Rev. Andy Oliver is fighting for all of them. The leader of Allendale United Methodist Church isn’t afraid to get loud and upset people to fight for what he believes in, whether that’s projecting “Abolish ICE” on its St. Pete facade or marching with an inflatable dragged-up Jesus.
He talked to Creative Loafing about how faith fuels his fight for social justice.
This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.
CL: So… is there any hope for Florida or America right now?
Oliver: Allendale before this election usually would see about five to 10 visitors on a Sunday. We’re having like 25 to 30 visitors on Sunday since the election. And I believe it’s because people feel like the world’s ending. And in many ways, the world as we know it is ending. We’re transitioning to a different world, and building a new world that looks like beloved community. … that is based on liberation and loving each other in solidarity, not one that is based on domination and tariffs.
Our ancestors lived through worse times and found ways to not only make it through, but to build up a new world.
How can people who feel abandoned by Christianity and religion hold on to faith in anything when they feel so beaten down?
So there’s certainly a segment of the Church that has sold-out. Instead of following Jesus, they’ve followed a path of Christian nationalism and white supremacy, which I think go hand-in-hand. And they’re doing so much harm by giving validity and even encouragement to the harmful policies that we’re seeing. To me, those people who are practicing their faith like that, I don’t even recognize as being a part of what it means to follow Jesus. Jesus was pushing back constantly against those types of practices, and was executed by the state—by the Empire—because he was pushing back against that way of practicing faith.
You know a lot of people that are coming to Allendale are people that haven’t been to a church in a very long time. A lot of people who are coming are young people, maybe they haven’t been since they were a child, or have never been at all. But people feel a connection, because we’re spiritual beings, and they don’t want to just completely relinquish their faith because they see bad examples of it being lived out in ways that look like Christian nationalism. They want to have one more chance to reclaim it for themselves, or to unpack what they thought faith was, and rebuild it, reconstruct it in ways that are life giving.
A lot of people probably know you and Allendale best for your defense of the LGBTQ community. But you’re constantly at protests and testifying to lawmakers about lots of other social issues like fair housing and immigration. How do you have the energy to fight for so many things when it seems like more danger keeps popping up?
I think there’s a moment or periods of hopelessness for me every single day and needing to take time to recenter. Look, I’m to the point now where I can’t go to a coffee shop or to a party, to a social gathering without a stranger coming up to me that I don’t know. They may know who I am, or they see my collar, or they know about Allendale. And they ask ‘What do we do?’
Practicing self-care in this time is very important. Having a good therapist, and everything from taking rest to going to the gym to connecting with community are essential right now. The most important thing people can be doing right now, when they want us to feel very isolated and hopeless, is to double down on our efforts to create deeper and stronger community. It’s in that community where we’re going to be able to keep going in this marathon.
I played tuba in high school and marched sousaphone. When you’re in a tuba section and have to hold out a note for 16 counts, that’s pretty much impossible, but with a whole section, it’s quite achievable, because you stagger your breathing. And so in community, we are able to stagger our breathing and hold each other up and have a bigger impact.
For people who maybe don’t feel comfortable going to church or aren’t sure if that’s the right thing for them, what would you recommend?
I would say, find their community, whether that is in a faith based space or not. I happen to believe that if it’s based around the values of solidarity and loving each other and resistance to evil, it’s a faith based community. Whether they happen in a church, or in a bar, or at a coffee shop, or in someone’s home, in my perspective, they are doing the work of God.
We have mutual destiny, as Dr. King talked about, and that is spiritual work, whether it’s happening in a church or not, and so finding your people and creating deep community is the most important thing we can be doing right now.
We’re coming up on Easter, that time when Jesus was executed by the state. What do you want people to take away from the holiday?
Easter, the most important holiday of the Christian year, is supposed to celebrate the way salvation was brought in. And when I say salvation, I mean people in the margins being restored to community.
Easter and resurrection is God’s big middle finger to empire. A divine protest. A holy F-you to the systems that crush bodies and break spirits.
Salvation isn’t about escaping this world and going to heaven… It’s a salve—a healing force pulsing through every protest, every jail cell, and every broken community. It’s God showing up in solidarity where shit’s hardest. It’s about “getting saved” from greed, from white supremacy, from bigotry, from whatever keeps us numb and divided.
Resurrection is real—every time someone refuses to give up, every time people rise from ashes and fight, every time love shows up where death and empire thought they won.
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This article appears in Apr 3-9, 2025.