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After-Action Release: Moral Leaders & Moral Activists Gather Outside White House to Challenge “Rededicate 250” Gathering and Religious Nationalism Used to Justify War and Policy Violence
Moral leaders and impacted people spoke outside the White House in direct response to the administration’s “Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise, & Thanksgiving” event, calling for peace, justice, democracy, and investment in poor and working people.
WASHINGTON, DC —A diverse group of impacted people, faith leaders, activists, and people of moral conscience gathered Monday evening outside the White House for a Moral Monday Moral Response to Religious Nationalism and public witness challenging the administration’s “Rededicate 250” gathering and the distorted moral narrative used to justify war and policy violence.
Bishop William J. Barber II, President and Senior Lecturer of Repairers of the Breach, led the action alongside nationally recognized clergy and moral leaders from across the country and called on the nation to repent and reject religious nationalism, policy violence, and extremism.
At approximately 5 p.m., clergy and moral activists stepped off the sidewalk and into the middle of H Street during rush hour traffic, turning the space directly outside the White House into what Bishop Barber called “a public pulpit” and “a public place of proclamation.” Throughout the gathering, speakers preached, prayed, sang freedom songs, carried placards condemning war and policy violence, and publicly challenged the theology and extremism that took place during Sunday’s White House-backed “Rededicate 250” event.
Monday’s action started with singing led by movement musicians and Yara Allen, Director of Theomusicology and Cultural Arts at Repairers of the Breach, including an offering of “We Shall Not Be Moved.”
Eric Faret opened the gathering with an interfaith prayer for peace and justice, calling on political leaders to reject violence and policies that harm vulnerable communities.
“Guide the leaders of this nation, especially those entrusted with authority, to govern not through hatred or violence, but with wisdom, humility, justice, and love for all people,” Faret said. “May truth rise above the propaganda. Love rise above fear and peace rise above war.”
Bishop Barber then directly challenged Sunday’s “Rededicate 250” event and the broader moral failure of religious institutions that remain silent in the face of war, poverty, voter suppression, healthcare denial, and attacks on immigrants and vulnerable communities.
“Any gathering, including the one yesterday that claims to be representing faith or religious faith, that doesn’t speak out against unholy war, that doesn’t challenge poverty and death, is irreligious contrary to our deepest faith traditions,” Bishop Barber said. “Think about how many religious events we’re having in this nation while 800 people are dying a day from poverty.”
“Every piece of policy violence has a death measure. For every 500,000 people that are denied health care, 2500 people die,” Denial of voting rights, denial of health care, denial of climate change, it has a death measurement
“Voting rights are a gift of your humanity and a part of what it means to be made in the image of God. Whenever somebody tries to take away your ability to choose, they are suggesting you’re not human,” he said. “Refusal to address these things is a misrepresentation of faith and contrary to the teaching of Jesus and the prophets of scripture.”
“Throughout the evening, moral leaders laid out a critique of the “Rededicate 250” gathering while also challenging the broader danger of religious nationalism and failures by political leaders who remained silent in the face of poverty, war, voter suppression, attacks on immigrants, and other issues impacting poor and vulnerable communities.
Rev. Dr. Alvin O’Neal Jackson, one of the national co-leads of the gathering and a longtime moderator within the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), denounced what he called “the madness” coming from the White House, Congress, and the Supreme Court.
“There’s a whole lot of madness coming out of this house behind us,” he said, and called attention to the real madness being enabled by extremism.
“Denying peace, but choosing an unholy war of choice in Iran is madness. Denying voting rights is madness. Denying living wages is madness. Denying freedom from poverty is madness. Denying labor rights is madness. Denying statehood for the citizens of DC is madness. Denying the rights of indigenous people is madness. Denying a welcome to our immigrant brothers and sisters is madness. Denying climate change is madness.”
Rev. Dr. Della Owens spoke about repentance, sharing that no legitimate national rededication could happen without confronting the country’s history of violence and injustice.
“When I see a golden image of the president erected and I hear of a rededication of the nation, I’m troubled,” she said. “If you’re going to rededicate, there must first be repentance… Repent for the child slavery of 4.4 million African people in the United States… Repent for approximately 4,743 people that were lynched in the United States.” She added, “Repent for engaging in an unholy war.”
Rev. Dr. Hanna Broome described Christian nationalism as “religious nationalism dressed up in Sunday clothes,” and said, “it waves the flag. But it wages war on the poor. It sings hymns, but it silences voters.”
“Any religion that makes people disposable is not defending God or the great creator. It is defending power and empire,” she said.
Rev. Sandy Sorenson, United Church of Christ, called Sunday’s gathering “a grandiose display of false religiosity and the power of empire cloaked in Christian nationalism.”
Mpolis Norris, of the Seventh Day Adventists, condemned leaders who “claim we’re a Christian nation,” while supporting “wars of choice,” “imperial greed,” and “American oligarchy.”
Rev. Adam Taylor of Sojourners described the event as “a threat to our very democracy and a threat to the integrity of our Christian witness.” He also criticized “religious cover to policies and rhetoric that directly betray Jesus’ call to prioritize the weightier matters of the law.”
Claudia Allen, Adventist Peace Fellowship, made comparisons between the recently unveiled Trump statue and the golden idol in the Book of Daniel, declaring, “Christian nationalism is not Christianity. It is idolatry.”
Clinton Wright, National Social Justice Organizer at Repairers of the Breach and a former public school teacher, reminded the nation that “there is a war on our students.”
“Fund teachers, not bombs and drones. Fund children, not ICE,” he said.
Rev. Dr. Christopher Zacharias, John Wesley AME Zion Church, rejected the administration’s framing of “rededication,” saying, “You cannot sow neglect of the poor and reap God’s blessing.”
As the gathering closed, Bishop Barber told the nation that “the only response for war is you got to have mass preaching in the public square that never turns off.”
Those gathered processed around H street in front of the White House as Yara Allen led songs, chanting, “There’s no statue. There’s no man. There is no policy that can make us bow.”
Repairers of the Breach has led Moral Monday actions nationally since the start of the U.S.-led war in Iran, urging policymakers to stop funding war and instead invest in life-giving programs that benefit poor and vulnerable communities.
Monday’s action is part of a growing national movement of nonviolent moral resistance demanding that policymakers stop funding war and instead invest in programs that support poor and vulnerable communities.
The full livestream of Monday’s action can be viewed on the Repairers of the Breach livestream page.
To review analysis from the Institute for Policy Studies’ National Priorities Project on the cost of war and what those resources could fund instead, click here.
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