This is my message to fellow Christians, especially evangelicals: We know better.

We know better than to applaud the current mistreatment of immigrants in America. The merciless conduct of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, and Customs and Border Protection agents, is morally wrong, whatever their legal cover.

How is the brutal roundup of immigrants a good and Christian thing? What possible justification is there for this intimidation and violence?

I’m mystified that so many evangelical Christians, including elected officials, support these actions.

I can see nothing morally right in thousands of masked and warrantless ICE agents in battle gear invading a city, forcing their way into homes, hauling people out of cars and pepper-spraying those who stand in the way.

Those who truly honor Christ Jesus in their hearts and minds know better.

How is this abuse something that a Christian can support?

Maybe it’s because some Christians don’t see this as abuse. For them, rounding up illegal immigrants is a simple matter of purging communities of criminals and freeloaders. But many of those snatched by federal agents have no criminal record; many worked in high-demand, low-wage jobs and paid taxes. Some of them have been children.

I am an ordained Mennonite minister. My ancestors knew what it was to be labeled “illegal” by the laws of the land — hunted, dispossessed and deported — merely for baptizing believers and refusing to swear allegiance to the government.

Maybe some Christians shrug their shoulders about ICE descending on communities because they are happy with the current administration’s policies on health care, the economy, sexuality and gender, and the military. OK. I can sort of understand that. But that doesn’t mean you shut your eyes to the evil of federal agents bullying immigrants and breaking up families with impunity.

Maybe some Christians are tired of feeling forgotten or ignored or ridiculed. They fear that immigrants are somehow eroding cherished values, beliefs and traditions. I think there is something to this sense of lost influence and power.

Some yearn for a once-upon-a-time America that was “Christian,” when the dominant culture looked like us and believed what we believe. So, now it’s payback and take-back time.

Really? Is this the way Jesus taught his disciples — taught us — to live?

I hesitate to say it, but I believe there is a racial component to some Christian support for ICE’s aggressive enforcement. Most people targeted by ICE are people of color, and most Christians who support these detentions and deportations are White.

Can White Christians be honest about this, rather than ducking behind legalities and excuses? Can we agree that biases of racial inferiority and superiority are sinful?

Let me be clear: I don’t expect governments to live up to the ethics of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 13:4 that “rulers do not bear the sword for no reason.” The government is responsible for restraining criminality and adjudicating laws. Its authority, however, is not absolute but, rather, “under God” and accountable to God.

Again and again the Bible urges the people of God to care for the widows, the fatherless, the strangers. This was God’s basic litmus test of social morality in ancient Israel.

Jesus identifies himself with immigrants: “I was a stranger [a foreigner], and you invited me in” (Matthew 25:35). He also warns that those who don’t welcome the foreigner will face God’s sober justice.

Jesus highlights the two greatest commandments: to love God above all else with all that we are, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. He teaches his disciples to pray for God’s kingdom to come on Earth as it is in heaven.

I’m pretty sure that some readers will fault me for venturing into politics. I won’t be surprised by the criticism. But this isn’t partisan politics. This is morality. This is personal, this is pastoral, this is familial.

I provide part-time bishop oversight for five congregations in LMC, a fellowship of Anabaptist churches formerly known as the Lancaster Mennonite Conference. About 35% of the 300-plus congregations in LMC are primarily made up of first- or second-generation immigrants. These are my brothers and sisters in Christ. I love them.

My bones ache and my soul groans with burning words from God to fellow Christians about the fearsome injustices that immigrants and refugees are facing.

I call on all Christians to hear the terrified whispers of our neighbors, to listen deeply to our own consciences, to look steadily at Jesus. We were once immigrants, too! We follow the One who laid down his life for us.

Please join me. Reach out and take hold of the hands of the mistreated. Plead the case of the foreigner and stranger. Walk in the footsteps of Jesus. That is the better way.

This article originally appeared in Lancaster Sunday News. Reprinted with permission.