William Barber, activists arrested for demonstrating against budget proposal in US Capitol

[Michie]

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.

Continued below.

William Barber, activists arrested for demonstrating against budget proposal in US Capitol

The Rev William Barber II and other progressive Christian activists were arrested at the Capitol rotunda in Washington, D C after protesting the proposed Republican-led congressional budget

www.christianpost.com

 

[FireDragon76]

The article makes a misstatement about the Rev. Barber, implying he advocates for abortion as an unqualified good. This is an unfair oversimplification of his stance on abortion, one that is widely shared by clergy in our churches.

The Christian Post needs to be doing more to build bridges and genuinely inform people, not to treat Mainline Protestants like the Rev. Barber as some inscrutable other. The Rev. Barber is a retired Disciples of Christ pastor who is still active in public theology. The Disciples of Christ is a denomination that we in the UCC are in full pulpit and table fellowship with.

Building bridges of understanding is what journalism should be about, instead the Christian Post focuses on Barber's supposed otherness as being a "progressive Christian", and not his Christian witness of speaking truth to power.

 

[Michie]

I’ve read up on him. He preaches on divisiveness and otherness all the time. You just need to disagree with him to be put in the category of divisiveness.

 

[FireDragon76]

I’ve read up on him. He preaches on divisiveness and otherness all the time. You just need to disagree with him to be put in the category of divisiveness.

I asked ChatGPT if the Rev. William Barber has a divisive message: Here is its brief response:

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II’s public ministry is grounded in a vision of a “public theology that is good news for all people,” explicitly rejecting “divisive cultural wedge issues” in favor of unity across race and class. Through initiatives like Moral Mondays and the Poor People’s Campaign, he frames social justice as a shared moral imperative, aiming to build broad coalitions rather than deepen divides.

Of course people with a stake in power and oppressing the poor and marginalized are going to find Barber "divisive". People found Jesus divisive too. But that doesn't mean it's accurate to describe Jesus, or the Rev. Barber, as "divisive".

 

[Michie]

I read that. I appreciate all the work you do to research the internet before answering threads but his message waters down the Gospel which is already good news for all people. Being pro-abortion and considering it good news is not good news. “There is no moral obligation to have a baby just because you are pregnant?” Etc. The Christian Post is not being divisive in the op. All one needs to do is look Barber up. He considers orthodoxy divisive. Well of course it is. Jesus warned us of it.

 

[FireDragon76]

All one needs to do is look Barber up. He considers orthodoxy divisive. Well of course it is. Jesus warned us of it.

Jesus never preached the Nicene Creed or the Baltimore Catechism. It's something people made up to try to explain their faith, but it wasn't made by God.

The Disciples of Christ, the denomination that Barber is from, doesn't believe that Christians should use creeds as tests of faith. So the concept of "orthodoxy" isn't really a rigid boundarymarker as it is in something like Catholicism.

 

[Michie]

Jesus never preached the Nicene Creed or the Baltimore Catechism, and I would submit that something like that was pretty far from what he meant by his teachings. It's something people made up to try to explain their faith, but it wasn't made by God.

The Disciples of Christ, the denomination that Barber is from, doesn't believe that Christians should use creeds as tests of faith. So the concept of "orthodoxy" isn't really a rigid boundarymarker as it is in something like Catholicism.

What they believe and do not believe can be seen by what they preach. All one needs to do is read early Christian history to know they are making up as they go along disguised with a very thin veil of something they call Christianity.

 

[FireDragon76]

What they believe and do not believe can be seen by what they preach. All one needs to do is read early Christian history to know they are making up as they go along disguised with a very thin veil of something they call Christianity.

God is still speaking. Revelation isn't an artifact from the past meant to be kept inside a pretty display case.

 

[Michie]

Of course He is still speaking but He is not going to go against His own word and start preaching a different gospel mired in the cause of the day by scratching every itching ear.

 

[FireDragon76]

Of course He is still speaking but He is not going to go against His own word and start preaching a different gospel mired in the cause of the day by scratching every itching ear.

I don't see how the Rev. William Barber is preaching a different Gospel. Advocating for social justice isn't "a different Gospel". It's living out a vocation from God to speak out on behalf of the poor and the marginalized.

 

[Michie]

Nobody said anything social justice. Again, all one has to do is look him up. People can decide for themselves about what he preaches and advocates for.

If the law of God says “this,” and you do “that,” it is unjust. If the law of God says “this,” and your heart goes toward “that,” it is unjust. Social justice, by definition, is not a heart issue; it's a state issue.It is about the state redistribution of advantages and resources to disadvantaged groups.

 

[FireDragon76]

Nobody said anything social justice. Again, all one has to do is look him up. People can decide for themselves.

