes.

Comparing the results to previous report findings, between 2007 and 2023-24, each age group has become less religious as it aged.

The share of American adults who switched religions since childhood, at 35 percent, also has increased the religiously unaffiliated and led to fewer people identifying as Christians.

The percentage of Americans who engage in religious practices remained relatively stable over the last few years, despite decreasing from 2007, according to Pew.

In the 2023-24 report, 44 percent of respondents said they pray at least once a day, which is consistent with 2021 findings from Pew’s annual National Public Opinion Reference Survey.

However, that’s down from 55 percent who said they prayed daily in 2014, and 58 percent in 2007.

Also, in Pew’s 2020 NPORS, 33 percent of U.S. adults said they attend religious services at least once or twice a month. Similar results were found in 2023-24 data, indicating stability over the last several years.

Besides the generational aspect, other factors such as gender and political affiliations seem to weigh in levels of religiousness.

Overall, women are more religious than men, but that figure appears to be narrowing slightly. Women are more likely to pray daily (50 percent to 37 percent for men) and are more likely to believe in God or a universal spirit (59 percent to 49 percent).

Liberals also seem to be less likely to identify as Christians, with a notable decrease since 2007—today, 37 percent of self-described political liberals identify as Christian, compared with 62 percent who did in 2007.

Among self-described conservatives, 89 percent identify as Christian today, compared with 82 percent in 2007.

The global immigration crisis—a politicized issue that has divided Americans and created stress along the U.S.-Mexico border—now has names and faces for nine students who participated in the T.B. Maston Foundation’s annual Young Maston Scholars retreat.

The Maston Foundation, chartered in 1986, perpetuates the teaching and legacy of its namesake, a renowned professor of Christian ethics and Baptist champion of racial justice in the 20th century.

The foundation’s Young Maston Scholars program, which heightens awareness of ethical issues among undergraduate students and seminarians, is a staple of its work.

This year, nine students from five Texas Baptist-related colleges and seminaries spent five days learning about immigration firsthand on the border, reported David Morgan, the foundation’s executive director.

This retreat marked the third consecutive year Young Maston Scholars have explored immigration and asylum-seeking at the border, Morgan added.

Retreat highlights included:

• Studying the relationship between human dignity and immigrants, refugees and asylum-seekers, led by Katie Frugé, executive director of Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission.
• Focusing on legal issues associated with immigration, presented by Elsa and Jesus Romero, leaders of Educational and Legal Immigration Ministries—or ELIM—a program of Fellowship Southwest.
• Visiting the La Posada Providencia shelter in San Benito, where the students helped clean up two areas used to house immigrants.
• Helping Caly Fernandez, director of the House of Love and Justice in McAllen, distribute food in twocolonias, the under-resourced unincorporated villages on the U.S. side of the border.
• Praying at the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
• Worshipping with Pastor Carlos Navarro and touring the immigrant respite center operated by his congregation, Iglesia Bautista West Brownsville in Brownsville.
• Spending time with immigrant children at Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley’s Humanitarian Center in McAllen.

In addition to the Young Maston Scholars program, the Maston Foundation provides scholarships to graduate students conducting research in ethics. It also publishes materials that introduce Maston’s writings and teachings to new generations of lay and clergy leaders.

A newly released report by Barna and Gloo, a Barna research partner, highlights intergenerational small groups as a key opportunity for churches to strengthen discipleship.

The State of the Church report “Discipleship Across Generations” is one of a series of planned releases for each month of 2025.

The report analyzes four studies conducted in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. Each study focused on a different generation/age group and its attitudes toward the church and discipleship.

Regarding the youngest group considered, the report notes a significant difference between where children’s ministry workers and parents believe the bulk of children’s discipleship should take place.

Ninety-five percent of children’s ministry leaders said discipleship primarily should occur at home. Yet, 45 percent of all churched adults said church, instead, should be the primary source of discipleship.

Among parents of 5-year-olds to 14-year-olds, the percentage saying church should be the primary source of discipleship was even higher, at 51 percent.

Lead researcher Daniel Copeland said for their research, Barna defines “discipleship as the process and relationship through which we lead people into a relationship with Jesus, including the traits of Christianity, the practices of Christianity.”

The data illustrates children’s ministry leaders are more convicted than parents about where discipleship starts, he explained. “Parents are unsure and children’s ministry leaders are quite confident” that discipleship should begin at home.

While data is not as clear on why parents and ministry leaders are split, Copeland noted a strong hypothesis is that as church programming has become stronger through the past few decades, “there’s been a moving consensus that parents don’t need to be as involved,” because parents can count on the church to do those things in “almost the same way that we think about school.”

Parents seem to have adopted a “drop off discipleship” mindset, “that you can just drop your kid off at church, and the church will take care of the rest,” in contrast to ministry leaders’ certainty discipleship still should begin at home.

So, Copeland noted, it becomes necessary “to balance what programs are good for versus the partnership that churches and parents really need to be focusing on.”

The report suggests that in “thinking about who needs to step up in child discipleship, children’s ministry leaders and parents seem to point at each other.” But, it says, a good place to point may be outward.

“Barna’s research suggests that other adults, mentors and friends can be powerful allies in growing kids’ faith, creating a ‘third space’ for discipleship between home and church,” the report says.

This under-tapped “third space” resource may be found in other adults within the congregation, the report suggests.

‘Aging Well’ insights

Barna’s Aging Well study showed aging churchgoers (55+) continue to report deep commitment to spiritual growth, with 85 percent agreeing “it’s important for me to see continual progress in my own spiritual life.”

But, “less than one in five Christians (18 percent) ages 55+ rate their church as ‘very effective’ at creating relationships with other generations.”

The Aging Well study also showed opportunities for churches to better care for aging adults’ mental and physical health, with only 16 percent and 13 percent reporting their church is “very good” at meeting those needs, respectively.

Regular social outings, shut-in ministry and small groups are ways to address these needs, Barna findings suggest.

The report noted a strong majority of Christians ages 55+ expressing that ongoing spiritual growth is important means “engaging this demographic through meaningful leadership roles and discipleship opportunities” might not only support senior adults’ needs, but also “leverages their wisdom and experience to benefit the spiritual life of the entire church.”

“As we examine how congregations can better promote discipleship across generations, it’s important to remember that strengthening ministry to senior adults isn’t just about serving them—it’s about empowering them to serve. Their role in your church’s discipleship efforts isn’t peripheral; it’s foundational,” the report says.

For Millennials and Gen Z, the report notes a “worrisome trend.” The data from RightNow Media and Barna study Discipleship in Community shows only a quarter of people who are being discipled are part of a small group, the top-of-mind method of discipleship in a Christian context.

Looking demographically, younger churchgoers who aren’t in small groups or Bible studies seem to “especially be wrestling with social insecurities” and anxieties with “church people,” the report explains.

The data shows 21 percent of female Gen Z/Millennials and 26 percent of male Gen Z/ Millennials cited “I don’t think I would fit in” as a reason not to participate in small groups. That compares to 12 percent of female Gen X and 5 percent of female Boomers/Elders and 6 percent of Gen X males and 9 percent of male Boomers/Elders who cited fear of fitting in.

