Woke Clergy In Rainbow Sashes Gather Inside Target HQ To Protest ICE

In downtown Minneapolis, a group of more than one hundred clergy members gathered not in a sanctuary, not at a pulpit, but inside a Target store and later its corporate headquarters. Draped in rainbow sashes and clerical collars, they held a press conference, marched through city streets, and staged a sit-in in the company's lobby. Their demand was simple and sweeping: that Target publicly condemn federal immigration enforcement and distance itself from any cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security.

They sang protest songs, pledged to shop elsewhere, and framed their demonstration as a moral stand against what they described as "terror" inflicted by immigration authorities. What they did not do was acknowledge that those authorities were carrying out lawful arrests under existing law -- or that immigration enforcement exists, in part, to protect communities from violent crime.

This was not a prayer vigil. It was not pastoral care. It was political theater -- and it revealed just how far certain segments of the modern clergy have drifted from biblical Christianity.

These clergy present themselves as voices of compassion. They speak in the language of justice, dignity, and love. But what they are actually offering is a hollowed-out Christianity -- one that has traded biblical authority for ideological fashion, repentance for protest choreography, and the hard truths of Scripture for the easy applause of the cultural left.

Let's be clear: Christians can -- and should -- have compassion for immigrants. Scripture commands care for the stranger. It also commands obedience to lawful authority. Those two truths are not in conflict. Only a deeply unserious theology insists that mercy requires the abandonment of justice.

Yet the activists in clerical collars refuse to acknowledge this balance. In their worldview, law itself is suspect. Borders are immoral. Enforcement is "violence." And the state's responsibility to protect its citizens is dismissed as cruelty. This isn't biblical compassion -- it's moral confusion dressed up as righteousness.

What makes this moment especially disturbing is who is delivering the message. These are not secular activists with megaphones. These are people who claim to shepherd souls. And many of them belong to denominations that long ago abandoned historic Christian teaching on sex, marriage, and human nature itself. The rainbow stoles are not incidental. They are symbolic. They signal allegiance -- not to the authority of God's Word -- but to a moral framework that reshapes Christianity to fit modern political demands.

Once Scripture is discarded in one area, it rarely remains authoritative in others.

So now we are told -- explicitly or implicitly -- that enforcing immigration law is immoral, even if those being detained include violent offenders, sexual predators, or traffickers. The unspoken logic of these protests is chilling: better that dangerous individuals roam free than that the state assert its authority. Better chaos than order. Better lawlessness than accountability -- so long as the correct political point is made.

That is not compassion. That is negligence masquerading as virtue.

The Bible does not portray justice as optional. Governments exist, according to Scripture, to restrain evil and punish wrongdoing. Law is not oppression by default; it is a safeguard for the innocent. A society that refuses to enforce its laws does not become kinder -- it becomes more dangerous, especially for the most vulnerable.

And yet these clergy seem far more animated by their opposition to law enforcement than by concern for victims of crime. There is little public anguish for abused children, murdered families, or trafficked women -- unless their suffering can be weaponized for political messaging. This selective compassion exposes the movement for what it is: ideological activism first, pastoral concern last.

Another angle Christians should not ignore is how thoroughly politicized the church has become in moments like this. The sit-ins, the chants, the corporate demands -- none of this resembles the mission Christ gave His Church. The early Christians transformed the world not by occupying imperial buildings, but by preaching repentance, caring for the poor, rescuing abandoned children, and living lives so morally distinct that pagan society took notice.

Today's woke clergy have inverted that legacy. They preach politics from the pulpit and treat corporations as moral authorities. They shame law-abiding citizens while excusing lawlessness. And they frame disagreement not as a matter of prudential judgment, but as moral failure.

There is also a generational arrogance at play. These leaders speak as though half the country -- including millions of faithful Christians -- are motivated by hatred rather than legitimate concerns about safety, sovereignty, and order. They assume dissent equals bigotry. It is a profoundly unpastoral posture, one that hardens division rather than heals it.

Christians should reject this false choice between compassion and law. We do not have to abandon justice to show mercy. We do not have to surrender borders to love our neighbor. And we certainly do not need clergy who have already surrendered biblical teaching on sex and marriage to lecture the nation on morality.

The Church's credibility does not come from protest credentials or cultural alignment. It comes from faithfulness -- to truth, to Scripture, and to the hard work of loving people without lying to them.

What we witnessed inside that Target was not courage. It was capitulation. And the Church -- and the country -- deserves better.