A group of progressive clergy and rainbow-splattered religious activists have hijacked the already unbiblical celebration of “Lent” to push a blatantly leftist political agenda, a thinly veiled leftist activist manifesto framed as a “return to Jesus.”

The document, titled Returning to Jesus: Practicing Lent In Our Timeand signed by 100 progressive clergy and leaders, reads more like a Democratic National Committee policy memo than any genuine Christian reflection, slamming immigration enforcement, economic policy, and even criminal justice reforms that they deem “unjust.”

The statement begins with the usual spiritual platitudes, invoking Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness to set the stage for what quickly devolves into an attack on policies that don’t align with their leftist worldview.

“In the deluge and whirlwind of this administration’s initial actions,” it states, “we see the brutal abandonment and targeting of the people Jesus commands his followers to serve and protect.”

What “brutal abandonment” are they talking about? The deportation of illegal aliens and the refusal to coddle violent criminals. In other words, enforcing laws is now persecution. Noted.

This manifesto is nothing more than a theological battering ram against conservative policies. The authors whine about “the stranger” being deported (illegal aliens), “the imprisoned” being left behind (violent criminals), and “the hungry” being neglected (a thinly veiled excuse to demand more bloated government welfare programs). They rip Matthew 25 from its biblical context, twisting “I was a stranger and you welcomed me” into a prooftext for open borders and mass amnesty.

According to this deeply delusional logic, Jesus is apparently a lobbyist for sanctuary cities, and opposition to taxpayer-funded government handouts is a sign of unrepentant wickedness.

The list of signatories is a roll call of every progressive, theologically compromised figurehead in American Christianity—a coalition of heretics, social justice activists, and outright frauds. Among them, of course, is Raymond Chang, founder of the Asian American Christian Collaborative, and an ally of Russell Moore’s incessant push for open borders in America.

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF), a completely apostate offshoot of the SBC that has long embraced leftist theology, is over-represented in the signatories, with multiple people tied to it signing on, including Paul Baxley, Ana Garcia-Ashley, and Leslie Copeland Tune. It’s worth noting that SBC pastor Dwight McKissic’s church is dually aligned with this very group, making his repeated attempts to posture as an SBC conservative even more laughable.

But it doesn’t stop there. The manifesto boasts the signatures of Jim Wallis, Otis Moss III, Shane Claiborne, and Soong-Chan Rah—all the usual suspects in the progressive counterfeit Christianity brigade. Wallis, of course, is the longtime advocate of leftist economic policies disguised as “social justice.” Moss has been busy turning Trinity United Church of Christ into a pulpit for Marxist activism. Claiborne, ever the woke performance artist, has made a career out of pacifist virtue-signaling and liberal political advocacy. And Rah, true to form, never passes up a chance to bash evangelicalism as a white supremacist stronghold.

These are not serious theologians, of course, nor are they credible Christian leaders. They are political operatives disguised as pastors and church leaders, pushing an agenda that has more in common with the Democratic Socialists of America than the gospel of Jesus Christ.

What’s most offensive about this stunt is how brazenly they exploit biblical events to push their leftist agenda. They compare Christ’s Passion to illegal aliens facing deportation.

They equate law enforcement with Roman imperial oppression.

They claim “budget cuts are a moral issue” while insisting that government dependency is somehow a biblical mandate.

And in an especially galling display of hypocrisy, they demand amnesty for violent criminals while condemning the pardoning of the Democrats’ J6 political prisoners, calling the latter a “blatant act of political corruption.” In their world, leftist rioters and looters deserve a free pass, while anyone who so much as walked near the Capitol on January 6 deserves to rot in prison forever.

This is what happens when theology is subsumed by left-wing activism—when Jesus is reduced to a mascot for progressive causes rather than the Savior who calls sinners to repentance. It’s the same tired game we’ve seen from these people for years…take an explicitly political goal, slap some Bible verses on it, and demand that all “true Christians” fall in line.

This isn’t Christian reflection, it’s a woke political manifesto wrapped in religious language, designed to co-opt Christianity into serving the urges of the progressive ruling class.

And the best response to it?

The same response Jesus had for the Pharisees who twisted Scripture for their own ends. Expose them as hypocrites and call them to repentance.