Younger generations also are more likely to say they aren’t in a small group because they are intimidated, fear getting hurt and worry people wouldn’t like them than older generations, irrespective of gender.

The report suggests churches “communicate the unique value of small groups,” and notes “small groups may be one way of introducing bridge-building relationships, which are rare to find in other spheres of life.

“Churches who value this approach may need middle-aged and older small group attendees (who are more likely to be represented in church anyway) to extend themselves intentionally toward younger churchgoers who may be nervous or standoffish.”

The report notes the “least likely age group of churchgoers to say their relationship with Jesus brings them joy and satisfaction” is Gen Z.

“Additionally, they are least likely to feel Jesus speaks to them in a way that is relevant to their life.”

Over the years, Copeland said by email, “Barna has tested many hypotheses on the ‘why’ of these trends. Our research consistently acknowledges that next generations have a generally positive perspective of Christ, but a more neutral or negative perspective of the Christian Church.”

“In Spiritually Open (a Barna report released last year) our research identified the most common reasons next generations cite as to why they doubt … Christian teachings is the ‘hypocrisy of religious people.’”

Copeland continued: “They struggle to see Christ in today’s Christians. I would argue that this is the source of disconnection. They enjoy the person of Christ, but without faithful models or faithful discipleship they are left struggling to put faith into practice.”

Churches have an opportunity to welcome next generations in a way that doesn’t confirm the low expectations these generations have of today’s Christians, he said.

How to thrive

There is hope to bridge the disconnect and encourage healthy discipleship models. Copeland said, “We would say the research suggests, and other scholars in this area align with, is that multigenerational relationships is a huge piece of discipleship.”

When different generations mix, sharing their burdens and wisdom, “we are all more likely to thrive.”

Church programming’s tendency to split by age groups, though well-intentioned, has undercut the valuable intermingling of generations.

The data has been clear for some time, Copeland noted, but programming around it is difficult, especially when Gen Z feedback says “that sounds really overwhelming.”

“So, how do we encourage and equip them (Gen Z) to find belonging,” and at the same time encourage older adults to find a place at the table for younger people? Copeland said the church who wants to work on this might consider bringing the different generations together to discuss how to form intergenerational discipleship groups.

Other insights in the report seek to answer how churches can “equip older adults to serve as mentors in faith while still experiencing spiritual vitality as elder disciples themselves,” and “what are the distinct discipleship needs and preferences of Gen Z, Millennials and beyond?”

The report concludes, “Churches can create spaces where different generational perspectives are shared and valued—and where the life and lessons of Jesus are taught and realized in community.”

Opportunities to participate in events—the next of which is a webinar happening March 12—surrounding State of the Church releases can be found at https://stateofthechurch.com/events.

(RNS)—Americans are polarized on many issues in public life, from what books kids should be allowed to read in school to how to reform the nation’s immigration system.

One thing most do agree on, regardless of party affiliation, is in-vitro fertilization—more commonly known as IVF. Seventy percent of Americans told Pew Research they believe access to IVF is a good thing, while only 8 percent said it was bad, according to a 2024 survey.

Members of the nation’s largest faith groups also see IVF access as a positive, including Black Protestants (69 percent), Catholics (65 percent) and the evangelical (63 percent) and non-evangelical (78 percent) varieties of white Protestants, as do the unaffiliated (78 percent).

That’s likely one reason why Donald Trump recently issued an executive order on Feb. 18, promising to reduce the cost of IVF.

“Therefore, to support American families, it is the policy of my Administration to ensure reliable access to IVF treatment, including by easing unnecessary statutory or regulatory burdens to make IVF treatment drastically more affordable,” Trump wrote.

While people in the pews might applaud the president’s actions, a number of high-profile faith leaders, including the nation’s Catholic bishops, are not pleased.

Some oppose the action

“As pastors, we see the suffering of so many couples experiencing infertility and know their deep desire to have children is both good and admirable; yet the Administration’s push for IVF, which ends countless human lives and treats persons like property, cannot be the answer,” wrote Bishops Daniel E. Thomas, chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, and Bishop Robert E. Barron, chair of the Committee for Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth, in a statement released by the USCCB on Thursday.

The Catholic bishops—like other faith groups that oppose abortion on the belief that life starts at conception—says IVF is well-intentioned but immoral. While millions of children have been born following IVF, the process often involves freezing or discarding excess embryos.

“The IVF industry treats human beings like products and freezes or kills millions of children who are not selected for transfer to a womb or do not survive,” the bishops wrote.

“Tuesday’s executive order promoting IVF is thus fatally flawed and stands in regrettable contrast to the promising pro-life actions of the Administration last month.”

IVF and the treatment of excess embryos had been a matter of heated debate in the early 2000s, when those embryos were seen as potential subjects for stem cell research.

But any public controversy about IVF had largely faded until the spring of 2024, when the Alabama Supreme Court ruled during a wrongful death lawsuit that embryos could be considered children. That led clinics in Alabama to shut down until the state’s legislature passed a new law to protect IVF treatments.

Last summer, Southern Baptists passed a resolution asking church members to be wary of IVF and calling the process immoral. The resolution also called for more government regulation of IVF and for limits on how many embryos are created in treatment.

Brent Leatherwood, president of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, says the White House should heed the denomination’s advice when thinking about rules for IVF.

“The statement is clear and convictional as it honors life and adoption; affirms the dignity of the preborn; laments infertility; opposes the destruction of life; and requests the government to restrict actions inconsistent with human dignity,” he said in an email Thursday.

“With this resolution, I believe our churches have expressed a wise framework for how we can think about this issue. It’s one our government should use as well—which the ERLC has highlighted in numerous policy briefings in Washington.”

While Trump has been praised by abortion foes for the end of Roe v. Wade, over the past year, the president’s views on IVF and his distancing from outright abortion bans have led to controversy—especially after the 2024 GOP platform no longer called for an end to abortion.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, urged Trump to put in new rules to restrict IVF rather than expanding access.

In a response to Trump’s executive order, Perkins released a statement criticizing IVF for causing the death of embryos and saying the treatment does not address the medical conditions that cause infertility.

“The Trump administration can address the infertility crisis in America in a way that is morally and scientifically sound, enabling many more Americans to experience the beautiful gift of children,” he wrote.

Lila Rose, president of the anti-abortion group Live Action, stated her opposition to increasing IVF access more bluntly.

“No one is entitled to a child at the cost of denying the humanity and rights of countless others,” she said in a statement.

“A compassionate society must work to support families while upholding the dignity and protection of every human being—born and preborn. President Trump and our other leaders should champion ethical, life-affirming fertility options that protect both mothers and children.”

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, who has been outspoken in his criticism of IVF, has said IVF is harmful to children, calling it “yet another example of adults putting their desires before the best interests of children.”

“Moreover, IVF is not ‘fertility treatment,’” he said.

“It does nothing to address the heartbreak of infertility. There are effective medical treatments for couples struggling in this area. If the government is going to expend resources to make the manufacturing of babies in a laboratory more easily accessible, it should do the same for medical treatment of infertility.”

