More than 400 Christian leaders and scholars have denounced President Donald Trump’s administration, having urged for more resistance among the faithful to “injustices and anti-democratic danger sweeping across the nation”.
The collective letter titled A call to Christians in a Crisis of Faith and Democracy said: “We are facing a cruel and oppressive government,” adding that “In moments like this, silence is not neutrality, it is an active choice to permit harm”.
The statement, that was released during Lent, said that Christians have a moral obligation to speak out against “citizens and immigrants being demonized, disappeared, and even killed; the erosion of hard-won rights and freedoms; and a calculated effort to reverse America’s growing racial and ethnic diversity, all of which are pushing us toward authoritarian and imperial rule”.
Adam Russell Taylor, president of Sojourners, a Christian social justice organisation said: “We thought it was important to tie into a season where many Christians go deeper into their faith."
He added: “Part of what we’re critiquing is the way in which many White evangelical Christians succumb to an unconditional support of the administration, despite the fact that its actions are completely antithetical to the teachings of Jesus.”
Another of the organisers, Rev Jim Wallis, founder and director of the Georgetown Centre for Faith and Justice in Washington told USA News Today: “This moment is a defining test of Christian discipleship and civic responsibility.”
“Democratic freedoms are being taken away, and the gospel is being distorted. The vulnerable people Jesus told us to stand with and defend are being targeted and assaulted,” he added.
Despite the joint letter denouncing Trump, conservative evangelicals have become a major political force with strong support of Trump. Evangelical pastor Doug Wilson, who has said women should neither vote nor hold religious or political leadership positions, was recently invited by Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth to conduct a service at the Pentagon.