05/18/2026
Council of Elders Statement on USA Counterterrorism Strategy 2026
(Resources to show global solidarity with trans and non-binary siblings, in action and worship, are at the end of this statement)
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The recently published USA Counter Terrorism Strategy claims that “radically pro-transgender” people and groups are a national security or terrorist threat. This is both wrong and dangerous. It calls for a clear, faithful, and fearless response from those of us who care for people and lead communities shaped by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The language is meant to stir up fear. It uses one controversial political issue to make people feel unsafe and afraid of their neighbors.
But this statement is about more than transgender people alone. It follows a long pattern in American politics where fear is aimed at groups that are already pushed to the edges of society. Black and Brown people, immigrants, Muslims, Jewish people, q***r people, and transgender people have often been treated as threats instead of human beings worthy of dignity and care. At the same time, the statement says little about violent white supremacist groups and movements that have harmed these same communities for generations.
As people of faith, we must tell the truth about what is happening. Fear is being strategically organized around minoritized identities in ways that fracture public trust, erode democratic compassion, and create moral permission for surveillance, exclusion, and dehumanization. Language like this can make it easier for vulnerable people to be watched, targeted, excluded or harmed. That is not the way of Christ. We are commanded by Jesus to love others as we love ourselves (MT22:39) and called to build communities rooted in justice, compassion, safety, and belonging for all people.
About this, MCC must not be silent, for silence implies assent and could be interpreted as complicity. So, in Metropolitan Community Churches, we shall take this opportunity to speak, teach, and prophesy.
As leaders within the Metropolitan Community Churches, we reject the dangerous conflation of transgender identity, advocacy, and community-building with extremism, violence or terrorism. Such rhetoric does not merely mischaracterize transgender and gender-diverse people; it participates in a longstanding political strategy of fearmongering that isolates vulnerable communities, legitimizes suspicion, and conditions the public to accept surveillance, exclusion, and harm against already marginalized people.
We know this history well.
Our movement was born among people who were called dangerous simply for existing openly. Gay, le***an, bisexual, transgender, q***r, intersex, asexual, and gender-variant people have long been framed as threats to children, to morality, to public order, and even to the nation itself. Yet throughout the history of MCC, transgender and gender-diverse people have marched for our causes, preached our sermons, led our congregations, organized our justice ministries, buried our dead, comforted the grieving, challenged our theology toward greater liberation, and helped build beloved community in places where the world insisted none was possible.
To speak clearly: transgender people are a precious part of the LGBTQIA+ communities. Any exclusion or rejection of this reality is contrary to the calling and ministry of MCC.
The prophet Micah asks not for domination, suspicion, or ideological purity, but for covenantal faithfulness:
“What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love kindness/mercy, and journey humbly with your God?” — Micah 6:8
Justice requires more than sentiment.
It requires active resistance to systems and narratives that endanger people.
Kindness/mercy requires more than tolerance.
It requires solidarity.
Humility requires that we refuse the temptation to weaponize fear against those whose lives and experiences we do not fully understand.
Throughout our global Fellowship, we affirm that belonging is holy work. Communities rooted in belonging are not built through suspicion, surveillance, or scapegoating. They are built through mutual care, courageous truth-telling, and relationships strong enough to withstand the politics of division.
In this moment, we encourage our churches, boards, and ministry leaders across the world toward faithful action. For what injures our church in one area, eventually injures or threatens to injure us all.
The following resources were offered by Rev Mel Martinez, Senior Pastor, Safe Harbor MCC, USA:
Three Invitations Toward Courageous Community
1. Create Intentional Spaces of Belonging and Testimony:
Invite transgender and gender-diverse people within your congregation and community to share their stories, leadership, theology, and lived wisdom in settings that are relational rather than performative. Fear loses power when people encounter one another as neighbors rather than abstractions.
2. Develop Congregational Practices of Public Protection:
Equip church leaders, ushers, volunteers, and pastoral teams with clear strategies for security, de-escalation, trauma-informed care, and public solidarity. Let our churches become visibly safer places for LGBTQIA+ people, immigrants, people of color, and all those targeted by political scapegoating.
3. Build Coalitions of Hope Rather Than Isolation:
Strengthen partnerships with affirming faith communities, civil rights organizations, healthcare advocates, educators, and local justice movements. Authoritarianism and fear thrive in isolation; beloved community grows through interconnectedness and collective care.
We do not answer fear with fear.
We answer fear with community.
We answer dehumanization with dignity.
We answer exclusion with belonging.
And we answer threats against vulnerable people with the unwavering conviction that every person is worthy of safety, sacredness, and love.
In every generation, the Church must decide whether it will sanctify public fear or embody liberating love. May we choose courage. May we choose justice. May we choose one another.