By contrast, Americans for IVF, which calls itself a “conservative pro-family group” cheered Trump’s order, saying it would help infertile couples have children—without the financial burden of paying for IVF treatments, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars per attempt.

“As a pro-life rabbi and father of nine children, I can confidently tell religious conservatives that there is nothing more pro-life than IVF,” said Rabbi Moshe Margaretten, the group’s founder.

(Aleja Hertzler-McCain contributed to this story.)

POTOMAC, Md. (RNS)—Less than a week after joining a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s reversal of a policy limiting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at houses of worship, leaders of the Latino Christian National Network gathered to plan their next steps.

“We are running a tremendous risk, but we are doing it on principle,” Carlos Malavé, the network’s president, said in Spanish to the annual gathering of about 50 network leaders regarding the lawsuit.

The southern Virginia pastor said he had heard from other groups who were unwilling to join the lawsuit out of fear the Trump administration would weaponize the IRS against them in retaliation. However, he celebrated that his own board’s decision on the matter was unanimous.

The Latino Christian National Network formed as an independent organization in 2021, drawing from a previous Latino subgroup within Christian Churches Together in the USA.

Malavé had been Christian Churches Together in the USA’s executive director. The national network includes Latino leadership within major mainline Protestant denominations and some evangelical and Pentecostal Latino leaders. The board also includes a Catholic advocate.

Involved in sensitive locations lawsuit

While the small network already has several major Latino leaders participating, its national profile is growing from its involvement in the sensitive locations lawsuit. A recent $1.5 million grant from Lilly Endowment will also allow the organization to grow its capacity.

In Latino communities, immigration fears are a major pastoral concern. FWD.us, an immigration and criminal justice reform advocacy organization, projected that nearly 1 in 3 Latino U.S. residents could be at risk of family separation or impacted by mass deportations either because of their legal status or that of someone in the household.

Those at risk include immigrants who had previously had temporary permission to be in the United States, whose protections President Donald Trump has revoked.

Alexia Salvatierra, academic dean of the Centro Latino at Fuller Theological Seminary, encouraged the group to take inspiration from the 2006 announcement by Cardinal Roger Mahony, who formerly led the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Mahony said the church in Los Angeles would disobey a potential law criminalizing aiding immigrants without legal status, which he believed would criminalize distributing Communion to those immigrants. The bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives but never passed the Senate.

Salvatierra credited Mahoney with turning the tide on the prevailing anti-migrant national narrative. She urged attendees to search for their opening to do the same, especially as they prepared to speak to congressional representatives on Feb. 18.

In those visits, the group urged lawmakers to create a pathway to citizenship for immigrants without legal status, prioritize family reunification within immigration policy, protect refugees and asylum-seekers, ensure due process protections in immigration enforcement, continue to provide foreign aid and preserve significant limits on ICE enforcement in places of worship as a religious liberty measure.

Baptist attorney asserts church property is private

In a presentation about the current immigration policy landscape, Elket Rodríguez, an attorney who leads the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s migration advocacy, pushed back against prevailing legal advice that church worship spaces during services are considered public, meaning ICE would not need a warrant to enter.

Indicating an openness to test the question legally, Rodríguez cited the First Amendment, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and several other laws to support his argument that churches are private.

“If the state itself is limiting its authority from the Constitution on down and the Congress has seen the church as a private space when it legislates,” Rodríguez said in Spanish, “I can make an easy argument in a court that the church and the state have always had … a separation.”

It remains unclear whether that legal argument will gain momentum, even among network members, as an Episcopal priest in attendance expressed concern the advice differed from what his congregation had heard from its lawyer.

“Our people are overwhelmed,” said retired United Methodist Church Bishop Minerva Garza Carcaño, noting that that may be a strategic goal of the Trump administration.

“We’re living in an era of the new legitimization of racism,” she said, as she expressed concerns about internalized racism as well.

Carcaño spoke on a panel about the state of the Latino church today. Several leaders raised concerns about young people’s mental health, related to immigration fears and more broadly.

Anthony Guillén, who leads Latino/Hispanic ministries for the Episcopal Church, highlighted, as a sign of the Holy Spirit’s work, the dedication of a Maryland priest, Vidal Rivas at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, who committed to be the standby guardian for at least 14 children in the event that their parents are deported.

Offering counsel to fearful students

Another panelist, James Medina, national director of Destino, a Latino college student ministry, spoke in his personal capacity about his role shepherding and advocating for students in the midst of the new policy landscape.

“When ICE is on campus and students are scared and fearful, that is my place,” he said.

Medina discussed the general difficulty students face from growing up with tension between their Latino heritage and the U.S. context. He said a major challenge involves helping them heal from generational trauma or pain.

Mental health has become a rising concern across the Latino church. Last October, the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference—an evangelical group that, unlike LCNN, has been a strong backer of Trump—launched a mental health initiative at its national gathering.

Daniel Vélez Rivera, an Episcopal priest in Virginia, spoke during feedback to the network panel about identifying mental health services for his community in an area where fewer than 1 percent of mental health providers speak Spanish. In response, Guillén noted the need to “raise up” Latino or bilingual therapists.

“Some of the trauma that our young people are experiencing is because we’ve caused it, and we have not had the cultural humility to say, ‘We got it wrong,’” Lydia Muñoz, who leads the United Methodist Church’s Latino ministry, said in public response to the panel. “We need to have a come-to-Jesus moment about that.”

Mental health concerns noted

Another area of concern around mental health for network participants was the safety of LGBTQ+ youth, especially related to Trump’s policies. Guillén said his wife, who works at a community college, sees many Latino LGBTQ+ youth living in their cars because their parents have thrown them out.

The discussion of LGBTQ+ issues, however, exposes potential tensions within the network, as some participants come from nonaffirming traditions, such as the International Pentecostal Holiness Church.

Despite theological differences, the leaders said they sensed the Holy Spirit at work in the unity they found in immigration advocacy. Carcaño, the United Methodist Church bishop, said her denomination rarely moves beyond dialogue and prayer about unity with the Catholic Church,  but they have recently acted together on immigration.

She said she’d never received a call from a Catholic bishop until last December, when Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, who leads the U.S. bishops’ work on immigration, reached out asking United Methodists to join Catholic bishops in writing letters in support of migrants.

“That was a breakthrough for us,” she said.

Illinois Democratic Rep. Delia Ramirez, a member of Humboldt Park United Methodist Church in Chicago, spoke to the group in a recorded video, calling on them to focus on both immediately protecting their communities and “fighting for progress.”

“I’m encouraged that we can be light in dark places,” she said. “And more than ever, it is people of faith that must step in to demonstrate hope, to demonstrate faith, to love our neighbors, to welcome the strangers and to care for the vulnerable communities.”

DALLAS—Toxic leadership in the church has been on full display in recent years, a Dallas Baptist University dean told participants in a Nexus Leadership Conference breakout session.

That particularly was true in the case chronicled in the Christianity Today podcast, The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, said Blake Killingsworth, dean of the Gary Cook School of Leadership at DBU.

