Every church the Rev. Madeline Hart-Andersen grew up in was deeply focused on social justice.
In San Francisco, her church’s ministry sat with gay men who were dying of AIDS. In Minneapolis, her church was involved in the push for affordable housing, and she recalls her pastor repeatedly saying “the church is meant to be political — not partisan, but political.”
“We are meant to be involved in the life of the community and the life of the city, the life of the country,” Hart-Andersen said. “We’re not meant to be partisan, as in we’re not supposed to support one party over another, but we are meant to support the community. And supporting the community, by necessity, means at the very least being aware of what is going on politically.”
As the U.S. becomes increasingly polarized, religious Americans are also seeing those fault lines in their faith communities. In the Christian world, for instance, some — particularly in Evangelical or conservative Roman Catholic circles — have whole-heartedly embraced President Donald Trump, welcomed the advent of a powerful right-wing majority on the U.S. Supreme Court and generally walked, talked and voted in lockstep with today’s Republican Party.
Many progressive Christians, meanwhile, have watched those same developments with concern and, in some cases, horror and condemnation.
Today, Hart-Andersen is the pastor at Westminster Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in Santa Fe. She is one of several progressive female faith leaders in New Mexico who agree congregations should be engaged in politics — but who at the same time hold concerns about the inverse in a country they see as increasingly blurring the line between church and state.
Since 2005, under Chief Justice John Roberts, the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled in favor of religious organizations more than 83% of the time, according to a 2022 article published in The Supreme Court Review. These victories have been largely handed to mainstream Christian organizations, the article notes, whereas pre-Roberts, pro-religion outcomes leaned more frequently toward minority or marginal religious organizations.
Six of the nine Supreme Court justices are Catholic, two are Protestant and one is Jewish.
Over the summer, in Mahmoud v. Taylor, the Supreme Court sided with religious parents who wished to opt their children out of public school lessons that featured storybooks with LGBTQ+ themes. Arguments in a case challenging Texas and Louisiana laws that require public schools to display posters of the Ten Commandments in classrooms were recently heard in a federal appeals court.
“There are countless other examples where religion is used as a tool to do harm and the courts uphold that harm in the name of religious freedom,” Hart-Andersen said. “But it doesn’t feel like religious freedom to me.”
Sascha Anderson, a former president of the Santa Fe school board who is now working to become an Episcopal priest in Austin, Texas, thinks it is important for faith leaders to understand policy so they can fully understand “what is legal is not always right, and what is right is not always legal.”
Anderson cited current U.S. immigration policy as an example, describing it as in direct conflict with her religious beliefs. If she had to break the law to uphold what she felt was an issue of human dignity, Anderson said she does not think that would be wrong in the eyes of her religion.
“If you see someone walking in the desert,” Anderson said, “are you not going to pick that person up and drive them to the nearest place where they can get shelter and food?”
Nathan Burton/The New Mexican
Religion in politics
The idea of the separation of church and state in the U.S. stems from the Establishment Clause of the Constitution’s First Amendment. It prohibits the government from “establishing” a religion.
Religion has been used in political discourse, of course, for centuries. And the influence of Christian nationalism — though also old — is on the rise, according to a 2023 PRRI/Brookings survey that found 10% of Americans agree with the ideas of Christian nationalism.
This, in particular, has been upsetting for many mainline Protestants “who look at the sort of version of Christianity that is espoused and say, ‘I see nothing of what I believe in that,’ ” Hart-Andersen said.
“It’s a crisis of faith, a crisis of the church, a crisis of sort of moral and ethical values for my congregants,” she said.
Anderson said religion has been used to push dangerous policies throughout history.
And regarding recent religion-related rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court, she said she thinks there is danger in the pursuit of power — “or the ‘I win, you lose’ ” — coming from the pulpit.
“That’s not what the church is for,” Anderson said. “It’s not a social group, it’s not a civic group, it’s — in our case, for the Christian church — the body of Christ. And Jesus is political; Jesus is not partisan.”
