A Lenten letter signed by almost 100 "progressive" religious leaders clearly demands that hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer dollars continue to flow to left-leaning non-governmental organizations (NGOs). An accompanying video quotes Matthew 25:35-36 as the rationale behind the coalition's demands. Not everyone agrees with their premise.
"They're ignoring or twisting [scripture] to fit their so-called progressive agenda," Ryan Bomberger, CEO of The Radiance Foundation tells AFN. "We see – especially now with [President] Trump back in office – that they are attacking the administration specifically because USAID is being defunded and a lot of the reckless spending [is being curtailed]."
Bomberger adds: "The bizarre thing to me is that these so-called faith leaders are demanding that the government fund the liberal Church."
Signatories to the letter include Jim Wallis (founder of Sojourners), Rev. Adam Taylor (president of Sojourners), and Dr. Jacquelyn Dupont-Walker (a pro-abortion member of the AME Church).
"[The scripture] 'For I was hungry and you fed me' is not about the government," says Bomberger, referring to Matthew 25. "It's about us as individual Christ-followers, what do we do for the Lord – and yet this video bizarrely twists it and makes it seem like government needs to fund these NGOs.
"This entire letter signed by 100 faith leaders is totally distorting Matthew 25 to insist that the government needs to keep funding leftist NGOs, and it's also firmly pushing this idea that there is no such thing as illegal immigration either."
Bomberger – who wrote about this in an op-ed for The Christian Post – said that these are the same leaders that are radically pro-abortion. "They're twisting scripture all the time about defending the vulnerable and the oppressed – but who is more vulnerable and more oppressed than the unborn?" he asks.
Bomberger argued in his column that biblical literacy is critical so believers can detect when verses are being manipulated.
"This is what happens when social justice and critical race theory supplant Scripture. It's all Marxism masquerading as Christian theology. According to the letter, stopping runaway spending of our hard-earned dollars is a form of 'racial discrimination.' … People from all kinds of backgrounds and political persuasions manipulate the Word to fit their agendas."
"This is why I'm calling it out," Bomberger adds in his interview with AFN. "This is purely political. It is not biblical."
Bomberger acknowledges that while Christians are instructed to care for the poor and the oppressed, it is the Church's responsibility – not the government's.
"We see often times when the government gets involved, it demands that the Church actually abide by its ideology, not by a biblical worldview," he concludes.