The podcast describes the devastation that occurred at Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Under the leadership of founding pastor Mark Driscoll, the church had become widely known as an exemplar of the Young, Restless and Reformed movement.

Killingsworth pointed out the Christian tendency observed in the podcast, to platform someone “whose character really was not developed enough to handle that level of celebrity or that level of authority.”

 “We platform these people all the time, because we kind of want the celebrity pastor,” Killingsworth said.

It didn’t take much time to begin to see that same kind of problem as happened at Mars Hill start to develop “here, there and everywhere else,” Killingsworth observed.

To identify toxic leadership, Killingsworth noted a need to understand leadership in general.

Using leadership expert Peter Northouse’s definition that “leadership is the process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal,” Killingsworth listed several legitimate types of leadership.

Leadership can be transactional, transformational, charismatic, authentic, adaptive, servant-leader or incarnational. These describe the type of influence the leader is leveraging to move toward a common goal. Toxic leadership also is a type of leveraging influence.

He pointed out that just because a leader might be seen as “difficult” does not automatically mean the leader is toxic. Likewise, “driven” does not necessarily mean toxic.

A toxic leader doesn’t just hold a group to high standards to get a desired final product. If a leader is truly toxic, “there’s something else going on there.”

Unfortunately, many leaders today do qualify as toxic. Killingsworth, noted the book The Way of the Dragon or the Way of the Lamb: Searching for Jesus’ Path of Power in a Church that Has Abandoned It, by Jamin Goggin and Kyle Strobel, points to a danger with leadership.

He said the book notes “leadership of any kind will always be alluring to unhealthy, domineering, narcissistic individuals.”

Killingsworth pointed out that “we know this,” but hearing it helps illuminate the truth that some leaders didn’t seek that position for benevolent reasons.

Toxic leaders

The book explains, “a toxic leader is someone who maintains power and significance by manipulating followers through their own fundamental drive to be powerful and significant.” And they dominate and control.

 “Toxic leaders wield their personalities to submit their power, relegating their followers to positions of dependence upon them, rather than on Christ.”

Killingsworth said toxic leaders think they’re the Messiah, whether they realize it or not.

Toxic leaders subvert the systems designed to hold them accountable. And they establish scapegoats to blame for their failures, he said.

 “Think about how many times you’ve seen a toxic leader say: ‘Well, that was the guy before me. I warned him,’” he continued, noting that if someone is the leader, that person takes accountability instead of passing blame.

Killingsworth said the book notes a toxic leader doesn’t develop other leaders beneath them, because they would pose a threat to their own power. But healthy leadership is going to develop other independent leaders to share in the mission, whereas the toxic leader opts for “cronies” and “yes men.”

Toxic leaders create an “unhealthy symbiosis,” so the organization collapses without them. They are deceptive, manipulative and dehumanizing.

But “we platform them,” because they promise to “quote, ‘keep us safe, anoint us as special, and offer us a seat at the community table,’ end quote. We want a sense of safety, security and belonging that they are offering it in exchange for loyalty,” he read from the book and expounded.

Those who platform toxic leaders put trust in the leader to provide these things that rightfully belong to Christ, Killingsworth said.

Killingsworth listed the traits of a toxic leader as:

• Intimidation.
• Bullying or ridicule.
• Manipulation—either of circumstances or people, pushing themselves to the head table.
• Micromanaging—to take credit for others’ work.
• Arrogance and pride.
• Narcissism—“I’m the center of the universe, and you’re not.” Childish and immature.
• Abusive behavior—for example, reports of LBJ making his aids take notes for him while he was on the toilet.
• Unethical behavior—manufacturing “grey areas,” when it’s actually black-and-white.
• Shaming.
• Passive aggressive.
• Sabotage.

Platforming toxic leaders results in shallow growth, shell-shocked people, trauma and abuse and often the collapse of the organization, Killingsworth said.

“The toxic person has a bad result every single time”—even though they never fail to see themselves as anything less than “the greatest,” he said.

Guiderails

Brent Thomason, dean of the Graduate School of Ministry at DBU, offered guidelines to help prevent toxic leadership traits from developing.

Thomason said the observable traits of toxic leaders are symptoms of deeper sins that need to be dealt with. He prompted participants to consider what those root sins might be to head off movement toward toxic behaviors in their positions of leadership.

Just as the serpent tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:6), church members can be enticed today when what the toxic leader offers seems “good for food,” (physical), a delight for the eyes (emotional) and “desirable for making wise” (intellectual)—tempting in all these areas.

Killingsworth noted organizations platform toxic leaders for a variety of reasons. It may be out of complacency, because “we just don’t want to mess with it.” This can cause the organization to justify and ignore toxic behaviors in leaders, enabling them to go unchecked.

A desire for prestige can also be a factor in platforming toxic leaders. Someone is seen as exceptional and capable of taking the church to that next level, like a football player who performs on the field, but brings dysfunction in his personal life.

 “We desire success so much, that we don’t care about the process to get there,” Killingsworth said, “not realizing God is interested in the process.”

“We can blame the (toxic) guy at the top, but we ourselves are just as culpable for it as they can be, … when we’re just complacent, all we care about is results, and we don’t even think through the process,” he said. “We just care about results.”

In addition to cultivating the virtues described in the fruit of the Spirit, Thomason noted guardrails are necessary to help build a culture that doesn’t invite toxicity.

Killingsworth identified several corporate virtues that help create guardrails against toxic leadership:

• Prayer—asking God to “reveal my heart” and praying for the organization.
• Central mission—Ask if everything being platformed and celebrated is building that mission.
• Have a plurality of accountability—leaders who are accountable to each other, “back-and-forth.”
• Create “feedback loops” for peers, subordinates and some who are not your direct reports to communicate with one another and offer godly critiques. “When the light is shined everywhere, the roaches will scatter.”
• Create good human resources policies—“We should be better than everybody else” at working with each other, even difficult people, “because we have the gospel,” Killingsworth observed.
• Pray some more.

He asked: Does your organization celebrate the ethics of God’s kingdom—meekness, salt and light, being driven by love (1 Corinthians 13)?

EDITOR’S NOTE:  The last section was edited after it was originally posted to correct the misspelling of Brent Thomason’s name.

DALLAS (RNS)—Former professional football player Jay Barnett was raised in church, but he met God as an adult in therapy, he said.

The son of a pastor, Barnett, now 42, grew up in Mississippi attending a Baptist church and an Assemblies of God congregation. He preached his first sermon at age 9. By age 12, he had spoken at Christian conferences and youth events across the state.

Barnett still is speaking at churches—and on podcasts and social media—now as a family therapist, mental health expert, former professional athlete and author. The focus of his message has shifted, though, along with his understanding of God.

“God had been presented as this big, bad guy in the sky that is waiting to punish you if you do wrong,” said Barnett, who lives and works in Dallas and travels for speaking gigs.

But in therapy, he connected with the human aspect of Jesus’ nature and realized God, as Jesus, experienced rejection, anxiety and overwhelm, too.

“I think to understand humanity is also to understand God,” he said.

