Four Fingers or Five?
The Test of Truth in Occupied Minneapolis
“O’Brien held up the fingers of his left hand, with the thumb concealed. ‘There are five fingers there. Do you see five fingers?’ ‘Yes.’ And he did see them, for a fleeting instant, before the scenery of his mind changed. He saw five fingers, and there was no deformity. Then everything was normal again, and the old fear, the hatred, and the bewilderment came crowding back again. But there had been a moment—he did not know how long, thirty seconds, perhaps—of luminous certainty, when each new suggestion of O’Brien’s had filled up a patch of emptiness and become absolute truth, and when two and two could have been three as easily as five, if that were what was needed.”—George Orwell, 19841
This is the nightmare George Orwell warned us about: not just lies, but the destruction of reality itself. Not just propaganda, but the annihilation of the human capacity to recognize truth.
Within 24 hours this week, we watched this nightmare unfold in real time.
Six federal prosecutors resigned rather than investigate a widow instead of the ICE agent who killed her wife. The FBI raided a Washington Post reporter’s home, seizing her devices to find her sources. And the Deputy Attorney General of the United States threatened a governor and mayor “by whatever means necessary” for the crime of urging peaceful protest.
The word he used was “insurrection.”
Not for the January 6 rioters who attacked the Capitol—many of whom have been pardoned. But for state officials calling for calm. For prosecutors refusing to become complicit. For a journalist doing her job. For citizens demanding accountability after federal agents killed a 37-year-old mother in the streets of Minneapolis.
How many fingers are we being shown? And how many will we say we see?
The Occupation
Three thousand federal immigration agents now occupy Minneapolis.2 On Wednesday night, an ICE agent shot a Venezuelan man in the leg during a traffic stop.3 Video shows the man’s family calling 911, a woman saying in Spanish that agents “shot the door” trying to enter their home. At least two young children are visible in the footage.
Within minutes, federal agents deployed tear gas, flash bangs, and pepper balls against protesters and residents. By midnight, the streets of an American city looked like a war zone—which is exactly what Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said: “We cannot be at a place right now in America where we have two governmental entities that are literally fighting one another.”4
This was the second ICE shooting in Minneapolis in one week. On January 7, ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot 37-year-old Renee Good three times—killing her as she drove away from him. Her wife Becca stood outside filming, calling to ICE officers as they surrounded Renee’s car.5 The administration labeled Renee a “domestic terrorist.”6 Her widow was investigated. Ross has not been charged.7
When career prosecutors objected, six of them resigned. When a journalist reported on federal operations, the FBI raided her home. When state officials called for peace, the Deputy Attorney General called them terrorists.
The pattern is unmistakable. The occupation is not just physical—it’s linguistic, moral, spiritual.
The Inversion
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche posted on social media Wednesday night: “Minnesota insurrection is a direct result of a FAILED governor and a TERRIBLE mayor encouraging violence against law enforcement. It’s disgusting. Walz and Frey—I’m focused on stopping YOU from your terrorism by whatever means necessary. This is not a threat. It’s a promise.”8
The #2 official at the Department of Justice—the institution charged with upholding the rule of law—threatened elected state officials “by whatever means necessary” for calling for peaceful protest.
What had Governor Tim Walz actually said? “I know you’re angry. I’m angry. What Donald Trump wants is violence in the streets. But Minnesota will remain an island of decency, of justice, of community, and of peace. Don’t give him what he wants.”9
What had Mayor Jacob Frey said? “I have seen conduct from ICE that is intolerable... We cannot respond to Donald Trump’s chaos with our own chaos.”10
These are calls for calm. For restraint. For peace. The federal government calls this “insurrection.”
Meanwhile, the actual insurrectionists of January 6—those who violently attacked the Capitol to overturn an election—have been pardoned, honored, compensated with millions.11
The inversion is complete. Those who storm the Capitol are patriots. Those who call for accountability are insurrectionists. Those who kill face protection. Those who witness face investigation. Those who speak truth face raids. Those who resign rather than become complicit face contempt.
The Biblical Pattern
This is not the first time God’s people have lived under occupation, nor the first time authorities have weaponized “insurrection” against those who challenge oppressive systems.
