The Christians mounting a moral counter to Trump's immigration agenda

• But "faith isn't owned by the Right," the Rev. Eddie Anderson tells Axios. "And God isn't a dirty word. God is the word."
• The contrast exposes a widening and overlooked rift within U.S. Christianity — often called the "God gap" — that could reshape how faith, power and politics intersect heading into 2026.

The big picture: Moderate faith leaders are escorting immigrants to court hearings, blasting "rapid response" text alerts on sightings of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and leading vigils to try to prevent protest clashes.

• They pray with ICE agents and National Guard troops to try to ease tension while also giving "know your rights" workshops to immigrants.
• They welcome LGBTQ members, bless gang members and denounce the deportations of fellow Christians who fled violence and poverty.

The intrigue: From the pulpit, they frame their actions as a moral stand outlined by Jesus in the Gospels to help "the stranger" and "the least of these," as they call on their members to speak out.

• "We don't just pray for peace. We bring peace," the Rev. Brendan Busse, pastor of Dolores Mission Catholic Church in Los Angeles, tells Axios.

Between the lines: Conservative evangelical voters are a high-turnout, GOP-leaning bloc with clear spokespeople, tight message discipline and built-in media megaphones, from talk radio to megachurch stages.

• Moderate and progressive clergy don't typically have that reach, but their increasing actions against Trump's policies are drawing attention to a possible new group of swing "faith voters" often ignored by Democrats.
• Moderate faith networks could give Democrats an opening to go after an estimated 15 million "persuadable Christians," said Doug Pagitt, a pastor and executive director of the progressive Christian group Vote Common Good.

Zoom in: In Southern California, where the coalition seems to be thriving, multi-faith advocacy organization PICO California has dispatched affiliated groups to aid undocumented farmworkers on the verge of starvation.

• Busse and Anderson, senior pastor of McCarty Memorial Christian Church in Los Angeles, helped halt violence in June in the city between protesters and the National Guard when they threw their bodies in the middle.
• Catholic activists in Chicago this month unsuccessfully attempted to give holy Communion to immigrants held at a detention center.
• In Arizona, representatives from more than two dozen U.S. Catholic dioceses participated in a pilgrimage to Mexico this month for a binational Mass to highlight the plight of migrants.

What they're saying: "People are bearing witness at prayer vigils and marches and processions. They're bearing witness in courthouses," PICO California executive director Joseph Tomás McKellar tells Axios.

• McKellar said he hopes this new movement becomes a political force rather than a partisan one.

The other side: The Trump administration recently made an ICE recruiting video with the Bible verse Isaiah 6:8, where Isaiah responds to God's call by saying, "Here am I, send me."

• MAGA influencers said the video was a call to serve in a capacity that God might want.
• Paula White-Cain, a leader of Trump's White House Faith Office, has said that Jesus would have been "sinful" and not "our Messiah" if he had broken immigration laws when fleeing persecution to Egypt as a baby with his family, as told in the Gospel of Matthew.

The bottom line: Moderate leaders like Dave Gibbons, lead pastor of multiethnic Newsong Church in Santa Ana, Calif., tells Axios that those are distortions of Christian values that sanctify exclusion and fear.

• "The Gospel's good news doesn't leave people out, especially the stranger," said Gibbons, who works with the group Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE) to accompany immigrants to hearings.
• He said the moderate and progressive Christians are countering MAGA's theology not with rallies, but with courtside accompaniment, rapid responses and "the Beatitudes."