Jillian
@westerfield.bsky.social
Theologian, educator, thanatologist. Enjoy gardening, hiking, board games, books, fiber arts, pottery
Queer Baptist pastor living in Chicago, with roots in Texas and Appalachia. (She/her or they/them)
Queer Baptist pastor living in Chicago, with roots in Texas and Appalachia. (She/her or they/them)
Reposted by Jillian
By witnessing this familiar story through the reality faced by migrants today, we hope to restore its radical edge, and to ask what it means to celebrate the birth of a refugee child while turning away those who follow in his footsteps.
November 25, 2025 at 10:23 PM
By witnessing this familiar story through the reality faced by migrants today, we hope to restore its radical edge, and to ask what it means to celebrate the birth of a refugee child while turning away those who follow in his footsteps.
Reposted by Jillian
The Holy Family were refugees. This is not political interpretation, this is the reality described in the stories our tradition has told and retold for millenia.
November 25, 2025 at 10:21 PM
The Holy Family were refugees. This is not political interpretation, this is the reality described in the stories our tradition has told and retold for millenia.
Reposted by Jillian
This installation isn’t subtle because the crisis it addresses isn’t abstract. We hope viewers will ask what sanctuary means when families are met with dehumanization. We further hope to move people to action, regardless of faith or philosophical background.
November 25, 2025 at 10:19 PM
This installation isn’t subtle because the crisis it addresses isn’t abstract. We hope viewers will ask what sanctuary means when families are met with dehumanization. We further hope to move people to action, regardless of faith or philosophical background.
Reposted by Jillian
The gas masks worn by Mary and Joseph reference the documented use of tear gas and other chemical weapons deployed by ICE agents against peaceful protesters, journalists, and community members advocating for immigration reform and bearing witness to human rights abuses within the system.
November 25, 2025 at 10:15 PM
The gas masks worn by Mary and Joseph reference the documented use of tear gas and other chemical weapons deployed by ICE agents against peaceful protesters, journalists, and community members advocating for immigration reform and bearing witness to human rights abuses within the system.
Reposted by Jillian
The zip ties on the infant's wrists directly reference the children who were zip-tied by agents during a raid on a Chicago apartment building earlier this year, where most residents were U.S. citizens: a stark reminder that enforcement terror does not discriminate by documentation status.
November 25, 2025 at 10:13 PM
The zip ties on the infant's wrists directly reference the children who were zip-tied by agents during a raid on a Chicago apartment building earlier this year, where most residents were U.S. citizens: a stark reminder that enforcement terror does not discriminate by documentation status.
Reposted by Jillian
Thanks to Loretta, Kelli, Jack, and Miller for their help setting up our nativity this morning.
This installation reimagines the nativity as a scene of forced family separation, drawing direct parallels between the Holy Family's refugee experience and contemporary immigration detention practices.
This installation reimagines the nativity as a scene of forced family separation, drawing direct parallels between the Holy Family's refugee experience and contemporary immigration detention practices.
November 25, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Thanks to Loretta, Kelli, Jack, and Miller for their help setting up our nativity this morning.
This installation reimagines the nativity as a scene of forced family separation, drawing direct parallels between the Holy Family's refugee experience and contemporary immigration detention practices.
This installation reimagines the nativity as a scene of forced family separation, drawing direct parallels between the Holy Family's refugee experience and contemporary immigration detention practices.
Reposted by Jillian
Proud to see Lake Streeters like Jill showing up for our neighbors during a crises that never needed to happen blockclubchicago.org/2025/11/17/h...
How Chicagoans Helped Their Neighbors Through The SNAP Freeze
From turning their porches into food pantries to baking birthday cakes, neighbors found creative ways to help those going without food assistance during the government shutdown.
blockclubchicago.org
November 17, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Proud to see Lake Streeters like Jill showing up for our neighbors during a crises that never needed to happen blockclubchicago.org/2025/11/17/h...
Reposted by Jillian
Went to a prayer service tonight at St. Mary of the Lake, where they have cardboard cutouts throughout the church representing parishioners afraid to come to Mass because of ICE.
