Meet the New Moral Majority
“Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then has the health of my poor people
not been restored?”
- Jeremiah 8:22
Throughout his ministry, Jesus attracted followers from all walks of life. He was surrounded by fishermen, tax collectors, Roman soldiers, farmers, people who were poor, sick, and homeless, and the religious and political elite. To each, he offered a vision of the Kingdom of Heaven: relationships defined by love, justice, and forgiveness, lives lived with courage and abundance, and worship defined not only by praising God but by serving one another. For centuries, Christians have sought to follow his teaching with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love.
Today, we find ourselves at a crossroad; for years our faith has been hijacked by a vocal few who care for little besides personal and political gain. They have commandeered Christianity and shielded their misdeeds with talk of family values, their selfishness with scripture. We cannot remain still or silent, this is our moment and it is time to choose.
As Christians we, the New Moral Majority, reject the abuse and appropriation of God’s Good News as a political weapon against God’s people. We reject the narratives of meanness, division, and fear which have dominated our culture and our nation, amplified over the last four years. Through his words and actions from our nation’s highest office, Donald Trump has sewn distrust and tension for his personal political gain — all while actively rejecting the advice of medical experts and exacerbating the worst public health crisis in recent memory. We must heal our bodies and our society, and re-engage with the nation’s highest of dreams — our identity as the nation where liberty, justice, and the pursuit of happiness is available to all.
This is what loving our neighbor looks like in policy.
We believe we must hold a consistent ethic of love and discipleship.
To that end, we offer the following key values:
Love.
Love thy neighbor. It’s what every single Christian is called to do each day. Jesus asks us to love not only our literal neighbors, or the people in our circles, but our neighbor who is other than us. We are called to love our neighbor who is Black, White, Latino, Asian, LGBTQ, an immigrant… a neighbor who may be different in many ways than we are. This is what this time in history has asked of us more than anything else.
Most Christians are about this work of love in some way. There are countless stories of sacrificial love, of meals offered in moments of need, of the hug which arrived at just the right time. But these all remain on a personal scale.
As a nation, we are struggling. As we watched the gut-wrenching video of Ahmaud Arbery’s death, witnessed with horror the police murder of George Floyd, and heard of the injustice following the killing of Breonna Taylor, we knew what Jesus would call us to do — to demand justice and accountability from authority, to love our neighbors not just with thoughts and prayers, but by upending and dismantling systems of racism. It’s past time for us all to stand up for racial justice in America. It’s past time to make “love thy neighbor” a call for radical justice. We must love one another as we love God, with our whole selves.
“Justice is what love looks like in public.” Cornel West
“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you,
you also should love one another.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another.”
- John 13:34–35
Justice.
We believe in the same restorative justice Jesus did (Matthew 5:7, 9, Matthew 18:15–16, Galatians 6:1a, Matthew 18:15–17, Luke 19:8, Matthew 18:15–20, James 1:22–25), that every call to righteousness is a call to justice. This sense of justice requires that we care not only for pregnant mothers, but for the children they will have and the families they will create. It requires us to become invested in their education and health care so that they may flourish within society. It requires us to demand that children be set free from their cages along the border. It requires us to demand clean and healthy communities in which we may thrive. This ethic must extend to addressing the increased wealth gap and making sure social security is solidified for our elders. It must extend, as well, to providing equal opportunities in the courtroom, and an environment which is well preserved for many generations to come. We are called to live out our love with justice.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”
- Matthew 5:6
“He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?”
- Micah 6:8
Kindness.
One way we fulfill our call to love one another is through kindness: kindness which treats all people with respect, which honors our differences and seeks conversation and relationship even if we agree to disagree, kindness which seeks to build each person up so that they might be their best self, kindness which focuses first and foremost on getting it right, rather than being right.
You would be hard-pressed to find instances of kindness from the Trump administration in the last four years. That Trump fails to act out of kindness is no secret, in both his personal and policy dealings. This is the administration that ripped babies from their mothers’ arms at the border, tried to ban an entire faith from the country, and labeled African nations as “shithole countries” — a system antithetical to kindness all led by a man who bragged about sexually assaulting women and who mocked a reporter with a disability.
This is not kindness. This is not Christianity. Our country deserves a better, kinder, more inclusive future.
“The immigrant who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you
you shall love the immigrant as yourself,
for you were aliens in the land of Egypt:
I am the Lord your God.”
- Leviticus 19:34
Equality and ultimately, Liberation.
Love trumps hate. Our calls to love, justice, and kindness all demand that we fight for equality for all people and liberation for those who are not yet free. We must fight for workplaces which honor the dignity of all people equally and a military which honors the service of anyone who wishes to serve. We must do the work to protect the LGBTQ+ community and to honor them so that they feel free to be the people they were called to be. We must fight for a living wage and paid family leave which will allow everyone who works to be able to provide adequately for their families. We must pay all people the same wage for the same work, and recognize that even Jesus was righteously angered at the sight of economic repression.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free”
- Luke 4:18
Compassion.
Our call to compassion invites us to reach out to one another in empathy. Each of us faces daily struggles which few know about. We are all burdened by anxieties and concerns for the future as well as guilt and shame from the past. While compassion may seem an odd political value, we believe it has a place in the New Moral Majority. Compassion when writing legislation helps us to hear one another’s concerns and share one another’s dreams. Compassionate care for addicts, particularly opioid addicts, has led to remarkable healing and reduced incarceration costs as well as recidivism. Compassionate care for juveniles has had the same result. We will not be able to work together towards a common goal until we are able to do so with compassion.
“Therefore, as God’s chosen people,
Holy and dearly loved,
Clothe yourselves with compassion,
Kindness,
Humility,
Gentleness and patience.”
- Colossians 3:12
Welcome to the New Moral Majority.
We welcome each other when we acknowledge that others bring valuable insight to a conversation, a dinner table, or a community. While many of us were raised in an evangelical tradition that railed against pride and self-promotion, we find ourselves living in an era of unrestrained narcissism and selfishness. Neither of those attributes create long-term success and they certainly don’t make for strong political leadership. Yet, they have become the defining aspects of conservative Christian political movements in America.
That is why we are creating the New Moral Majority. The truth is, white evangelical Trump supporters may garner the bulk of media attention and pop culture headlines, but they’re a small fraction of the much larger body of believers in America. The New Moral Majority will change the moral narrative, supporting candidates that believe in the values of love, justice, and inclusion. We will work to reject politics of fear and hate. We will show that the majority of people of faith want to build a world where all belong.
Welcome to our table. It is only when we take a posture of openness that we are able to make lasting change. To be welcoming means we are willing to listen and show up; including when our LGBTQ+ and BiPOC brothers and sisters are under attack. To be welcoming means we are willing to admit when we are wrong instead of trying to cover it up or distract others from seeing the truth. Addressing the Climate Crisis directly instead of pretending it will take care of itself is a primary example. To be welcoming means we work to collaborate with others to create the best possible future, a future that makes sure everyone has a place to sleep, a meal to eat, and clothes on their back.
A welcoming posture means approaching the other with open hands, an open heart, and a shared vision that seeks the best for everyone. The American dream is to create a place where all people have the opportunity to thrive and grow, regardless of the circumstances of their birth. After the Great Depression, Americans needed help to get on their feet. We came together and made it happen. We can do that again. It means letting go of old ways that haven’t worked for most people, resurrecting hope, and finding new and creative ways to make sure everyone has what they need. Open hearts and minds can lead us here, if we are willing to help our neighbors — all our neighbors. This is the future we seek as The New Moral Majority.
