Like many conservative evangelical pastors with whom I had worked for almost four decades, Rev. David Corbett is a mild-mannered, white-haired, avuncular 75-year-old who carries a handgun on his belt and quotes liberally from the King James Version of the Bible.
asserted
who → work → Bible
A former lobster fisherman, he’s had two key vocations throughout his long ministry career: preaching on Sundays and spending the rest of the week in various law enforcement roles—from serving as a local beat cop to teaching criminal justice at the fundamentalist Pensacola Christian College in Florida.
asserted
he → have → Florida
Corbett has served in several Maine churches, but his current congregation is the Oak Ridge Bible Church in Biddeford, a mostly unknown hamlet only 18 miles from Portland and 11 miles from Kennebunkport.
asserted
congregation → serve → Kennebunkport
I say “mostly unknown,” because on July 13, 2026, it commanded headlines when ICE agents killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a Colombian immigrant with a work permit and pending asylum application hearing who was in his car at the corner of Hill and Pool Streets.
asserted
who → say → Streets
After mistakenly stopping the 25-year-old food delivery worker, ICE agents shot into his vehicle.
asserted
agents → stop → vehicle
Rev. Corbett has a lot to say about that incident, especially because he is running as the Republican Party candidate for York County sheriff.
asserted
he → have → sheriff
He’s been critical of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin for not sharing details of an internal investigation that was ostensibly conducted by ICE Acting Director David Venturella.
asserted
that → share → Venturella
“We need to have transparency,” he said.
asserted
he → need → transparency
“But if they’re not being transparent, you have to ask the question, why?”
asserted
you → have → question
Nevertheless, should he win his election, Corbett intends to work with DHS and have all his officers deputized as ICE agents so that they can help federal agents with arrests and detentions, part of a national program known as 287(g).
asserted
they → win → )
For him, some blame for Durán’s death rests with his state’s Democratic majorities because of their opposition to local law enforcement helping ICE.
asserted
enforcement → rest → ICE
In a YouTube video addressing the deadly episode, Corbett argues, “The policies of the Democrats brought us down this path to where a person got killed.”
asserted
person → address → path
The ultimate responsibility for all the problems around immigration, he says, rests with former President Joe Biden for not adequately defending US borders.
asserted
he → say → borders
Not all Maine clergy agree with Corbett.
asserted
clergy → agree → Corbett
About 6 miles from Corbett’s church is the historic Saco & Biddeford Unitarian Universalist Church, a congregation that does not follow a specific creed or doctrine but is a diverse community with shared values and a commitment to spirituality and social justice.
asserted
that → follow → spirituality
Founded in 1827, the church is now led by the Reverend Dr. Lori Whittemore.
asserted
church → found → Whittemore
A clinically trained, board-certified interfaith chaplain specializing in mass-casualty response, she had previously organized and led Spiritual Care Services of Maine, a nonprofit organization for people in crisis, including those affected by a mass shooting in 2023 that left 18 dead and 13 wounded in the city of Lewiston.
asserted
that → train → Lewiston
As soon as she heard the news of Durán’s death, which occurred only a short distance from her church, Whittemore recruited local volunteer clergy and nearby professional chaplains to provide solace and spiritual care to immigrants, anti-ICE demonstrators, and the scores of people who flocked to the improvised memorial at the spot where Durán was killed.
asserted
Durán → hear → spot
I met with Corbett and Whittemore during an unexpected trip to Maine in July.
asserted
I → meet → July
Originally, I planned to go to Houston following the July 7 ICE shooting and killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old construction business owner who had lived in the United States for 35 years.
asserted
who → plan → years
Traveling with his crew, he was on his way to a job site, when ICE agents shot him in the abdomen.
asserted
agents → travel → abdomen
His killing sparked protests in the community, including by clergy, who had staged similar prayer vigils and protests after the increasing numbers of these kinds of tragedies.
asserted
who → spark → tragedies
One of them was in January in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after Renée Good was killed by immigration agents, and the community rose in protest.
asserted
community → kill → protest
I responded to the call for clerics across faith traditions to appear and demonstrate.
asserted
clerics → respond → traditions
While I was there, Alex Pretti was gunned down by federal agents as he shielded a woman from their assault.
asserted
he → gun → assault
Kneeling in prayer at the site where Alex bled out, I resolved that each time such federally sanctioned violence against immigrants and their allies erupted, I’d join other clergy who were similarly outraged by the unwarranted violence.
asserted
who → kneel → violence
As I wrote following my time in Minnesota:
I had participated in more than my share of protests, and many of them, over decades, when I helped lead an extreme wing of the conservative religiopolitical movement.
asserted
I → write → movement
I blockaded abortion clinics, demonstrated in pro-life marches, and held press conferences after Supreme Court decisions that cut to the heart of the conservative agenda–gay marriage, for instance.
asserted
that → blockade → instance
Obviously, this Call to Minneapolis was very different, and I answered because, for the last twelve years, I have been trying to make amends for having played such a significant role as an evangelical Christian minister in the aggressive push to transform the United States into a “Christian nation.”
asserted
I → answer → nation
I helped lay the groundwork for Donald Trump’s presidency and the imposition of Christian Nationalism as America’s officially privileged and highly destructive religion.
asserted
I → lay → religion
I was dead wrong in doing so.
asserted
I → do → ?
I am committed now to “put the same level of energy and commitment into causes aligned with the teachings of mercy, tolerance, and love that first drew me to evangelical Christianity.”
asserted
that → commit → Christianity
I saw Minneapolis as such a cause, as was Texas.
asserted
Texas → see → cause
And, as it turned out, Maine.
asserted
it → turn → ?
As I was firming up my plans to travel to Texas, the news broke of Durán’s fatal shooting, so I went to Portland instead.
asserted
I → firm → Portland
I planned to meet with church leaders from across the ideological spectrum to learn more about what they thought had happened.
asserted
they → plan → more
How did their perspectives differ?
asserted
perspectives → differ → ?
How were they, and their congregations, dealing with ICE and its brutality?
asserted
they → deal → ICE
I also thought that showing up when his death was so recent, especially in my capacity as bishop of the Methodist Evangelical Church, a conservative denomination, might offer support to fellow evangelical leaders needing further reinforcement.
uncertain
death → think → reinforcement
It may be difficult to imagine that this reprehensible abuse of power is not contrary to our most cherished beliefs as Christians, but as we have seen for decades, for many, it isn’t.
uncertain
it → imagine → many
…and 178 more, not listed.
The Aporia
