(RNS) — As tanks rumbled along the streets of my town on June 14, I joined thousands of my neighbors in joyful resistance against tyranny. As part of the nationwide No Kings protest, we lined both sides of a street leading to Washington, D.C. We held signs with messages like “Immigrants Make America Great,” “Protest is Patriotic” and “Money for Medicaid, Not Billionaires.”
A few miles away on the National Mall, thousands of military troops and dozens of war vehicles were putting on a show of force for the U.S. Army’s 250th and Donald Trump’s 79th birthdays.
Walking along the protest line, I spotted a woman holding a sign that was familiar but with a new twist: “War Is Not the Answer, especially against your own people.” It was a sadly appropriate update to the “War Is Not the Answer” signs that my faith community distributed around the country after the 9/11 attacks.
I found my spiritual community and my identity as a peace advocate through the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers. As a young person, I struggled to align my deep yearning for a more peaceful and just world with my religious upbringing. I had no idea Quakers existed, but my soul knew there must be a better way to solve problems than waging war, and that peace is possible.
I was fortunate to find my way to Quaker peace organizations in my 20s and discover the Friends Committee on National Legislation, which I lead now. Lobbying Congress for a world free of war and the threat of war became a spiritual practice for me, a way to put my faith into action. But it has not always been easy, and at times I have been filled with doubts.
In the early 2000s, I worked as a foreign policy lobbyist at FCNL. Aside from lobbying, we were busy distributing War Is Not the Answer signs and stickers to protest the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. I remember the mass protests and nationwide advocacy to prevent the U.S. invasion of Iraq. I can still feel the hope we had that we might succeed, followed by the tears I shed watching the “shock and awe” campaign unfold when the U.S. invaded.
Two decades later, the U.S. war in Iraq is viewed as a major misstep. Yet, the Trump administration is repeating similar mistakes, bombing Iran without congressional authorization and risking more endless wars. The U.S. continues arming Israel in its genocidal campaign against Palestinians and has largely abandoned a diplomatic peace in Ukraine. When will the U.S. learn we cannot bomb our way to peace?
Those War Is Not the Answer signs have persisted in their relevance through multiple administrations, Congresses and wars. The government’s reliance on war over diplomacy is a tragic and costly bipartisan theme. Now, Trump is releasing military troops onto our own streets, alongside masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents riding in unmarked cars and bearing assault weapons. We should all be very worried about how military force will be used against people at home and abroad under this administration.
We should also be worried about how war is being used to justify the erosion of our civil liberties and democracy.
On the same weekend as the president’s military parade in June, we saw Marines mobilized by the White House against peaceful citizens in California over the opposition of state and local authorities. A U.S. senator was forced to the ground and handcuffed by federal agents for interrupting a press briefing. Two legislators in Minnesota were assassinated by a white Christian nationalist. And the president bombed Iran.
To our dismay, this is America 2025.
Due process, rule of law and core principles of our democracy are all being swept aside in a systematic shift toward authoritarianism and rule by fear and force.
This is not new, of course. Indigenous people, Black and brown communities, and many immigrants have faced oppression and violence at the hands of the U.S. government since our founding.
Experts on authoritarianism and violent conflict have also been warning for some time that our democracy is in danger and our country could turn more violent. Those warnings are playing out in real time around us and are costing lives.
As Trump spent millions in federal funds to put on a massive military parade, he and most Republicans in Congress were also pushing forward devastating funding cuts to veterans’ programs, health care, food assistance, clean energy and foreign aid. Their Big Beautiful Bill Act (HR 1) proposes to use the “savings” from dismantling vital programs for our families to subsidize tax cuts for the rich, expand the militarized deportation of our immigrant neighbors and pour billions more into weapons and wars.
This is antithetical to everything our faith traditions teach us. It takes from the poor to give to the rich; turns plowshares into swords.
The good news is people across the country are standing up and speaking against tyranny. During the No Kings protests, more than 5 million people in over 2,100 towns and cities took to the streets to stand up for peace and democracy.
And we can turn protest into policy change. Members of Congress need to hear from their constituents when they are back home in July and August. We need to continue urging them to support a moral budget that rejects militarism and war and invests in people, peace and the planet. Congress still holds the power of the purse and must pass annual appropriations bills that will determine what the government funds and what it does not.
We also need to continue advocating against more war and to build just and lasting peace, in the Middle East and in our communities. Congress should reassert congressional war powers to end endless wars and put an end to the Trump administration’s campaign of forced disappearances and deportation of our neighbors. War is not the answer, at home or abroad.
When every day brings a new crisis, advocating for a better world can feel exhausting. But our communities, our children and our country are relying on us to keep putting our faith into action, and building the beloved community we know is still possible.
(Bridget Moix is the general secretary of the Friends Committee on National Legislation and leads two other Quaker organizations, Friends Place on Capitol Hill and the FCNL Education Fund. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)