On Tuesday, at a prayer service for the Inauguration of Donald Trump, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde preached the sermon of her life, directly pleading for the president to show mercy to those who are being impacted by this administration’s policies. She did so respectfully, thoughtfully and lovingly. And biblically. She spoke truth to power.

As a pastor, I was deeply moved and inspired by her courage and faithfulness, meeting what is often called a “Bonhoeffer moment.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a martyr who was executed at the end of World War II because of his refusal to look the other way in the face of the horrors of the Nazi regime.

Bonhoeffer could have remained in the U.S., which is where he was just prior to World War II, but he returned to Germany, believing that he could not participate in Easter if he was not there on Good Friday. Unlike 83 percent of the clergy who remained silent during Hitler’s reign and looked the other way, Bonhoeffer both spoke and acted in a way to address the injustice he saw.

This is a moment in history when the church must meet the moment. Mercy is not a partisan issue. Decency is not a partisan issue. Compassion is not a partisan issue.

I have to believe, to remain sane, that most people who voted for Trump did not do so because they endorse cruelty or violence. I cannot believe they support letting people who brutalized police defending our Capitol or organized seditious activity trying to harm elected officials walk free and blameless. I refuse to accept that decent human beings support separating children from their parents, erasing people’s gender identity and stopping research on cancer or communication about infectious diseases. I believe most people, at their core, support basic civil rights and common decency and embrace the joy of diversity.

Now is the time for people of faith to find our shared values, centered in grace and mercy, and to say, “This is not what we wanted.” The only way to stop the rise of authoritarianism is to speak with one voice that what defines us as a nation, that was once described as a shining city on a hill, is greater than our divide on how to address economic issues. To let our elected leaders know what is happening is not what we wanted.

And this is the greatest moment in my lifetime for the church to be relevant in that discussion, to stand in the gap, to shout into the void, to raise the words of the Gospel that remind us to love one another as we have been loved and to act on that love.

Remaining silent is not an option. Especially for the church. This is not politics. It is a battle for the soul of a nation.