Where are my fellow religious leaders to speak up and save our democracy? | Opinion

“The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state.” - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Why are gender issues overwhelmingly important — like outing female transgender athletes — but overthrow of the world’s greatest democracy evokes silence? Where is the national religious movement for democracy under the law? Where is the protest of pardoning violent felons convicted of sedition? Why does every not pulpit ring with organizing opposition to this quiet overthrow of our government? Why is there any other subject being discussed?

Where are the heroes of religious preaching? Where are the resolutions to protect democracy, and denunciations of the quiet revolution overthrowing our government in favor of kleptocracy and oligarchy? Maybe they are just not publicized sufficiently, but they exist?

It is astonishing to me that Republicans do not loudly protest the president of the United States’ refusal to follow the law. Their concept of justice is perverted now by political affiliation. Their president, unlike with Richard Nixon, openly flaunts injustice without objection. Their acceptance demonstrates a hypocrisy among the president’s backers, particularly evangelical Christian leaders, that I find inexplicable — except to view it as a wholesale sellout of their faith to the one man they literally idolize. Idolatry remains the greatest sin in the Bible, not gender issues that go biblically unmentioned.

This abandonment of mainstream theology in favor of politics implicates also clergy of a broader theological base. As Christian nationalism — aka Christian religious supremacy — destroys our national acceptance of all, and as we return to white supremacy in the guise of overthrowing diversity, equity and inclusion policies, we see a new acceptance of intolerance masked as equality under the law. And yet, the president can free every felon who ever attempted to destroy American democracy with hardly a peep of protest.

White superiority begins simply enough, cloaked as religious liberty: posting the Christian version of the Ten Commandments in classrooms, proposing admitting chaplains as counselors in Missouri public schools, tax breaks for Christian academies and federal grants — but just wait. The camel’s nose in the tent is just the beginning of white Christian religious supremacy. And the great tragedy is being aided and abetted by the deafening silence of religious leaders who actually will benefit, with notable exceptions such as Mariann Budde, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington.

We live in tragic times, but also times of opportunity. In Amos 5:24, the prophet said, “Let justice well up as waters and righteousness as a mighty stream.”

Now is the time for religious courage and vision. Let the prophets rise and speak.

This story was originally published February 28, 2025 at 5:07 AM with the headline "Where are my fellow religious leaders to speak up and save our democracy? | Opinion."