Monthly Archives: July 2026

Ever since our personal family experience with ICE last week, I find myself obsessed with George Christopher Zoley (born George Christopher Zolis.) I’d like the whole world to know who he is.

• Young George emigrated from Greece with his family when he was three years old through Ellis Island.
• His family settled in Ohio where George attended public schools in Copley.
• He founded The GEO Group in 1984.
• According to The GEO Group’s website: Mr. Zoley is one of the pioneers in the private corrections industry.
• He received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 2002, awarded “to individuals who have made it their mission to share with those less fortunate, their wealth of knowledge, indomitable courage, boundless compassion, unique talents and selfless generosity. They do so while acknowledging their debt to their ethnic heritage as they uphold the ideals and spirit of America.” Source.
• Mr. Zoley is the founder and CEO of the nation’s largest for-profit jailer of immigrants and ICE’s biggest contractor according to CNN.
• Delaney Hall, one of 21 ICE holding centers managed by The GEO Group has been investigated for “inhumane conditions and treatment.” Source.
• According to The Colorado Times Reporter: “Both GEO Group and CoreCivic (the other large for-profit prison company) have political action committees and make substantial contributions to parties and PACS and individual candidates. GEO Group donated $3.4 million and George (maxed out) his contributions to PACS and candidates across the country, with a concentration in Florida, Arizona, and to Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson. All in all, Zoley spent $235,463 in personal contributions during the 2024 cycle.”
• George Zoley reported personally to Motley Fool in February 2026 that “GEO Group reported record-setting new contract wins totaling up to $520 million in incremental annualized revenues, led by ICE facility activations and major service expansions” in the past year. (This is a 700% profit. Source.)
• Zoley’s personal salary increased from $6,448,667 in 2024 to $14,996,950 in 2025. – a 57% increase. Source.

George C. Zoley identifies as a Greek Orthodox Christian. I identify as a Presbyterian/Reformed Christian. And both of us are hypocrites in terms of following Jesus. Nevertheless, I hold up this verse (which contains the Greek word ὑποκριταί (hypocrites) as a word to all of us who call ourselves Christian:

‘But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them.” Jesus according to Matthew 23:13

Locking people out of the Kingdom of Heaven seems even worse than merely refusing to help bring the Kingdom of Heaven to earth [“Thy kingdom come, that will be done on earth as it is in heaven.“] George Zoley and ICE literally lock people inside a form of hell. I know this, now, from personal experience.

And so I’m praying that God help us figure out how to end this system of greed and cruelty that our taxes are paying for. Our. Taxes. Are. Paying. The. GEO. Group. That matters to me. I hope it matters to you too. Literally, for the love of God, I hope we will remember this man’s name and seek to hold him accountable.

Dr. George C. Zoley GEO Group 4955 Technology Way Boca Raton FL, 33431 – gzoley@geogroup.com

Many people I love believe that vaccinations are dangerous, ICE is detaining violent criminals, and people with brown or black skin are enjoying special privileges in terms of employment and educational opportunities. I love these people. They are wrong.

Through the years I have tried to share what I know to be true with them because of my proximity to people who have died from COVID, been terrorized by ICE, and been otherized in a majority white culture. Sometimes I’m shrill and unhearable. Sometimes I’m clearly judgmental and unhearable. Sometimes I’m stunned into silence (“We aren’t getting vaccinations because they cause infertility.”)

Me to a friend (in shock over the shooting of 12 year old Tamir Rice in a Cleveland playground in 2014 because officers erroneously thought his air gun was a serious firearm): Can you imagine your 12 year old being shot dead in a playground using guns that our brothers used to play with?

Friend: (no response)

Me: Of course you can’t and neither can I because our boys are white.

Friend: (no response)

Something happened in my extended family that changed this recently. For the victim’s protection, I won’t share details. But someone we know well was detained by ICE in an airport on his way to a business conference. He is in this country legally. He works in this country legally. He is a well-educated father and grandfather, husband, neighbor and a director in his place of work.

He was held in one of the most notorious detention centers in the country. Handcuffed. Strip searched. Threatened with deportation to another country. Held for three days until he was unexpectedly released. ICE said they were “sorry for their mistake.” Thanks – but the trauma is real.

