The authors also call for and commit themselves to putting their words into action:
Every one of the signers of this declaration is committed to taking concrete steps to put flesh on our words. We will combat bad theology with better theology. We will resist fear with love. We will tell the truth about our nation’s history.
We will seek to repair and heal the wounds of the past. We will seek racial justice on a personal, ecclesial, and systemic level. We will support organizations led by people of color. We will listen to and amplify the voices of people of faith who have been marginalized by the colonizing force of white supremacy and Christian Nationalism.
We will do our best to be faithful to Jesus, and to those Christ called “the least of these.”
Faith Leaders Who Signed the Letter
Religion News Service (RNS) reports that “several Christian groups” are responsible for creating the open letter. These include Vote Common Good, which RNS describes as a “liberal-leaning evangelical group.” However, the faith leaders who signed the open letter are notable for their diversity, not only in ethnicity and gender but also in their theology.
The letter’s signees include Rev. Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil, Danielle Strickland, Rev. Eugene Cho, Father Richard Rohr, Pastor Brian D. McLaren, and Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann. Other signees include Jason Propaganda Petty and Kevin Max, as well as Shane Claiborne and Jerusha Duford, the latter of whom is the granddaughter of the late Rev. Billy Graham.
According to RNS, the denominations represented by the ministry leaders who signed the letter include Evangelical Covenant Church, the Christian Reformed Church, and Church of the Nazarene. One of the ministry leaders who signed the letter, Kevin Riggs, pastors a church in the Free Will Baptist denomination, which he described as “to the right of everybody.” Said Riggs, “I wanted to sign this statement just to say that Christian nationalism is not only wrong, but it’s heretical.”
