Safe, "comfortable" demonstrations like this Jan. 10 vigil in Portland, Ore., for those killed or injured by federal immigration agents are tolerated. But what about a protest that disrupts a church service? (Photo by Paul Jeffrey, UM News)
Special to United Methodist Insight | Jan. 21, 2026
Someone asked me for my thoughts on the protest that happened in Minneapolis during a worship service because the pastor was working with ICE. Here is my response:
First, my own church is frequently interrupted by protesters who object to the Jesus we preach—a liberating, radically inclusive Jesus. A Jesus who overturns tables in the temple and shuts down an entire religious economy built on exploitation. He interrupts synagogue services by healing on the Sabbath, restoring bodies in the very space where rules were being used to deny life. He forgives sins outside the temple system, bypassing priests and sacrifices altogether. He allows a so-called “sinful” woman to interrupt a religious gathering with her tears and touch and names her act truer worship than the host’s propriety. His first sermon in Nazareth disrupts worship so deeply that the congregation tries to throw him off a cliff. And in telling the Samaritan woman that worship will no longer be tied to sacred places at all, he interrupts the entire logic of who controls access to God. Jesus does not protect worship from disruption; he disrupts worship whenever worship stops serving liberation and starts serving comfort.
Second, as Wesleyans, we carry a long history of protest in and around worship. John Wesley himself was called “vile” for preaching outside the church to people on the margins. When he was barred from preaching inside, he stood on the only property he owned—his father’s tombstone—and preached from there. His response to being criticized was simple: he vowed to be more vile.
That tradition continued. Black Methodists protested segregated worship through kneel-ins in white churches and through some leaving altogether to start other denominations.
LGBTQ+ Methodists protested the denial of their belovedness by the church through worship-based actions—kneeling, taping their mouths shut, breaking a communion chalice, and consecrating the elements themselves in the middle of a Geneal Conference. These were not acts of disrespect toward God; they were demands for dignity in God’s name.
Third, I am surrounded by churches that profess a gospel I no longer recognize—one propped up by empire, fear, and white Christian nationalism, and in some cases even aligned with ICE. I do not feel called to interrupt their worship directly. My call is different: to interrupt white Christian nationalism by the ministry I lead at Allendale—by what we preach, what we sing, our liturgy, and how our people publicly bear witness to a Jesus who liberates.
And finally, it is not my job to police when or how oppressed people demand their liberation. History shows us that liberation rarely arrives politely, and it almost never waits for permission.
That, for me, is the deeper question this moment invites us to wrestle with.
Communications
Andy Oliver
Rev. Andy Oliver
The Rev. Andy Oliver is pastor of Allendale UMC in St. Petersburg, Fla. This post is republished from his Facebook page.