Because I am a praying person and I shared this concern with other praying people – some of whom have paid little attention to the abuses by ICE – I had the opportunity to share facts regarding the situation of Someone We Know. Yes, he is a legal permanent resident. Yes, he was working legally. Yes, he loves this country. No, he has no criminal record. I was believed because We Know This Person.

“This is baffling,” someone I love said upon hearing about this. “My eyes have been opened” was another comment.

This is my White Lady’s Work. And maybe it’s your work too: to use opportunities to share what is True about what’s going on in this nation we love.

What doesn’t help:

• Crying. White women: stop crying whether you are feeling ashamed, misunderstood, and/or guilty. Stop it.
• Responding with snark/shrillness/anger. All understandable but not effective.
• Name calling. We are all racists, my friends. It’s in the air we breathe.

As injustice comes closer to us personally, we are more likely to believe it’s happening. Privilege is thinking something is not a problem if it doesn’t affect us personally. The famous words of Martin Niemoller are posted at the exit of the U.S. Holocaust Museum in D.C. and they are as true as ever. It’s easy to ignore what’s going on in other nations, other parts of this country, other towns, other families. But – as the button says – “Obliviousness is a dangerous form of white privilege.”

There are still many, many people who believe that all Muslims are terrorists or all Black men are dangerous or all rural people are uneducated or all billionaires are simply smarter than the rest of us. Not one of these statements is true.

People who look like me have a calling and a responsibility to do the work of dismantling the lies that divide our country and cause us to otherize each other. Today is the day to get working. Also: Jesus commands it.

Many years ago, I was having dinner with three Millennials in a Brooklyn restaurant. One was our TBC who grew up in the Church although her attendance in Brooklyn was occasional. One was her friend who grew up in a different congregation and her church attendance might have been less than occasional. The third Millennial one was a friend visiting from the U.K.

U.K. guy said that he’d heard that I was a Christian pastor and he was fascinated by this. “So you lead a church?” “What do you wear?” It was not the first time I was a curiosity in social circles.

Dinner arrived and the U.K. guy – who mentioned that his family had never been to church – said, “You know that thing that people do before they eat if they believe in God?” And I said, “Do you mean the blessing? It’s also called grace.”

“Yes!” he said. “Would you do that?”

We held hands while I thanked God for our food and the hands that prepared it. “That was nice,” U.K. guy said. “I can see why people would like that.”

For decades now, we Christians who still participate in a Church Community, have crafted our vocabulary, our church liturgies, and our newsletters for a “seeker” population, for people who might have a rudimentary understanding about the Christian Faith or the Organized Church. We used words like “lobby” instead of “narthex.” We refrained from preaching about the Doctrine of Soteriology and spoke about the things of this worldly life that holds us captive. I know churches that exchanged “Vacation Bible School” for “Summer Camp” (which happens to be sponsored by a church.)

A couple weeks ago, I was talking with my Lyft driver about what I do/did for work. He was literally taking me to church for Sunday morning worship. He actually had a Bible on the passenger seat of the car and he told me that he hadn’t grown up Christian or in a church, but he was in trouble and he was trying to figure out what to do.

[Note: This is not the first Lyft driver I’ve prayed with in my life. I never make the suggestion myself, but every once in a while, the Lyft driver would respond to the news that I was a pastor by asking if I’d be willing to pray with them before leaving the car. Coptics from Ethiopia. Sufi Muslims from Senegal. Lapsed Catholics from the South Side of Chicago. I’ve prayed with all kinds of people and consider it an enormous privilege.]

But this particular Lyft driver with a Bible in the passenger seat and burdens on his mind didn’t even have the words to ask me to pray with him.

Would you ever say words around me?” he asked?

Now this could mean several things, but it was clear that he was talking about something like prayer. And so I prayed for him words of hope and healing. He thanked me and asked if he could email me sometime to do that again over the phone. (Yes, he could have been a killer/stalker/scammer.) But I said I’d be happy to share my email with him. He has never contacted me but maybe he will one day. Or maybe he won’t.

It occurs to me that we are at least two generations (or in some places four generations) away from The Churched Generation who might not know the details of”The Good Samaritan” or “The Ten Commandments” but at least they’ve heard of those stories. They might have gone to Sunday School long ago. Maybe they’d played an angel in the annual Christmas pageant.

