With a cross between Call of Duty LARPing and cherry-picked Bible passages, ICE and DHS recruitment ads appeal to the violence-craving low-ambition men who use a warped version of Christianity to feel validated and protected from accountability.

Christian nationalists use religion not because they aspire to be like Jesus, which would mean caring for the poor and immigrants, but as a tool to consolidate power. And to consolidate power, they need a violent force that will sow fear among laypeople who oppose them.

While I absolutely intend to criticize Christian Nationalism, I am by no means including all of Christianity here. I have no interest in dismantling a kind-hearted and compassionate person’s divine truth. Still, I do want to criticize those who draw power from organized religion and use dogma to control and oppress others, and in the case of ICE, to sanctify violence.

What better way to recruit for any tyrannical needs than to appeal to those who feel like the world has slighted them because being white or male didn’t grant them as many opportunities as the “American Dream” promised it would? Those who are poor, but don’t see that it’s the ultra-rich who siphon taxpayer dollars to fund their lavish lifestyle, and cause the wealth disparity. Those who listen to the same ultra-rich who point the finger at immigrants, trans people, or anyone else they can scapegoat and turn into a monster. Those who hand their critical thinking abilities over to the media personalities who tell them that it’s a proper Christian thing to hate people who don’t look like them.

It’s interesting how many ultra-rich media personalities spout about how America is a Christian Nation, and will also say that Capitalism should never be questioned. I guessed they missed the passage of Matthew 19:24: “And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”

Considering how much money immigration enforcement rakes in, I’d say that’s a passage that the Christian Nationalists at the DHS want to avoid. But they find other Bible passages that suit their needs.

Manufacturing righteousness and imposing the violent cost of “peace”.

In January 2026, DHS posted an ad for ICE recruitment (link leads to video on Twitter/X) using footage that appears to be a military operation, with the Bible passage “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” from Matthew 5:9, part of what is referred to as Jesus’s “Sermon on the Mount.”

This is the American government giving permission for violence and calling it peace. This is not the first time a violent colonizing empire has equated decimation of a community with “peace”.

But when the empire promises to deliver “peace,” we must ask who is paying the price.

Tacitus, an ancient Roman historian, quoted Calgacus, a leader in ancient Britain, who gave an impassioned speech to his troops before they battled the Roman army, arguing that they conquered territories only to expand their empire.

“To ravish, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire. And where they make a desert, they call it peace.”

To those who look at the ICE ads quoting the Bible and get amped up, ready to grab their necklaces with the cross and their gun and go hunt “illegals,” they must have missed the other passages of the Bible from The Sermon on the Mount.

It’s hard to imagine that these gun-toting, cross-wearing ICE agents have passages like Matthew 5:5, at the top of mind: “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth,” or just a few lines later, in 5:7 “Blessed are the merciful; for they shall obtain mercy.”

Perhaps these ICE agents are too excited for the promise of what they view as religiously sanctified violence to understand that it’s all manufactured righteousness.

Between cherry-picked Bible quotes and the administration’s demand for complete obedience without question, it doesn’t leave much room for critical thinking, such as: Is this really what Jesus was about?

Every time I see another story of ICE killing and kidnapping people, and the so-called Christians quick to defend ICE on social media, I’m reminded of a quote from the ancient Greek tragedy, Orestes:

“Evil that calls itself virtue is the paranoia of men whose minds have broken down.”¹

Religion as a pipeline for “restless men.”

A governing body using religion to appeal to violence-craving men with not a lot going for them is nothing new.

In the 380s CE, about 50 years after the ancient Roman emperor Constantine converted to Christianity and essentially made it the state religion, bishops had much more power in the empire than they had when Christianity was a minority. With Christianity integrated into the government, bishops were now acting members of the ruling empire.

But as The Notorious B.I.G famously said, “mo money, mo problems.” With this influx of power and wealth, churches and their bishops argued and split into factions.

As historian Kate Cooper writes of this in her book, Queens of a Fallen World²:

‘Nobody had reckoned with how the rival bishops would begin to stir up support from among the restless unmarried men of the cities... Soon the disputes would escalate to violence...The novelty of [the bishops stirring up restless men] lay in how theological ideas became the rallying point for urban conflict.”³

History seems to be a never-ending spiral, where we’re bound to repeat themes and events time and time again. And here the spiral has us faced once again with the power-hungry using religious rhetoric to fuel divisions and spur violence.

Violence and discord were permitted with the Bishop’s blessing.

So now, thousands of years later, ICE agents are recruited with ads like this, with Bible quotes fading in, men in tactical gear, guns drawn, and a voice-over from the 2022 movie, The Batman.

This ad has the promise of violence that is sanctified by the Christian Nationalists, who use quotes from the Bible to spur on the violent force to carry out their tyranny.

Where do we go from here?

When I see reactions on social media of how those who die because of ICE or are kidnapped and sent to gods know where somehow deserved what happened to them, I’m so overwhelmed with anger and disgust.

Piling that on top of having to do everyday tasks that adults have, like doing dishes, going to work, paying bills, etc., it seems unbelievable.

The idea that the world still turns and we still need to pay bills and have pleasant surface-level conversations around the water cooler about the weather, while all this evil is happening, seems beyond ludicrous.

But I’m reminded of a quote from another ancient Greek play, Electra:

“Oh my friends, in times like these, self-control has no meaning. Rules of reverence do not apply. Evil is a pressure that shapes us to itself.”⁴

And as evil is more visible thanks to the brave protesters who are filming ICE as they brutalize and kill people, so too is it more visible to see the people who refuse to be reshaped by the evil happening.

We can see those who stand up against tyranny and those who fight against authoritarianism.

Evil may be a pressure that tries to shape us to itself, but that doesn’t mean it will win.

When we stand firm in our values and protect one another, then we are not so easily pilable.

Let us not be reshaped by evil.

-Monica

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^1. Quote from Anne Carson’s translation of Orestes by Euripides
Carson, A. An Oresteia. New York: Faber & Faber, 2009.

^2. Cooper, K. (2016). Queens of a Fallen World. Publisher: Oxford University Press. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/queens-of-a-fallen-world-9780198757360

^3. Bold parts added by me, not found in the original quote.

^4. Quote from Anne Carson’s translation of Electra by Sophocles
Carson, A. An Oresteia. New York: Faber & Faber, 2009.