Eighty-two percent of white evangelicals voted for Trump in 2024. —David French, New York Times
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Russell Vought is one of the architects of Project 2025. He is President Trump’s appointee to direct the Office of Management and Budget. He’s a self-avowed Christian nationalist. And he’s an evangelical.
BOOOOOOO.
Alas, Russell Vought and I have something in common. We are alums of Wheaton College, the premier evangelical institution of higher education in this country.
He’s class of 1998. I’m class of 1969.
He’s a proud evangelical. I’m a former evangelical, but a Wheaton alumnus nonetheless.
Vought is part of the Trump administration. I’m part of Wheaton Alumni for Kamala (WAK). We are refocusing our work. Meanwhile other alumni have sent a letter of dissent to the college administration after it publicly congratulated Vought.
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We, the undersigned alumni of Wheaton College, write with deep concern over fellow alumnus Russell Vought’s role in forming and implementing Project 2025 on behalf of the current presidential administration.
As Wheaton graduates, we were shaped by an education grounded in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which states that the Kingdom of Heaven is known by the Fruit of the Spirit and made manifest by feeding the hungry, giving the stranger a place to sleep, clothing the naked, and caring for the sick. Our Wheaton education taught us that to serve the hurting and broken in our world is to serve Christ himself.
It is precisely because of our commitment to these values that we find Vought’s vision for government, as outlined in Project 2025, to be antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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Our group emails back and forth with suggestions and encouragements. I’ll close with a poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti sent to us by Brian (class of 1970).
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Pity the nation whose people are sheep
And whose shepherds mislead them
Pity the nation whose leaders are liars
Whose sages are silenced
And whose bigots haunt the airwaves
Pity the nation that raises not its voice
Except to praise conquerers
And acclaim the bully as hero
And aims to rule the world
By force and by torture
Pity the nation that knows
No other language but its own
And no other culture but its own
Pity the nation whose breath is money
And sleeps the sleep of the too well fed
Pity the nation oh pity the people
who allow their rights to erode
and their freedoms to be washed away
My country, tears of thee
Sweet land of liberty!
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Poems, prayers, and promises are good.
Organizing is better.