When the Deputy Attorney General calls peaceful protest “insurrection,” he’s using the same language Roman and Temple authorities used against Jesus. In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus asks those arresting him: “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as though I were a λῃστής (lēstēs)?” (Mark 14:48).12 The word can mean “thief” or “bandit,” but also “insurrectionist.” Jesus was crucified between two lēstai (Mark 15:27). He was paired with Barabbas, whose crimes were στάσις (stasis, “insurrection”) and murder—he had committed murder “in the insurrection” (Mark 15:7).13
The word stasis is telling. It comes from the Greek root meaning "to stand"—literally, "a taking a stand" or "a standing against." Barabbas was arrested for taking a stand against Roman occupation. Jesus was executed as someone who stood against the Temple authorities. The charge was the same then as it is now: these people refuse to comply. They insist on standing up when empire demands they bow down.
The authorities treated Jesus as an insurrectionist because he challenged their authority. Not with an army. Not with violence against persons. But by refusing to accept that the Temple system—with its wealth, its power, its control over who was “in” and who was “out”—spoke for God.
Mark 11:16 says Jesus “would not allow anyone to carry anything through the Temple.”14 To stop all commerce in the Temple would have required organized resistance. As my New Testament professor Dr. Michael Brown taught us, the Roman leadership in Jerusalem would have taken this as insurrection, a crime punishable by death under Roman law.15
But what was Jesus’ actual crime? He proclaimed the Kingdom of God on his own authority. Any challenge to the authority of the law, of the Temple or its authorities was seen as defiance to the authority of God, and therefore blasphemy.16
He challenged a system that had become oppressive, that prioritized institutional power over the needs of the poor and outcast. He acted as if God’s compassion was more important than the Temple’s rules. He included the excluded, healed the broken, and ate with those the system had cast out.
The irony is devastating: the man killed as an insurrectionist against an oppressive religious system became the foundation of a new religious system. “Jesus of Nazareth, the insurrectionist who sought to overthrow the sacrificial system of worship became the sacrificial offering himself.”17
Today, we see the same pattern. Those who challenge oppressive systems are called insurrectionists. Career prosecutors who refuse to persecute the innocent—insurrectionists. Journalists who report truth—insurrectionists. State officials who call for peace—insurrectionists.
Meanwhile, the actual insurrectionists of January 6 have been pardoned, honored, compensated.
The prophets knew this pattern too. Jeremiah was thrown in a cistern for speaking truth during Babylonian occupation (Jeremiah 38:6). Daniel faced the lions’ den for refusing to bow to imperial demands (Daniel 6:16). The Hebrew midwives defied Pharaoh’s order to kill Hebrew boys, choosing to fear God rather than empire (Exodus 1:17).
When authorities demanded silence, Peter and John declared: “We must obey God rather than human beings” (Acts 5:29).18
The pattern throughout Scripture is this: when empire demands complicity in injustice, God’s people must witness to a different way—even when that witness costs everything.
The Prophetic Witnesses
Six prosecutors walked away from careers and pensions—because they were pressured to investigate Renee Good’s widow rather than the agent who killed her. Joseph Thompson, who led major fraud investigations for over a decade, resigned. Melinda Williams. Harry Jacobs. Thomas Calhoun-Lopez. Ruth Schneider. Tom Hollenhurst. Career professionals who decided that institutional complicity was too high a price.19
That’s a Matthew 5:10-12 moment: “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”20
Hannah Natanson, a 29-year-old Washington Post reporter covering Trump’s transformation of the federal government, answered her door Wednesday morning to find FBI agents with a search warrant. They seized her phones, laptops, even her Garmin watch—searching for her sources. Not with a subpoena, which would have been extraordinary enough. With a raid. The first time in modern American history federal agents have invaded a journalist’s home rather than using legal process.21
Attorney General Pam Bondi publicly accused Natanson of obtaining “classified information,” effectively painting a target on her back. Trump gloated: “The leaker on Venezuela has been found and is in jail.”22
The message is clear: journalism is now a crime. Speaking truth is now betrayal. Witnessing is now insurrection.
Governor Walz and Mayor Frey are elected officials trying to protect their constituents while federal agents occupy their city. They’ve called for peace, for calm, for ICE to leave. The Deputy Attorney General calls them terrorists and promises to stop them “by whatever means necessary.”
This language has precedent—and the precedent is chilling. “By whatever means necessary” echoes the rhetoric that precedes authoritarian crackdowns. It signals the suspension of normal legal constraints, the end of democratic norms, the justification for any action against those deemed enemies of the state.