And, let us do everything in love.(1 Corinthians 16:14).
May it be so we pray…with the help of God..
***
Poem by Rev Elijah Anthony
Radically pro transgender
I want to hear trans people laugh and
Celebrate. I want to call someone
By their new name and see their face
Fill with delight. I want to bring
A trans person to the thrift store
And help them find the clothes
That they only ever dared to
Wear behind closed doors.
I want to call someone by the
Pronouns that their soul
Has been longing to hear.
I want trans people in my churches,
In my classrooms, in my grocery stores.
I want trans people in nature.
I want trans people in my life.
I want to shout in the streets
How much I love trans people
how much each trans person
I’ve known has taught me something
About love and beauty and becoming
How each trans person taught me
Something I didn’t even know
That I didn’t know.
How each trans person gave me language
To step into a new shape of myself
I love trans people
I love how I can look into the eyes
Of someone who is trans
And understand there is a different
kind of knowing
A different kind of belonging
A way of being seen and loved
That is beyond words.
I love trans people
I love trans people
I love trans people
And I will never be quiet about it.
***
Resources for Action and Worship
Tasks to Create Intentional Spaces of Belonging and Testimony
• Host Story Circles Instead of Panels:
Create small, facilitated gatherings where transgender and gender-diverse people can share life experiences in conversation rather than as “experts on display.” Keep groups small enough for trust, listening, and relationship-building.
• Invite Trans Leaders Into Regular Worship Leadership:
Normalize transgender and gender-diverse leadership in scripture reading, preaching, prayer, music, communion, children’s moments, board leadership, and pastoral care — not only during Pride or Transgender Day of Visibility.
• Offer Theology Nights Led by Trans and Nonbinary Voices:
Create teaching spaces where transgender Christians and theologians can explore scripture, embodiment, liberation theology, resilience, and spiritual practice from their lived experience.
• Create Intergenerational Conversation Spaces:
Pair elders, young adults, parents, and transgender community members together for guided conversations around faith, identity, family, fear, and belonging. Fear often shrinks when generations truly hear one another.
• Develop a “Belonging Team” or Care Circle:
Build a small ministry team trained in hospitality, trauma-informed care, and accompaniment specifically focused on supporting LGBTQIA+ people, especially transgender newcomers.
• Center Joy, Not Only Trauma:
Make room for transgender and gender-diverse people to share stories of joy, calling, friendship, humor, love, creativity, parenting, faith, and thriving — not only pain or survival narratives.
• Share Meals Together Intentionally:
Potlucks, coffee gatherings, and dinner conversations often do more to dismantle fear than formal programming. Structure events so people genuinely mingle rather than stay in familiar groups.
• Offer Workshops on Gender Diversity for the Wider Congregation:
Help people move from anxiety to understanding through gentle, pastoral education about language, identity, pronouns, scripture, and respectful care practices.
• Create Visible Signals of Safety and Belonging:
Ensure church signage, bathrooms, bulletins, websites, leadership photos, and membership materials clearly communicate that transgender and gender-diverse people are fully welcomed and valued.
• Build Partnerships Beyond the Church Walls:
Collaborate with local LGBTQIA+ centers, affirming therapists, advocacy groups, healthcare providers, schools, and justice organizations. Belonging deepens when churches become connected hubs of care instead of isolated institutions.
Tasks to Develop Congregational Practices of Public Protection
• Train Ushers and Greeters in De-escalation:
Provide regular training on how to calmly respond to harassment, threatening behavior, disruptive protests, or aggressive visitors without escalating conflict. Focus on safety, communication, and protecting vulnerable people.
• Create a Clearly Defined Safety Team:
Develop a trained volunteer team responsible for monitoring entrances, assisting during emergencies, coordinating responses, and supporting congregants who may feel unsafe. Make sure the team reflects the diversity of the congregation.
• Develop Trauma-Informed Hospitality Practices:
Teach leaders and volunteers how trauma affects behavior, trust, communication, and emotional regulation. This helps churches respond with compassion instead of judgment when people are anxious, reactive, withdrawn, or fearful.
• Establish Emergency Response Plans:
Create written plans for medical emergencies, violent threats, severe weather, protests, online harassment, and evacuation procedures. Review and practice these plans regularly with leaders and volunteers.
• Build Relationships with Affirming Community Partners:
Connect with affirming mental health providers, legal advocates, immigrant support groups, domestic violence programs, LGBTQIA+ organizations, and local leaders who can help provide support during crises.
• Create Visible Signs of Safety and Inclusion:
Post clear statements that communicate the church’s commitment to protecting LGBTQIA+ people, immigrants, people of color, disabled people, and other marginalized communities. Safety becomes more real when people can see it immediately.
