Religious leaders mount 'moral counter' to Trump’s 'distortions of Christian values'

A coalition of Christians leaders are challenging President Donald Trump's approach to immigration, civil rights and poverty, saying his "distortions of Christian values sanctify exclusion and fear," according to Axios.

"Faith isn't owned by the Right," Rev. Eddie Anderson told Axios. "And God isn't a dirty word. God is the word."

Moderate faith leaders, Axios reports, are escorting immigrants to court hearings, blasting "rapid response" text alerts on sightings of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and leading vigils to try to prevent protest clashes.

These leaders are also calling their church members to stand up and speak out, too.

"We don't just pray for peace. We bring peace," Rev. Brendan Busse told Axios.

And while "conservative evangelical voters are a high-turnout, GOP-leaning bloc with clear spokespeople, tight message discipline and built-in media megaphones, from talk radio to megachurch stages," Axios says, moderate and progressive clergy have an opening.

"Moderate faith networks could give Democrats an opening to go after an estimated 15 million 'persuadable Christians,'" said Doug Pagitt, a pastor and executive director of the progressive Christian group Vote Common Good.

These religious leaders say they hope these "persuadable Christians" will join forces with them as they witness what the Trump administration is doing.

"People are bearing witness at prayer vigils and marches and processions. They're bearing witness in courthouses," PICO California executive director Joseph Tomás McKellar told Axios, adding that he hopes this new movement becomes "a political force rather than a partisan one."

The Trump administration has gone to great lengths to infuse a form of evangelical Christianity into the White House and the nation. In February 2025, Trump established a new White House Faith Office led by his longtime spiritual advisor, televangelist Paula White-Cain.

Cain has said that said that "Jesus would have been 'sinful' and not 'our Messiah' if he had broken immigration laws when fleeing persecution to Egypt as a baby with his family, as told in the Gospel of Matthew."

Moderate leaders like Dave Gibbons, lead pastor of multiethnic Newsong Church in Santa Ana, Calif., told Axios that those are distortions of Christian values that sanctify exclusion and fear.

"The Gospel's good news doesn't leave people out, especially the stranger," said Gibbons, adding that moderate and progressive Christians are countering MAGA's theology not with rallies, but with court side accompaniment, rapid responses and "the Beatitudes."