Why is this happening?

Friday Roundup for January 23, 2026

A question so many of us keep asking over and over as the insanity of the Trump administration steamrolls the world is this: Why is this happening?

It is happening in part because a slim majority of Americans who voted chose for it to happen, knowing full well what they were voting for. Donald Trump told us what he would do, so there’s no credible way to say you didn’t think any of this would happen. Maybe you just thought it was Trump bluster but if so, you’re a bad judge of character.

It is happening also because those with the power to stop the insanity refuse to act. And in many cases, they refuse to acknowledge the problem, choosing instead to focus on diversions like calling out, “Squirrel!” when on walk with the dog. As I have written before, the U.S. Congress has the power to reign in our madman in the White House but has abdicated its constitutional duty.

I have two dozen articles in my queue to be published that I have not been able to process this week because we keep getting diverted by breaking news about the latest horrible thing this administration has done allegedly in the name of God. Remember, Trump said this week he thinks God is “very proud” of what he’s done as president in the past year.

That is blasphemy but such things are old news, sadly. Once you’ve misrepresented the Christian faith a thousand times, what’s one more?

“Once you’ve misrepresented the Christian faith a thousand times, what’s one more?”

Within the span of this week, we’ve seen the Trump administration double down on its occupation of Minneapolis andSt. Paul. (See Mara Bim’s must-read first-person account here.) We’ve seen the administration break more car windows, pull teenagers from their own vehicles, use a child as bait to lure his parents out of the house and then send the child to a detention center in another state.

That last one alone should be so shocking that the whole gig is up. But it has not deterred the president’s fan club one bit. Read Braxton Wade’s outstanding commentary on this where he asks, “Are we OK with children going missing?”

Instead of acknowledging the horrors of any of this — and more — conservatives have gone apoplectic over a small protest that breached the sanctuary of a Southern Baptist Calvinist church in St. Paul last Sunday. As if this were suddenly the worst thing that has happened in the past year. Here’s our basic news report on that event. And here’s today’s update on three arrests made.

Rodney Kennedy is among those who believe Cities Church is not being persecuted for righteousness.

Benjamin Cole and I recorded a new episode of “Stuck in the Middle with You” this week about the St. Paul church protest, and I encourage you to listen to it. Ben was keen to get me to agree with him that protesters should not disrupt a worship service. I agreed with that statement but pressed him to acknowledge the context that led to this protest. From my viewpoint, that’s something he clearly didn’t want to talk about.

And that’s my beef with all the Trump supporters who refuse to acknowledge the evil he and his henchmen are doing. They continue to focus on the perceived persecution of evangelicals while ignoring how they are supporting a regime that defies the very teaching of Jesus.

“They continue to focus on the perceived persecution of evangelicals while ignoring how they are supporting a regime that defies the very teaching of Jesus.”

Like the ICE agents now aggressively rounding up legally resettled refugees in Minnesota and preparing to widen the search across the country.

In a conversation with a friend this week, I expressed my utter disgust that Trump’s supporters are defying the very teachings of Jesus they claim to follow. Perhaps only partly in jest, he replied: “Oh, which teachings of Jesus are those?”

My friend, you see, was raised in a very conservative evangelical church in Texas where the sermons were short on grace and long on judgment. Thus, the first thing he recalled as a teaching of Jesus was from Matthew 10: “I have come not to bring peace but a sword.”

You can understand why he no longer attends church and is not raising his children in church. The Jesus he grew up hearing about is not a Messiah of hope and peace and joy but a figure of vengeance and judgment. Again, we wonder why people are fleeing the church.

I explained to him that the real message of Jesus in the Gospels is a story of reconciliation, of God’s attempt to enter our world with stories of the Prodigal Son, the Good Samaritan and the Greatest Commandment. Nothing the Trump administration stands for aligns with these teachings of Jesus.

That’s why a group of faith leaders called this week for an end to ICE aggression in their communities.

