Let me begin with a simple clarification, lest this entire article be discarded by those looking for an excuse to deflect: I am not saying that the United States has become Nazi Germany in 1944. What I am saying—clearly and without apology—is that the United States unequivocally looks like Nazi Germany in 1933. The early camps. The atmosphere of racialized paranoia. The anti-democratic fervor. The thirst for authoritarian power cloaked in patriotic and religious garb.

Only, the US has alligators and merch. Yes, merch.

If that sounds hyperbolic to you, then I invite you to look up what some in the MAGA movement have proudly dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.” A literal concentration camp housing immigrants in Ochopee, Florida, strategically placed near alligators and all other manners of dangerous wildlife. Recently, right-wing extremist Laura Loomer gleefully remarked that these reptiles have “65 million potential meals,” an ominous dog whistle (or rather, bullhorn) to the roughly 65 million Latinos currently living in the United States. There are not 65 million undocumented immigrants (not that that would in any way excuse Loomer’s antichrist tweet). That number was no accident. This wasn’t about legality. This was about ethnicity.

This dystopian hellscape is not a hypothetical future. It’s already here.

1933 Was Not 1944, But It Was Still a Horror

In 1933, shortly after Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany, the Nazi regime opened its first concentration camps. These were not the extermination camps of Auschwitz and Sobibor. They were not yet the death machines that would later define the Holocaust. But they were horrifying in their own right.

According to the National WWII Museum, the early Nazi camps were primarily designed to detain and intimidate political opponents—socialists, communists, union leaders—and to target groups deemed “undesirable.” The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Encyclopedia explains that these early camps were “guarded by SS and SA paramilitary forces and the police” and were outside the rule of law. Detainees were frequently abused, tortured, and in many cases, killed.

As the system evolved, deportation became a core function. The EBSCO historical summary states plainly that many early camps became holding centers for deportation, first within Germany, and later across occupied Europe. The brutality escalated from there, but the infrastructure was already in place. The rhetoric, the violence, the normalization of mass detention… it all began years before the world said “never again.”

Fast forward to today, and what do we see?

We see the beginnings of makeshift and semi-permanent detention centers springing up in America. We see masked ICE agents rounding up good and decent human beings across the country. We see a government willing to flout legal norms, international human rights standards, and basic human decency to score political points with an increasingly bloodthirsty base.

We even see alligators as deterrents, because apparently, the cruelest parts of the American psyche always find a way to innovate.

Coup Attempts and Strongmen

None of this should be surprising to anyone with a basic understanding of fascism’s rise. Hitler was arrested in 1923 after the infamous Beer Hall Putsch, an attempted coup against the Weimar Republic. He went to prison, wrote Mein Kampf, and reemerged more powerful and dangerous than ever. He failed forward.

Sound familiar?

Donald Trump, who tried and failed to overturn the results of the 2020 election through lies, conspiracy, violence, and pressure campaigns, is now the GOP’s messianic figure. He’s been criminally indicted, but his base is only more emboldened. He stages rallies soaked in cultic language. He paints himself as a martyr. He has already promised mass deportations, internment camps, and military-led raids now that he’s in power.

Again: this is not 1944. But it is absolutely 1933.

Christians, You Are Accountable

This brings me to the central, burning heart of this article. To the white conservative evangelical Christians reading this—and especially to those who still insist on supporting Trump and his political machine—I say this without equivocation:

You are responsible.

You are responsible for enabling this cruelty. You are responsible for the cages. For the camps. For the normalization of state-sponsored inhumanity. You are responsible for “Alligator Auschwitz,” because you either voted for it, ignored it, or minimized it so you could retain your false sense of righteousness.

You can hide behind your Bibles and your sanctimonious “pro-life” rhetoric all you want, but Jesus sees you. And I’m telling you plainly: you have betrayed him.

Let’s revisit the temptation of Christ in Luke 3 and 4. The devil offers Jesus “all the kingdoms of the world” if only he will bow down and worship him. Jesus, filled with the Spirit, refuses.

Yet today’s white evangelicals? They said yes. They took the deal. They bowed. They kissed the ring. They traded the Kingdom of God for the crumbling empire of MAGA nationalism. They traded the Sermon on the Mount for Stephen Miller’s immigration policy. They traded the Beatitudes for border walls and makeshift prison camps. They traded compassion for cruelty. Justice for vengeance. Christ for Trump.

You cannot call yourself a follower of Jesus and cheer for a political movement that fantasizes about feeding human beings—many of them women and children—to alligators. You cannot call yourself a follower of Jesus and defend a man who incited a violent insurrection, who demonizes the vulnerable, who uses faith as a prop while mocking its teachings.

Repentance Is the Only Option

The only faithful response to what is happening is repentance. Not polite disagreement. Not carefully worded “concerns.” Repentance. Plain and simple.

That means turning away. It means calling out your pastors and church leaders who platform Trumpism. It means rebuking Fox News when it excuses violence against immigrants. It means refusing to share pews with people who laugh at Laura Loomer’s “65 million meals” line and pretend it’s just a joke.

Repentance also means repairing the damage. Voting differently. Protesting. Donating to immigrant advocacy organizations. Speaking up. Refusing to normalize the dehumanization of God’s children.

Anything less than that is spiritual cowardice.

And yes, I know these are harsh words. But Jesus was harsh too, especially with the religious elite who used God’s name to cover up injustice. Read Matthew 23 if you don’t believe me. Or the book of Amos. Or Isaiah. Or Revelation, which condemns the harlot riding the beast of an empire married to religion.

This Is Your Wake-Up Call

If the sight of immigrants detained in a concentration camp guarded by literal alligators doesn’t wake you up, I don’t know what will. If joking about feeding brown people to animals doesn’t break your heart, you are not just politically wrong, you are spiritually dead.

I write this not because I hate you, but because I somehow believe in the possibility of your transformation. I believe that even now, Christ calls you away from this darkness. But the time is short, and the stakes are high. You are either standing with the crucified or with those who crucify. There is no middle ground. There is no neutral Christianity in the face of fascism. There never has been.

And while the metaphor of “Alligator Auschwitz” may make you uncomfortable, it’s not supposed to be comfortable. The gospel is not comfortable. It is confrontational. It is political. It is revolutionary. And it demands that we side with the oppressed. Always.

So I ask you plainly, as a brother in humanity (and, perhaps, in Christ):

Which side are you on?

Because history will remember this moment. And so will God.

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