But we are now neighbors with thousands and thousands of people who don’t know what prayer is, much less know why/how/when to do it. In the last 24 hours, two Millennials have shared that they are “looking for a spiritual community.” They don’t know where to start.

Before we invite them to church, it feels holier to listen to what’s going on in their lives. Maybe we never invite them to church at all (unless they ask.) Maybe they need for us to simply say words around them that offer comfort and peace. The Holy doesn’t need all the stuff we’ve created for the purpose of bolstering The Institutional Church.

Don’t misunderstand me. The Institutional Church has fed God’s children – both spiritually and physically – for thousands of years. The Church has built hospitals and schools, camps and affordable housing. The Church has provided community in a million ways.

Some of us need to step away in a stained glass sanctuary to feel reverence for God. Some of us need chanting. Some of us need Country-Western songs. Some of us need fresh flowers. But God doesn’t need any of those things.

God doesn’t even need for us to say words around people that sound like a prayer. But it’s a good idea to plan for that possibility because so many people are broken and feeling alone. We who know that God Is With Us have been given the privilege to share that Truth with others – not as a weapon but as a holy moment.

While my denominational siblings are in Milwaukee for the PCUSA General Assembly, I spent last weekend at a family reunion to see my blood siblings and cousins and a favorite 97 year old aunt. Since I don’t live in NC anymore, this meant a hotel stay with bad coffee and not many independent coffee shops near the hotel, so I went to Starbucks on Sunday morning.

While waiting for my better-than-hotel-but-not-as-good-as-my neighborhood-coffee-shop coffee, I heard this conversation:

Two Young Adult Women Were Waiting for their Drinks:

YAW#1: So I’m on Klonopin now for my anxiety. What are you on?

YAW#2: I’m scared to tell you.

YAW#1: Don’t be scared. Everybody’s on meds.

YAW#2: I’m not on meds. But I worry about things.

YAW#1: I tried Cymbalta my freshman year but it made me all Comic Sans. (Waving her arms all around.)

Barista: Vodka!

YAW#1 grabs the pink drink.

YAW#2: You told them your name was Vodka?

YAW#1: Of course! I would never give them my REAL name.

I can’t stop thinking about this conversation because it reminds me that

• Jonathan Haidt is right
• People would rather spend a day on the lake than be in church
• Young people can drink pink drinks without worrying about the calories
• Instagram has ruined the culture (the two YAW instagrammed their drinks on their way out.)
• The state motto of North Carolina is Esse Quam Videri (“to be rather than to seem.”)

Successful managers, executives, and – of course – pastors have long been advised to be “authentic” which involves knowing the truth about ourselves and loving ourselves enough to be who we were created to be. Jesus reminds us about the value of worshipping God in spirit and in truth. And after overhearing that conversation in Starbucks, I heard a remarkable sermon comparing the leadership skills of Saul and the leadership skills of David (thank you WG) that reminded me that authenticity is all about knowing who we are and who God is. Saul was all about himself, leading with vengeance, jealousy, abuse of power, and fear while David – although quite imperfect – nevertheless was about the heart of God, leading with truth, humility, and appreciation.

We are anxious when we forget who we really are: people created in God’s image. The transgender woman, the Haitian refugee, the Israeli mother grieving her son murdered on 10-7-23, the Palestinian mother grieving her son murdered in Gaza, the child whose family has died in the Venezuelan earthquakes. You. Me. The young women with the pink drinks.

If we have a clear understanding of ourselves and each other as part of the extraordinarily diverse people created by all that is Holy and thoroughly Real, then we are free. We are free to disagree with each other without hate. We are free to tell the truth without fear. We are free to have the capacity to care for others as we care for ourselves. We are free to be more curious than judgmental.

There are conversations happening at the General Assembly this week about how we treat people with whom we disagree. If we take seriously the teachings of Jesus, we do not mock them or slander them or hate them. We love them into relationship. It’s exceedingly brave and Christlike to love our “enemies” even when they hurt us. Yes, we hold each other accountable and seek what last Sunday’s preacher called “authentic repentance.” (We don’t breezily say “I’m sorry” and then continue the same behavior that hurt people in the first place.)

This is hard work. And it’s also joyful work when the point of life is to seek the heart of God (rather than worry about how we look out there with our pink drinks.)

PS – For the record I have nothing against pink drinks as a beverage choice nor am I anti anxiety meds. Both have their place in this wonderful world.