*Editors: This photo may only be republished with RNS-JENNINGS-OPED, originally transmitted on Nov. 15, 2016.
(RNS) The National Council of Churches and several other Christian organizations have released a statement expressing “grave concerns” with President-elect Donald Trump’s policies and picks to lead his Cabinet and other departments.
“We urge President-Elect Donald Trump, who has said he shares our Christian faith, to take seriously his responsibility to bring our nation together and to heed the oath he will take to preserve, protect and defend America,” read the statement, released Friday (Jan. 6).
“He can start this work before the oath of office is taken with his policy agenda and political appointments.”
Among the policy items that “would put the most vulnerable among us in jeopardy,” is his campaign promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, if Trump does not immediately offer a replacement, the statement said. Scripture instead instructs Christians to care for the poor and vulnerable, it said.
It also said the organizations’ members were “deeply troubled” by the president-elect’s choices of Sen. Jeff Sessions as attorney general, Stephen Bannon as his chief strategist and Michael Flynn as national security advisor.
“These objectionable nominees represent a bygone era of hatred that we have denounced and worked tirelessly to eradicate. Their corrupted credentials, which include condoning and supporting racist, anti-Semitic, white supremacist, xenophobic, and anti-Muslim ideologies, are not only unacceptable but they should disqualify them for service as public officials,” the statement reads.
Christians aren’t the only religious group speaking out this week against Trump’s picks for Cabinet and other department heads, particularly Sessions.
Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism released a statement Monday (Jan. 9) expressing concerns about Sessions’ nomination. Khizr Khan, the Muslim Gold Star father who – along with his wife Ghazala Khan – spoke about the death of his son U.S. Army Captain Humayun Khan at the Democratic National Convention, wrote a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee opposing Sessions’ confirmation.
PICO National Network, the largest network of faith-based groups in the United States, also has taken a stand against Sessions’ nomination. And Moral Mondays organizer Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II led about 250 interfaith clergy and moral leaders in a rally opposing his nomination Monday on Capitol Hill, according to Think Progress.
The fearless and powerful @RevDrBarber + many more leading #moralmondays at US Capitol! #stopsessions
He’s made clear he’s “not happy” about the direction the department has taken under President Barack Obama’s administration, calling its refusal to defend a federal ban on same-sex marriage “shameful,” according to The New York Times. As a senator, he voted in support of a proposed constitutional amendment that would have banned gay marriage.
Sessions’ confirmation hearings are set to begin Tuesday.
The National Council of Churches represents 45 million people in more than 100,000 congregations in the United States, according to its website.
Its 38 member communions include six of the 10 largest Protestant denominations in the United States: the United Methodist Church; American Baptist Churches USA; Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.; Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); and The Episcopal Church (USA). Trump has identified as Presbyterian, and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is the largest Presbyterian denomination in the U.S.
The Conference of National Black Churches, Ecumenical Poverty Initiative and Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference all had signed onto the National Council of Churches’ statement.