(RNS) — The Rev. Kenny Callahan sat handcuffed in the back of an SUV after distracting ICE from abducting one of his neighbors. “Take me instead,” he yelled. So they did. “I’m not afraid of you,” the pastor of All God’s Children Metropolitan Community Church in Minneapolis told them. The agents visited him in the vehicle three times, as he sat next to two other detainees, asking each time if he was afraid yet. “No,” Callahan answered each time. Finally, one officer told him “Well. You’re white. You wouldn’t be any fun anyway,” and let him go.

Callahan’s story, first reported by the local Fox affiliate, is one of many compelling testimonies from the burgeoning revival of religious resistance to authoritarianism in the U.S. 

From Jewish groups staging mass protests to Muslim mosques hosting civic defense panels, to Buddhist sanghas practicing “faithful defiance,” the religious left is finding its place in the vanguard of the United States’ pro-democracy movement, showing us that contrary to popular belief organized religion can be a force for good.

Faith-based pro-democracy activism is showing us organized religion can still provide moral clarity in times of moral catastrophe. At a vigil for Renee Good, who was killed by ICE earlier this year in Minneapolis, the Rt. Rev. Rob Hirschfield, the Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire, urged clergy to prepare themselves for “a new era of martyrdom.”

“It may be that now is no longer the time for statements, but for us with our bodies to stand between the powers of this world and the most vulnerable,” Hirschfield said.

In fairness, statements have had their time and place, most effectively in clarifying the stakes involved in President Donald Trump’s attacks on the democratic system and on faith leaders who would defend it. In January 2026, Interfaith Alliance, a pro-democracy faith organization, released a statement saying simply, “The most pressing threat to religious liberty in our country today is the Trump administration itself.”

But as Bishop Hirschfield suggested, faith leaders have been stirred to do more than issue statements. They’re mobilizing their institutional resources to defend democracy. Social movements take off by using whatever infrastructure already exists in the resisting community. 

In Minneapolis, that infrastructure was mostly built by an interfaith network called ISAIAH. “ISAIAH had spent decades building relationships across faith communities, labor unions, and neighborhood organizations,” wrote Scot Nakagawa on his Substack, the Anti-Authoritarian Playbook. Working with a broad coalition of nonprofits, unions and 700 clergy organized by Multifaith Antiracism, Change & Healing, known as MARCH, the network’s members were able to pressure President Trump to call Gov. Tim Walz to discuss ending occupation of the Twin Cities. 

The Rev. Callahan’s experience in Minneapolis shows how some faith leaders are more at risk than others, yet they have taken part in the resistance, in part simply by informing their communities of their rights. In Muslim communities from California to New York, mosques have become hubs to defend democracy. They host legal clinics and “Know Your Rights” seminars, voter registration drives and even sometimes doubling as sanctuaries for persecuted migrants.

Similarly, Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist organizations have shown how resistance can be a sacred act. Buddhist groups, such as the Buddhist Coalition for Democracy, organize public education and legal advocacy, framing nonviolent resistance as a spiritual practice. Hindus for Human Rights have deployed temples and national networks to oppose Hindu‑supremacist alliances and promote caste and gender justice as democratic necessities. Sikh organizations like the Sikh Coalition use gurdwaras as hubs for legal defense, civic education and advocacy against surveillance and hate crimes, treating the protection of civil liberties as a core religious duty.

But these religious leaders, too, aren’t just putting their institutional resources to use. They’re putting their safety at risk as an act of faithfulness to their religious traditions and to confront evil.

On Feb. 11, 2026, more than 100 rabbis surrounded ICE headquarters in Washington to protest, singing, “I will not stand on the blood of my neighbor! I will not stand idly by.” Clergy from every major world religion are being photographed on the frontlines of resistance these days, offering their bodies as a barrier between the militarized DHS agents and unarmed protesters and immigrants.

Movement scholars say that type of risk-taking often inspires others to join the resistance.

As anti-ICE uprisings were just beginning to stir in Los Angeles in June, I wrote that the role of the minister in social movements is changing, as ministers had been increasingly invited to support social justice movements, but not to lead. But as the movement continues to evolve, I may stand corrected.

To be sure, organized religion has been suspiciously useful to oppressive regimes throughout history. But that’s not the whole story. Today’s religious left is reminding us that religion has also been useful for revolutionaries.