Christian groups kick off Lent with letters objecting to Trump moves on budget and immigration

WASHINGTON (RNS) — Prominent Christian leaders, denominations and organizations are tying their demonstrations against actions taken by President Donald Trump to the church season of Lent, urging fellow faithful to advocate for immigrants and the poor amid concerns that Congress may cut social safety net programs in a forthcoming federal budget package.

The criticism came by way of a pair of public letters, one of which, titled “Returning to Jesus: Practicing Lent in Our Time” and signed by such luminaries as Diana Butler Bass, the Rev. Otis Moss III and the Rev. Jim Wallis,  chided the Trump administration for a growing list of executive orders and other decisions that the religious leaders say will harm poor and otherwise disadvantaged Americans.

“This year we celebrate Lent amidst a growing crisis in America, driven by the political accumulation of wealth, power, and control,” the leaders’ letter reads. “This crisis already threatens the rule of law and the checks and balances of our constitutional democracy. In the deluge and whirlwind of this administration’s initial actions we see the brutal abandonment and targeting of the people Jesus commands his followers to serve and protect.”

Dramatic cuts to USAID, led by billionaire Elon Musk and the Trump White House’s Department of Government Efficiency, have led to the winnowing or shuttering of hospitals and clinics for HIV-positive children in Africa, and halted efforts to aid persecuted Christians in Sri Lanka and elsewhere.

“The massive cutting of foreign aid to those most in need, and from many faith-based organizations supplying it is a gospel issue for us that we must speak to, despite dishonest, personal, and unprecedented government attacks now coming against faith-based service providers,” the leaders’ letter reads. “We must defend lifesaving international aid and humanitarian assistance that prevents hungry people from starving, keeps those in ill health from dying, and defends children and families lives from being destroyed.”

In a statement, Wallis, faculty director at Georgetown University’s Faculty Director of the Center on Faith and Justice, said the letter resonated with the themes of lent.

“Lent is a time of repentance, reflection, and renewal,” Wallis said. “As Christians, we must resist the temptations of power and greed that seek to divide us and instead return to the radical gospel of love and justice that Jesus calls us to embody. Our faith must be active in defending the most vulnerable among us.”

The faith leaders’ “Returning to Jesus” letter came the same day as an “ecumenical declaration,” focused on immigration issues, was release by a host of Christian denominations, from the African Methodist Episcopalian Church to the Quakers and including major mainline groups, such as Presbyterians, Lutherans, the United Methodist Church and several Christian aid organizations.

Tying the statement to the upcoming Ash Wednesday (March 5), the celebration that begins Lent, the denominations reasserted their longstanding support for immigrants and refugees.

“Together in faith and rooted in love, we resolve to continue in the centuries-old practice of Christian communities walking alongside refugees and immigrants in their pursuit of safety and dignity,” the letter read. “We pledge to restore and promote hospitality and welcome to those seeking refuge — regardless of where they are from, how they pray or what language they speak.”

The letter listed the Trump’s administration’s actions regarding immigrants thus far, such as shutting down the refugee program, revoking temporary protected status for some immigrant groups, attempting to end birthright citizenship, allowing for immigration raids at churches and dismantling “our national capacity to assist refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants both at home and abroad.”

“Guided by our faith, we stand together against the sweeping measures that are devastating vulnerable families and jeopardizing their futures,” the letter read, noting that signers also pledge to publicly advocate for the cause, both by contacting lawmakers and “honoring the journeys of refugees and immigrants through Sunday services and church activities” at last once during the season of Lent.

Together the letters speak to growing religious pushback to the Trump, in court as well as in public statements The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends are part of a lawsuit challenging the administration’s decision to rescind an internal memo discouraging immigration raids at their churches. The Church World Service is among the plaintiffs in a suit filed over sudden shuttering of the refugee resettlement program.

The faith groups involved in both cases won victories in court last week, although litigation is ongoing.

Besides the denominations listed above, the denominations’ letter was signed by representatives of the American Baptist Churches USA; Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada; Church of the Brethren; Church World Service; Community of Christ; Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; International Council of Community Churches; Moravian Church in America; Reformed Church in America; United Church of Christ.

The “Returning to Jesus” letter was a departure from recent faith leaders’ pleas in that it took on the Trump White House’s political decisions as well as economic and immigration issues. The letter also blasted Trump’s decision to pardon or commute the sentences of roughly 1,500 defendants charged in connection with the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, calling it a “blatant act of political corruption.”

But it made clear that its primary concern was about the lives of low-income Americans should the budget being debated in Congress include potential cuts to programs such as Medicaid.

“As Christians on both sides of the political aisle, we must call on our local, state, and federal elected officials to oppose massive cuts in funding to programs like Medicaid that provide vital healthcare to the poor, and like SNAP, WIC, and other efforts to sustain food for the hungry,” the letter read.

It later added: “Our Scriptures are clear that we will be judged by how we treat the poor.”

Also among the signers to the leaders letter are the Rev. Teresa Hord Owens, General Minister and President of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the US and Canada; the Rev. Leslie Copeland Tune, chief operating officer of National Council of Churches USA; Sr. Bridget Bearss of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious; the Rev. Jimmie Hawkins, advocacy director of the Presbyterian Church (USA); Colin Watson, director emeritus of the Christian Reformed Church in North America; the Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, General Secretary Emeritus of the Reformed Church in America; Paul Baxley, executive coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship; the Rev. Adam Russell Taylor, president of Sojourners and Richard Santos, president and CEO of Church World Service.