And in that same spirit, Rick Pidcock explains how the theology at Cities Church in St. Paul — the church protesters invaded last Sunday — also is rotten. This is why some pastors I know have said even they would join in a protest of that place because it does not represent the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

Which leads us to the other rabbit trail argument of the week. A lot of my more progressive friends have been comparing the protest at Cities Church to Jesus turning over the tables at the temple and driving the money changers out. More conservative friends chafe at that comparison and say it’s all wrong. Of course they don’t want to be compared to the money changers in the temple.

No one has accused this administration of being biblically literate. And yet, this also illustrates the disconnect in the ways we read the Bible and apply it to our political ideals.

Ryan Andrew Newson gets at this in an opinion piece titled, “Why do people deny the evidence before their eyes?” Too often we see what our biases want us to see.

How did we get here? We got here in part because we read the Bible very differently.

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In other news this week:

There’s been movement on advancing Trey’s Law in Oklahoma and Georgia.

A coalition of churches in Memphis, Tenn., has joined the chorus of voices demanding justice for lawfully resettled Afghan refugees targeted for detention and deportation by federal immigration authorities.

A Texas Baptist university evacuated its campus Jan. 22 in response to an unverified threat as Dallas Mayor Eric Johnsonand U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner were to appear on campus.

The Progressive National Baptist Convention named Thomas L. Bowen its new general secretary.

The Trump administration has conceded defeat in its effort to force public school districts to abandon civil rights protections and diversity, equity and inclusion programs that benefit students.

The fight over posting the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms returned to court Jan. 20 when the full 17-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in two cases challenging new laws in Louisiana and Texas.

Because Texas Gov. Greg Abbott designated the Council on American Islamic Relations as a foreign terrorism organization, a Muslim youth sports league has been denied use of a public school facility.

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In other analysis this week:

Josh Olds says history mocks us when we bow to ego like María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner, did when she gifted her Nobel Prize to Donald Trump in a Jan. 15 White House meeting.

Kristen Thomason offers an excellent explanation of how “originalism” is out now and being replaced by “Common Good Constitutionalism.”

Steve Rabey reviews the first year of Trump’s second administration and explains how it brought an unprecedented use of presidential power and significant change to the country and the world.

Sheila Wray Gregoire takes on SBC megachurch pastor Jonathan Pokluda, who asked rhetorically on an Instagram story, “Why do I have a desire to sleep with beautiful women while I’m a married man?”

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In other opinion this week:

Steve Cothran revisits Donald Trump’s claim that he could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot someone and not lose voters, and he finds irony in the possibility of that iconic avenue being widened.

Cynthia Astle says The Tribulation she was warned about in her youth is here for real.

Jesse Nelson explores why we need to keep remembering Martin Luther King.

Stephen Shoemaker remembers King’s friendship with Rabbi Abraham Heschel and Heschel’s joining with him in the Civil Rights March in Selma March 21, 1965.

Jeffrey Haggray discusses maladjustment and resistance in thinking of the King legacy.

The staff of BJC issued a statement about religious liberty, saying it isn’t something that only exists on paper.

Claude Huguley says everyone in America needs grace right now.

Ken Sehested has some advice on when to keep silence and when not to keep silence.

A final word

That’s all for this week. Here in Texas, we’re hunkering down like many of you for the big winter storm about to roll through over the weekend. Whatever you want to say about the economy, every grocery store across the South has done land-office business this week due to the doomsday predictions of ice and snow.

It’s interesting to see what’s gone from the shelves and what’s still there. Looks like no one around here is planning to grill fancy steaks, but the cheaper cuts of meat for stew are nowhere to be found. And I now know which flavor of ice cream must be most popular at Trader Joe’s.

Wherever you are, be safe this weekend. Unless of course you need to risk something for truth and justice. In that case, be brave!

Mark Wingfield
Executive Director and Publisher
Baptist News Global