Presbyterians host and pray for a national voting initiative

LOUISVILLE — Ecumenical voting rights advocates Repairers of the Breach prepared to mobilize people for marches to the polls during a gathering at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., Monday evening, with the Rev. Jimmie Hawkins helping to send them on their way. Watch a recording of Monday’s gathering here. A march completed the event.

Hawkins, Advocacy Director for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), prayed at the onset of Monday’s gathering in a sanctuary that had already been filled with music and enthusiasm.

“Most gracious God, we pray for holy revival tonight,” Hawkins prayed. “As the music lifted us up, let your Holy Spirit breathe upon us new life. Refresh us and give us energy and strength for all of the work ahead.

“We pray to be like the prophet Jeremiah, who said that your Spirit is like a fire burning deep inside of me, and I cannot hold it in. Tonight we pray we might let it out — a cry for justice, a call for peace, a call for dignity for all people. It does not matter what your status in life might be — you are a child of God, made in the image and likeness of our God. Therefore, we stand together, united in faith, united in hope, united in power.

“Fill this place with your Spirit. In your holy name we pray, amen.”

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The Rev. Dr. Sarah Johnson Austin, the church’s senior pastor, was unable to attend, but sent a letter read by Morgan Brown, who chairs the church’s Justice Committee. The letter read in part: “Though I could not be with you in person, my heart and prayers are fully present with this moral movement calling our nation to the table of democracy and vision.

“Thank you for your commitment to the sacred work of protecting the vote, defending the vulnerable and insisting that justice roll down like waters. Our congregation stands with you and is grateful you are gathered in our sanctuary this evening for this important event.”

“We gather here tonight because a vote is a moral testimony,” said the Rev. Moya Harris, senior director of programs and director of racial justice at Sojourners. “There are senators hell-bent on pushing through the so-called SAVE Act. This isn’t abstract. It’s happening now.”

“Who decides whether families can afford a safe, decent place to call home? It’s the people we elect,” said Renee Willis, president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. “That’s why we say affordable homes are built by ballots.”

By more than seven million homes, the nation lacks for housing for low-income residents, according to Willis. “When people are denied a home, democracy is diminished,” she said. “We are honored to stand with you today for Moral Monday. Our homes and our democracy are inseparable.”

Quoting James 2:17, Malik Ready, an educator and faith leader, said that “when we don’t put faith into action, where are we? Maybe God is calling us to be the answer to the prayers we are praying.”

Bishop Brian R. Thompson of the Mid-Atlantic Episcopal District of the AME Zion Church noted that “believing means we can turn things around.” Thompson invoked Mark’s account of Jesus restoring sight to Bartimaeus, whom Mark’s gospel calls a “blind beggar.”

“We are no longer begging. We are demanding,” Thompson said. “Jesus had mercy on him, and he started believing things will come to pass. We can turn this around, because God is able to do all things.”

The Rev. Stephen Tickner of North Chevy Chase Christian Church said he’s “haunted by immigrants being pulled off the street by masked ICE officers.”

“I’m here because I was radicalized by a gospel that taught me God’s love is unconditional and for everyone. I was also taught by a mom who said, ‘Don’t be a hypocrite,’” Tickner said. “How can I do nothing and violate my mom’s teaching and the gospel I was taught?”

The Rev. Carolyn Foster of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and the Alabama chapter of the Poor People’s Campaign said that 47% of her fellow Alabamians are poor and low income. Eleven rural hospitals have closed statewide, “and our legislators decided not to expand Medicaid. I have friends who died because they did not have healthcare,” Foster said.

“Obstacles to voting run rampant in Alabama. We’re working like crazy to wake the sleeping giant [of voter apathy or voting inaccessibility] in Alabama. That’s why I’m here.”

The Rev. Dr. Della J. Owens-Barber of Saint James Christian Church in Wilson, North Carolina, said that in Matthew’s gospel, “no community was too small” for Jesus’ ministry, “and no one was overlooked.”

“Are you weary of the inequalities we see people going through? It’s time to mobilize the weary and march to the polls,” she said. “Every vote is a voice against a war we never asked for, for your neighbor who fears deportation, to protect and expand voting rights and to ensure healthcare and living wages.

“Make your voice heard,” she urged. “Make your vote count.”

“Don’t discount what’s going on here,” said her husband, the Rev. Dr. William Barber II, president and senior lecturer at Repairers of the Breach. “There is a certain urgency of this present hour. This is not the same battle our mothers and fathers fought.”

“If we ever needed the vote, we sure do need the vote now.”

In Hebrew, the word for “vote” is the same as the word for “voice,” Barber pointed out. “The right to vote isn’t casual or abstract; it’s a right born out of deep struggle,” he said. “Voting is a holy gift from the God of justice.”

“This election must be about entering the battle to never sound ‘Retreat’ again,” Barber said. “It must be done from a vision of love and truth and justice that demands and offers a better way.”

To his fellow clergy, Barber said this: “People must build public pulpits.”

“We do not need another mass gathering in Washington for one day to come and gripe about the problems that exist,” he said. “You don’t march on election years. You march to the polls.”

“Whenever we put faith and works together, God shows up,” Barber concluded, “right here, right now!”