“Your heart was proud because of your beauty..."
Faith Leaders Condemn "Big Beautiful Bill"
Pastors and priests, bishops and archbishops, deacons and elders, rabbis and imams are all speaking out about the “Big Beautiful Bill.” Surprise though it may be to some, we don’t like it.
One such faith leader? Baptist pastor Senator Raphael Warnock, who named the reality of budgets as more than simple math problems on the Senate floor. Budgets, Warnock asserts, are moral documents that reveal our priorities.
This understanding is not at all new—it provides a lens for budget discernment in congregations of diverse faiths across the world, encouraging believers to “put their money where their mouth is.” And for adherents to most religious traditions, their mouths speak to prioritization of the marginalized, generosity to the neighbor in need, and care for the whole creation.
Of course, while budgets are moral statements, they don’t make for entertaining reading.
If you’ve ever attended an annual parish meeting, you know that the budget is the agenda item where everyone’s eyes start to glaze over. No matter how fancy the slide deck, the columns of numbers are numbing.
And yet: despite the density and daunting size of the federal budget bill, faith communities across the country have been glued to their screens throughout the debate of this latest moral statement made by elected officials on behalf of the American people.
The bill has been widely criticized for the size and scope of its damage, like the potentially devastating impacts expected as a result of the cuts to healthcare and food assistance. Texas in particular is slated to see nearly 2 million people lose insurance coverage as a result of the bill—and this when Texas already is the most uninsured state in the county.
But lawmakers may not have been prepared for the torrent of commentary faith leaders have issued since the bill’s passage. They may not have been steeled for the tapestry of indictments, each offering a distinct but harmonious perspective on the bill’s relationship to sacred scriptures and to the values of our country’s diverse faith communities.
Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America wrote in her statement on the bill, “We are to fear and love God…so that we neither endanger nor harm the lives of our neighbors, but instead help and support them in all of life’s needs.” This imperative comes as a stark relief to what Presiding Bishop Eaton marks as the bill’s impact, “This bill…abandons our commitments to people who are sick or who live with financial hardship….This bill abandons compassion by more than tripling federal spending on deportation and detention…and risks tearing apart millions of families, communities and churches….This bill compromises our children’s futures…will add between $3 trillion and $4 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years…and halts and reverses progress toward a clean‑energy transition.”
Episcopal Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe also wrote about the bill, citing the moral imperative as people of faith to use every avenue at our disposal to stand up against the bill and for those who will be harmed by it. “The Episcopal Church is called now to be an engine of resistance: resistance to policies that harm the vulnerable, exploit the poor, degrade creation and undermine democracy,” writes Presiding Bishop Rowe, “The reckoning, if we are honest, is that our church’s association with political power has, at times, muted our conscience—and it must not…. Let us use every tool at our disposal—liturgy, preaching, pastoral care, public witness—to lift up the values of love, justice, accountability and care for all creation.”
Rev. Jihyun Oh, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), noted the nature of a budget “As Presbyterians, we have the longstanding tradition of recognizing that a budget is a moral document.” She also spoke similarly to Presiding Bishop Rowe in calling on God’s power to guide the people of PCUSA in resistance against all that this bill stands for, saying “Grant us the courage to speak against the injustices of our world… Let our work be guided by your love.”
Twenty United States Catholic Bishops took the unusual step of endorsing an interfaith letter calling the bill a “moral failure.” The bishops said, “This [legislation] is really violating our Catholic social teaching in terms of a preferential option for the poor, welcoming the stranger in our midst, the common good, subsidiarity.”
The letter was also signed by Jewish, Muslim, and other faith leaders, proclaiming “From our various faith perspectives, the moral test of a nation is how it treats those most in need of support. In our view, this legislation will harm the poor and vulnerable in our nation, to the detriment of the common good … Its passage would be a moral failure for American society as a whole.”
Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, commented further after the bill’s signing, “The final version of the bill includes unconscionable cuts to healthcare and food assistance, tax cuts that increase inequality, immigration provisions that harm families and children, and cuts to programs that protect God’s creation… As its provisions go into effect, people will lose access to healthcare and struggle to buy groceries, family members will be separated … More must be done to prevent these devastating effects.”
“Your heart was proud because of your beauty;
you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor.” Ezekiel 28:17
We see in the words of so many diverse faith leaders that what was touted in concept as beautiful appears in substance to be corrupted wisdom for the sake of splendor: a vision cloaked in grandeur which promises beauty without justice, power without compassion, a betrayal of the American Dream.
As people of faith we are called to see beyond the dazzling rhetoric to discernment of the heart of a thing.
May the Divine guide us to resist the polished face of injustice, choosing the deeper, messier work of loving our neighbors as God loves us.