With his blonde pompadour flying in the cold January sky, activist and performance artist “Reverend Billy” Talen preached through a megaphone outside of the Varick Federal Detention Facility in New York City to more than 250 immigrants detained there. Reverend Billy and his “congregation” of activists, known as The Church of Life After Shopping, gathered on Jan. 14 to sing songs of encouragement to the detainees and to demand that the U.S. government free those that Reverend Billy believes are being held unjustly. “This is the dark side of our tradition. This is our lack of forgiveness,” Reverend Billy told Sojourners.
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