The Rev. Margaret Ernst, a United Church of Christ minister and leader with Christians for a Free Palestine, said those arrested included 30 ordained clergy, as well as Baptists, Lutherans, Catholics, Presbyterians, Mennonites, Unitarian Universalists, Quakers and members of the United Church of Christ and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Ethan Raivala, left, and Larry Hebert at a Christians for a Free Palestine protest at the Capitol, April 9, 2024. Both individuals are on hunger strikes due to the war in Gaza. (RNS photo/Aleja Hertzler-McCain)
At the Communion service, Larry Hebert, an active-duty airman on the 10th day of a hunger strike, joined the Christian protesters. Hebert said he hopes to get other members of the military to speak up about the starvation in Gaza.
“The Christian tradition is one of incarnation and embodiment,” Washington-Leaphart, who was among the protesters who decided to risk arrest, told Religion News Service. “Living out my faith is a matter of complete embodiment. It is putting my body in the way of injustice and oppression.”
Tuesday’s civil disobedience marked the second largest group of Christians arrested in protests at the Capitol since the war began. About 130 Mennonites were arrested at the Capitol in January after they held a hymn sing sit-in calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. And on Oct. 18, about 300 or more interfaith protesters, most of them Jewish, were arrested as part of a demonstration organized by Jewish Voice for Peace.
Leaders with Christians for a Free Palestine said they drew direct inspiration from Mennonite Action, which organized the January hymn sing, including collaborating with some of the group’s leaders.
Jonathan Brenneman, a Mennonite and Palestinian American who has long worked with Palestinian and Israeli peacemakers and the Mennonite Church USA, took a leadership role in both actions. “Movements inspire more movement,” he told RNS. “And that is what this moment calls for.”
Adam Ramer, one of the coordinators of Mennonite Action, had served as California Rep. Ro Khanna’s political director until Ramer resigned when Khanna refused to sign a cease-fire resolution in the weeks after Oct. 7. Khanna backed a cease-fire on Nov. 21.
Christians for a Free Palestine leaders said they are drawing on many of Mennonite Action’s tactics, including organizing mass mobilization Zoom calls and days of action where Christians take local action at their elected officials’ offices.
Tuesday’s protest follows a worldwide day of rallies on Sunday commemorating the six-month anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks and demanding the release of the 133 hostages still held by Hamas, some of whom are presumed to be dead.
After Tuesday’s protest at the Capitol, a spokesperson for the U.S. Capitol Police told RNS: “Approximately 50 people were arrested for illegally demonstrating inside the Dirksen Senate Office Building this afternoon. It is illegal to demonstrate inside any of the Congressional Buildings. The charge is D.C. Code § 22–1307 — Crowding, Obstructing, or Incommoding.”
U.S. Capitol Police arrive to arrest demonstrators during a Christians for a Free Palestine protest in the U.S. Senate cafeteria, April 9, 2024, at the Capitol in Washington. (RNS photo/Aleja Hertzler-McCain)
Ernst said Nichola Torbett, a Pennsylvania-based organizer, helped the group plan the protest through a concept called liturgical direct action, where organizers started with Scripture and asked questions such as “What moves us in Christian worship?” “What’s powerful about the Christian story?”
The protest’s leaders said their nonviolent direct action comes from biblical tradition, pointing to the midwives who refused Pharoah’s command to kill infant Hebrew boys and Jesus overturning the money changers’ tables in the temple.
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