What the Church Must Do
We cannot pretend this is normal. We cannot act as if calling for peace is insurrection while actual insurrection is patriotism. We cannot stand by while truth-tellers are raided, prosecutors are forced to resign, and federal officials threaten elected leaders “by whatever means necessary.”
The prophets didn’t have the luxury of neutrality. Neither do we.
Amos 5:10-15 warns: “There are those who hate the one who upholds justice in the courts and detest the one who tells the truth... You levy a straw tax on the poor and impose a tax on their grain... You oppress the innocent and take bribes and you deprive the poor of justice in the courts.”23
God’s call is clear and consistent: “Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts.”
When career prosecutors resign because they’re asked to persecute the innocent—the church must notice.
When journalists are raided for reporting truth—the church must object.
When federal agents occupy American cities with tear gas and flash bangs—the church must ask whose interests are being served.
When the language of democracy is inverted so thoroughly that calling for peace becomes “terrorism”—the church must name what’s happening.
This is not partisan. This is prophetic. This is about whether we can still tell the difference between insurrection and witness, between occupation and justice, between truth and lies.
When empire demands complicity or even compliance with injustice, God’s people must bear witness to a different way—even when that witness costs everything.
How Many Fingers?
Remember O’Brien holding up four fingers and demanding Winston see five in Orwell’s 1984. Remember that moment of “luminous certainty” when the scenery of Winston’s mind changed and he saw what power demanded he see.
That’s the test we face right now.
We’re being shown federal agents occupying an American city and told to call it “security.” We’re being shown prosecutors resigning rather than persecute the innocent and told to call them “failures.” We’re being shown journalists raided for reporting truth and told to call it “justice.” We’re being shown calls for peace and told to call them “insurrection.”
How many fingers do you see?
The question is not whether we have the power to stop all of this immediately. Winston couldn’t stop O’Brien. The six prosecutors didn’t stop the persecution. The raid on Hannah Natanson’s home hasn’t been undone.
But they refused to see five fingers when four were held up. They refused to let the scenery of their minds change. They refused to accept that “two and two could have been three as easily as five, if that were what was needed.”
That’s what followers of Jesus Christ do. We refuse the lie—even when the empire tortures us for it, even when speaking truth costs everything, even when the authorities promise to stop us “by whatever means necessary.”
Because we answer to a higher authority. Because we serve a God who is Truth itself, who sees when sparrows fall, who hears when the oppressed cry out, who promises that Truth and Love will ultimately prevail even when crucified.
Jesus told his disciples: “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also” (John 15:20).24 He also promised: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).25
The question is whether we can still tell the difference between four fingers and five.
Between insurrection and witness.
Between occupation and justice.
Between truth and lies.
Winston eventually saw five fingers. The question is whether we will too—and whether anything that matters survives that surrender.
George Orwell, 1984 (New York: Signet Classic, 1950), 213.
Democracy Now!, "'Federal Invasion': Minnesota Officials Condemn Violent ICE Raids, Arrests," January 14, 2026, https://www.democracynow.org/2026/1/14/saint_paul_city_council_ice; Minnesota Star Tribune report cited in Democracy Now! article states that federal agents in Minneapolis and St. Paul "outstrips the 10 largest Twin Cities metro police departments combined," with numbers expected to reach 3,000.
NBC News, "Minneapolis live updates: Tensions flare after federal officer shoots man," January 15, 2026, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/live-blog/minneapolis-live-updates-tensions-flare-federal-officer-shoots-man-dhs-rcna254161.
ABC News, "Minneapolis ICE shooting live updates: Tensions rise after 2nd federal officer shooting," January 15, 2026, https://abcnews.go.com/US/live-updates/minneapolis-ice-shooting-live-updates/?id=129124338.
CNN, "Whistles, then gunfire: How the deadly ICE shooting unfolded in Minneapolis," January 10, 2026, https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/10/us/ice-shooting-minneapolis-renee-good.
CBS News Minnesota, "The Trump administration called Renee Good a domestic terrorist, but experts say the label is premature," January 13, 2026, https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/what-is-domestic-terrorism-renee-good-ice/; Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stated hours after the shooting: "(Good) then proceeded to weaponize her vehicle and she attempted to run a law enforcement officer over. This appears as an attempt to kill or to cause bodily harm to agents, an act of domestic terrorism."
