The Trump administration and its MAGA minions want to make a big show about supporting religion (particularly the Christian religion). But this only applies when religion or religious leaders agree with the Trump administration. When they disagree, they are subjected to fierce attack.

Consider the following, quoted from Steve Benin at MSNBC:

the Religion News Service reported This week we’ll talk about developments in Chicago, where a variety of religious leaders oppose the administration’s immigration agenda. The report specifically highlighted what happened when Pastor David Black, wearing a clerical collar, stood in front of an ICE facility, raising his empty arms, and called on the armed agents to repent. From the RNS report:

Video footage shows that when Black began lowering his arms a few seconds later, agents responded to his spiritual plea by firing pepper balls, or chemical agents that cause eye irritation and shortness of breath. One of them struck Black in the head, exploding in a puff of white pepper smoke and forcing him to his knees. His fellow protesters rushed to help him, and while the priest rubbed his face in pain, the agents continued shooting.

“We could hear them laughing,” Black added.

The same Religion News Service report noted that the Rev. Hannah Cardone, a United Methodist pastor who leads Rogers Park United Church in Chicago, also protested at a local ICE facility, and also said she was shot multiple times with pepper bullets, “including when she was praying with her eyes closed and her hands up, wearing a clerical collar.”