The end of a calendar year is always a good time to reflect on the time that has passed. We’d like to share our reflections on the 12 months of messages we have been privileged to share with you through the pulpit of the opinion pages.

We begin with the obvious: 2025 was a year of major setbacks.

Following the inauguration of a new administration, we realized that faith leaders committed to the religion of creation — one that exalts the common good — would need to lead the resistance against the reigning powers seeking to privilege the few.

The religion of empire stands in opposition to the religion of creation. As we framed it in a column early this year: “The religion of America’s empire forsakes the whole for the sake of the few.” Our warning then proved instructive for the fight ahead: The religion of empire “is a human invention used to justify and legitimize attitudes and behaviors that provide blessing and abundance for some at the expense of others.”

America’s “empire” mentality dominated the year. It is based on blatant mistruths that poison our society, such as the insidious “great replacement” conspiracy theory, as “racist, anti-immigrant, misogynistic and antisemitic as it is untrue.” We decried the stoking of fear by our national leaders that heterosexual white people who embrace traditional gender norms — sometimes, the less overtly racist and sexist term “Western civilization” is used instead — are being replaced by a diverse society that seeks the equity of all people.

Since we wrote those words in February, the Department of Homeland Security has elevated the asylum status of white Afrikaners while terminating temporary protected status for refugees from Ethiopia and Afghanistan. By June, we were forced to call readers’ attention to steps the administration has undertaken that threaten civil liberties, an essential democratic safeguard for religious, racial and other minority communities.

Furthermore, that mentality of “empire” remains entrenched in our federal government: Recently, Republican lawmakers called for the mass expulsion of Muslims from America. Throughout the year, we have seen a shocking normalization of white Christian nationalism.

By September, the movement had become so widespread and centralized that we were compelled to pen a strong indictment: “We must clearly state that white Christian nationalism has co-opted Christianity in an attempt to sanctify an ungodly movement. In rejecting love for all and replacing it with hate for many, white Christian nationalism is, literally, anti-Christ.”

Strong words are required for our national debate, but also in our home city.

As clergy committed to our city of Chicago, our focus did not waver this year from our fundamental commitment to mitigating the plague of gun violence. We spoke about the need for continued investment in community violence intervention programs and also of the important role each of us can play in the lives of young people to steer them away from gun culture.

The hunger and food insecurity crisis also escalated in our city. Three of us witnessed a rise in the number of people visiting the food pantries run by our institutions, so we sounded the alarm for all Chicagoans, not only to share their time and money with organizations that address hunger but also to advocate with elected officials to mitigate the cuts to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.

And, of course, the deployment of federal forces in our city, which have disappeared our residents, shot chemical munitions at our clergy, tear-gassed our journalists and effectively trampled on our constitutional rights, has weighed on us. We spoke of the need for mass protests across the nation and for standing in solidarity across lines of class and faith in Chicago. In the face of the oppression imposed by the immigration raids and deportations, we remain proud that our city of broad shoulders has built a broad coalition that stands with immigrant and refugee communities.

Importantly, this year was not without its moments of celebration. The four of us were downright joyful at the General Assembly passage of the Clean Slate Act; we spoke of the legislation’s vital importance in March and October. We are so grateful to Rep. Jehan-Gordon Booth and Sen. Elgie Sims for championing the bill and also to Gov. JB Pritzker for signing it into law. The Clean Slate Act is about more than redemption. It’s about restoring the right to work and the freedom to live.

Throughout this year, we have focused on the power of speaking up in protest and through our actions. We began the year with a call to you all to lift up your voices: “We cannot afford the luxury of remaining silent, or remaining isolated from each other. Instead, standing together, we can counter that sickness, we can defeat the isolating cold and we can usher in a new era of embracing warmth.”

When the summer heat arrived, we again extended the invitation to speak up and to speak out, together: “Let voices of care ring out of every pulpit, speak from every heart and be extended with kind acts from every hand. May nonviolence rule our lawless time. May your voice and your hands join together with ours.”

And we conclude this year with the same exhortation: May 2026 bring us peace and blessings, and may we continue to stand together. May we live up to the higher angels of our nature and the loftiest values of our traditions. May we not let lines of faith or class or race divide us; rather, may we unite against the forces of empire that seek to subdue us, so that we might be able to create a city that honors all creatures and all creation.

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Chicago faith leaders Rabbi Seth Limmer, the Rev. Otis Moss III, the Rev. Ciera Bates-Chamberlain and the Rev. Michael Pfleger joined the Tribune’s opinion section in summer 2022 for a series of columns on potential solutions to Chicago’s chronic gun violence problem. The column continues on an occasional basis.

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