October 25, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Went to a prayer service tonight at St. Mary of the Lake, where they have cardboard cutouts throughout the church representing parishioners afraid to come to Mass because of ICE.
Can’t believe I didn’t see this before, but what an exciting find. Archivists are the best.
"Until its discovery in May at the archives in Groton, Massachusetts, American Baptist officials worried the anti-slavery document had been lost forever after fruitless searches at Harvard and Brown universities and other locations. A copy was last seen in a 1902 history book."
A volunteer finds the Holy Grail of abolitionist-era Baptist documents in Massachusetts
A volunteer searching the archives of the American Baptist in Massachusetts has found a nearly 180-year-old document shedding light on the church's support for ending slavery.
apnews.com
July 3, 2025 at 5:17 PM
Can’t believe I didn’t see this before, but what an exciting find. Archivists are the best.
Reposted by Jillian
kind of just endlessly sad and grieving that there are so few voices in the public sphere making the basic principled argument that immigration is an affirmative good in every way and the best way for this country to serve humanity is to welcome people who want or need to leave their homes
June 7, 2025 at 7:35 PM
kind of just endlessly sad and grieving that there are so few voices in the public sphere making the basic principled argument that immigration is an affirmative good in every way and the best way for this country to serve humanity is to welcome people who want or need to leave their homes
Reposted by Jillian
here’s the thing: every elected Democrat could say tomorrow that ICE is good and it wouldn’t stop people being pissed off that stormtroopers are coming into their neighborhoods to disappear their friends and family
if you don’t want to be treated as a fascist invader stop acting like one
if you don’t want to be treated as a fascist invader stop acting like one
Likely in light of the situation in LA, ICE leadership just put out a pretty outrageous message to politicians: “I’m demanding they stop.” He specifically calls out Mayor Wu and Hakeem Jeffries.
June 7, 2025 at 4:03 AM
here’s the thing: every elected Democrat could say tomorrow that ICE is good and it wouldn’t stop people being pissed off that stormtroopers are coming into their neighborhoods to disappear their friends and family
if you don’t want to be treated as a fascist invader stop acting like one
if you don’t want to be treated as a fascist invader stop acting like one
Reposted by Jillian
Please highlight this story.
ICE stormed into the wrong house, trashed the place, and made women/girls stand outside in the rain in their underwear. ICE also stole phones, laptops, and cash savings from the family, who moved to OKC two weeks ago.
kfor.com/news/local/w...
ICE stormed into the wrong house, trashed the place, and made women/girls stand outside in the rain in their underwear. ICE also stole phones, laptops, and cash savings from the family, who moved to OKC two weeks ago.
kfor.com/news/local/w...
'We're citizens!': Oklahoma City family traumatized after ICE raids home, but they weren't suspects
A woman says her family’s fresh start in Oklahoma turned into a nightmare after federal immigration agents raided their home, taking their phones, laptops, and life savings – even though they were …
kfor.com
April 29, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Please highlight this story.
ICE stormed into the wrong house, trashed the place, and made women/girls stand outside in the rain in their underwear. ICE also stole phones, laptops, and cash savings from the family, who moved to OKC two weeks ago.
kfor.com/news/local/w...
ICE stormed into the wrong house, trashed the place, and made women/girls stand outside in the rain in their underwear. ICE also stole phones, laptops, and cash savings from the family, who moved to OKC two weeks ago.
kfor.com/news/local/w...
Reposted by Jillian
I don't really have anything especially profound to say, but yeah man this is it. They won't obey even the most milquetoast SCOTUS orders and are talking about sending US citizens to foreign gulags. It's happened here.
April 14, 2025 at 5:20 PM
I don't really have anything especially profound to say, but yeah man this is it. They won't obey even the most milquetoast SCOTUS orders and are talking about sending US citizens to foreign gulags. It's happened here.
Reposted by Jillian
Bring back *everyone* who was sent from the U.S. to CECOT in El Salvador. *No one* should be sent there. ALL their rights were violated. ALL of them should come home.
