A Diary entry from Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II.
On Monday, September 12, 2016, at 11:00 a.m., delegations of clergy led the “Higher Ground Moral Day of Action” marches at 30 state capitol buildings and the city hall building in the District of Columbia.
Throughout “The Revival: Time for a Moral Revolution of Values” tour, we are challenging what I call the “theological malpractice” of the so-called religious right that attempts to limit the moral debate in our country to issues such as prayer in public schools, abortion, and homosexuality. Instead, we declare that the deepest public concerns of our faith traditions are how our society treats the poor, those on the margins, the least of these, women, children, workers, immigrants and the sick; equality and representation under the law; and the desire for peace, love and harmony within and among nations.
The prophet admonishes us:
Woe to those who make unjust laws,
to those who issue oppressive decrees,
to deprive the poor of their rights
and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,
making widows their prey
and robbing the fatherless. (Isaiah 10:1-2, New International Version, NIV)
And in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus declares the necessity to care for the poor, the needy, and the oppressed:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19, New International Version, NIV)
The central focus of our United States Constitution calls for the establishment of Justice, to provide for the Common Defense, to promote the General Welfare, and to insure Domestic Tranquility. We demand that public policy be critiqued through these lenses.
Therefore, together, we lift up and defend the most sacred moral principles of our faith and constitutional values, which are:
- Pro-labor, anti-poverty, anti-racist policies that build up economic democracy through employment, living wages, the alleviation of disparate unemployment, a just transition away from fossil fuels, labor rights, affordable housing, direct cash transfers and other support for all families struggling to get by, and fair policies for immigrants; and by critiquing policies around warmongering that undermine our moral standing and ability to address domestic issues;
- Equality in education by ensuring every child receives a high quality, well-funded, constitutionally diverse public education, as well as access to community colleges and universities and by securing equitable funding for minority colleges and universities;
- Healthcare for all by expanding Medicaid in every state, ensuring access to Medicare and Social Security, moving decisively towards a universal, transparent, and equitable healthcare system, and by providing environmental protection and protecting women’s health;
- Fairness in the criminal justice system by addressing the continuing inequalities in the system for black, brown and poor white people and fighting the proliferation of guns;
- Voting rights, women’s rights, LGBT rights, labor rights, religious freedom rights, immigrant rights and the fundamental principle of equal protection under the law.
We believe our moral traditions have a firm foundation upon which to stand against the divide-and-conquer strategies of extremists. We know better than to accept their lies. We claim a higher ground in partisan debate. Our September 12, 2016, Moral Day of Action events, called on elected state leaders and candidates to support a broad social agenda that stands against systemic racism, classism, poverty, xenophobia, and all attempts to promote hate towards any members of the human family.
All of us at the Moral Day of Action events across the 30 states and the District of Columbia have stood and said that it doesn’t matter what party is in power or who has a political supermajority. There are some things that transcend political majorities and majority politics. There are some things that transcend the narrow categories of Liberal v. Conservative. There are some things that must be challenged because they are wrong, extreme, and immoral.
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Therefore, it is extreme, morally indefensible, and constitutionally inconsistent for any state to make it harder for citizens to vote!
It is extreme not to address systemic racism or not to pay workers a living wage.
It is extreme not to guarantee labor rights in a country whose founding documents declare that we all have the right to equal protection under the law.
It is extreme that 100 years after Teddy Roosevelt first called for health care reform (because no nation can be great if its people are sick and poor) for elected politicians, who get free healthcare, to fight against providing the same care for all people.
It is extreme to raise taxes and fees on poor and working-class citizens in order to cut taxes for North Carolina’s 23 wealthiest families!
It is extreme 62 years after Brown vs Board of Education to see resegregated, high poverty schools be a major challenge in our country and to under fund our public schools in order to hand them over to private companies through the voucher program.
It is extreme in a country to pledge, “one nation, under God, with Liberty and Justice for all,” and then to fight Justice for LGBTQ peoples, to fight Justice for immigrants in a country of immigrants, and to see politicians propose policies, which, if they were in place years ago, would have excluded their own ancestors’ entries into this country.
It is extreme to care more about the 2nd amendment than the 15th amendment or to attempt to make it easier to get an assault rifle than a voting card
It is extreme to claim that legitimate discontent against police brutality and the killing of unarmed blacks is anti-police.
It is extreme to castigate certain religions for political purposes and not to love the Palestinian child and the Jewish child equally.
Yes, it is an absolute necessity for the destiny of our democracy that we realize we have to look at our public policies through the moral lens of “Justice for all” and through the constitutional principle of “the Common Good”.
And when we see clearly, we have to continue to raise our dissent.
We must raise our dissent, knowing that whether it is heard now or later, history has shown that moral dissent sows the seeds of change that blossom in the landscape of our democracy.
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Forward Together!
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II