Rev. William Barber II and other progressive Christian activists were arrested at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., while protesting the proposed Republican-led congressional budget.
Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, writer and preacher Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and St. Francis Springs Prayer Center Director Steve Swayne held a prayer rally near a monument celebrating the women’s suffrage movement on Monday.
The three took issue with the proposed budget before Congress, which they contend includes damaging cuts to various necessary federal welfare programs that millions of Americans rely on.
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Shortly after they began praying out loud, several Capitol police surrounded the individuals, expelled others in the rotunda and then detained the three activists.
A spokesperson for the Capitol Police told The News & Observer that the three were detained “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,” continued the spokesperson. “That is when we gave them multiple warnings to stop or they would be arrested. Three people didn’t stop.”
The spokesperson told the newspaper that there were other places on Capitol Hill where they could have lawfully assembled and noted that the penalty would be a fine.
Barber, a former NAACP leader, and Wilson-Hartgrove confirmed their release in a statement posted to their shared blog on Tuesday. The reason for their demonstration in the Capitol on Monday, they said, is because they are “Christian preachers” and “public theologians” who are called to speak out.
They contend that $1.5 trillion can’t be cut from the budget without “slashing Medicaid, Medicare, SNAP, Head Start, Section 8, and other life-saving and life-sustaining programs.”
“When someone dies from poverty and a lack of healthcare, we cannot lie and say, ‘God called them home.’ We have to tell the truth. They died because we live in a society that has chosen not to care for them,” they stated.
“If we know the people are being robbed by a budget that will take from the most vulnerable to give tax breaks to the rich, it is our duty to relocate our ministry to where these life and death decisions are being made.”
They added that they “appreciate the Capitol police and have prayed with them and for them.” They also thank officers for their service and “have reassured them that our objection is not to them doing their job.”
“We came to the Capitol rotunda to pray for representatives who currently support this immoral budget to see the danger of policy that kills and choose life. We came believing that God can take out a heart of stone and give anyone a heart of flesh,” said Barber and Wilson-Hartgrove.
“That is why we chose to pray in the Capitol rotunda yesterday. And that is the prayer we hope to embody with a growing and expanding moral movement in this nation until ‘justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.'”
Barber garnered national attention in 2013 for his weekly “Moral Monday” protests outside the North Carolina Legislature over issues he had with various policy proposals.
He has served as co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, which in 2019 hosted a “Moral Action Congress” in Washington, D.C., where nine leading Democratic 2020 presidential hopefuls, including former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris, gave remarks.
The Poor People’s Campaign led the “Mass Poor People’s & Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington” in June 2022.
In June 2023, Barber retired from ministry to focus more on political activism. He preached a retirement sermon at Greenleaf Christian Church of Goldsboro, North Carolina, where he had served as pastor since 1993.
Barber has often supported left-leaning causes, such as abortion, and is a strong critic of President Donald Trump.
Suffering from a severe type of arthritis known as ankylosing spondylitis since he was in his 20s, Barber said in his retirement the sermon that “God does His best work with cripples.”
“Every main character that you heard, read from 2 Corinthians to Isaiah to Matthew to Samuel, is crippled, broken, handicapped,” said Barber at the time. “Is that your story, too?”
“Somewhere in this room, there’s not a person in here that does not have some crippling reality, some brokenness, some handicap. And yet, when you read the texts, in some ways, their stories testify to the glory of God.”
