Religion Is Next

Lo! Another mountain beckons...

There’s a letter making the rounds on social media from my friends in the UCC (United Church of Christ). It is an update from the UCC General Counsel to denominational leaders. The General Counsel cannot direct or advise local churches on actions and choices they make — this letter informs the church of some important changes in federal law and gives some context for those changes.

Here’s an excerpt from the letter:

“Over the past two days I have received several emails letting me know there has been a change in the terms and conditions of federal grants. I know that some of our churches have received and relied upon HHS grants, FEMA grants, and other types of federal grants to support their ministries. I know that some churches are planning to apply for federal grants under the Nonprofit Security Grant Program.

Please encourage your churches to carefully review the terms and conditions of any federal grant they are choosing to apply for, with their own legal counsel.

The terms and conditions for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program now require recipients and subrecipients of the funding, among other things:

• to cooperate with immigration officials,

• not engage in or promote programs that engage in DEI, DEIA, or ‘discriminatory equity ideology’ within the meaning of the Executive Order, in violation of anti-discrimination laws, and

• not participate in discriminatory prohibited boycotts relating to Israel.

HHS is also requiring certification of compliance with not engaging in DEI activity.

The terms and conditions of ANY federal funding MUST be carefully examined to ensure that accepting a grant does make the church’s ministry an instrument of the state by dictating what religious activities the church can engage in and with whom the church can associate.

I cannot provide counsel to Local Churches on whether they should accept the terms and conditions of these grants, what will happen if they are accused of violating them, and whether First Amendment defenses exist; these are issues and risks churches should raise with their legal counsel….Each church of the United Church of Christ can decide for itself whether to pursue funds from the government, and I encourage churches to carefully consider all of the implications when it is making these decisions.”

(end of the quote from the UCC letter — below the picture is from me)

---

---

Despite the very public pronouncements of religious freedom and an executive order “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias,” the concern that the Trump administration would turn its gaze toward liberal and progressive churches appears to now be happening.

It is notable that all three of the issues identified for grantee cooperation are concerns long at the center of mainline Protestant and social justice Catholic agendas — care for and protection of immigrants, racial and gender equality, and justice for the Palestinian people. These issues have been worked out differently in different denominations according to differing polities, but every major denomination has resolutions, policies, and public stances on these particular concerns — and they are, in some way, central to the theological vision of many Christians today.

Of course, this is a significant attack on religious freedom and the separation of church and state. And it underscores long-standing issues about federal monies going to any religious organization (although it must be noted that liberal and progressive churches take more legal care than conservative ones maintaining strict divides between their social service work and religious evangelism). In the next several months, lawyers, constitutional experts, historians who specialize in church/state issues, and denominational leaders will be busy sorting through what this all means to specific churches their social justice work.

But the short version is that it means nothing good — that the Trump administration is seeking to delimit what liberal and progressive Christians can do with money intended to fill gaps in America’s social programs for poor and marginalized people. And, although the particulars of enforcement and consequences are still a mystery, there doesn’t seem to be much of a doubt that putting these strings on this grant money is a way of stopping the work of mainline and liberal churches — and potentially to silence them as well.

Because it appears that if you take the cash, you have to muzzle yourselves. And your pastor. And potentially your ability to protest the government.

I don’t have any solution to this, much less any suggestions. The main reason I write today is to let you know that this is happening. And if people in the UCC are asking questions of their General Counsel, the rest of us can’t be far behind.

As these issues ramp up, it is important to remember that such moves are more than a political agenda or authoritarian tactics. There are theological motives at play here as well.

Remember the Seven Mountains Mandate? The political and social vision embraced by much of Trump’s religious base? This agenda is preached by his charismatic and Pentecostal supporters who seek to dominate the Seven Mountains of culture and society — to finally and fully “Christianize” the United States.

If you haven’t been keeping track, the Trump administration is working in each one of these areas to do just that — dominate a new American culture built on their principles and leadership. Think about each of the seven — business, government, family, religion, media, education, and entertainment — and how standards, practices, and expertise in each of these fields has been upended in the last six months.

