Hundreds of Christian leaders and scholars across the nation recently issued a collective letter that calls for “repentance and resistance, courage and conviction, faith and fortitude.”

Titled “A Call to Christians in a Crisis of Faith and Democracy,” Disciples of Christ reports the initiative was started by Rev. Jim Wallis of the Georgetown Center for Faith and Justice, along with Rev. Dr. Adam Taylor and Barbara Williams. The website includes a video featuring numerous faith leaders from different denominations, cultures, and backgrounds, as well as liturgical and advocacy resources, and the opportunity to sign the petition.

Released during the start of Lent, just as the season is marked by “a period of repentance, self-reflection and resistance to temptation,” the letter “calls on all Christians to join us in greater acts of courage to resist the injustices and anti-democratic danger sweeping across the nation,” further citing that “in moments like this, silence is not neutrality – it is an active choice to permit harm.”

The signers believe the present moment represents a moral, spiritual, and democratic emergency, particularly for those who find a home in the Christian faith. To them, the myriad emergencies cannot be separated, not when “the crisis is not only political – it is one driven by a moral and spiritual collapse showing up in alarming levels of polarization.”

To Taylor, president of Sojourners and one of the project’s founders, the letter specifically critiques “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.” The letter further states that “as Christians, we must never preach nationalism as discipleship, confuse American and Christian identity with whiteness, or mistake allegiance to modern-day Caesars for faithfulness to Christ.”

Signers of the letter further adhere to “The Sovereignty of God,” stating “our ultimate allegiance belongs to God alone,” and “The Word of God,” highlighting several biblical examples of Jesus announcing his mission, teaching, declaring truth and freedom inseparable, blessing peacemakers, and giving a final test of discipleship.

In the section, “The Spirit of God,” signers connect faith, democracy, and public witness to eight commitments to “stand, speak, and act with greater courage to serve the most vulnerable and advance God’s reign of justice and peace.” Although a greater explanation can be found on the website, signers commit to:

• Protect and Stand with Vulnerable People
• Love Our Neighbors
• Speak Truth to Power
• Seek Peace
• Do Justice
• Strengthen Democracy
• Practice Hope
• Ground our Discipleship

Just as those who are behind the letter have “increasingly spoken out and participated in protests against the policies of the Trump administration, particularly aimed at what many see as overly aggressive efforts to detain and deport undocumented immigrants,” the range of Christian traditions represented by the letter spans from the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to the Armenian Orthodox Church in America, the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania to Church of the Brethren, among dozens of others. Several seminaries, universities, and nonprofit organizations, including Fuller Seminary, Mercer University, and Faith Leaders for Ending Gun Violence, are also represented.

Just as “faith and democracy do not die in a single moment,” the website urges “Christians to remember that we serve a mighty and awesome God, who is sovereign over nations and rulers.”

Although pushback is expected from Christian leaders and denominations not in support of the letter, some denominations have sought to offer alternative perspectives.

According to The V. Rev. Geoffrey Ready, who directs the Orthodox School of Theology at the University of Toronto, the annual “pastoral Lenten letters from Orthodox bishops on the eve of the Great Fast,” can be seen as a counter-document to the collective letter, “though he would not frame it that way, since he never names the political crisis at all.” Instead, “that silence is itself a theological statement, and it is worth sitting with its weight before assessing the genuine merits of what he does say.”

Only time will tell how other denominations will respond.