While 2025 was filled with prejudice, hateful and, at times, violent attacks toward marginalized communities, faith leaders are emphasizing the way to combat the negativity is through spreading love and peace and promoting unity and action.
Dr. Talib M. Shareef, president and imam of the historic Masjid Muhammad, also known as The Nation’s Mosque in Washington, D.C.
“We must restore trust, moral clarity and civic responsibility. Leaders, they must serve, not inflame, and citizens must engage, not withdraw. We must invest in people, not just power, and that means prioritizing education, mental health, family stability, and economic opportunity. We must heal our divisions through dignity and dialogue. 2025 kept us responding to crisis after crisis; In 2026, we must plan for the future, addressing root causes, strengthening institutions and building bridges across generations. And finally: hope. We must reclaim hope as a moral discipline. When we say it’s going to be fixed in 2026, we’re not speaking wishfully – we are speaking faithfully. We are affirming that with God’s guidance, discipline, effort and a renewed moral compass, what is broken can be repaired, what is divided can be reconciled, and what has been lost can be restored.”
The Rev. William Lamar IV, pastor of Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Northwest D.C.
“If we lock arms together – theologically, politically, creatively – [and] if we desire that it is best for all of us to lift the survival of the community instead of focusing solely on the survival of the individual…then 2026 will continue to be a year to place us on the trajectory of collective victory, collective abundance, and collective flourishing of humanity and creation.”
Juwan Blocker (also known as AP, Accountability Partner), thought leader and inspirational speaker
“We put so much emphasis, so much effort, so much of our natural raw talents that God has built in us, behind jobs, behind titles, behind position. And while I understand the importance of it, we also have to spend more time in 2026 figuring out, ‘God, what specifically have you created me for and to do on this earth?’”
Dr. Elsie L. Scott, former president and CEO of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation
“We are not alone, we are all in this together, and we’re going to have to stay prayed up in order to live through these shrine times.”