NBC News, "Federal prosecutors resign over concerns about probe into Minneapolis ICE shooting," January 14, 2026, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/justice-department/least-3-prosecutors-resign-concerns-probe-minneapolis-ice-shooting-sou-rcna253876; Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche stated there was "currently no basis" for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division to investigate Ross.
Todd Blanche, post on X (formerly Twitter), January 14, 2026, quoted in ABC News, "Minneapolis ICE shooting live updates."
Tim Walz, post on X (formerly Twitter), January 14, 2026, quoted in NBC News, "Minneapolis live updates: Tensions flare after federal officer shoots man," January 15, 2026, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/live-blog/minneapolis-live-updates-tensions-flare-federal-officer-shoots-man-dhs-rcna254161.
Jacob Frey, statement quoted in The Daily Beast, "Federal Agent Shoots Man During Minneapolis ICE Traffic Stop," January 15, 2026, https://www.thedailybeast.com/federal-agent-shoots-immigrant-during-ice-traffic-stop/.
Trump pardoned or commuted sentences of approximately 1,600 January 6 defendants on January 20, 2025. See The White House, "January 6: A Date Which Will Live in Infamy," January 20, 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/j6/; Lawfare, "Trump Pardons or Commutes Terms of All Jan. 6 Rioters," January 21, 2025, https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/trump-pardons-or-commutes-terms-of-all-jan.-6-rioters. Trump endorsed the idea of a "compensation fund" for January 6 rioters in March 2025 (Axios, "'Treated very unfairly': Trump says compensation fund being discussed for Jan. 6 rioters," March 26, 2025, https://www.axios.com/2025/03/26/trump-jan-6-rioters-compensation-fund-discussions), and by August 2025, federal judges began authorizing refunds of restitution payments. See MSNBC, "For the first time, a Jan. 6 rioter gets a refund on paid restitution," August 29, 2025, https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/first-time-jan-6-rioter-gets-refund-paid-restitution-rcna228010; Wikipedia, "Pardon of January 6 United States Capitol attack defendants," updated January 2026, states that personal injury attorney Mark McCloskey "submitted claims on behalf of about 400 former rioters, some who were seeking millions of dollars."
Mark 14:48, New Revised Standard Version; Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., rev. and ed. Frederick William Danker (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 594.
Mark 15:7, 27, NRSV. The Greek word στάσις (stasis) comes from the root meaning "to stand"—literally "a standing" or "taking a stand," which evolved to mean "standing against" authority, thus "insurrection" or "uprising." Those who participated in στάσις were called στασιασταί (stasiastai)—"those who stand up/stand against." The word λῃστής (lēstēs), while having different etymological roots (from "to plunder"), came to mean the same thing in practice: those who violently challenged Roman authority. Both words describe people Rome crucified for threatening the social order.
Mark 11:16, NRSV.
Dr. Michael Brown, lecture on Mark's Gospel, NT 501, October 20, 2000.
Hammett N. Evans, "'But who do you say that I am?' – Mark 8:29," unpublished paper for NT 501, Dr. Michael Brown, November 29, 2000, 5.
Evans, "But who do you say that I am?," 7.
Acts 5:29, NRSV.
Julia Ainsley, Daniella Silva, Ryan J. Reilly, and Michael Kosnar, “Federal prosecutors resign over concerns about probe into Minneapolis ICE shooting,” NBC News, January 14, 2026, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/justice-department/least-3-prosecutors-resign-concerns-probe-minneapolis-ice-shooting-sou-rcna253876; CBS News, “At least 6 Minnesota federal prosecutors resign amid pressure,” January 13, 2026, https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/federal-prosecutors-minnesota-resign-joe-thompson/.
Matthew 5:10-12, NRSV.
Oliver Darcy and Hadas Gold, “FBI searches Washington Post reporter’s home,” CNN, January 14, 2026, https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/14/media/fbi-hannah-natanson-washington-post-search-doj.
Donald Trump, remarks quoted in ABC News, “FBI searches Washington Post reporter’s home for alleged classified information,” January 14, 2026, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/fbi-searches-washington-post-reporters-home-alleged-classified/story?id=129205960.
Amos 5:10, 11b-12a, NRSV.
John 15:20, NRSV.
John 8:32, NRSV.