Confront mental health challenges head-on

Part of understanding humanity, requires confronting mental health challenges head-on, particularly in religious contexts, Barnett asserts.

Rather than responding to mental illness by spiritualizing or ignoring it, Barnett said, churches must acknowledge mental illness and emotional struggles as a part of life and not an indictment of one’s faith.

Such an approach would have made all the difference for him as a child, he said. As an adult, he’s working to equip the next generation— especially Black men—proactively to process their emotions and adverse life experiences to experience holistic healing.

Brandon Prince, executive director of Hope For Youth, a Christian organization in Houston working to empower urban youth, met Barnett over a decade ago as a high school junior. He called Barnett “a Paul to my Timothy,” referencing the biblical figures’ mentor-mentee relationship.

“Jay has been God’s voice in the vessel of a former football player,” said Prince, adding Barnett’s message is consistent whether he’s speaking on a podcast or praying with someone over the phone.

Back when he was a teenager, Barnett didn’t have the space to address pain, let alone the language to name it, he explained. His father was often distant, and when his parents divorced, he experienced depression and attempted to cope via self-injury.

His community, which prioritized spiritual healing, didn’t have the tools to connect him with professional help.

A year into his 30s and following a stint playing professional football, Barnett had survived two suicide attempts—first at age 23 after transitioning from the Green Bay Packers to the Arena Football League, and then after his career in the sport ended.

“I just felt lost. And, you know, not being here was the way that I felt that would be better, because I didn’t know anything else besides football,” Barnett said.

When his second suicide attempt was unsuccessful, he confronted his need to get consistent help through therapy.

A nudge from God

In the process, he re-examined what he’d been taught about the Christian religion, encountering Jesus as God who experienced the fullness of the human condition.

“It allowed me to see God, or to see Jesus, in a very human way—the moments he had when he stepped away, the moment in the garden where he’s literally crying out to God because he’s having a breakdown,” Barnett said.

He observed Jesus, though perfect, encountered a spectrum of emotions, giving Barnett permission to do so himself.

A few years into consistent therapy, Barnett began to mentor kids living in group homes. Part of his role involved teaching kids facing behavioral challenges how to regulate their emotions.

That knack eventually grew into what Barnett experienced as a nudge from God to become a certified therapist.

In 2019, Barnett graduated from North Central University in Minneapolis with a master’s degree in marriage and family counseling.

“During this time, I remember sitting in prayer, God speaking to me and saying that something was coming, and you’re going to be needed. And I didn’t know what that meant. So, I just listened,” he recalled.

The following year saw the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic and the murder of George Floyd, events that laid bare the nation’s mental health crisis.

Giving attention to mental health of Black men

On podcasts and on social media, Barnett began calling attention to the mental health needs of Black men, speaking about how to heal from parental wounds, manage depression and deal with rejection.

When his video encouraging men of color to go to therapy gained more than 200,000 views, it inspired him to write the 2021 book, Just Heal, Bro. Part testimony and part journal, it aims to help readers process experiences, articulate thoughts around inadequacy, stress and boundaries, and outline hopes for their future purpose.

The message resonated, and a few years later, resulted in the “Just Heal, Bro” tour, led by Barnett and a handful of other Black male clinicians and mental health advocates.

They traveled to 36 cities in three years, reaching 18,000 men with their message about prioritizing mental and emotional healing.

“No one had ever seen a therapist that was a former pro athlete that was talking about mental health, but also shared his story,” he said. “I’m here not just as a clinician, not just as an advocate, not just as a speaker, but I’m here as a survivor, right? I’m here as somebody who’s lived it. I know what looking at death in the face looks like.”

In 2023, Barnett was tapped to be Grand Marshall of the American Psychiatric Association’s Moore Equity in Mental Health Initiative, a role that involves speaking at community events and making mental health education more accessible.

Speaking on mental health and spirituality

Although his platform has grown, Barnett has continued to mentor men on a personal level. Robert H. Marshall Jr., founder of I Am Man, Inc., and The Survivor’s Circle, two organizations focused on male empowerment and supporting male survivors of sexual abuse, respectively, said Barnett has been an indispensable supporter of his work.

Barnett also estimates he’s spoken at 20 churches over the last three years on mental health and spirituality, noting congregations can improve their approach to mental health by distinguishing between needs that can be met through counseling and needs that require treatment from trained professionals.

He also called on churches to discuss mental health from the pulpit and make clear that struggling with mental illness does not mean a person’s salvation is in jeopardy.

“You can look at the Bible and see the DSM Five in almost every story,” he said, referring to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition.

“I think when we don’t connect the Bible to people’s lives in real time, we miss opportunities for people to even think about their mental health.”

Incrementally, Barnett said, he is seeing a shift in the churches and communities he visits. Mental health concerns are gradually losing their stigma, he said, and pastors and leaders are gaining language and tools to connect people to the life-saving help they need.

Marshall Jr. attributes that shift to those like Barnett doing grassroots work to revolutionize how Black men, especially, discuss mental and emotional wellbeing.

“I don’t think we’re just a part of it. We’re leading it. We’re provoking it. We’re becoming interrupters within systems where men are literally killing themselves,” Marshall Jr. said about the changes he’s seeing.

“I feel often that religious spaces shift a lot slower than we see in non-religious spaces. But I do see this interruption where more people are saying, hey, men matter, too. Our boys matter, too.”

El abogado de inmigración de Dallas, Jered Dobbs, ha visto un aumento en la cantidad de personas que buscan sus servicios desde que la administración Trump retomó el poder hace tres semanas.

El miedo es “el factor impulsor” en casi todas estas llamadas, dijo.

Dobbs habló recientemente con una iglesia del área de Dallas, y en un par de otros lugares que sirven a inmigrantes, para disipar algunos de estos temores y ayudar a brindar claridad sobre la avalancha de acciones ejecutivas relacionadas con la inmigración.

The Baptist Standard le preguntó sobre los tipos de preguntas que la gente está haciendo.

Dobbs dijo que se están haciendo muchas preguntas relacionadas con las órdenes ejecutivas y la iglesia.

La gran pregunta

“Una de las grandes es: ‘¿Puede ICE entrar a una iglesia o buscar a alguien mientras está en la iglesia?’”

Una de las órdenes ejecutivas “era esencialmente para levantar una política de la era Biden” que impedía que ICE ingresara a ciertas áreas sensibles como iglesias y hospitales, explicó Dobbs.

Entonces, la respuesta es sí, “técnicamente ICE podría hacer eso”. Sin embargo, “tienen que tener la aprobación de los supervisores para hacer algo en ese sentido. Y siendo realistas, creo que va a ser muy raro que veamos algo así”.

Más allá del requisito de la aprobación del supervisor, otras restricciones legales podrían impedir que ICE ingrese a una casa de culto, explicó.

“En términos generales, una entidad privada no tiene que permitir la entrada de ICE a menos que tenga una orden penal firmada por un juez federal. No pueden simplemente entrar a la fuerza sin la documentación adecuada de un juez federal, lo que va a ser algo bastante raro”.

