Reverend Paul Brandeis Rauschenbusch

Thank you, Joy and Katie.

Hello, everybody.

Hello, America.

Let me start by saying that my soul is so glad to be here with the People's State of the Union.

I come to you as the president of Interfaith Alliance and as a Baptist minister with good news.

We, the people, have the power

Is that good news?

All across America, people of diverse faiths and beliefs are showing up, are speaking out, and are proving that love for our neighbors and commitment to our democracy will prevail against the cruelty, immorality, and authoritarianism of this administration.

Let me speak plainly as an American and as a Baptist minister.

The Trump administration is the most hostile to religious freedom in generations.

They attack any religious leader or community not in lockstep with their political agenda.

The White House, the Pentagon, the Department of Justice, and ICE have weaponized religion for their white Christian nationalist crusade, which attempts to define who is a true American conveniently made in their own image and relegate all the rest of us to second-class status.

While President Lincoln famously prayed to be on God's side, Trump instead blasphemously boasts that God is in fact on his side.

In Trump's mind, God is little more than a divine mascot for his political team.

But enough about that unpopular man.

Tonight we will focus and celebrate the we, the people of America.

Tonight we will recognize all those to whom harm has been done.

But we will also give thanks for the brave witness of the faith and community leaders in Minnesota, in Chicago, in Charlotte, in Portland, and here in Washington, D.C., and in towns large and small everywhere across America who are standing up against the abuse and inhumanity of ICE.

We give thanks for every single person around this country who has put their faith or values into action by resisting government-sanctioned cruelty with moral courage and solidarity with our neighbors from every background.

We give thanks to God for the power and the promise of love