In other words, they are succeeding. I don’t know how long that will last or what the outcome of this will be. But any honest observer can see that tariffs are upending business, Musk and DOGE upending government, and Trump’s threats have upended media companies and universities. Entertainment venues, like the Kennedy Center and television stalwarts like NPR and PBS, find themselves taken over or impoverished — while individual performers, like Stephen Colbert, are cancelled.

The other two areas are family and religion, both of which are a bit more of a puzzle for the Dominionists. Family policies encompass aspects of every other “mountain” of culture (especially education and media) as well as the law and Constitution making family policy hard to change quickly. Although they are making a run at it by eroding the rights of LGBTQ families, ending things like SNAP and Medicaid, and separating immigrant families.

Same goes for religion. In this case, it is unseemly to argue for one’s own religious freedom while taking religious freedom away from others. And, the smarter leaders in the movement understand that this strategy might backfire. But the long quest of white evangelicals has been to undermine and eradicate liberal Protestantism and social justice Christianity in its many forms. They, and they alone, must stand atop of the mountain of American religion as its rightful heirs and leaders.

So, it was inevitable that they’d come after the rest of us.

Because they don’t think we are Christians anyway. We are exempt from their anti-Christian bias protections. (FWIW it is worth, I do think people with these views are Christians, ill-informed and bad ones, but Christians nevertheless.)

My main thought? Stick with the gospel. Don’t capitulate. Be perfectly clear about the Bible and Jesus and God’s love.

And remember those first Christians whose creed was simple: Jesus is Lord, not Caesar.

---

---

INSPIRATION

All creation waits for freedom,
still earth’s children raise this cry,
groaning as in painful birthing,
longing with unending sigh,
all to be
equal, free,
one in full humanity.

For in Christ no walls divide us,
class or colour, nation’s pride,
stigmas placed on genes or gender,
status given or denied,
but one mind
Christ-defined
welcomes all whom God designed.
Neither life nor death will daunt us,
powers of evil, powers of state
separate us from that promise
God in Christ let love create:
flying free
we can be
agents for true liberty.

Let the Spirit’s gifts be nourished,
fruits that make the wine of peace,
kindness that is kin to patience,
faithfulness and joy’s release,
love holds all,
great and small,
lasts, and never lets us fall.

Let the vision and the courage
lead us with unflinching will
as the rising generations
sing a faith unshaken still:
through the Word,
truth be heard,
hearts and minds to hope be stirred!
— Shirley Erena Murray, “All Who Walk the Christian Journey”

---

This newsletter is supported only by its readers. There’s no grant, no institution, no denomination, and no corporate sponsor.

Consider joining us. Thank you. You make a difference.

---

We watch as the jets fly in
with the power people and
the money people,
the suits, the budgets, the billions.

We wonder about monetary policy
because we are among the haves,
and about generosity
because we care about the have-nots.

By slower modes we notice
Lazarus and the poor arriving from Africa,
and the beggars from Central Europe, and
the throng of environmentalists
with their vision of butterflies and oil
of flowers and tanks
of growing things and killing fields.

We wonder about peace and war,
about ecology and development,
about hope and entitlement.

We listen beyond jeering protesters and
soaring jets and
faintly we hear the mumbling of the crucified one,
something about
feeding the hungry
and giving drink to the thirsty,
about clothing the naked,
and noticing the prisoners,
more about the least and about holiness among them.
We are moved by the mumbles of the gospel,
even while we are tenured in our privilege.

We are half ready to join the choir of hope,
half afraid things might change,
and in a third half of our faith turning to you,
and your outpouring love
that works justice and
that binds us each and all to one another.

So we pray amidst jeering protesters
and soaring jets.
Come by here and make new,
even at some risk to our entitlements.
— Walter Brueggemann, “The Noise of Politics”

---

---

Political freedom cannot exist in any land where religion controls the state,
and religious freedom cannot exist in any land
where the state controls religion.

— Sen. Sam J. Ervin Jr.

---