Latest news with #MoralMondays'
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
We got arrested for praying at the U.S. Capitol. But we won't be deterred.
A week ago Monday, Congress returned to Washington to begin work on the federal budget and, by week's end, the White House had released its 'skinny budget' that is its outline to make permanent the cuts attempted by Elon Musk's DOGE effort. These disastrous proposals, which come out of the same Project 2025 playbook that Trump disavowed during his campaign, would devastate the most vulnerable people in our communities. As pastors who preach Jesus' good news to the poor, on April 28, we joined moral leaders from religious denominations and civic organizations to launch 'Moral Mondays' at the U.S. Capitol. We spent the first 100 days of Trump's presidency studying his administration's proposals to dismantle the federal government, and we issued a report with the Institute for Policy Studies to help the public understand what the consequences of a Trump budget would be. Lifting the cries of people whose lives could be destroyed, we bowed our heads in prayer in the Capitol Rotunda. After several minutes, officers were dispatched to ask us to stop praying. But our conscience would not allow us to stop. Though we were arrested and carried away, we have not stopped praying. Moral Monday is back at the Capitol today to continue to lift a collective prayer that we all might be saved from this immoral budget. Ironically, three days later, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was in the Rose Garden observing the National Day of Prayer with religious leaders who have chosen to whitewash over Trump's policy violence. Johnson bowed his head and asked God's blessings not only for the nation, but also for the immoral agenda that he has agreed to champion as 'one big, beautiful bill.' Earlier in the week, Johnson could not help smirking as he used Trump's moniker for the monstrous budget at a 'Pro-Life America' banquet in Washington. 'Don't judge me if I have to name it that,' Johnson chuckled, 'it's what we, uh, it's what he, wants to do.' True prayer is always an invitation to humble ourselves before God and acknowledge our human limitations. Yet, Christian nationalist leaders like Speaker Johnson want to appropriate prayer as divine blessing for the things God hates. They claim to celebrate the role of public prayer in U.S. history, noting that the Continental Congress called for a day of 'Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer' during the American Revolution. But it's not right for leaders such as Johnson to try to claim the moral authority of patriots who cried out to God while they risked life and liberty to challenge a tyrant — not when they're cowering obediently to billionaires, abdicating their responsibility and bowing to the will of an American president acting like a dictator. Theirs is the hypocritical form of prayer that Amos confronted in the Bible and led him to prophesy in the voice of God, 'I hate your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me.' When political leaders use religion to try to justify policies that hurt women, children, immigrants and the vulnerable, Amos declares that their prayers become an offense to God. 'Woe unto you,' Jesus says to the religious leaders of his own day who used their office to prop up a Roman regime that exploited the poor. 'You have neglected,' he said, 'the weightier matters of the law.' We've brought Moral Mondays to the U.S. Capitol because the 'weightier matters' of our religious and moral traditions, which call us to protect the poor and the most vulnerable in our communities, are being neglected as an agenda backed by a narrow set of billionaires aims to dismantle our nation's social safety net. A dozen years ago, we witnessed a similar effort to deconstruct state government programs in North Carolina. Though extremists who controlled all three branches of state government at the time had the power to pursue this agenda, we knew the struggle wasn't Democrats versus Republicans. It was a moral struggle that could unite all of us. When we began with a small number of religious and moral leaders in April 2013, Gov. Pat McCrory's approval rating was 65%. By the end of that summer, in which we'd held Moral Mondays every week, he was polling at 30%, and he never recovered. McCrory was the only incumbent Republican governor to lose a re-election bid in 2016. Trump and Johnson want to pass this immoral budget before Memorial Day, but the truth is that only 35% of Americans support their trial run of these cuts through DOGE in Trump's first 100 days. Twelve House Republicans have already written to Johnson to say they cannot support proposed cuts to Medicaid. Whether we care for the poor, the sick and the vulnerable is not a question of partisan loyalty, but of moral commitment. We are bringing the prayers of millions to our nation's Capitol because we continue to believe that the values of love, mercy and justice are moral values that go deeper than partisan loyalty. We have written to congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle and asked them to pray with us and with members of our communities who would be impacted by these proposed cuts. We know the power of prayer to change hearts. But whether they change or not, we will continue to pray that one more powerful than our elected leaders will save us from the destruction they have planned. This article was originally published on
American Military News
30-04-2025
- Politics
- American Military News
Rev. William Barber arrested while praying at US Capitol. Here's what we know.
