This Is Our Moral Moment

Today we face two very different moral visions for the nation. Like those who faced similar moments before us, we must ask, “Which side are you on?” Forward together in love and justice, or backward in hate, injustice, and lies?

We launch this newsletter today as a constant standard for the former and against the later because our deepest moral responsibility is to never be at ease until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. We share a vocation to always preach good news to the poor—to challenge the forces and policy structures of injustice and to always offer a word of hope and joy and a vision forward that is never bound to the naysayers who choose to bow. For us, bowing to hate, bowing to lies, and bowing to injustice is never an option.

On Inauguration Day, Trump, Musk, and their Congressional backers gathered in the US Capitol to celebrate with autocrats and oligarchs. It was a snap-shot of our moment: the rich and powerful in the Capitol’s rotunda while everyone else was outside in the cold.

Since assuming power, these political leaders have waged a dizzying blitzkrieg of Executive Orders, court filings, illegal DOGE actions, and disinformation. Lawyers have sued, asserting a Constitutional crisis. Democrats have taken the House and Senate floor, decrying the political crisis. Members of the media and academics have left legacy institutions, pointing out a crisis of norms within their professions.

But the people are increasingly clear: this is a moral moment. It’s our moral moment.

After years of working with communities across America to build moral fusion coalitions, we’re launching this Substack as a space to name this moral moment and lift up the voices of people who can anchor an opposition to the abuse of power in a moral vision for the reconstruction of American democracy.

Though “traditional values” have been weaponized by religious nationalists in recent decades, Americans have long recognized that our common life depends on shared values. Abraham Lincoln called the conviction that all people share an equality of dignity that demands political liberty our “ancient faith.” It is the shared conviction of many traditions.

In the face of a tyrannical king who refused to hear the petitions of his subjects, this moral conviction that we are created equal and endowed with unalienable rights united our nation in its Declaration of Independence. When the tyranny of chattel slavery threatened to destroy our nation, these same moral commitments sustained a long and painful struggle to not only preserve our union, but also to reconstruct it by guaranteeing equal protection under law. When the tyranny of white supremacy reasserted itself under the guise of “separate but equal,” a moral movement of everyday people tapped the power of nonviolence to once again compel the nation to face the truth about equality and freedom and repent of the ways we had betrayed these most basic moral commitments.

We have struggled to realize a republic that lives up to our shared values, but these moral commitments have united us as a people and have served as an inspiration for the global community that now recognizes universal human rights as a basis for shared peace. These are not Republican or Democrat values. They are not progressive or conservative values. These shared values are the common ground that has created space for us to disagree on the best means to reach a more perfect union. When political leaders violate these values, their offense is more than political. It constitutes a moral crisis.

The psalmist of ancient Scripture asks what is required when facing a moral crisis. “When the foundations are shaken / what are the upright to do?” The normal means of petition, negotiation, public appeal, and efforts to shift political power cannot suffice when the common ground of shared values is betrayed. Such moments demand a prophetic witness. As a people, we must grapple with who we’ve become.

The prophets are often misremembered as firebrands who simply confronted evil political leaders. But Jeremiah in ancient Israel and Frederick Douglass in 19^th century America did more than challenge political leaders. In the midst of a moral moment, they helped their people own a shared responsibility for common goods. By weeping over the shared loss when our basic values are forsaken, prophets help us recognize that there are no winners and losers in a struggle that destroys the house we call home. As the great 20^th century scholar of the prophets Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, “In a free society, some are guilty and all are responsible.”

Naming a moral crisis is a way of accepting responsibility. In a moment like this, we all have the opportunity to unite our voices and draw on the best of our traditions to help tens of millions of Americans answer the question they are asking one another around their dinner tables: what can we do?

When we refuse to cooperate with efforts that forsake our values, we are already united in a moral struggle. We must build deep connections across dividing lines in the places where we are. We must join with one another in collective action to demonstrate the power of our numbers and resolve. A new, historic wave of mass movement in American public life begins the moment we recognize that we are already united by a moral crisis.

This is our moral moment. We invite you to us in committing to move forward together, not one step back!