At first I thought that David Brooks was on to something in his New York Times editorial, August 8, 2017: “Getting Trump Out of My Brain.” I nodded in sympathy with Brooks’ observation: “For the past two years Trump has taken up an amazing amount of my brain space. My brain has apparently decided that it is not interested in devoting neurons to that guy. There’s nothing more to be learned about Trump’s mixture of ignorance, insecurity and narcissism. Every second spent on his bluster is degrading rather than informative.” I’ve abided by that sentiment for a while. I have been so overwhelmed by what I have seen happen to my country and its institutions that I simply haven’t known what to say. But I remembered whose I am and who I follow, and my own Christian saints and mentors, and I cannot remain silent.

After the violence and murder in Charlottesville and Trump’s response and subsequent behavior, I respectfully conclude that David Brooks is not only badly mistaken in his conclusion but, if he holds to his decision to remain silent, is morally irresponsible. Trump’s behavior during the past few weeks, culminating in his initial almost dismissive statement about the violence precipitated by neo-Nazis and white supremacists, then his sing-song recitation of a scripted follow-up two days later finally calling racism evil and naming neo-Nazis and white supremacists, followed by another statement suggesting that the people who protested the fascist rally shared the blame for the violence and murder, was so morally repugnant it makes withdrawing from the mounting national crisis irresponsible.

Now is not the time to be silent. People of good will have watched him with patience and the hope that he would somehow grow into his office, listened as he demonized immigrants and racial minorities, demeaned women and people with disabilities, questioned the near unanimous consensus that human beings are endangering the life of future generations and the health of the planet by ignoring the environmental crisis, attempted and is still attempting, to take health insurance from 18 million Americans, listened in dismay as he insulted allies, inspired our foes to contemplate a nuclear attack, humiliated leaders of his own party, and threatened to jail his political opponent who actually won the popular vote by a substantial margin – must not withdraw from this critical moment in self imposed silence.

There were Nazis, anti-Semites waving Nazi flags in the streets of Charlottesville. A few days later, standing in the lobby of Trump Tower with two top advisers who are Jewish and his proud Marine Corps General Chief of Staff, his head hanging down, looking humiliated and bereft, The President of the United States made the outrageous claim that the people who came to Charlottesville to protest the vile fascist, white supremacist rally were equally responsible for the violence and the murder of a young woman. He went on to claim that some of the neo-Nazis are “fine people,” suggested a moral equivalence between George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and a military leader who committed treason by leading an army of rebellion against our country.

Clearly, alt-right leaders believed, based on his words, that the President will not only tolerate them but, to a degree, will support them and their sick cause. In one of the most tragic but telling incidents of all, David Duke, former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, thanked the President for his courage and reminded him that fascist anti-Semites helped him win the election.

It is all so bizarre and unbelievably sad that the temptation to turn it all off and withdraw into silence is very real. But David Brooks was wrong. There is more to learn. The last two days taught us, if we didn’t know already, that the President of the United States is not only spectacularly unfit for his office but dangerous, perpetrating profound damage to the Presidency, our precious institutions, the international trust we have earned and enjoyed for years, our world leadership, but perhaps most tragic of all, the very fabric of our nation.

I cannot be silent. As a Christian who stands in the tradition of Jesus and aspires to follow him, Jesus who did not flinch and withdraw from political, social and religious opposition, the same tradition that inspired and nurtured Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King, Jr. both of whom who died resisting racism and oppression, I am called to speak and act. All of us are.

It’s time to stand up and be heard: Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, Christians, Jews, Muslims. Speak out, join a protest group, write letters and make telephone calls every day. And, by the way, if you are a Christian or a Jew, go to church or synagogue, communities that know a lot about depending on one another and remaining faithful and surviving in times of chaos and oppression, communities that are at their best when they are faithfully, critically counter-culture.

Silence is not an option. Not so very long ago, in the face of a movement in his nation not unlike the fascist, anti-Semite, white supremacists in the streets of Charlottesville last week, Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that “the sin of respectable people is the refusal to be socially and politically responsible.”

No more silence.