A Call to Moral Clarity on Donald Trump’s Threats of Civilizational Erasure.

Presbyterian Peace Fellowship

April 7, 2026

When on April 7, 2026,  Donald Trump suggested he might use military violence to erase Iranian civilization, he was threatening to commit  war crimes and crimes against humanity that would, if executed, make the current American president among the most evil and cruel world leaders in human history, placing him in the company of Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, and Mao Tsedung. This threat of civilizational annihilation comes after a long list of similar, often apocalyptic pronouncements from the President and his administration, all of which have put the United States on a path of infamy and unimaginable criminality.  

Presbyterian Peace Fellowship calls upon the Presbyterian Church (USA), its councils and congregations, to denounce Donald Trump and to condemn the ongoing war on Iran with prophetic clarity and spiritual tenacity, risking everything—including our tax-exempt status and the membership of our congregations—to denounce the current American President’s unprevoked war on Iran, which already has taken the lives of thousands of people–including orphans and schoolchildren–as antithetical to the claims of the gospel, and contrary to the loving kindness, compassion, grace, forgiveness, and peace that abide at the foundations of our faith.

But it is not enough for American Presbyterians to name and condemn the sinful violence emanating from Washington. We who are citizens of the United States must also acknowledge that for too long we have put our trust in the weapons of war. Often with the support of Presbyterian theologians, leaders, and institutions, we have allowed ourselves to believe the United States needs a robust military to stand against godless tyranny and totalitarianism. Confident in this misguided belief in the capacity of violence to save and protect us, we have built the most powerfully violent military ever amassed and we have given control of that unimaginably destructive capacity to Donald Trump, who is now threatening to use American military violence (including, we must assume, nuclear weapons) to destroy Iranian civilization.

For this the American people—including American Presbyterians—must repent. 

Finally, the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship calls upon the political establishment in Washington to show the courage necessary to end the war in Iran—removing the President from office if that is what it takes—even if such principled courage puts the power, prestige, and  political careers of individual politicians at risk. Now is a time for action.

In the name of all that is holy, Every effort must be made to ensure the President's threats of unimaginable war crimes to not come to fruition.

This statement was written by Ben Daniel on behalf of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship’s Peace Church Working Group.