North Carolina-based pastor and national anti-poverty activist Rev. William Barber II was arrested with two other clergy members Monday while praying at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. The three were part of a group of 20 to 30 people who had gone to the Capitol after a larger 'Moral Mondays' rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court building. Organizers say the gatherings are in opposition to cuts that have been made or proposed in the federal budget that are immoral because they disproportionately affect poor and vulnerable people. Video shows police clearing out the rotunda A three-minute video posted online Monday night by Repairers of the Breach, of which Barber is president and senior lecturer, shows Barber praying with the Rev. Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, a writer, preacher and assistant director for partnerships and fellowships at Yale University's Center for Public Theology and Public Policy, and Steve Swayne, director of St. Francis Springs Prayer Center in Stoneville. They took turns reading from a scripted prayer, saying, 'We are here crying to you, Oh, God, because we have heard the cries of your people.' 'Deliver us, Oh, Lord, from the deceptive lie that says our nation will be better off if those who have little get less, and those who have too much get more,' they said. 'Against the conspiracy of cruelty, we plead the power of your mercy.' Capitol Police officers stepped in to tell the group they were participating in an 'unlawful demonstration' and must stop or be arrested. Officers then told others in the room they must get out, including at least one person who told officers he was a member of the press. The doors to the rotunda closed with Barber and others from his group still inside, while everyone else was told they had to leave the building. Handcuffed and arrested Barber said on Tuesday that with the doors closed, he, Wilson-Hartgrove and Swayne were handcuffed and arrested. The three were charged by Capitol Police with 'crowding, obstructing, and incommoding,' a violation of a District of Columbia ordinance around public demonstrations. 'We weren't cursing. We weren't talking extraordinarily loud,' said Barber, who was wearing a stole that said, 'Jesus was a poor man' when officers detained him. 'They gave us three warnings and then they arrested us, saying our prayer was an illegal activity.' A public information officer for the Capitol Police said Tuesday via email that Barber and the others were arrested 'for demonstrating inside the Congressional Buildings, which is not allowed in any form, to include but not limited to sitting, kneeling, group praying, singing, chanting, etc. 'In this case they started praying quietly and then began to pray out loud,' the spokesperson said. 'That is when we gave them multiple warnings to stop or they would be arrested. Three people didn't stop. ' The spokesperson said there are other places on Capitol ground where such a demonstration would have been allowed. To resolve the charges, the spokesperson said, 'Basically they just have to pay a ticket.' Barber said he and the others don't plan to contest the charges and would pay the fine. Barber has been arrested numerous times, including in connection with the original Moral Mondays campaign in North Carolina that began in the spring of 2013. At the time, the Republican-led state legislature was moving to cut education funding and unemployment benefits, opting out of Medicaid expansion, restricting abortion rights, limiting voter access and relaxing environmental protections, all of which Barber said was 'regressive' and 'extremist' and had the worst impacts on poor people, women, LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, minorities and the uninsured. Concerns about the federal budget Barber said Tuesday he has similar concerns about federal budget proposals in the works now, especially a plan by Republicans in Congress to extend the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, meant to expire at the end of this year. Budget analysts with the Bipartisan Policy Center have said extending the cuts could add more than $4 trillion to the federal deficit from fiscal year 2025 through 2034. Congress is considering cutting spending on federal programs to offset some of that cost. Doing so, while also increasing spending for the military, Barber said Tuesday, 'is so disastrous. There is no way they can cut $2 trillion from the budget and not undermine Social Security and Medicare and free and reduced-price lunches for school children.' U.S. Justice Department is looking for anti-Christian bias Barber said it was interesting that he and others from the interfaith Moral Mondays movement were arrested days after President Donald Trump's Department of Justice launched a task force to eradicate anti-Christian bias in the federal government. Barber, who is co-chair of the national Poor People's Campaign, said it's his Christian faith that compels him to advocate for the poor, women, children and immigrants. 'But people come in (to the Capitol) to say this budget does not line up with our values or even the Constitution, and we get arrested,' Barber said. ___ © 2025 The Herald-Sun Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
