The PC(USA)’s advocacy director joins other faith leaders for a Moral Mondays rally in front of the White House

LOUISVILLE — The Rev. Jimmie Hawkins, advocacy director for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), was one of about a half-dozen faith leaders to speak in front of the White House as part of Repairers of the Breach’s Moral Mondays movement.

Watch the 62-minute event here. Hawkins begins his three-minute address at 36:02.

After reading Matthew 25:35, Hawkins noted that Jesus’ words “echo today as far too many Christians are consumed by the desire to out-holy one another by saying words of religiosity and piousness but never uttering a word about justice, just actions or compassion.” But Jesus teaches “these are the actions that matter most in our response to a living and active and just God.”

“We stand in front of a White House filled with people coming and going who drape themselves with the cloths of Christianity but do not act with decency or morality,” Hawkins said. “We’re calling for universal healthcare today for each and every person who lives in this country.”

Despite passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, “America remains an outlier in healthcare,” Hawkins said. While the U.S. is home to “some of the best hospitals in the world, it is also the only rich country without universal health coverage and healthcare that leads to bankruptcy. In a country ranked Number 1 in healthcare spending per capita, people are living shorter lives, feeling more depressed and are more likely to skip treatment due to cost than in many developed nations.”

“We’re here today to call for healthcare for all people, because America has a problem seen the world over: that voluntary insurance cannot ensure that everybody gets covered,” Hawkins said. A member of the U.S. House of Representatives said recently that Americans should invest more in their own healthcare rather than rushing to purchase, for example, the latest cellphone.

“What a shame for a congressman in the United States of America. We don’t stand with him,” Hawkins said. “We stand with Senator Bernie Sanders, who calls for Medicare for All.”

Rather than adopting the greatest commandment — love God and love our neighbor as ourself — “far too many march [under] the banner of saluting a god of war,” Hawkins said. “Our country has lost its way, but we’re here today to help it find its way back to redemption.”

“Our God has called us to understand that we are to stand for those who are indeed most in need, our brothers and our sisters. We can make a difference — if we stand together,” Hawkins said.

Bishop William J. Barber, II, president and senior lecturer for Repairers of the Breach, told those gathered it’s important to understand “why we are building a public pulpit today.”

“The pulpit cannot be locked behind stained-glass windows in this season,” Barber said. “The pulpit cannot be confined to the safe boundaries of the sanctuary. Too many of our leaders want to choreograph holiness. They want a sterile, comfortable religion that judges a person’s walk of faith by the height of their steeple, the layout of their sanctuary or the sweetness of the Sunday morning hymns.”

“But we hear the word of the Lord today: God despises that kind of hollow performance,” Barber said. “We need a public pulpit right here on the pavement to counter this toxic falsehood of religious nationalism. Let’s tell the truth in the open air today: Those founders were flawed, slave-holding men who wrote about liberty while keeping their brothers and sisters in chains.”

“Our calling is to cry loud and despair not. We are crying loud because God tells us to. We’re gonna cry loud until justice comes,” Barber said. “Lift you your voice! Build a pulpit in your own town. … God needs a witness until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. God needs a witness! We are here because in every age, God needs a witness.”

“Our church believes good government is a gift from God,” said Bishop Philip Hirsch, the Lutheran Bishop of Metro Washington, D.C. Synod. “The faith community has been a pivotal voice across generations — in courtrooms and pulpits, at kitchen tables and in public witness like this, working to bring our nation closer to the promise of equal participation, and we will continue this work.”

“The Episcopal Church knows that voting rights not only allow people to exercise their citizenship freely, but those rights also acknowledge and affirm the image of God in every person,” said the Rev. Theresa Lewallen, an ordained deacon in the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia. “Protecting voting rights and exercising those rights are a way to put a stop to policy violence. Pray that God will transform the hearts of our leaders and give them courage to turn their actions.”

“Will we answer violence with violence, or answer violence with love?” asked Dr. Hanna Broom, national director of religious affairs for Repairers of the Breach. “They are betting we’ll go home tired. We’re going to disappoint them, y’all. May the God who made you whole make you menders.”