• Offer Digital Safety and Privacy Education:
Help congregants understand online harassment, doxxing, misinformation, and privacy protection. Teach safe social media practices for vulnerable leaders and community members.
• Develop Rapid Care Response Systems:
Create phone trees, text groups, meal support systems, transportation help, emergency housing connections, and pastoral response teams that can mobilize quickly when someone in the community is targeted or harmed.
• Practice Public Solidarity, Not Quiet Support Alone:
Encourage leaders to speak publicly and visibly against hate, scapegoating, racism, anti-trans violence, antisemitism, Islamophobia, xenophobia, and white supremacy. Vulnerable people should not have to wonder whether their church will stand beside them.
• Normalize Safety Conversations Without Creating Panic:
Speak openly and calmly about safety as part of community care rather than fear. Frame protection as an expression of love, preparation, and shared responsibility — not suspicion or paranoia.
Build Coalitions of Hope Rather Than Isolation
• Partner with Other Affirming Congregations:
Build regular relationships with churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, and spiritual communities that share commitments to dignity, justice, and inclusion. Hold shared services, prayer vigils, and community events together.
• Join Local Justice Coalitions:
Become active participants in local networks focused on racial justice, immigrant support, LGBTQIA+ advocacy, housing justice, disability rights, poverty relief, or public education. Show up consistently, not only during crises.
• Host Community Resource Events:
Invite healthcare providers, legal aid groups, counselors, educators, and advocacy organizations into church spaces to provide practical support, information, and relationship-building opportunities.
• Create Clergy and Leader Support Networks:
Develop relationships among pastors, nonprofit leaders, educators, and activists so leaders are not carrying fear, burnout, or conflict alone. Isolation weakens resilience.
• Support Local Schools and Educators:
Partner with affirming teachers, counselors, and school organizations working to protect vulnerable students, especially LGBTQIA+ youth, immigrant children, and students experiencing poverty or bullying.
• Show Up Publicly for Other Communities:
Attend vigils, rallies, cultural celebrations, memorials, and public meetings supporting communities facing discrimination or violence. Coalition work deepens when solidarity moves beyond words.
• Share Church Resources Generously:
Offer meeting space, meals, showers, classrooms, office support, storage, or printing access to trusted community partners doing justice work. Shared resources build shared trust.
• Develop Mutual Aid Partnerships:
Coordinate with nonprofits and grassroots groups to create systems of food support, transportation help, emergency lodging, crisis response, and financial assistance for vulnerable neighbors.
• Invite Community Voices into Church Life:
Bring educators, activists, healthcare workers, artists, organizers, and advocates into worship, classes, and forums so congregations hear directly from people engaged in justice work across the community.
• Teach the Theology of Interdependence:
Help congregations understand that beloved community is not built by isolated churches acting alone. Scripture consistently calls people into shared responsibility, collective care, and mutual protection.
***
Prayers for Use in MCC Worship and Study and Community Gatherings
Prayer 1 — For Courage and Belonging
Holy One,
When fear grows loud around us, remind us that Your love is louder still.
When our communities are targeted, misunderstood, or attacked, gather us closer together in courage, compassion, and truth.
Bless every person who enters this sacred space carrying fear, exhaustion, anger, grief, or uncertainty. Let this church be more than a building. Let it be refuge. Let it be resistance. Let it be beloved community.
Strengthen us to protect one another, speak truth with love, and remember that every human being is created in Your image and worthy of dignity.
We pray in the name of the One who welcomed the rejected and stood beside the vulnerable.
Amen.
~
Prayer 2 — For Justice and Hope
God of liberation,
You have always walked with people pushed to the margins of power.
You were with the oppressed, the excluded, the criminalized, and the misunderstood. Be with us now.
As hatred and fear seek to divide communities, plant us more deeply in justice, mercy, and humility. Help us resist the temptation to become bitter or hopeless. Instead, make us brave enough to love boldly, organize faithfully, and care for one another tenderly.
May every transgender person, every q***r person, every immigrant, every person of color, every disabled person, and every wounded soul know this truth today: they are not alone, and they are not abandoned by God.
Hold us together in hope.
Amen.
~
Prayer 3 — For Protection and Public Witness
Spirit of the Living God,
We come into worship carrying both faith and fear.
Some among us are tired from defending their humanity. Some are grieving harm done to themselves or those they love. Some are afraid for what tomorrow may bring.
Yet even now, You call us into community.
Make this congregation a shelter for the vulnerable, a voice for justice, and a living witness to the sacred worth of every person. Teach us to reject fearmongering, resist cruelty, and build communities where all people can breathe freely and belong fully.
Give us wisdom for the work ahead, courage for the hard days, and joy that cannot be stolen by hatred.
In the name of Christ, who broke down walls and drew the excluded close,
Amen.
