TAKING "NEVER AGAIN" SERIOUSLY:

The language of "confessional resistance" harkens back to two moments in 20th century history in which groups of Christians in a particular context made major statements claiming that the very purity of the faith that Christians confess was at stake in a political phenomenon, such that failure to resist represented a failure to follow Jesus. Those two instances were Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa. While no direct comparison is intended, the language of confessional resistance draws on that history.

Any such claims from Christians about a political figure, party, regime, or policy need to be made very carefully and very sparingly. That's because politics is messy, and political figures and parties almost inherently evoke starkly different responses. Our statement is not a mere declaration of political preference or candidate taste. It is about something much more fundamental.

This line from early in the document summarizes the heart of our concern:

The ascendancy of a demagogic candidate and his message, with the angry constituency he is fueling, is a threat to both the values of our faith and the health of our democracy. Donald Trump directly promotes racial and religious bigotry, disrespects the dignity of women, harms civil public discourse, offends moral decency, and seeks to manipulate religion.

Our analysis is that Donald Trump has gained the following that now puts him on the brink of the Republican nomination by exploiting the economic stresses and cultural tensions that exist in our rapidly changing society. He has risen to power by deliberately inflaming resentment, in particular white, male, working-class, "Christian" resentment. We say it this way:

Donald Trump...is manipulating...anger for his own political advantage - at the expense of the common good. Trump is shamelessly using racial resentment, fear, and hatred - always dangerously present in our society - to fuel a movement against "the other," targeting other races, women, cultures, ethnicities, nations, creeds, and a whole global religion.

Our statement includes an appendix which attempts to list every particular act or type of act (and speech is an act, including social media speech) of Mr. Trump that we think requires specific condemnation and resistance. This bill of particulars aims to remind our forgetful land of the full scope of Mr. Trump's offenses and the reasons why he must be resisted in a more-than-ordinary way.

These offenses go as far back as his playing the "birther" card against President Obama many years ago, and include his attacks on Mexicans and other immigrants, his statements about American Muslims celebrating after 9/11, his mocking of a disabled reporter, his numerous calumnies directed against particular women, the atmosphere of violence at some of his rallies, his attacks on certain media members and the threatening environment for reporters at his rallies, and his tendency toward making threats and personal attacks on his political opponents.

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