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The Rev. Tony Larson, Co-Moderator of the 226th General Assembly (2024), offered the opening prayer for the Moral Monday gathering in front of the Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C.
Repairers of the Breach and other faith groups organized the gathering, which was joined by thousands of people watching online. Organizers seek to significantly alter the multitrillion bill of tax breaks and program cuts passed by House Republicans by a margin of one vote last month. The “One Big Beautiful Bill” has moved on to the Senate, where it faces potential opposition, even among a handful of Republican senators.
Go here to watch the Moral Monday event. Because of technical difficulties, Larson’s prayer was not included in the broadcast; he sent the text of his prayer to Presbyterian News Service.
“We know that God neither sleeps nor slumbers, so let us go to God in prayer,” Larson told the large crowd assembled in front of the Supreme Court building before attendees would hear from speakers and many would march to the Capitol while others held the grounds near the Supreme Court building.
“God of all Creation, we are grateful today that so many have gathered from so many traditions to make a moral witness,” Larson prayed. “God, you are the Ruler to which all rulers are accountable. Lord, you have declared that those in authority have a special responsibility for the poor and most vulnerable in society. So Lord, we pray that our leaders would hear the cries of the poor, of those of faith and conscience, and find the courage to not strip people of food assistance and health care, but strip those provisions from this bill.
“God, to whom every life is sacred, you care for all people — not just after death, but how they live. So, we pray that our leaders may do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. In God’s holy name we pray. Amen.”
The Rev. Dr. William Barber II, who founded Repairers of the Breach and co-founded, along with a Presbyterian pastor, the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, the Poor People’s Campaign, recalled the pointed question pose by the four lepers as recorded in 2 Kings: Will we just sit here and die?
“The answer was no. We might die, but we’re not going to just sit here,” Barber said. “They had moral courage, and it’s time for us to have some moral courage. If you and I are still breathing, the question is, what are we going to do with the breath we have left?”
The “One Big Beautiful Bill” is currently being reshaped in the Senate, said John Cavanagh, senior advisor for the Institute for Policy Studies. “It can and will be reshaped by the will of the people,” Cavanagh said. The main beneficiaries of the current bill are those who will build new immigrant detention centers, defense contractors, billionaires and corporations, Cavanagh said, adding, “This is policy violence, and we’re here to defeat it with you.”
Organizers for Moral Monday invited people directly affected by the proposed cuts to Medicaid to speak. Sloan Meek of Durham, North Carolina, a disability rights advocate, speaker and activist, said from a wheelchair, “I have a pretty cool life. I am a good neighbor; helping out is important to me because of the help I get from friends and neighbors.” Passage of the bill as it now stands will ensure Meek spends the rest of his life in a nursing home, Meek said. “Wanting to live a full life is not taking advantage of the system. I hope our prayers can guide our country’s leaders to make the right choice.”
Ezra Levin, the co-founder and co-executive director of Indivisible, said people sometimes call those who are organizing “fearless.”
“Oh no,” Levin said. “If you’re fearless, you aren’t paying attention. We’ve all got fear.”
Levin recalled 2017, the year that a top legislative priority for many was to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The passage of that landmark legislation followed this arc, he said: first it’s considered impossible, then it’s “you’re wasting your time,” “then we do it, and then they say, ‘It was always going to happen,’” Levin said. “It goes from impossible to inevitable.”
“When you see politicians trying to turn all the levers of power for their use,” Barber said, “it’s because they are afraid that if the majority of people understand what they are doing, they won’t have a following.”
“Wealth is a trust, not an entitlement,” said Imam Earl Abdulmalik Mohammed. The Quran makes clear that “in their wealth there is a known right for the needy and the deprived,” he noted. “A government that claims to be moral must tax to repair what society has breached or broken. It is imperative that we fight, and ask you, our fellow citizens, to fight against this unjust legislation.”
Rabbi Kelly Whitehead of the National Council of Jewish Women mentioned the story of Moses and the rest of God’s people receiving the Torah at the base of Mt. Sinai. “I believe we are all here now, standing again at the foot of a mountain — a mountain of systems of injustice, hearing that same call of Divine urgency,” a call that instructs us to feed the hungry, protect communities, care for the sick and the elderly, welcome the stranger, “and demand that our leaders do better — not for some, but for all.”
“We are ready to receive,” Whitehead said, “ready to respond, ready to rise and ready to build a world that is not just possible, but necessary.”
“We are here because Jesus said so,” said the Rev. Terri Hoard Owens, General Minister and President of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). In Deuteronomy, she said, the people are instructed to leave extra grain, grapes and olives for those in need.
“We are the most prosperous nation on the face of the Earth,” she said. “To say we cannot afford to make sure this nation lives up to the fullest meaning of its creed — that is a lie, and it’s evil to suggest it cannot. This is not only an immoral bill, it’s an evil bill, and woe to those who legislate evil. The math ain’t mathin’ here.”
Hoard Owens said she lost a good friend named Pat to the tornadoes in St. Louis last month. Pat spent her last day feeding the hungry in the church she attended.
“Pat was about, ‘let’s get it done,’” Hoard Owens said. “Are you with us? Let’s get it done.”
After the speeches, some participants marched to the Capitol Rotunda for a time of prayer. Some were subject to arrest, although Larson said police closed the Rotunda after the first group went inside to pray and didn’t leave when warned.
