February 7, 2025

There are times when the accumulation of horrors becomes too much to remain silent. We reached this moment just over a year ago, prompting us to issue our statement on the unfolding horror in Gaza, against the backdrop of the horrific attack of October 7. We reach this moment again today. In the face of the deliberate effort to overwhelm and overrun our faculties, we must use our collective voice in the name of our cherished institution and its core values to condemn:

1. The total disregard for international law demonstrated by the threats to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Panama and Greenland and, most particularly, the repeated threat that the U.S. would assert ownership of the Gaza strip and remove the Palestinian people from this remaining fragment of homeland—a call for ethnic cleansing atop the horrors of the last 16 months;
2. The assault on the constitutional and basic human rights of U.S. citizens and people who have sought refuge in the U.S. through mass raids, deportations, and threats of extraterritorial detention, including the reopening of Guantanamo Bay and even contracting with foreign prisons in Latin America to hold U.S. citizens;
3. The utter lack of concern for general safety and well-being demonstrated by the unwarranted firing of key U.S. government employees without replacement and the freezing of already appropriated funds, which leaves us at heightened risk of such unthinkable disasters as the tragic aircraft accidents witnessed in the last week and disrupts access to healthcare and other basic services;
4. The flagrant indifference to national security protocols and constitutional safeguards that are essential to the U.S. system of government, with the bypassing of mandated checks and balances between Congress and the Presidency and access to sensitive information and U.S. payment systems by individuals without appropriate security clearances;
5. The summary and arbitrary suspension of U.S. aid to most of the world and effective shut-down of the U.S. Agency for International Development, as well as the withdrawal from the United Nations Human Rights Council, the World Health Organization, and the Paris Agreement, among others, that facilitate our cooperation with the world and promote our public health and security;
6. The blatantly unconstitutional and overnight dismantling of decades of progress toward the equal protection of the law irrespective of race, gender, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, etc., and the resurgence of overt discrimination and scapegoating of protected groups; and
7. The sheer quantity of patent illegality and misinformation/disinformation at the heart of the administration that, in its entirety, threatens to erode the constitutional and procedural guardrails that are the basis of our government.

We know that we are living through a moment in history that future generations will look back at and ask how certain things could possibly have taken place. We know that the founders of the World Fellowship Center hoped to create a space and foster a movement that would stand firm against such horrors as those listed above—and the more unthinkable horrors that will certainly come if we all do not take immediate action. 

And so we start with this statement and an open invitation to join us in concerted action to defend our core values and our collective future. We also reaffirm our commitment to sustaining and growing our supportive community spaces where we can come together, connect, reflect, strategize, heal, and find safety whatever the broader context. 

─ The WFC Board of Trustees

World Fellowship Center