What We’re Watching - 2/21/25
With so much going on, it is understandable for people to feel news whiplash. To help our partners stay focused and find the signal in the noise, we are happy to share what we are tracking:
The growing use of the term “money laundering” to discredit faith organizations offering moral counsel, social services, and/or grounded critique of federal policies is a threat to all of civil society. We’ve already seen this allegation levied at Lutheran organizations and the Episcopal Church. These are test balloons for cracking down on both free speech and religious freedom, and potentially for weaponizing aspects of the tax code. It also spreads fear and confusion.
Act Now: Sign our Interfaith Call for Congress and the President to Ensure Religious Freedom and share our Equip Toolkit with any worried local partners.
Right now, it’s extremely challenging to separate the signal from the noise. A classic tactic for weakening democracy is to “flood the zone” with an overwhelming amount of outrage in order to paralyze political opponents. We encourage you to practice careful discernment in what you spend time thinking about and responding to. Offensive, false, and coarse rhetoric (including mentions of kingship) do matter, and we must diligently track them, but we need to stay focused on the issues where we can make real impact. If you want a thought partner to talk through when to respond and when to strategically ignore, please reach out to us!
