At a small Persian church in Chicago's western suburbs, the pastor bowed his head and offered a special prayer for regime change and freedom of worship in his native Iran, as the five-week-old war between the United States and Israel continues.
“We pray to God to bring down the power of darkness from Iran and bring his kingdom and give peace to the people,” the Rev. James Shahabi said in Persian during a Palm Sunday service at Kheimeh Molaghat Church in Addison, Illinois. “And may his name be glorified in Iran freely.”
“Amen,” the predominantly Iranian American congregation responded in unison.
As the church prepares Sunday to celebrate Christ's resurrection at Easter, its members call for the renewal and liberation of their homeland while the fate of their government hangs in the balance.
Although Roman Catholic leaders – most notably Pope Leo
They say they long for a day when Iranians of all religions will be allowed to freely worship in their homeland.
And they applaud President Trump's promise to “make Iran great again.” At the beginning of the war, Trump called for the overthrow of the Iranian government and the unconditional surrender of its military, although he has since issued vague and contradictory statements.
On Wednesday, during Trump's first national address since attacks between the United States and Israel sparked the war on Feb. 28, he said U.S. forces would “finish the job” soon, after weeks of often conflicting messages about the military operation.
“If Iran becomes great, I think the world will be great,” said Narjes Delacai, 66, who left the northern Iranian city of Mashhad decades ago.
Aria Bahraman, 44, who says she fled religious oppression in Iran about 15 years ago, believes a change of government in Tehran would weaken the numerous Iranian-backed militant groups spread across the Middle East, such as Hamas and Hezbollah, making the world safer and more peaceful.
“If you destroy the head of the snake, the whole snake disappears,” he said.
Catholic leaders condemn war
His words of support for the war stand in stark contrast to those of many Christian leaders who have opposed the military operation in Iran and how the Trump administration has carried it out.
Chicago-born Pope Leo has repeatedly called for a ceasefire and on Tuesday urged Trump to find a “way out” to end the war.
During his Palm Sunday inaugural address, the pontiff denounced those who use God to justify war and urged prayers for peace, particularly for those suffering in the Middle East.
“Brothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war,” he said. “He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”
Cardinal Blase Cupich last month denounced a video the White House posted online that spliced footage of movie action scenes with actual video of U.S. bombings in Iran.
“Our government is treating the suffering of the Iranian people as a backdrop for our own entertainment, as if it were just another piece of content we can scroll through while waiting in line at the supermarket,” the archbishop of Chicago said in a statement. “But in the end, we lose our humanity when we are thrilled by the destructive power of our military.”
The National Council of Churches has also opposed what it calls “unauthorized military aggression in Iran,” lamenting “the loss of life from these aggressive acts and the gratuitous violence by the United States and Israel against the Iranian people, which has only served to further destabilize the region, cripple infrastructure and harm the most vulnerable.”
The war has proven widely unpopular among Americans, with about 61% disapproving of Trump's handling of the conflict and 59% believing the U.S. decision to use military force was wrong, according to a Pew Research Center poll released March 25.
As for the Kheimeh Molaghat pastor, Shahabi said he is confident that the Trump administration will persevere in overthrowing the Iranian government and restoring governance to the people, as the president promised in the first hours of the war.
The cleric warned, however, that failure to do so would jeopardize the future of Iran and the stability of the entire Middle East, triggering an even more volatile and repressive Tehran government after the war.
“Trump has to end it. He has no choice… because if he doesn't end it, the Islamic Republic will destroy the entire security of the Middle East,” Shahabi said. “They're going to get worse and worse. The United States has to put an end to it and make sure there is a new, very stable government.”
'Save us from this brutal regime'
During the Palm Sunday service, the in-person audience at the nondenominational church was much smaller than on a typical Sunday, with only about a half-dozen members spread across the rows of blue chairs in front of the stage.
The pastor said many parishioners were absent because they had traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend an Iranian diaspora rally on March 29 in support of the war.
Among them was church member Mahdi Rahbar, who said he had joined a crowd of thousands at the rally on the National Mall, a day after nationwide “No Kings” rallies protested war and other Trump policies.