En general, si bien es legalmente posible y “podría ocurrir en circunstancias limitadas, particularmente si hay alguien que es extremadamente peligroso”, Dobbs dijo que no creía que sea “muy probable” que ICE ingrese a las iglesias.

La misma política estaba en vigor durante la última administración de Trump, por lo que no es una política nueva, dijo Dobbs. “Es solo una repetición de una vieja política, y aun así, no recuerdo haber oído hablar de que el ICE haya entrado a la fuerza en una iglesia ni nada parecido”.

Señaló que no puede decir que “definitivamente no sucederá”, pero “el ICE sabe que da mala imagen irrumpir físicamente en las iglesias”.

“La gente, incluidos muchos de los partidarios del presidente, no van a tolerar eso”, explicó Dobbs.

Incluso con un arresto fuera de una iglesia en Georgia que se informó en las últimas semanas, Dobbs todavía animaría a los inmigrantes a seguir asistiendo a la iglesia, al tiempo que ejercen una mayor precaución en general y se aseguran de conocer sus derechos.

“Lo que le he estado diciendo a la mayoría de mis clientes es: ‘Creo que está bien. No tengan miedo de ir a la iglesia’. Creo que la probabilidad de que algo suceda es bastante escasa, en general”, aunque la política técnicamente significa que podría suceder.

Haga un plan

En caso de que el ICE se presente, las iglesias deben tener políticas establecidas sobre qué hacer, especialmente las iglesias con mayoría de inmigrantes.

Deben haber decidido cuál será su respuesta con sus propios equipos de seguridad y qué debe hacer el personal en términos de permitir la entrada.

Sería prudente tener algún tipo de plan establecido, para que “no estén apurados en el momento”.

Para estar preparados, las iglesias y sus miembros deben conocer sus derechos legales en términos de permitir la entrada o denegarla.

Un ejemplo de una de esas políticas podría ser pedirle al ICE que espere afuera hasta que termine el servicio, y luego podrían hacer lo que tengan que hacer.

Dobbs explicó que en términos de aplicación de la ley de inmigración (permitir que el ICE intente ingresar a iglesias u hospitales), lo que Trump ha hecho está dentro de la ley.

Lo que no está dentro de la ley, señaló Dobbs, es “el intento de terminar unilateralmente con la ciudadanía por nacimiento. Eso está casi seguro fuera de la ley, y al menos uno o dos jueces federales ya han dictado sentencia en consecuencia.

“Esa acción es definitivamente inconstitucional y nunca se ha sostenido lo contrario”, dijo.

En términos de hacer cumplir las leyes que existen o permitirle al ICE más libertad para hacer cumplir las leyes de inmigración y realizar más detenciones, las acciones de Trump son legales, “pero la ciudadanía por nacimiento, ciertamente no”.

Formas de ayudar

Las iglesias pueden apoyar a los inmigrantes siendo un recurso para obtener información precisa. “Hay mucha desinformación en este momento”, señaló Dobbs, “lo que está provocando mucha ansiedad en la comunidad inmigrante”.

Es importante asegurarse de que la iglesia tenga información precisa o sepa dónde dirigir a los miembros inmigrantes para que encuentren información precisa, señaló.

Dobbs dijo que los abogados de inmigración son un recurso obvio para recomendar. Además, las iglesias pueden alentar a los miembros de la iglesia a no creer todo lo que ven en las redes sociales.

Se debe alentar a los inmigrantes a evitar trabajar con los llamados “notarios”, personas que no son abogados pero que se promocionan como “asistentes de inmigración”.

Muchos notarios se “dedican a la práctica no autorizada de la ley”, dijo Dobbs. “Además de tener información incorrecta o incompleta, a veces presentarán un documento incorrecto”.

Las iglesias pueden ayudar a los inmigrantes en sus congregaciones ayudándolos a comprender cómo distinguir entre notarios y abogados de inmigración con licencia.

Además de los abogados de inmigración privados, las organizaciones paraeclesiásticas que apoyan la inmigración también pueden ser buenos recursos y socios.

En Dallas, For the Nations Refugee Outreach tiene un especialista en inmigración calificado en su personal. En general, para obtener asesoramiento específico sobre inmigración, Catholic Charities es una fuente confiable de asesoramiento y apoyo en materia de inmigración.

Además, el Centro para el Compromiso Cultural de los Bautistas de Texas creó un breve documento que describe “lo que las agencias del gobierno federal pueden y no pueden hacer legalmente, así como las libertades, los derechos y las obligaciones de las iglesias”, señaló el director ejecutivo Julio Guaneri en su correo electrónico semanal.

Las órdenes ejecutivas relacionadas con la inmigración han afectado a las iglesias bautistas de Texas. Dobbs dijo que ha oído hablar de miembros de origen hispanohablante, en su propia iglesia y en varias otras iglesias bautistas de Texas, que tienen miedo de ir a la iglesia.

Las iglesias de cultura mayoritaria pueden ayudar a apoyar a las iglesias compuestas en gran parte por inmigrantes al saber quién en sus iglesias podría tener conocimientos y habilidades que podrían ser valiosos para los inmigrantes y capaces de ayudar en las iglesias de inmigrantes cercanas.

“Lo que he tratado de decirle a la gente es que creo que la comunidad hispanohablante, la comunidad inmigrante, ciertamente necesita ejercer más cautela ahora que tenemos estas nuevas órdenes que bajo la administración presidencial anterior, pero también les he dicho que no creo que necesariamente deban presionar el botón de pánico tampoco”.

La retórica sobre deportaciones masivas y ICE o el ejército arrasando las calles, “no estamos viendo mucho de eso”.

Dobbs dijo que eso se debe a que ICE, como cualquier organización burocrática, tiene recursos limitados. Tienen un número limitado de agentes de cumplimiento, lugares limitados para retener a los detenidos y una capacidad limitada de aviones para deportaciones.

“Y de hecho, ya, solo en estas dos semanas, han agotado todo su espacio de camas en los Estados Unidos. Ya se han llenado.

“Están al 109 por ciento de su capacidad y ya han comenzado a liberar a los inmigrantes que han detenido porque no tienen dónde ponerlos”, señaló Dobbs.

Dobbs dijo que había predicho cuando la administración se centró por primera vez en las deportaciones, que esto es lo que sucedería. Pensó que “detendrían a muchas personas durante unas semanas, y luego no tendrían ningún otro lugar donde ponerlas, y eso es exactamente lo que sucedió”, recordó Dobbs.

Tome decisiones inteligentes

Sí, tenga cuidado, pero “lo mejor que pueden hacer la mayoría de los inmigrantes es evitar problemas con la policía”. Los inmigrantes que son arrestados son los que probablemente terminarán detenidos.

Los inmigrantes deben tener cuidado con las personas que los rodean y evitar a los “alborotadores”, dijo. Hacerlo ayudará a evitar ser incluido en una acción de cumplimiento por estar en el lugar equivocado en el momento equivocado.

Dobbs señaló una tendencia reciente de cumplimiento de la ley del ICE “enfocándose en personas fácilmente localizables, incluidas aquellas que tienen monitores de tobillo del ICE y aquellas que vienen a los controles del ICE”.