The Rev. Anne Tropeano, whose clerical name is Father Anne, an Albuquerque-based Catholic priest who was excommunicated because of her gender when she was ordained through a reform movement in 2021, said she is deeply troubled by what she sees as the Catholic Supreme Court justices abandoning “the actual teachings of the faith.”
Sometimes when it seems like the court is siding with religion, she added, they’re really siding with Christianity.
“The core teachings of the faith are summarized really in Catholic social teaching, which is all about the dignity of the human person and the sanctity of every life,” she said. “And being pro-life is not being against abortion — it is a comprehensive understanding that God’s holy spirit animates all of life, and therefore all life is sacred.”
Tropeano said she thinks some current political narratives are “a distortion of what Christianity is actually about.”
“It’s really sort of an empty religion, I guess you could say,” she said. “It’s like the religion without the content of faith.”
This poses a danger to both religion and politics, she said.
“We have a government that is becoming more and more fascist by the day and therefore actually interfering, obstructing the world that God desires to see,” she said. “So because it’s out of alignment with God, it creates hell on Earth.”
On the religion side, people are robbed of the opportunity to know a loving God, Tropeano said. On the politics side, she said, “it’s just an absolute disaster.”
Politics in religion
Politics shows up in “a ton of different ways” in Hart-Andersen’s day-to-day work at the church, she said.
She sees the direct impact of homelessness, for example — and the church has what it calls a “Matthew 25 fund,” which provides grants of up to $500 to keep Santa Feans in their homes. But what is happening politically also deeply effects the members of her congregation, she said.
“There’s the effects on our neighbors and our community, and there’s also the effects on the members of the church who find themselves in deep distress about the current political moment in the United States,” Hart-Andersen said.
Westminster also marches in the Pride parade, and congregants participate regularly in protests.
“On a personal level, my faith compels me to reach out to my elected officials and to use the language of faith in my communications with them,” Hart-Andersen said. “And part of that is that I want to be a witness to a different vision and version of Christianity in the political sphere.”
She also thinks it is important for her congregation to be public about who they are and what they believe.
“To say simultaneously, ‘We are a Christian, Presbyterian congregation, and by virtue of our faith we support immigrants, we support LGBTQIA people, we support gender-affirming care, we support reproductive rights,’ ” Hart-Andersen said.
Nathan Burton/The New Mexican
Justice, not politics
These conversations are not just happening in the Christian world.
Rabbi Celia Surget of Albuquerque’s Congregation Albert said she tries not to bring politics into the life of the congregation, though she still teaches about social justice. She is aware that members of her congregation have different opinions on a wide range of issues, she said.
“I want the synagogue to be a safe place for those who walk through our doors,” Surget said. “And I want to ensure that we continue to hold respectful conversations, even — especially, perhaps — when we disagree.”
Since the Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, many of the congregation’s conversations have been painful, Surget said, but she thinks Congregation Albert has walked that line well. She wants to model for others what respectful and productive conversations can look like, she said, because she does not want faith spaces to become “political tools.”
“I think what we have to offer, what we can offer, what we do offer, what we bring is really valuable in that it is those spaces in which people can walk through our doors and just know that they are welcome,” Surget said. “They are invited to come in as they are.”
Motivation from faith
Anderson — who has also worked on political campaigns and in early childhood education advocacy — said some of her principals grounded in her faith shaped past political work, but despite her plans to become ordained, she would never push her faith practices on another person.
“I think that motivation from our faith can be a beautiful thing,” she said. “People get motivation from their children, from their professional lives, from lots of kinds of things that they feel deeply about.”
Tropeano said she thinks faith leaders have a moral obligation to speak out about anything that is “obstructing the life of God and God’s desires on Earth.” It is also their job to mobilize their communities and minister to the people who are on the front lines, she said.
“We are to be on the front lines,” she said. “And also to really be there to provide pastoral care to the people who are really sacrificing their lives in service of God’s vision of a world of justice and peace.”