April 13, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Bring back *everyone* who was sent from the U.S. to CECOT in El Salvador. *No one* should be sent there. ALL their rights were violated. ALL of them should come home.
Reposted by Jillian
People will argue that we should be willing to defy the law in the name of justice while also treating criminalized people as disposable. It's incoherent.
April 10, 2025 at 11:30 PM
People will argue that we should be willing to defy the law in the name of justice while also treating criminalized people as disposable. It's incoherent.
Reposted by Jillian
If you abduct someone and send them involuntarily and without recourse to a country where they've never lived to be imprisoned, that isn't deportation, it's human trafficking
April 9, 2025 at 2:23 PM
If you abduct someone and send them involuntarily and without recourse to a country where they've never lived to be imprisoned, that isn't deportation, it's human trafficking
Reposted by Jillian
As the author of a history of concentration camps, I would like to emphasize that this is a very bad idea, and we should definitely not do it.
Leavitt confirmed that the WH is working on deporting US citizens to El Salvador
April 8, 2025 at 8:52 PM
As the author of a history of concentration camps, I would like to emphasize that this is a very bad idea, and we should definitely not do it.
Reposted by Jillian
A space for joy in tough times: our annual Ecumenical Palm Sunday Procession with live donkeys Tinkerbelle and Iris. Meet at the corner of Lake St. and Chicago Ave. in Evanston at 9AM on April 13 to join in the fun.
April 7, 2025 at 8:44 PM
A space for joy in tough times: our annual Ecumenical Palm Sunday Procession with live donkeys Tinkerbelle and Iris. Meet at the corner of Lake St. and Chicago Ave. in Evanston at 9AM on April 13 to join in the fun.
Reposted by Jillian
"Let's not take the soul-sucking path of sacrificing the most persecuted for that which we deem to be most popular. I know that there are transgender children right now looking out at this world and wondering if anyone is going to stand up for them and for their simple right to exist. Well, I am."
March 24, 2025 at 7:40 PM
"Let's not take the soul-sucking path of sacrificing the most persecuted for that which we deem to be most popular. I know that there are transgender children right now looking out at this world and wondering if anyone is going to stand up for them and for their simple right to exist. Well, I am."
My neighbor’s flag, looking appropriately battle-worn these days. #OurFlagWasStillThere
March 24, 2025 at 2:14 PM
My neighbor’s flag, looking appropriately battle-worn these days. #OurFlagWasStillThere
I… feel like they want something.
March 20, 2025 at 11:25 PM
I… feel like they want something.
Relieved and not surprised to see my rep, @delia.bsky.social on the first page of signatures. But also, 40%?!?!!!!
Advocate [Mar 16] -- 82 Democratic Representatives sign a letter "strongly opposing" Trump admin anti-trans passport policy. That's ~40% of the 213 House Dems. Effort led by Equality Caucus co-chairs, Julie Johnson (D-TX) & Emily Randall (D-WA). [@rikiwilchins.bsky.social]
82 U.S. House members demand rejection of Trump's anti-transgender passport policy
Trans, nonbinary, and intersex people deserve passports that reflect their identity, the representatives say.
www.advocate.com
March 18, 2025 at 12:32 AM
Relieved and not surprised to see my rep, @delia.bsky.social on the first page of signatures. But also, 40%?!?!!!!
I love that one of the founding mothers of LSC was Rebecca Westerfield, even if we aren’t related.
Women's History Month Fact: Did you know Lake Street Church was founded by a woman? Frances Mary Gano Iglehart was the force behind First Baptist Church of Evanston, renamed Lake Street Church in 1995.
evanstonwomen.org/woman/france...
#WomensHistoryMonth
evanstonwomen.org/woman/france...
#WomensHistoryMonth
March 5, 2025 at 6:57 PM
I love that one of the founding mothers of LSC was Rebecca Westerfield, even if we aren’t related.
Reposted by Jillian
Any time you find yourself saying “that’s TOO compassionate,” ask yourself what the hell you’re talking about.
March 4, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Any time you find yourself saying “that’s TOO compassionate,” ask yourself what the hell you’re talking about.