NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RNS) –On a warm June evening, Christian music legend Amy Grant finished up a set at church in Brentwood, a music celebrity-laden suburb of the country music capital, set down her guitar and picked up her phone.
“I’ve never done this before,” Grant said from the stage at Otter Creek Church, as she dialed the Washington office of Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty.
After getting through to voicemail and introducing herself, Grant launched into an appeal for continued support to fund the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief — a George W. Bush-era federal program known as PEPFAR that the Trump administration has threatened to defund.
“We want you to know that here in Nashville, we want to see full funding of PEPFAR so that we can stay on track to end the HIV AIDS epidemic by 2030,” Grant said in a moment caught on video. Audience members, who had come to the church to help raise awareness about PEPFAR, hooted their support.
After hanging up, Grant urged audience members to follow her example. “What if everyone called?” she said. “That is democracy — to use our voice.”
Despite its history of bipartisan support and long success — PEPFAR has been credited with saving 26 million lives around the world — the program’s future is uncertain. The White House Office of Manag …