Estos tienden a ser “recién llegados a los EE. UU. o aquellos que ya han sido colocados en el proceso de deportación, también conocido como Tribunal de Inmigración”.

“He visto un aumento de las detenciones por parte del ICE para ambas poblaciones en las últimas dos semanas, aunque no en iglesias ni cerca de ellas”, dijo Dobbs.

Los inmigrantes deben comprender que sus posibilidades de evitar la deportación solo pueden mejorar si ya están en el camino hacia el estatus legal.

Si bien “simplemente demostrar que está trabajando con un abogado de inmigración para obtener un estatus legal no necesariamente evitará que el ICE tome medidas de cumplimiento”, dependiendo de qué tan avanzado esté el caso en el camino hacia el estatus legal, estar en proceso podría marcar la diferencia.

Podría ayudar a convencer al ICE para que ponga en libertad a una persona bajo fianza de inmigración a la espera de un juicio de inmigración, o podría facilitar la defensa de la persona ante el tribunal de inmigración.

“Nunca es malo estar en el camino hacia el estatus legal”, dijo Dobbs.

Dallas immigration attorney Jered Dobbs has seen an uptick in people seeking his services since the Trump administration resumed power three weeks ago.

Fear is “the driving factor” in almost all these calls, he said.

Dobbs recently spoke with a Dallas-area church—and in a couple other places that serve immigrants—to allay some of these fears and to help provide clarity on the blitz of executive actions related to immigration.

The Baptist Standard asked him about the types of questions people are asking.

Dobbs said a lot of questions are being asked relating to the executive orders and church.

The big question

“One of the big ones is, ‘Can ICE come into a church or look for somebody while they’re at church?’”

One of the executive orders “was essentially to lift a Biden-era policy” preventing ICE from entering certain sensitive areas like churches and hospitals, Dobbs explained.

So, the answer is yes, “technically ICE could do that.” However, “they do have to have a supervisors’ approval to do anything along those lines. And realistically, I think it’s going to be very rare that we would see anything like that.”

Beyond the requirement of supervisor approval, other legal restrictions might prevent ICE from entering a house of worship, he explained.

“Generally speaking, a private entity does not have to permit ICE entry unless they have a criminal warrant signed by a federal judge. They cannot just force their way in without the proper documentation by a federal judge, which is going to be a fairly rare thing.”

Overall, while it is legally possible and “might occur in limited circumstances, particularly if you have someone who is extremely dangerous,” Dobbs said he did not think ICE entering churches is “super likely” to become a common occurrence.

The same policy was in effect under Trump’s last administration, so it’s not new policy, Dobbs said. “It’s just a rehash of an old policy, and even then, I don’t ever recall hearing about ICE entering a church forcibly or anything like that.”

He noted he can’t say it “definitely won’t happen,” but “ICE knows it’s bad optics to be physically bursting into churches.”

“People, including many of the president’s supporters, aren’t going to stand for that,” Dobbs explained.

Even with one arrest outside a church in Georgia having been reported in recent weeks, Dobbs still would encourage immigrants to continue attending church—while exercising increased caution in general and being sure to know their rights.

“What I have been telling most of my clients is: ‘I think it’s OK. Don’t be afraid to go to church.’ I think that the likelihood of anything happening is fairly slim, overall,” even though the policy does technically mean that it could.

Make a plan

In the event ICE does show up, churches need to have policies in place on what to do, especially migrant-majority churches.

They need to have decided what their response is going to be with their own security teams and what personnel should do in terms of permitting entry.

Having some sort of plan in place would be wise, so that “they aren’t scrambling in the moment.”

To be prepared, churches and their members need to know their legal rights in terms of permitting entry or denying entry.

An example of one such policy might be asking ICE to wait outside until the service is over, and then they could do whatever they need to do.

Dobbs explained in terms of immigration enforcement—permitting ICE to try to enter churches or hospitals—what Trump has done is within the law.

What is not within the law, Dobbs noted, is “the attempt to unilaterally end birthright citizenship. That is almost certainly outside of the law, and at least one or two federal judges have already ruled accordingly.

“That action is definitely unconstitutional, and it’s never been held otherwise,” he said.

In terms of enforcing the laws that exist or allowing ICE more latitude to enforce immigration laws and make more detentions Trump’s actions are legal, “but the birthright citizenship, certainly not.”

Ways to help

Churches can support immigrants by being a resource for accurate information. “There’s a lot of misinformation out there right now,” Dobbs noted, “which is stirring up a lot of anxiety in the immigrant community.”

Making sure the church either has accurate information or knows where to point immigrant members to find accurate information is important, he noted.

Dobbs said immigration attorneys are an obvious resource to recommend. Also, churches can encourage church members not to believe everything they see on social media.

Immigrants should be encouraged to avoid working with what are called “notarios”—people who are not attorneys but who market themselves as “immigration assistants.”

Many notarios are “engaged in the unauthorized practice of law,” Dobbs said. “Aside from having incorrect or incomplete information, sometimes they’ll file an incorrect document.”

Churches can help migrants in their congregations by helping them understand how to distinguish between notarios and licensed immigration attorneys.

In addition to private immigration attorneys, parachurch organizations that support immigration also can be good resources and partners.

In Dallas, For the Nations Refugee Outreach has a qualified immigration specialist on staff. In general, for immigration specific advice, Catholic Charities is a reliable source of immigration council and support.

Additionally, Texas Baptists’ Center for Cultural Engagement created a brief document outlining “what federal government agencies can and cannot do legally as well as the freedoms, rights and obligations of churches,” Executive Director Julio Guaneri noted in his weekly email.

The executive orders relating to immigration have impacted Texas Baptist churches. Dobbs said he has heard of members from Spanish-speaking backgrounds, in his own church and a number of other Texas Baptist churches, who are afraid to come to church.

Majority-culture churches can help support churches largely comprised of immigrants by knowing who in their churches might have knowledge and skills that could be valuable to immigrants and capable of helping at immigrant churches nearby.

“What I’ve tried to tell people is, I think the Spanish-speaking community, the immigrant community, certainly need to exercise more caution now that we have these new orders than under the prior presidential administration, but I also have told them I don’t think they necessarily need to hit the panic button either.”

The rhetoric about mass deportations and ICE or the military sweeping through the streets, “we’re not seeing a lot of that.”

Dobbs said that’s because ICE, like any bureaucratic organization, has limited resources. They have limited numbers of enforcement agents, limited places to hold detainees and limited airplane capacity for deportations.

“And in fact, they have already, just in these two weeks, already maxed out all of their bed space in the United States. They’ve already filled up.

“They’re at 109 percent capacity, and they’ve already started to release immigrants that they have detained because they don’t have anywhere to put them,” Dobbs noted.

Dobbs said he had predicted when the administration first put the focus on deportations, this is what would happen. He thought “they would pick up a lot of people for a few weeks, and then they’re going to have nowhere else to put them, and that’s exactly what’s happened,” Dobbs recalled.

Make wise choices

Yes, exercise caution, but “the best thing most immigrants can do is stay out of trouble with the police.” Immigrants who get arrested are the ones who will most likely find themselves in detention.

