I WAS NEVER the smartest seminarian, but I read my Bible every day. I feel rooted in the scriptures and formed by what I see Jesus teaching us and how he’s calling us to imitate him. I was moved in that moment to pray in the verbatim words of Jesus, to warn the ICE officers who were standing on the roof about the spiritual consequences of their actions in language that was not just me—[it] was an echo of scriptural prophetic language talking about how generations after them would view their actions and calling them to repent.

As I was speaking the words of Jesus, they shot [pepper balls at] me at least seven times. Other people nearby who were strangers to me rushed in to shield my body with their bodies. ICE agents started shoving into the crowd. I got shoved down. I was able to recover for a moment, and that’s when I was sprayed in the face.

All bullies are frightened children.

I’m the center of the spectacle right now, but this story is not about me. If they are doing this to pastors who are praying and protesters who are singing songs, holding hands, chanting, and peacefully showing up to voice their conscience, then it makes me shudder to imagine what they might be doing to our neighbors behind closed doors and in these outsourced internment camps.

I was proclaiming the good news, calling sinners to repentance in deep compassion because I believe that all bullies are frightened children who deserve to be well, and whom God wants to deliver from the spiritual forces of evil that have overtaken them.

David Black spoke to Sojourners associate editor Josina Guess. An extended version of their conversation is available here.