We are now eight months into a new presidential administration along with a new 119th congress that both have drastically changed the national and global geo-political landscape.
A Decaying Democracy of Compassion
As promised during the presidential campaign, we are now witnessing in full bloom the implementation of Project 2025 by an ultra-conservative led White House, Congress and Supreme Court, all too eager to impose its long-awaited playbook on the American people without compassion or concern.
Multilateral agreements to address humanitarian challenges including those impacting global hunger and health have been cast aside in favor of attacks on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and due process.
Respect for the welfare of the planet and rights of citizens to equal justice has been relegated to a caste system of wealth, race, religious exclusion, and gender identity.
A federal budget passed that invests in military spending at record levels while cutting health benefits to millions and abandoning previous bi-partisan commitments to provide funding for food security in communities across the globe, including many rural and urban communities where United Methodist call home.
As children are retuning to school, they do so while U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids are being carried out by “deportation police” who bring fear and intimidation to previously safe places where citizens documented and undocumented have been living, working. and attending places of worship for many years.
The legacies of historic injustice are now being multiplied by real time contemporary threats and attacks concerning the right to vote, as well as state legislatures engaging in unthinkable gerrymandering districts to provide an advantage for elected official to choose their voters rather than voters choosing them.
To view the list of current government actions eroding a compassionate U.S. Democracy CLICK HERE.
Signs of Government Authoritarianism
It’s exhausting trying to unravel whether news announcements from our government leaders are true, bluster or just straight up lies. Furthermore, it’s chilling to witness policies that are a blatant assault on our social freedoms and democracy in exchange for authoritarianism and dictatorship tendencies, which is a total contradiction to our United Methodist Social Principles.
Just this week, President Trump ordered a federal takeover of the Washington D.C. police and is planning to deploy the National Guard “to fight surging crime and the complete and total lawlessness in D.C.”
Pointing to a 30 year low of violent crime in Washington D.C., many local officials said there is no federal emergency warranted, and the Trump administration is “out of touch” with the facts on the ground.
United Methodist leaders in the D.C. area also weighed in on this unprecedented federal takeover and I encourage you to read the responses from Foundry United Methodist Church and from Baltimore-Washington & Peninsula-Delaware Area’s Episcopal Leader and Church and Society Board Member Bishop La Trelle Easterling.
Our Season for Agitation
In 1857, former slave Frederick Douglas said, “If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess freedom without agitation are those who want crops without ploughing.”
This is our season for agitation, sustained resistance and disciplined hope. The kind of hope and witness born of our Wesleyan heritage and Christian Discipleship. Our Bible and our Book of Discipline give witness that the divine imprint of human dignity and sacred worth originates with God and cannot be taken away by the stroke of a pen or promulgation of any theological or ideological thesis of superiority and isolation.
The Love Ethic that is so central to the teachings of Jesus and marching orders for the church cannot be free of radical resistance to the oppression of peoples with expectation of quiet acquiescence.
I believe that as United Methodists, we should remind ourselves that “Our involvement in political systems is rooted in the Gospel imperative to love our neighbors, to do justice and care for the vulnerable.” United Methodist 2025-2028 Social Principles, Political Community, Preface
This is a time to be counted in the work of bold resistance to all who make adversaries of our neighbors. Join us to do more, speak up more, give more and continue to push for social justice no matter how hard the barrier.
This is a time to love boldly, serve joyfully and lead courageously.
In the words of a bold American Academic, Brené Brown, “Courage is contagious.”
Be encouraged.
Bishop Julius C. Trimble
Take action today by ordering The United Methodist 2025 -2028 Social Principles Book and engage in work of peace and justice in your community or UMC Annual Conference.
This content was originally published by the General Board of Church and Society; republished with permission on ResourceUMC.org on August 14, 2025.