More Students Taken by ICE, Cuts to DOE Blocked, and Do We Need Pastors?
Plus: Gaza Protests Continue and DEI Won’t be Counted in Medical School
Friends! God is faithful, His love never fails and His power will hold us up and together. I am grateful that that is true that students like the commencement speaker at MIT continue to speak out against the genocide in Gaza even as they face punishment and backlash. I am grateful that students persist and innovate even as affinity graduations are labeled as DEI and cut across the country. I am grateful that God is raising up a new generation to seek the love and justice of God and encouraging those who have been at it a long time to keep going. God will sustain us.
Remember: Please join us for Jesus, Justice and the University: 5 Year Reckoning After George Floyd on June 4 at 12pm EST and Prayers for People in Power on June 6. We can mourn, rejoice, learn, pray and work together toward a more just and loving world.
Here are 5 things we believe are worth your time:
Do We Really Need Pastors? Video and Podcast from Jude 3 Project
More students and their parents are taken by ICE
SCRIPTURE AND PRAYER
Do We Really Need Pastors? Video and Podcast from Jude 3 Project
Lisa Fields and the Jude 3 Project are a gift to the church in the United States and the world. Our faith communities and spaces are not meant to be spiritual media buffets that we can curate like a Netflix feed to suit our needs. Life with God is supposed to be holy, collaborative and oftentimes, messy amidst its fruitfulness. And this Video and Podcast reminded me that God didn’t call me to a microwave faith that is convenient for me and mine, but a beloved community that necessitates the flourishing of all people because we are bound up and to one another in Jesus. I hope you check it out!
STATISTICS
The Black Church and the 2024 Election
One of the temptations in how we talk to and about one another at the intersection of faith, politics and higher education is to reduce people to categories, monoliths and one-liners. And quite simply, humans are just more complex than that. And so this treasure trove of data from researcher Ryan Burge about the Black Church and the 2024 election is a great thing to read through and consider where our stereotypes, prejudices and unconscious bias might be at work. And I know that if I learned things as a Black American about my own community, I’m sure you will too!
STORIES
Cuts to DOE are Blocked but the Impact is already underway
Judges blocked some cuts to the Department of Education and reinstated hundreds of workers but the cuts are already being felt around the country. It is unclear whether workers will be willing to return and if funding that has been held up will be reinstated but programs that support mentoring initiatives and scholarships for under-resourced individuals and communities are already closed or in jeopardy. The cuts to some school districts could be as little as 5% or as high as 25%, but the most vulnerable will be the most impacted. The majority of Americans don’t have an idea of what the Department of Education does and sadly, we may discover how much only after those services, their data and resources have been removed. May we use our collective voices and actions to ensure those at-risk have the community and support necessary to thrive.
Medical Schools No Longer Graded on DEI
Race and gender bias in medicine is well-documented, widespread, and a uniquely intimate type of violence in a country with a history of racial separation, violence, and prejudice. So it is highly problematic that race and gender will no longer be taken into account when the Liaison Committee on Medical Education rates the quality of a medical and dental education. Black and Latine physicians make up 5% and 6% of the US doctors respectively. But when these populations are combined, these communities of color make up ⅓ of the American population. All of us know what it feels like to be dismissed, unseen or unheard and none of us want to experience that in a doctor’s office. I pray that this policy changes so that our most vulnerable moments have the best of our love, care and concern for one another.
More students are taken by ICE, parents separated from children
ICE is changing its tactics to increase deportations by showing up at routine immigration hearings and then arresting people as they leave the proceedings. This is stripping migrants of a key part of due process and parents and children are caught up in this cruelty. Dylan is 20 years old, a student in the Bronx and an example of this – the first NYC public school student to be taken. Moreover, parents are being separated from children with cases nationwide like in Texas, Missouri, Pennsylvania and New York. Jesus calls us to care for the poor, marginalized, the immigrant and the prisoner. And He holds us accountable to that reality. May we wrestle faithfully with what that looks like practically today.
In a call last week, a christian leader noted that the main reason for students attending their weekly gatherings was because the space felt welcoming and safe. No one agreed on everything and folks didn’t always say the “right” thing. But they felt like they belonged and could bring their whole selves. May we be people who create and cultivate those types of spaces because I think that’s what Jesus did for His disciples. May God bless you and keep you!
In Christ and for His Glory,
jonathan
PS. Pre-order your copy of “Beauty and Resistance: Spiritual Rhythms for Formation and Repair” to be released on November 11, 2025.
