A police officer’s sense of timing seemed to illuminate the Rev William Barber’s moral mission with startling clarity.
During a prayer vigil on Monday in the Capitol rotunda, close to the very heart of US democracy, Barber was lamenting that Congress starts each day with its own prayers to the almighty even while preying on the poor. Capitol police captain, John Hersch, serendipitously choose that very moment to intervene.
“Your activity right now is taking the form of a demonstration,” Hersch told Barber and an accompanying gathering of clergy. “It is unlawful to demonstrate in the Capitol Rotunda. If you do not cease your demonstration at this time, there is a possibility you will be placed under arrest.”
Moments later, after two further warnings, Barber and seven accomplices – standing in front of the portrait of three 19th century women’s suffrage campaigners – were arrested as police sealed off the rotunda.
The arrests marked the climax of the latestMoral Mondayprotest organised by Repairers of the Breach, a group founded by Barber that’s trying to derail Donald Trump’s planned tax and spending bill on the grounds that it will slash vital health and social services to lower income Americans.
It was the third Moral Monday Barber had led at the Capitol since April – and the third time he and his cohorts had been arrested.
Barber, a social activist and founding director of Yale Divinity School’s centre for public theology, had earlier led a rally outside the US supreme court attended by an estimated 2,000 protesters.
As a band belted out gospel songs, demonstrators held signs with slogans such as “Slashing the safety net is moral murder” and “Don’t cut Snap for 40 million poor people.”
Wearing a white robe emblazoned with the words “Jesus was a poor man,” Barber – the son of civil rights workers who campaigned for racial desegregation – enjoined demonstrators to crusade against legislation that the US president has termed his “big, beautiful bill” and deemed essential to extending his massive 2017 tax cuts, which are due to expire this year.
The Republican-controlledHouse of Representativespassed the bill last month by a single vote, 215 to 214. It now goes forward to the Senate against a chorus of criticism about over its potential impact on the most vulnerable.
Passage would result in 13.7 million people losing access toMedicaidand health insurance, Barber said.
“This bill represents the worst kind of evil, which is the love of money … the root of all evil,” he said “This isn’t just about Trump. Two hundred and fifteenRepublicansin the House voted for this bill – and now every senator is going to decide whether they’re going to vote for the ‘we’re all going to just die’ approach to politics.”
Barber was referring to remarks by Joni Ernst, a Republican senator for Iowa, who faced criticism for telling a town hall last week that “we’re all going to die” after a constituent warned that health cuts could result in some people dying.
Ernst doubled down byissuing a mock “apology”filmed in a cemetery, saying: “For those that would like to see eternal and everlasting life, I encourage you to embrace my lord and saviour, Jesus Christ.”
Barber compared Ernst’s rhetoric with justifications used by slaveowners.
“That’s the same language that slave masters used to tell slaves,” he said in an interview. “They would say: ‘Don’t fight for freedom, but believe in Jesus so that in the eternal life.’
“It’s so cynical. What she said was one of the most contradictory misinterpretations of faith I’ve ever heard. It’s theological malpractice.
“As Dr [Martin Luther] King once said, we’re not talking about over yonder. We’re talking about over here and people need healthcare over here. People need food over here. For her to bring up religion and bring up Jesus – if Jesus did anything, he provided everybody he met free healthcare. He never charged a leper, or a sick person, or a blind person, for their healing.”
The Moral Monday protests have been adapted from similar demonstrations Barber started in North Carolina in 2013, following the election of rightwing Republican Pat McCrory as governor. The protests lasted two years, recalled Barber, resulting in thousands of arrests for civil disobedience but also spurring thousands more to register to vote.
As protests against Trump ramp up, Barber is vowing to make Moral Mondays a regular feature of the landscape of dissent.
“Moral Monday is not a one-time event,” he said. “If this budget passes the way it is, it will have a negative impact on this country for 10 years. It could possibly not be fully reversed for up to 50 to 60 years. This is serious business.”
The protests are likely to expand to encompass a broader pro-democracy agenda. “Our role is not just the budget passing or not passing, but mobilizing poor and low wage folk. We stand against any attacks on voting rights, on public education, [or] on healthcare,” said Barber.
“Poor and low wage people now represent 30% of the electorate in this country, and in battleground states, over 40%,” he said, making them the largest potential expansion for voting power in the country.
In an acknowledgement of Moral Monday’s growing significance, this week’s rally was addressed by Ezra Levin, co-executive director of the progressiveIndivisible movement, which spearheaded nationwideHands Offprotests in April that drew millions of participants.
Levin praised protesters for having the courage to overcome fear.
“People see us organized, and they say, wow, you are fearless,” he said. “Oh no. If you are fearless in this moment, you’re not paying attention. The authoritarians over there, they’re taking over our democracy.”
But congressional Republicans, too, felt fear, he said. “They are projecting strength right now. They’re acting as if this is inevitable. They’re acting as if they have the power, you know, passing a bill through the House in the middle of night. [But] that’s not strength, pushing it through before the public can comment on it
“The truth is, they’re terrified. They are terrified their voters are going to see what they’re doing. They’re terrified they’re going to lose their majority. And you know what? They should be terrified.”