If the law of God says “this,” and you do “that,” it is unjust. If the law of God says “this,” and your heart goes toward “that,” it is unjust. Social justice, by definition, is not a heart issue; it's a state issue.It is about the state redistribution of advantages and resources to disadvantaged groups.

It's important not to reduce a man's entire preaching to just a single remark. Nonetheless, I don't see the above as being problematic. His point is similar to many other Protestant pastors, that Christian love and discipleship should motivate us to demand systemic reforms to society, and not just leave things up to private, individualized acts of charity. The call for systemic reforms has been part of the Protestant tradition ever since the Reformation.

 

[Michie]

I read up on him. Societal change can be good. But his ideal deviates from the Gospel in my view. He is just a professional protestor trying to fit his politics into his brand of Christianity. The only reason I commented at all is because of your claim of the OP being divisive just as Barber does. There was nothing wrong with the op.

So I’ll leave you to it because you and I are not going to agree concerning Barber.

It's important not to reduce a man's entire preaching to just a single remark. Nonetheless, I don't see the above as being problematic. His point is similar to many other Protestant pastors, that Christian love and discipleship should motivate us to demand systemic reforms to society, and not just leave things up to private, individualized acts of charity. The call for systemic reforms has been part of the Protestant tradition ever since the Reformation.

 

[FireDragon76]

I'm not as familiar as I probably should be with Dr. Barber's work, but I have been watching more videos about him. Not only is he somebody that speaks prophetically, but he is also a person of personal piety that has spent his life steeped in the Scriptures and knows them very well. He is not somebody that is merely a political actor in religious garb, and that sort of attitude is libel against our religious traditions.

 

[Michie]

Last Tuesday, Republicans announced an agreement within their own party on abortion restrictions, which provides exceptions for rape, incest, fetal abnormalities or if a mother's life is in danger.

Religious Left Icon William Barber at Howard University Denounces Injustice

“God made you and God perfected you,” William Barber tells Howard students, but as Mia Steupert reports, the Religious Left icon doesn't include unborn.

juicyecumenism.com

 

[FireDragon76]

Last Tuesday, Republicans announced an agreement within their own party on abortion restrictions, which provides exceptions for rape, incest, fetal abnormalities or if a mother's life is in danger.

Religious Left Icon William Barber at Howard University Denounces Injustice

“God made you and God perfected you,” William Barber tells Howard students, but as Mia Steupert reports, the Religious Left icon doesn't include unborn.

juicyecumenism.com

Many Christians in my denomination are generally pro-choice to one degree or another, and it isn't unusual in other Mainline Protestant churches, either.

We aren't Catholics, and we don't insist on Catholic social teachings or ethics. We have our own tradition of Christian ethics quite distinct from Catholicism. We consider abortion ethics to be a complex matter, with consideration to a woman's bodily autonomy to be just as important as questions of personhood of the unborn. In such a situation, it is the individual conscience that must be informed by personal moral deliberation, and not dictated by the Church, because we believe the Church can err and the conscience must be bound only to the Word of God.

 

[Michie]

Many Christians in my denomination are generally pro-choice to one degree or another, and it isn't unusual in other Mainline Protestant churches, either.

We aren't Catholics, and we don't insist on Catholic social teachings or ethics. We have our own tradition of Christian ethics quite distinct from Catholicism. We consider abortion ethics to be a complex matter, with consideration to a woman's bodily autonomy to be just as important as questions of personhood of the unborn. In such a situation, it is the individual conscience that must come to their own conclusions through personal moral deliberation.

I’m familiar. But I’m not interested. A lot of Christian’s find elective abortion abhorrent and outside the teachings of Christianity. Catholics and other Christians are quite aware of other groups that think otherwise.

 

[FireDragon76]

I’m familiar. But I’m not interested. A lot of Christian’s find elective abortion abhorrent and outside the teachings of Christianity. Catholics and other Christians are quite aware of other groups that think otherwise.

These "other Christians" are latecomers. Historically, Protestant churches didn't take a political stance on abortion until the late 1970's, with even many conservative Evangelicals considering it something that shouldn't be a political issue. The Mainline Protestant tradition isn't exceptional in its ethics on abortion, as a result.

Protestants believe in the right of individuals to personal moral deliberation, that part of our core identity that developed out of Protestant ethics, starting all the way back with Luther.

 

[Michie]

These "other Christians" are latecomers. Historically, Protestant churches didn't take a political stance on abortion until the late 1970's, with even many conservative Evangelicals considering it something that shouldn't be a political issue. The Mainline Protestant tradition isn't exceptional in its ethics on abortion, as a result.

Protestants believe in the right of individuals to personal moral deliberation, that part of our core identity that developed out of Protestant ethics, starting all the way back with Luther.

Luther? That’s impressive.

 

[Laodicean60]

No one should be above the law.

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."