In front of the U.S. Capitol, the 30-year-old from the Chicago suburbs waved an American flag and the tricolor flag of the lion and the sun, the flag of Iran before the 1979 Islamic Revolution that has become a symbol of opposition to the government in Tehran.
“It is important for everyone in the world to know that this ongoing war is aimed at rescuing the Iranian people from this regime,” said Rahbar, who left Iran five years ago. “Save us from this brutal regime.”
Back then there was no freedom of expression, human rights abuses were rampant and women's rights in particular were severely restricted, she recalled.
His family and friends in Iran say oppression has only increased in the years since: Just three months ago, the government brutally crushed nationwide protests, killing thousands of citizens and arresting thousands more. Rahbar lives in constant fear for the safety of his loved ones at home.
“I think most people don't understand what it means to live under a dictatorship and a government like that,” he said. “I never thought I would want my country to be bombed. But it's not really my country… There are certain places that are occupied by the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] and the regime that actually kills Iranians.”
Rahbar was raised in a Muslim family, but said he was agnostic when he left Iran.
Shortly after arriving in the United States, he met American Christians at the university he attended and asked to join them in a Bible study.
This type of research is prohibited in Iran, where it is illegal for a Muslim to convert to Christianity.
religious persecution
Amnesty International has repeatedly condemned religious persecution in Iran, noting in its 2024 report that minority religions (including Baha'is, Christians, Jews and Sunni Muslims) have faced discrimination in various aspects of life, including access to education, employment and government jobs.
Open worship can also be dangerous.
“Authorities subjected members of religious minorities to arbitrary detention, unfair prosecution, and torture and other ill-treatment for professing or practicing their faith,” the report said.
Conversion to a minority religion is particularly dangerous in Iran, the global human rights organization has concluded.
“People born to parents classified as Muslim by the authorities risked arbitrary detention, torture and other ill-treatment, and the death penalty for 'apostasy' if they adopted other religions or atheism,” the report said. “Authorities raided house churches and arbitrarily detained Christian converts.”
Iran is ranked the 10th most dangerous country for Christians, according to Open Doors International, a nonprofit Christian advocacy organization.
According to Open Doors, Armenian and Assyrian Christian communities in Iran are treated as “second-class citizens.”
“They are also prohibited from using the Persian language in religious activities and for religious materials, and are not allowed to interact with Persian speakers in religious services,” the nonprofit organization reported.
However, converts face the greatest risk, according to Open Doors.
After the service at Kheimeh Molaghat, over coffee and sweets in the church's assembly hall, Bahraman told how the Iranian military raided his parents' home about 15 years ago because his family had converted to Christianity. His mother and father were detained for about a month, he said.
His mother was a pastor of his church, which met secretly in his home along with 17 or 18 fellow converts for daily services.
At the time, Bahraman had 5,000 Persian Bibles, which are illegal in Iran, stored in his own apartment. Church members surreptitiously distributed them to evangelize potential Iranian converts.
When he heard about the raid on his parents, Bahraman rushed to throw all the Bibles into public trash bins.
“Believe me, it's not easy to get rid of 5,000 books,” he recalled. “I remember spinning around and just looking at my shadow, because you never know who is behind you.”
Discarding all those sacred texts “was heartbreaking,” he recalled.
“It was painful to throw it away,” he said. “But what other option do you have?”
Shortly after that incident, he abruptly fled Iran.
“What I like most about America is that if I wake up in the morning and I want to go to a church, I can go to a church,” Bahraman said. “There is no one to stop me.
“If I want to read a book, I can read a book,” he added. “No one stops me.”
Praying at Holy Week
Church members plan to gather for a service at Kheimeh Molaghat on Easter Sunday, where they intend to pray together once again for the future of Iran and their loved ones at home.
They believe that one day democracy will come to their homeland.
“We have a long way to go towards a democratic system,” Rahbar said. “We fought for 47 years.”
With democracy comes freedom of religion, he added.
“I don't want everyone to be a Christian, but I want them to have the opportunity to hear what Christianity [is] as. Because he made me free,” he said. “That's the way it should be. A democratic country has to go down that path. Let people choose what to believe.”
Leventis Lourgos writes for the Chicago Tribune.
