Two years ago, Quincy Worthington did not consider himself an activist. The minister of a Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation in Highland Park, Illinois, he was outspoken on issues such as racial justice, but his public advocacy was mostly limited to statements and attending an occasional protest.
Last fall, however, Worthington found himself hauling fellow faith leaders off the pavement after they had been beaten and arrested by state police for protesting outside a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility near Chicago. He has endured enough tear gas and pepper balls, shot by US Department of Homeland Security agents, that he now knows when to tighten the straps of his gas mask.
And as the immigration resistance gained national attention, Worthington appeared on a network news show to make theological sense of it all. But it was when his daughter’s high school teacher mentioned to the class that Worthington was an example of someone “trying to make a difference” that he found himself grappling with the impact of his actions.
