You ask me what side I’m on, and my answer is always the same: neither. I don’t stand with a party, a movement, or a crowd. I stand with truth. I stand with Jesus. And quite honestly, I don’t believe Jesus would “pick a side” the way we demand people do today. There has never been a single side in any human conflict that hasn’t produced evil in some form, and I refuse to defend evil simply because it wears the colors of something I like.
When I first heard the recent news about the woman who was shot during an ICE-related incident, my stomach dropped. I felt immediate sorrow and anger. The headlines painted a picture that pushed me almost automatically to choose a side. I reacted emotionally, the way most of us do when we’re given a simplified version of a tragic story.
But then I saw video footage. Footage that told a fuller story. A story that showed a woman behaving aggressively, trespassing where she did not belong, and ultimately attempting to use her vehicle against law enforcement. And once I saw that, my perspective changed, not because I suddenly felt less compassion, but because truth matters more to me than my first reaction.
She should not have been there. She should have been home with her child. Instead, she chose escalation and violence, and the consequences were irreversible. A life was lost, and that is always tragic. Always. But tragedy does not mean we abandon truth.
Do I side with ICE? Not necessarily. I don’t agree with how many situations are handled, and I don’t blindly defend institutions just because they represent authority. At the same time, I refuse to condemn individuals or entire groups without understanding the full context. Every situation is different, and anyone who pretends otherwise is lying to themselves. I would be foolish to “pick a side” when both sides are fully capable of wrongdoing.
What truly grieves me is how divided we’ve become. Truth has taken a back seat to loyalty. Facts matter less than optics. People care more about defending their team than defending what is right. We no longer ask, “What actually happened?” We ask, “Who does this help?”
If the roles had been reversed, if a law enforcement officer had tried to run over a civilian and been killed in response. I have no doubt many of the same people would have celebrated it. That’s how upside down things have become. Justice is no longer justice; it’s conditional.
We should all be fighting for truth and justice, not picking a side and running with it even when it’s wrong.
I’ve watched people cheer at the idea of public figures being silenced, harmed, or worse, just because they disagree with them. Take Charlie Kirk, for example. He’s been labeled racist, hateful, and dangerous by people who have never actually listened to what he says. Instead of joining the outrage, I did something radical: I listened. I read. I dug deeper. And what I found didn’t match the narrative at all. What he spoke about was truth and truth tends to make people uncomfortable, especially when it threatens a storyline they’ve built their identity around.
I’ll be honest: I haven’t always lived this way.
When George Floyd died, I took a side immediately. I was angry. I stood at a rally. I chanted alongside Black Lives Matter. I saw a Black man lose his life at the hands of a police officer, and I didn’t ask questions. I reacted. I followed the crowd without searching for the full truth.
Years later, I began to look deeper. I learned details I hadn’t wanted to know at the time. I realized how much information had been left out, how complex the situation really was, and how quickly emotion had overridden discernment. That moment was humbling. It forced me to confront an uncomfortable reality: good intentions do not excuse ignoring the truth.
That was the turning point for me.
I no longer consume news the way I used to. I don’t follow personalities just because they’re popular or loud. I don’t outsource my thinking to headlines or hashtags. I seek truth, even when it challenges me, even when it costs me social approval, even when it forces me to admit I was wrong.
In every situation, I now ask a different question…not “What side should I be on?” but “What would Jesus do?”
Jesus stood for truth, even when it made people angry. He rejected hypocrisy, even when it came from religious leaders. He showed compassion without compromising righteousness. And He never bent truth to fit a narrative.
That’s the side I’m on.
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