When people say preachers shouldn’t condemn Christian Nationalism, When they say we should be spiritual but not political, When they say we should support the church right or wrong, I know they have never understood the liberating message of Jesus, or Moses, or a cloud of prophetic witnesses who aren’t even religious.Our message is one of a love that grows into justice. It is spiritual, yes; but if religion does not break chains as well as heal wounds it is a prison chaplain for the poor and oppressed, not a prophetic call for their liberation. Our time is particularly bleak because religious leaders serve justice within the context of their nation, their sect, and a capitalist worldview, not from the context of universal love and justice. Like every ideal, these goals are unreachable, but they are pole stars of spiritual and political sanity.I’m so glad Moses “got political” about workers’ rights. I’m so glad Moses actually changed people’s conditions and didn’t just pray for a better day. I’m so glad Moses went directly to Pharaoh and said, “Let my people go.” Just as Pharaoh was the “decider” in his day, so are citizens the “deciders” in a democratic republic. Religious leaders who do not challenge citizens to seek justice for all humankind are no leaders at all.I’m so glad Jesus knocked over the tables of exclusion and didn’t simply offer thoughts and prayers. I’m so glad Jesus didn’t tell his followers about a pie in the sky heaven, but told his followers to make it on earth as they imagined it might be in heaven.Finally, I’m glad the Atheist Robert Ingersoll said, “Tolerance is giving to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself.” In so doing he demonstrated that the tie that binds us together as a species is not sectarian religion, but love. And love without justice cannot be.