When We Build Camps
A Meditation by Rev. Cameron Trimble
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail
Lately I have found myself using a phrase that some people resist. I have called the growing network of federal detention centers what they are: concentration camps.
The term unsettles some. It should. A concentration camp is a place where human beings are gathered in concentration, removed from ordinary legal protections, and held until they are dispatched elsewhere. That is not rhetorical flourish. It is a description.
We have done this before.
After Pearl Harbor, our government forcibly removed more than 120,000 Japanese Americans from their homes and confined them in camps. Most were citizens. They lost businesses, farms, property, and years of their lives. Decades later, Congress apologized. We now teach that chapter as a warning about what fear and racialized suspicion can do when unchecked by moral courage.
But that was not our first experiment with detention.
During slavery, millions of African people were held in forced captivity on this soil. Families were separated as policy. Bodies were treated as inventory. The law named human beings as property and called it order. Frederick Douglass once said, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” He understood that systems of confinement rarely collapse on their own. They expand until confronted.
Black History Month is not a sentimental observance. It is a reckoning with the architecture of detention that runs deep in this nation’s foundation.
Today, people are arrested in neighborhoods and workplaces, most without any criminal background.1 They are transferred from facility to facility.2 Lawmakers who attempt oversight are denied entry. Attorneys working inside the system describe overcrowding, legal backlogs, and conditions that make due process almost impossible.3 Families lose track of loved ones. Some detainees are deported into foreign prison systems with little public accounting.
When a government can remove people from view and refuse scrutiny, something essential begins to erode. Democracies depend on visibility. Justice depends on review. When oversight disappears, detention becomes a self-justifying machine.
I know that immigration policy is complex. A nation has the right to debate borders, asylum law, and enforcement priorities. But complexity does not erase conscience.4 The deeper question remains: how do we treat human beings once they are in our custody? What standard of dignity applies when someone has no leverage, no platform, and no public visibility?
History teaches that detention systems normalize quickly. Language softens. The shock fades. Bureaucracy absorbs what would once have felt unthinkable. People adjust.
The theological stakes are not abstract. Scripture tells us that every human being bears the image of God. That claim does not shrink at the border. It does not vanish inside a holding cell. When the state concentrates bodies without transparency, it concentrates the image of God behind fences and contracts and armed supervision.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. warned that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” He did not mean that as metaphor. He meant that systems of confinement deform the whole body politic. When some people can be disappeared without accountability, everyone’s dignity stands on thinner ground.
We will tell the story of this era someday. The question is not whether history will judge us. The question is how we are participating in it right now.
Silence feels safer in the moment. It rarely proves safer in the long run.
We are in this together,
Cameron
Reflection Questions
Where have I grown accustomed to language that softens what is actually happening?
What does it mean to affirm the image of God in someone whose legal status is contested?
If future generations asked what I did during this season of detention and disappearance, what would I want to say?
A Prayer for the Day
A Prayer for Those Behind Fences
God of Exodus and Exile, You hear the cry of people held in captivity. You see the faces behind walls and wire. You know the names that never make the headlines. Guard those who sit in holding cells tonight. Strengthen families who wait for news. Protect attorneys, advocates, and lawmakers who press for transparency. Disturb our comfort where it has dulled our conscience. Steady our courage where fear tempts us into silence. Remind us that every person we debate bears Your image. May we never confuse legality with righteousness, or policy with justice. Teach us how to stand in this moment with clarity, with compassion, and with resolve. Amen.
Spiritual Practice
The Practice of Holy Attention
This week, practice attention as resistance.
Learn one name. Read the story of one person currently detained. Do not skim statistics. Sit with a single human life.
Contact one representative. Ask about oversight, transparency, and humane conditions. Make the call or send the email.
Have one honest conversation. Speak about detention using clear language. Do not escalate. Do not soften. Practice steadiness.
Attention disrupts disappearance.
Visibility resists erasure.
Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…
February - My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. I will be leading a book study on Brian McLaren’s book, Life After Doom. Join the community here.
February 19, 2026 (next session) - On Feb 5, Margaret Wheatley and and I launched a new online course called “Leading with Spirit,” a six-session journey into soul-grounded leadership designed to deepen your trust in guidance, nurture perseverance, and rekindle imaginal wisdom for our fractured world. It’s not too late to join. Take a look at the course outline. We are really excited and hope you can join! Scholarship are available if needed. Learn more here!
March, 2026 - Join Our “Building a Culture of Leadership Within Congregations” Cohort facilitated by Rabbi Benjamin Ross and me! A two-session course for ministers and faith leaders ready to strengthen how their congregations and ministries identify, develop, and support leaders. Learn more here.
March 17, 23, 31 and April 7, 2026 - Mark your calendars! Matthew Fox and I will be hosting another 4-part series on “Visions for the Common Good.” We are finalizing details now, and the registration page will open soon.
I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.
Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…
I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.
The need for us to persevere and contribute grows ever more challenging as the horror and cruelty escalates, created by leaders with “malevolent incompetence.” Dr. Margaret Wheatley is offering a “Bundle for Good” for shipping within the U.S. She will send you seven copies of Perseverance, and one copy of her book of poems, Opening to the World as It Is. She’s including the poetry book as another means to support you personally. You can learn more here.
The Convergence Music Project is hosting a songwriting event on March 19-21, 2026 in Nashville. No songwriting experience is required, so feel warmly welcome even if you've never written a song before. There will be plenty of content also to further educate, inspire, and develop the gifts of advanced songwriters as well. Learn more.
So many of us are inspired by all that is happening in Minneapolis, even if we are horrified by what the federal government has unleashed in that city. Here is a great article breaking down the “Blueprint for Resistance.”
Millions of people are seeking training in becoming Legal Observers for their communities vulnerable to ICE. Here is a recorded training that is helpful produced by the team at No Kings. If you know of other trainings, please post in the comments below.
The phenomenal team of “Singing Resistance” has gifted all of us a songbook of protest songs that groups are now using across the world. Here is the link. I am marching around my house singing these throughout the day. My dogs are very confused.
If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.
Please watch this:
Thank you for this. The weekly Interfaith prayer vigils at Alligator Alcatraz in the Florida Everglades continue - every Sunday from 4-5 pm. Conditions inside are inhumane. Not enough water or food. Beatings happen. Lights on 24/7. No windows in tents. Water has to be trucked in and sewage trucked out. The environmental damage is immense.
I appreciate your keeping a spotlight on these camps
Frederick Douglas went on to say: “Find just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them……the limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”
(He also had some very naked truths to share comparing the Christianity of this land and the Christianity of Christ!)
Sister Cameron, thank you for picking up the mantle of truth. Time for good mischief.