Last week, Barber and two others were arrested while praying in the Rotunda.
“It is a sad day in America when you can be arrested in the people’s house for merely praying because the congresspeople in a party in that house are choosing to prey — P-R-E-Y — on the most vulnerable of this nation, along with the president of the nation,” Barber told RNS in a phone interview, referring to the latest arrests. “But we will not bow. We will not stop. We have to raise moral dissent.”
The arrests both weeks followed rallies earlier in the day in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, where faith leaders repeatedly decried the bill.
“We are gathered here in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, and in the shadow of the Capitol, to stand up and to speak out about a federal budget that seems to have emerged like a phoenix from the very pit of hell,” said the Rev. Leslie Copeland-Tune, of the National Council of Churches, on May 5.
Claiborne also railed against the bill and criticized those who have invoked faith to defend President Donald Trump’s policies. He held up a version of the four biblical gospels that had all verses relating to the poor, love and compassion redacted to make his point.
“It’s called the Gospel of Donald Trump,” he said.
Organizers say they plan to continue the demonstrations over the next few weeks as Congress continues to debate the budget bill, which Trump has described as a “big, beautiful bill.”
Claiborne said even as he and the others sat in the back of a police van on Monday, the group was already planning future demonstrations.
“We were doing two hours of organizing with Rev. Alvin (Jackson) in there,” Claiborne said, laughing. “One less Zoom call.”
This story has been updated with comments from Claiborne and Barber. This article originally appeared here.
, the second time in as many weeks clergy and others have been handcuffed as they speak out against the Republican-led budget bill.){kind=link}