A Suggestion for Christians Attending the “No Kings” Rally

I have a suggestion for the “No Kings” rallies tomorrow.

I hope all my readers have found a “No Kings” rally to attend on Saturday the 18th. Those rallies are important, even if they just seem like performative fluff. No, protesting is not all we ought to do to bring justice to America. Protesting alone could never be enough. But protesting is part of the movement. It reminds politicians that they have constituents to court. It flies in the face of the Trump Administration’s propaganda that they have a mandate and we’re just a handful of ANTIFA weirdos. And it will encourage you, personally. You’ll be able to meet new friends and feel as if you’re not so alone. Going to the protest this summer was very energizing for me.

And of course, if you can’t go to the No Kings rallies for whatever reason, that doesn’t make you a bad person. Maybe you can help other people who are going to make signs, or you could watch their pets, or make cookies for them to have when it’s over. But if you can go, please do.

Now, for those of my followers who are going to a protest and are Christians like me: this is your time to shine.

The Trump Administration has decided to hijack American Christianity, as indeed the White Christian Nationalist movement has been doing for as long as I’ve been alive. Karoline Leavitt wears that shiny gold cross at her press conferences. Hegseth has the cross tattoos. The horrific propaganda coming out of the Department of Homeland Security as they torture immigrants has Bible verses all over it. J. D. Vance is J. D. Vance. These people are appropriating our faith and making love for Christ look like a racist, classist, sexist abusive thing. That should make you angry. They don’t own Jesus. If Jesus walked up to an ICE facility, they’d probably drag Him inside and beat Him up for being a brown man who didn’t speak English. We who belong to Jesus need to speak up.

I know that, in general, you shouldn’t make a display of your faith for other people. You should LIVE your faith instead. But when the other side is insisting that Jesus is their property and we’re a bunch of godless terrorists, it’s time to counter that narrative.

If you are a Christian attending a No Kings protest, I strongly recommend you let your Christianity show.

If you’re a cleric, wear your clerical collar even if you usually don’t.

If you’ve got a big shiny Saint Benedict medal somebody gave you for your Confirmation that isn’t your usual style at all but it feels wrong to give it away, this is the time to put the medal on. If you’ve got a Saint Therese Rosary bracelet that smells like flowers, put it on your wrist. If you’ve got a Vacation Bible School t-shirt or a jacket with a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe on it, get that out of the closet and wear it. Bring a cross instead of a sign.

If there’s a lull in the chanting and you can’t think of another protest chant to yell, maybe you and your friends can start singing “This Little Light of Mine” or the Old Hundredth.

The Trump Administration is blaspheming Christ by using His name and His scriptures as an excuse to torture and abuse our immigrant brothers and sisters and to yank food out of the mouths of the poor. But Christ does not belong to him. We belong to Christ.

We need to represent Christianity at the No Kings protests.

I’ll be wearing my patron saint bracelets and holding a Christians Against Christian Nationalism sign.

I hope to see you there!

Mary Pezzulo is the author of Meditations on the Way of the Cross, The Sorrows and Joys of Mary, and Stumbling into Grace: How We Meet God in Tiny Works of Mercy.