“The Trump administration, alleged champion of beleaguered Christians, is using its power to block the church’s work and its bully pulpit to undermine that work with false accusations. When Trump ally Michael Flynn said on X that Lutheran social service organizations are involved in ‘money laundering,’ self-dealing hatchet man Elon Musk chimed in and called the relevant federal funding ‘illegal payments.’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed that cutting off funding to Catholic Charities was about combating ‘wokeness.’ Vice President Vance called refugees ‘illegal immigrants’ and accused the Catholic Church of looking out only for its ‘bottom line.’ Every quote in this paragraph is a bald-faced lie.”
This sort of thing is why it is so important to participate in the church, as an in-person spiritual practice. The church is the body of the Christ in the world—we are the hands and feet of the Christ. And if we allow ourselves to be atomized into individual, spiritual-but-not-participant practitioners of feel-good faith, or limited to social media interactions, then the embodiment of the Christ in world is only receding in the face of the enormous institutional strength of governments and wealth—or “powers and principalities,” as Paul famously called them.
If you’ve been traumatized and are not yet ready to return, then keep yourself safe. But if you are hearing the call, then find a progressive congregation near you and show up. Listen and learn, and see how you can help to bring your distinctive strengths to your community of faith, so that we can work to protect the marginalized and the vulnerable against this hideous onslaught of inhumanity.