Faith leaders across the country are mobilizing, and with “Eyes Not Lies,” clergy are telling the public to trust what they see.
Pastors, bishops, rabbis and imams from more than a dozen states have responded to a call issued by local faith and justice organizers in Minneapolis following a series of Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations that have left residents fearful and grieving.
The mobilization intensified after the January 7 fatal shooting of Renée Nicole Good by a federal agent, an incident that galvanized national attention and faith-based response. And even more so, after the January 24 killing of Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year old Intensive care unit nurse at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Health Care System.
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Officials said they believed Pretti meant to kill them. They said he attacked first, even as video evidence later contradicted that account. They questioned whether he was legally entitled to carry a concealed weapon. And they insisted he received immediate medical care, a claim a witness directly challenged.
In response to these assertions, various clergy have made videos as part of Eyes Not Lies, a digital call to action issued by Minnesota MARCH (Multifaith Antiracism, Change & Healing) and rooted in the practice of faithful witness. Eyes Not Lies encourages people to believe what they see.
Rev. Regina Lowe, associate minister at St. Paul AME Church in St. Louis, recorded herself narrating what she saw in the video of Pretti’s killing.
“I am sharing this because truth matters,” Lowe said. “What we are seeing must not be denied. Please join me. Watch the video and tell the world what you have seen with your own eyes to combat these lies.”
Dr. Otis Moss III, senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, was equally direct.
“It is very obvious that the federal officers were not trained appropriately. As any officer who understands how to subdue a subject, you should not pull and fire a gun right next to another officer. He was shot in the back. All he had was a cell phone and was trying to protect another protester. He had a conceal and carry permit and the officers had subdued him. And yet an officer pulled his gun and shot Alex Pretti. An ICU nurse is now dead,” Moss said.
“We must organize if we are to stop this kind of immoral unethical operation that is happening across this nation. Look at the video and you will see the pain of this moment and where our nation is. Your eyes do not lie.”
The “Lynching” of Alex Pretti
“The vast majority of Americans who have seen what is being done by masked-men in their name know that it is wrong,” said Bishop William Barber II referring to what he called the “lynching” of Alex Pretti. “We cannot sit back and curse the darkness from the comfort of our normal lives. Instead, we must recognize what is stirring within us as righteous anger to fuel a moral struggle. At the root of all anger is grief. We must let the blood of Alex Pretti and Renee Good and the more than 30 people who have died in ICE custody over the past year cry out from the ground.”
Family members and colleagues described Pretti as a devoted caregiver, especially to veterans. He had become deeply troubled by federal immigration policies and was engaged in peaceful protest at the time of his death. A U.S. citizen with no serious criminal history, he was remembered by supervisors and coworkers at the Minneapolis VA as calm, intelligent, and unwaveringly committed to patient care.
Shine a Light
On January 23, the faith coalition ISAIAH invited residents across Minnesota to “Shine a Light” — “Step outside and light a candle on our street corners with out neighbors. For our communities and Alex. ICE Out Now.”
“These leaders are not flying in for a photo op,” said Minister JaNaé Bates Imari, co-executive director of ISAIAH, a progressive, multi-faith non-profit. “They are walking with families, showing up in the cold, sitting with grief and helping people feel less alone.”
On Jan. 23, roughly 100 clergy members were arrested during a peaceful sit-in at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, protesting deportation flights and urging airlines to sever ties with ICE transport operations. The demonstration was one of the largest faith-led acts of civil disobedience in the city in years.
“Jesus is pretty clear about what our job is if we choose to follow him,” Dave Comstock, a volunteer connected to Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church which has been tracking enforcement actions told NPR after the killing of Renee Good. “We choose to take risks. We choose to stand against the Empire. And we choose to stand on the side of the people who are oppressed, the people who are forgotten.”