Siding with the Pharisees: Why Your ‘Grace’ Feels Like a Noose

I’ve been seeing a lot of posts lately telling everyone to "take a breath," calling for "unity," or asking for "grace." I am being told I should not be speaking out. But even worse, I am seeing active, vocal support for the cruelty unfolding in our country right now. It is sickening, and I need to speak on it.

The recent uproar over the halftime show isn't the main issue here; it is just one symptom of a much deeper rot. We are watching an administration ratchet the dial to 11, using rhetoric and tactics that echo the darkest parts of our history... reminiscent of slave patrols, the forced removal of Indigenous children, and Jim Crow laws, to violently remove non-citizens and sow chaos. To pretend this is just "politics as usual" or a difference of opinion is dangerous.

I may not follow organized religion anymore largely because of the hypocrisy I’ve witnessed and what was done to me directly. I was shunned by the church for being gay, a rejection I firmly believe has no basis in the actual text of the Bible. But while I walked away from that institution, I didn't walk away from the truth. And what I see right now from so many professing believers is heartbreaking. I see a rush to defend "law and order" while ignoring the actual teachings they claim to follow.

We are watching history repeat itself. As a people, we have a convenient amnesia. We claim to revere the great disruptors of history now, but we forget that when they were alive, they were hated. They were called "divisive."

The Hebrew Prophets like Jeremiah and Amos were imprisoned and silenced because they told the religious leaders that God hated their "feasts and assemblies" while the poor were being crushed (Amos 5:21-24).

The Prophet Muhammad was persecuted, boycotted, and exiled by the elites of Mecca specifically because he challenged their tribal hierarchy and demanded care for the orphan and the slave.

Jesus was executed by the state for disrupting the status quo.

Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered for challenging the comfort of the majority.

And now, when we see that same spirit rising to confront injustice today, we tell it to "take a breath." We stay silent. We forget.

If you look at the life of Jesus, he was not a "keeper of the peace" when it came to injustice. He was a protester. He was a disruptor. If you look at the texts themselves, the mandate is clear across traditions. It isn't about being polite; it's about standing up.

The Quran commands explicitly: "Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to God, even as against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin" (Surah An-Nisa 4:135). Truth requires calling out your own "side."

The Talmud teaches that "Whoever is able to protest against the transgressions of the world and does not is liable for the transgressions of the world" (Shabbat 54b). Silence is consent.

Jesus didn't stick to the "in crowd." He was criticized specifically because he ate with tax collectors and "sinners" (Matthew 9:10-13). He didn't build walls to keep the "wrong" people out; he built tables to bring them in.

He did not prioritize "unity" over truth. Jesus explicitly said, "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword" (Matthew 10:34). He understood that standing up for what is right would cause division, and he did not shy away from it.

He called out leadership. He publicly called out the religious and political leaders of his day, calling them "whitewashed tombs"—beautiful on the outside but full of death and hypocrisy on the inside (Matthew 23:27).

He defended the foreigner. The entire biblical narrative commands specific care for the "foreigner residing among you," treating them as your native-born (Leviticus 19:33-34). Jesus took this further, stating that how we treat the "stranger" is exactly how we treat God himself (Matthew 25:35-40).

When I see people of faith staying silent now, or calling for "grace" for those enacting cruelty, it feels like siding with the Pharisees rather than Jesus. Jesus didn’t stand back and hope for the best. He stood up to tyranny. He stood up for the undocumented, the outcast, and the poor.

Calling for "love" without standing against oppression isn't love. It's just indifference with a nicer name. We need to remember.