Immigrants should be careful about who they’re around and avoid “troublemakers,” he said. Doing so will help avoid being included in an enforcement action by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Dobbs noted a recent enforcement trend of ICE “focusing on easily locatable people, including those who have ICE ankle monitors and those coming to ICE check-ins.”

These tend to be “recent entrants to the U.S. or those who have already been placed into the deportation process, also known as Immigration Court.”

“I have seen increased detentions by ICE for both of those populations in the last two weeks, though not in or near churches,” Dobbs said.

Immigrants need to understand their chances of preventing deportation can only improve if they’re already on the pathway to legal status.

While “simply showing that you’re working with an immigration attorney toward lawful status will not necessarily prevent ICE from taking enforcement action,” depending how far along the path toward lawful status the case has progressed, being in-process might make a difference.

It could help convince ICE to release a person on an immigration bond pending an immigration court case, or it might make defending the person in immigration court an easier prospect.

“It’s never a bad thing to be on the pathway to legal status,” Dobbs said.

DALLAS—“Leadership is disappointing people at a rate they can absorb,” author Tod Bolsinger said, attributing the definition to adaptive leadership experts Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky.

Bolsinger gave Dallas Baptist University’s Nexus Leadership Conference participants few assurances the work of leading churches and other Christian organizations in a changing world would be successful.

However, he said, leadership in troubled times is essential no matter the result.

“This is the big surprise when you stepped into leadership. This is what nobody told you when they gave you that promotion … They never told you that you are actually going to become the chief disappointment officer,” saidBolsinger, co-owner and principal of AE Sloan Leadership.

When an organization chooses a new leader, it expects the new leader will “make life better,” whereas “what you understood is that God wanted them to make their lives new, that God’s going to use you to transform them,” Bolsinger explained.

Working with people through transformation is the big challenge of leadership, he said, and what makes leadership unique.

Stewardship isn’t leadership

But the Bible doesn’t have much in the concordance about “leadership,” he noted. Instead, the Bible talks about management, described as stewardship—“taking care of the things entrusted to your care.”

“Paul even describes this as the work of the gospel, being stewards of the mystery of God,” he noted.

However, he said there’s a difference between stewardship and leadership, which can be seen with Moses. The “manager” would make calculations and surmise it should take six weeks of marching to get to the Promised Land, but “the leader knows it’s going to take 40 years, and not everybody is going to make it.

“Because it’s going to require transformation. And people resist transformation.”

Bolsinger recalled when he taught seminary, ministry colleagues told him, “You know, seminary didn’t prepare me for this—this thing that I have.”

Ministers “love holding people’s hands,” praying for them and caring for them, pulling people together, working out ideas with people on a whiteboard, but they weren’t prepared for the challenges of COVID-19, for example—where “people became deeply divided over things that you didn’t expect.”

Yet, leadership is “energizing the community of people toward their own transformation in order to accomplish a shared mission.”

Bolsinger noted, in times of crisis, “there’s actually an opportunity to become more transformed.”

The United State has been through a lot since 2001, Bolsinger said, listing a series of crises beginning with 9/11 and the 2008 financial crisis. 2020 brought a pandemic “that led to a lingering economic crisis that has led to a political crisis that reverberates through our culture and through our pews.”

There have been harder times to lead through than these, he said, but where the country is now, “it’s complicated,” and “nobody has prepared us” for this.

People are good in “acute crises,” Bolsinger noted. When there’s a hurricane or fire, as in Altadena, Calif., where Bolsinger is from, people and churches scramble.

In a crisis, people know what to do. Congregations figured out how to adjust to the constraints of COVID-19. In an acute crisis, “you come together, you stabilize, you protect, you buy time.”

But the second phase to the crisis, what Heifetz and Linsky called the adaptive phase, is where “you have the opportunity to address the underlying issues that have been revealed by the crisis. The things that were there all along, but that we didn’t have the will to confront,” Bolsinger said.

God’s mission is forward

In a crisis, the focus is on getting out of the crisis. The sole focus of someone in an emergency room is getting home or “back to normal,” he explained.

When “you’re trying to lead people through a time of transformation that’s disruptive,” remember “family” and “familiar” share the same root word.

“It means that when we feel unfamilied, when we’re in an unfamiliar place. … you don’t just feel disrupted, you feel alienated. You feel abandoned. You just want to get back.”

Bolsinger noted a lot of churches feel this way. They want to get back to normal and how things were. But, Bolsinger asked, “Back to what?”

Do they want to go back to a church that has been losing Millennials and Gen Z at the rate of 100,000 per month for 20 years?

“We want to go back to that which is familiar to us, when the mission of God calls us forward,” he said.

Adaptive leadership requires leaders to address the issues a crisis revealed and lead a congregation through transformation.

Bolsinger said the issues in the culture and in churches are “deep, complicated issues” that aren’t going to be solved by getting a “kicking” worship band or “changing your name from First Baptist to The Flood.”

Edwin Friedman, a Jewish researcher, put it this way: “When any relationship system is imaginatively gridlocked, it cannot get free simply through more thinking about the problem. Conceptually stuck systems cannot become unstuck simply by trying harder.”

“For a fundamental reorientation to occur, that spirit of adventure which optimizes serendipity and which enables new perceptions beyond the control of our thinking processes must happen first,” Bolsinger said.

But in times of crisis, the default is to one’s training, Bolsinger emphasized.

To lead adaptively, leaders must learn a different way of leading by asking whether the problem to be solved is a technical challenge that can be solved by an expert, or whether the problem is adaptive with no clear answers to be solved by experts.

Transformation through adaptive leadership

With an adaptive challenge, transformation comes through learners who are experimenting, like 19th century explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.

Lewis and Clark are the subjects of Bolsinger’s book Canoeing the Mountains. Though they were hired to be water guides, the men learned when they arrived at the top of the Lehmi Pass their canoes were not the answer to the mountains that lay ahead.

Leading through transitions sometimes requires leaders to “face unchartered territory,” and go forward into a future totally different from the world behind, Bolsinger said. These leaders must help those they lead lay down the “canoes” that don’t work in the “mountains” ahead of them.

Leadership on mission is “wholehearted.” It is dedicated not to preserving the past, which is what the people fear—loss—when leaders think they fear change, but to forge into the future where God is leading, he concluded.

Bolsinger also encouraged chapel students, through the story of Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20, to know their “superpower”—or the thing they do really well. But when “the thing you do well stops working,” don’t just try harder.

Instead, Bolsinger said, “Stop. Look. Listen, then go (love).”

Before leading his people into battle, Jehoshaphat called them together and made them stop and look at God, he noted.

To be prepared for difficult times, follow that example and “do a deep, deep apprenticeship with Jesus.”

In difficult times, don’t rely on a superpower, Bolsinger said. Doing the wrong thing harder will not work. Instead, do something that requires dependence on God.

Listen to “the pain around you.” Find the “ones God wants you to hear,” and meet their need.

Live Galatians 5:6, he urged. “Love the people in front of you,” he said. To be a real Christian is to do what love demands.