Dawn Kim

Yale Divinity School Dean Gregory Sterling slammed the Trump administration’s funding cuts of the United States Agency for International Development, calling the cuts “anti-Christian at the core.”

USAID, a federal agency founded in 1961, provides funding to vulnerable people worldwide. Since Trump took office, the agency has come under increased scrutiny and became a key target of the Department of Government Efficiency.  

In an opinion piece published in MSNBC, Sterling expressed concern for how these cuts will affect Christian groups that receive federal funding. He is also worried that core Christian values such as caring for the stranger are now under threat.

“Whether a person is American or from another country, whether they live next door or half a world away, whether they are our best friend or a complete stranger, Christianity compels its followers to care for them and to help them,” Sterling wrote. “Today, this core Christian value is under threat, not from foreign enemies but from our own government.”

In an email to the News, the Rev. William J. Barber II, who directs the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at YDS, called Sterling’s critique “prophetic.” The nation needs “the kind of challenge” Sterling put forward in his writing, Barber wrote, adding that “those who have ears to hear will hear.” 

Sterling critiqued the number of Christians who voted for Trump, citing a NBC News exit poll that stated 63 percent of voters in the “Protestant or other Christians” demographic voted for Trump.

“The situation leads me to wonder whether some Christians have made a single issue or two the sole determinant of their political views and, by doing so, have sold their souls in a Faustian deal for political power,” Sterling wrote in the op-ed.

Barber wrote that it would be “theological malpractice” to stay silent on these issues. He also emphasized that Sterling’s opinion is not partisan but rather one from coming from his moral ground as a Christian.

At the end of his opinion, Sterling mentioned that Pope Francis and Gabriel Salguero, president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, have spoken out against these cuts. 

Cardinal Michael Czerny, who heads the Vatican office responsible for migrants, called the decision to halt USAID funding “ruthless” and warned that millions of people could die as a result.

Sterling is the latest voice among the mix of faith leaders criticizing Trump’s policy decisions.

“Christians may disagree about a number of important issues, but the imperative to care for the downtrodden is not one of them,” Sterling wrote.

Yale Divinity School was established in 1822.