Rev. Barber calls for healing of America’s ‘heart problem’
22nd August 2016 · 0 Comments
By Della Hasselle
Contributing Writer
According to the Rev. Dr. William Barber II, a Protestant minister, political leader and member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, America has “a heart problem.”
It’s not so much a widespread medical condition, he says, but a moral one.
The architect of a what’s being called the “Forward Together Moral Movement” diagnosed the country’s condition several weeks ago, during the Democratic National Convention.
Among other issues, the pastor pointed to poverty and inequality, lack of equal voting rights and health care, poor minimum wage and a lack of quality public education throughout the country.
“Racism, hatred, and bigotry are disintegrating any possibility for life, liberty and a pursuit of happiness for everyone in these United States,” Barber said.
Now, the pastor is calling on people from around the nation to do something about it, by holding a moral revolution of sorts during a protest he is calling a National Day of Action.
On Sept. 12, the movement will bring together people in capitols of 25 states, Barber said, to deliver what he’s calling the “Higher Ground Moral Declaration.”
Barber hopes hundreds of thousands of people from all over the nation at the same time will call on politicians in Washington, D.C., to stop entertaining extremism and reframe the political platform to focus on “moral issues.”
The message calls on governors, senators, state legislators and candidates for office to “move away from extremist politics and policies that benefit the few” and move toward policies and laws that are more inclusive for the majority.
Barber outlined his plan during an August 17 conference call and webinar that drew in hundreds of listeners from around the nation.
“We really need a moral reset in this country. We need a moral revolution of values,” Barber said. “There is a hunger throughout [the] nation for us to have a moral reset in [the] nation throughout the public square.”
Among those participating Wednesday were members of the Progressive Democrats of America, the New York State Council of Churches, the Institute for the Elimination of Poverty & Genocide, the Concerned Citizens for Justice and The Movement for Black Lives.
Together, Barber said, members from those organizations and beyond could join together to form what he is calling “Repairers of the Breach.”
The new movement is described on its website as “a nonpartisan and ecumenical organization” that seeks to build a “progressive agenda” rooted in a moral framework. Ultimately, organizers hope to counter “ultra-conservative constructs that try to dominate the public square.”
The organization seeks to build public policies that aren’t “tenets of neo-conservatism,” Barber said. The movement is comprised of both clergy and lay people from different faiths, and also people without a spiritual practice but who share the “moral principles at the heart of the great moral teachings,” he said.
“Repairers will expand a ‘school of prophets’ who can broadly spread the vision of a nation that is just and loving,” Barber said.
According to Barber, by educating church and lay leaders, his movement can then educate the public about what he says are connections between shared religious faith traditions and public policy.
He said the movement was fighting “ultra-conservatives who have misinterpreted Christianity and other faith traditions,” and those who “hate the poor,” with messages of anti-racism, anti-poverty and anti-extremism.
Already, more than 1,500 clergies from different faiths have signed the moral declaration, Barber said.
This isn’t the first time that Barber, the pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church, Disciples of Christ in Goldsboro, North Carolina, has sought to impact change in policy.
In 2013, his Forward Together Moral Movement gained national acclaim with its Moral Monday protests at the North Carolina General Assembly, according to his website.
Those actions drew tens of thousands of North Carolinians and other moral witnesses to the state legislature. More than 1,050 peaceful protesters were arrested, handcuffed and jailed.
Since then, Barber has keynoted hundreds of national and state conferences and spoken to national unions, fraternities and sororities, motorcycle organizations, and even drug dealer conferences.
He’s also spoken to women’s groups, economic policy voting rights LGBTQ groups, environmental and criminal justice groups, small organizing committees of domestic workers, fast food workers, Christians, Muslims, Jews, atheists and others, he said.
Barber has served as president of the North Carolina NAACP, the largest state conference in the South, since 2006. He sits on the National NAACP Board of Directors.
He is also a former Mel King Fellow at MIT, is currently a Visiting Professor of Public Theology and Activism at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York and is a Senior Fellow at Auburn Seminary.
In 2015, he was the recipient of the Puffin Award and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Award. His two most recent books include “Forward Together” (Chalice Press) and “The Third Reconstruction” (Beacon Press).
To be a part of the National Day of Action, participants should send Barber an email at info@breachrepairers.org with their names, states where they live, a phone number and the organizations they associates with, if any.
This article originally published in the August 22, 2016 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
