Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis
@liztheoharis.kairoscenter.org
860 followers 410 following 40 posts
ED of @kairoscenter.org, Co-Chair Poor People's Campaign, Author of You Only Get What You're Organized to Take: Lessons From the Movement to End Poverty (Beacon Press, April 8, 2025). https://liztheoharis.org
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Reposted by Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis
Reposted by Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis
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Over the past decades, not just during Trump’s terms, the use of the Bible to justify what passes for “law and order” (and the punishing of the poor) has only intensified. @liztheoharis.kairoscenter.org says this is anything but new in the US.
You Can’t Worship God and Money
It was a moment somewhat like this, 30 years ago, that turned me into a biblical scholar. In the lead-up to the passage of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act, political and religious leaders quoted scripture
buff.ly
liztheoharis.kairoscenter.org
In a Trumpian world, we must build the strength to make a theological and spiritual vision of everybody-in-nobody-out a reality and create the capacity, powered by faith, to make it so. 🧵END
liztheoharis.kairoscenter.org
I come from the welfare rights movement with leaders like Beulah Sanders who told the Nat. Council of Churches, “We ask for your moral, personal, & financial support in this battle for bread, dignity, and justice for all of our people. If we fail in our struggle, Christianity will have failed.” 🧵10
liztheoharis.kairoscenter.org
From the daily bread of Exodus to the prophets who insist that the way to love and honor God is to promote programs that uplift the poor and marginalized, the whole Christian Bible has an arc of justice to it with historical equivalents of anti-poverty programs. 🧵9
liztheoharis.kairoscenter.org
An American battle for the Bible is not new. Slavers, industrial capitalists, segregationists, etc, cherrypicked the texts to self-justify. Now the text is used to justify “law & order”, with Gov. Huckabee Sanders, & SOTH Johnson using Romans to say, “Authorities that exist are appointed by God.” 🧵8
liztheoharis.kairoscenter.org
Thiel offers an “antichrist” lecture series hosted by Michelle Stephens, who writes, “While social justice movements have done a great deal to point out our society’s longstanding sins [...], it can be tempting for that message to become more prominent than our innate need for Jesus to save us.” 🧵7
liztheoharis.kairoscenter.org
Peter Thiel’s cohort of right-wing “Christian” politicians & technofascists are dictating policy. In July, Trump signed an EO removing housing encampments in DC. Thiel & his cohort are responsible for the attacks on unhoused people & for the arrests of faith leaders opposing this abuse. 🧵6
liztheoharis.kairoscenter.org
Reps. Kevin Cramer, Stephen Lee Fincher, & Mo Brooks used similar language to categorize people as worthy or not. Such “Christian” politicians misuse the Bible to blame poverty on the poor, never suggesting that the rich, who steal wages and deny healthcare, are in any way to blame. 🧵5
liztheoharis.kairoscenter.org
Other Republican politicians use biblical references to justify cutting people from healthcare and SNAP. Defending OBBBA, Rep. Jodey Arrington, quoted 2 Thessalonians, saying: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat. [...] I think it’s a reasonable expectation that we have work requirements.” 🧵4
liztheoharis.kairoscenter.org
Speaker (SOTH) Johnson & congressional republicans prayed on the House floor before codifying OBBBA, which will cut millions of Americans from life-saving food and healthcare–a bizarre counterpoint to Jesus feeding 5,000 and providing free health care to lepers. 🧵3
liztheoharis.kairoscenter.org
In July, DHS used the “Here I am, Lord. Send me” quote from Isaiah to recruit new ICE agents. War Sec. Pete Hegseth’s former pastor went even further to marry the Bible to anti-immigrant hatred by saying, “Is the Bible in favor of these ICE raids?… The answer is yes.” 🧵2
liztheoharis.kairoscenter.org
Trump’s theological apologists use Jesus’s name & the Bible’s texts to justify deadly, inhumane, & unchristian policy/action. 30 years ago, these same texts were used to prop up American imperial power & punish the poor via the 1996 Welfare Reform Act. This led me to become a biblical scholar. 🧵1
liztheoharis.kairoscenter.org
Speaker Johnson & congressional republicans prayed on the House floor before codifying OBBBA, which will cut millions of Americans from life-saving food and healthcare–a bizarre counterpoint to Jesus feeding 5,000 and providing free health care to lepers. 🧵3
liztheoharis.kairoscenter.org
In July, DHS used the “Here I am, Lord. Send me” quote from Isaiah to recruit new ICE agents. War Sec. Pete Hegseth’s former pastor went even further to marry the Bible to anti-immigrant hatred by saying, “Is the Bible in favor of these ICE raids?… The answer is yes.” 🧵2
Reposted by Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis
kairoscenter.org
✨ Launch day ✨

These prayers rise from the wisdom of poor and dispossessed communities—embodied practices that transform, empower & reclaim the sacred as collective action for justice. #WePrayFreedom

👉 bit.ly/WePrayFreedom
liztheoharis.kairoscenter.org
"The whole of the Christian Bible, starting with Genesis and ending with the Book of Revelation, has an arc of justice to it. The historical equivalents of anti-poverty programs run through it all."

www.nationofchange.org/2025/09/10/y...
You can’t worship God and money | NationofChange
www.nationofchange.org
liztheoharis.kairoscenter.org
"Such 'Christian' politicians regularly misuse Biblical passages to blame the impoverished for their poverty. There is never a suggestion that the rich, who have stolen people’s wages and engorged themselves by denying them healthcare, are in any way to blame."

Read on!
truthout.org/articles/tru...
Trump Admin, GOP Continue to Weaponize Bible to Punish Poor, Defend Imperialism
Willfully misinterpreting the Bible to justify what passes for “law and order” has only intensified in recent decades.
truthout.org
Reposted by Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis
kairoscenter.org
✨ We Pray Freedom is out now—prayers + rituals for justice + liberation.
👉 bit.ly/WePrayFreedom
These aren’t just prayers—they’re blueprints for liberation.

#WePrayFreedom #WeSingFreedom #LiturgiesOfLiberation