A crowd of about 80 people led by several area Christian pastors began Holy Week in Sycamore on Sunday by affirming that Jesus was a brown-skinned immigrant who stood up for the poor, fed the hungry, peacefully protested violence and called out injustice.

The faith leaders didn’t mince words during the hourlong peaceful Palm Sunday service on the steps of the DeKalb County Courthouse. They criticized many in the federal government whom they argued have co-opted the Christian prophet for their own political means, distorting the humble mission of a peaceful revolutionary to wage war, in opposition to Jesus’ teachings.

The Rev. Joe Mitchell of New Hope Missionary Baptist Church in DeKalb referenced an interview by U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Georgia, who said, “Jesus is the biggest victim of identity theft in this country.” Warnock preaches at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, the same church that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. called home.

“The name of Jesus is being used to empower empire, to wage war and deport decent people,” Mitchell said to a diverse crowd made up of young and old.

“Allow me to speak truth to power and say that Jesus is not a red hat-wearing, gun-toting, xenophobic bigot,” Mitchell said to applause from those gathered. “Jesus of Nazareth is a brown-skinned Palestinian Jew who was born in the projects to teenage parents who immigrated to Egypt to avoid persecution. Jesus of Nazareth fed the hungry, he healed the sick, he welcomed the stranger, flipped tables in the temple where the most vulnerable were being exploited. He was a peaceful revolutionary. That’s who Jesus is.”

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Participants hold signs during a procession at a Palm Sunday Faith Action event on Sunday, March 29, 2026, in front of the DeKalb County Courthouse in Sycamore. Area Christian ministers organized the event to combat the rise of Christian nationalism in the U.S. Participants also held palm branches and other symbols. (Kelsey Rettke)

The Rev. Eric Ogi of the Federated Church of Sycamore said the Palm Sunday Faith Action event – part of a nationwide gathering – was orchestrated in part to hold pastors like himself and their congregations accountable to improve the community.

In opposition to what he said was an unsettling rise of Christian nationalism in the U.S., Ogi said that white Christian nationalism is “evil masquerading as the power of God.”

Leaders from all sides, including in the U.S., have used religion to justify the war in Iran.

Ogi pointed to remarks made last week by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The purported “Secretary of War” began his first monthly Christian worship service at the Pentagon on March 25 by praying to have “every round find its mark,” The Associated Press reported. He prayed for “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”

Hegseth belongs to the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, a conservative network cofounded by self-described Christian nationalist Doug Wilson.

Ogi and other ministers who gathered called for Christians in the community to act in Jesus’ name, so that others would see how Christians are meant to live.

“Now, as then, the world needs to know that there is an alternative,” Ogi said. “That there is not just a couple of churches or a few individuals but a movement willing to risk provocation, willing to create and hold dynamic tension in order to welcome the stranger, in order to ensure that the hungry are fed and to insist on health care for all. In order to embody mercy even for our enemies. Our neighbors need to know that there is a Gospel concerned more with privileging the disenfranchised than with protecting one’s own privilege.”

The critiques by DeKalb County-area Christian ministers mirrored those made by Pope Leo XIV on Sunday during a Palm Sunday Mass at the Vatican.

During his homily, Leo rejected claims that God justifies war, saying God doesn’t listen to the prayers of those who make war or cite God to justify their violence, the AP reported. The pope in his message also prayed for Christians in the Middle East, as the war by the U.S. and Israel against Iran goes on.

Those at the event walked laps around the DeKalb County Courthouse lawn and sang the civil rights-era anthem “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘round,” led by New Hope music leader Vincent Bland.

Some held signs that said “Do justice. Resist fascism. Love thy neighbor. Fuera ICE,” “We wave palms. They waive constitutional rights” and “Hosanna! Save us from tyranny.”

Others waved palm tree branches, a common expression on Palm Sunday.

“We get there together, or never get there at all,” the crowd sang from Joshua Blaine’s “No One Is Getting Left Behind.”

The gathering came a day after hundreds marched along Sycamore Road in DeKalb during a No Kings protest, joining millions around the nation Saturday in what in DeKalb was likely the largest protest group seen since at least 2020 during the Black Lives Matter movement. Protesters at No Kings rallies in DeKalb County have for months railed against President Donald Trump’s leadership, calling out his immigration enforcement campaigns and cuts to higher education, veteran services, health care, women’s rights and more.

The Rev. Luis Felipe Reyes-Rosario of Sycamore United Methodist Church led the crowd in a litany in English and Spanish. During a lament, he read out the names of those who were killed or died in custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the past two years.

“We confess the comfort that keeps us quiet, the fear that keeps us passive, the privilege that keeps us protected,” Reyes-Rosario said in prayer. “Forgive us, oh God. ... We lament a system that wars in your name.”

The Rev. John Dorhauer of First Congregational United Church of Christ read the hymn “For the Healing of the Nations.”

In his benediction, the Rev. David Fraccaro of Elburn United Church of Christ said he believes it makes God happy to see a diverse congregation of Christians gathering.

“If we take our faith seriously, we have to ask ourselves why. The answer is simple,” Fraccaro said. “Because walking the narrow road of righteousness, of justice, of love is hard. It’s scary, because picking up the cross puts a mark on our back, too.”

Fraccaro urged the crowd to remember Jesus’ core teaching: Do not be afraid.

“We’re building this path as we walk it,” Ogi said. “We hope you will walk it with us.”

• The Associated Press contributed to this story.