Marching Against an ‘Illegal and Unholy War’
“What we are seeing in many ways is a war on divinity being waged by a narcissist who has some kind of God complex.”
Rev. William Barber II made this declaration as he stood in front of the White House on Monday (April 27) along with dozens of other clergy to speak against the “illegal and unholy war” the Trump administration started against Iran. As part of his “Moral Mondays” movement that started in North Carolina in 2013, Barber noted they were gathered in Washington, D.C., and in 16 states that day to push for nonviolence, an end to the deadly war, and a shift from government spending on bombs instead of healthcare, education, and other lifegiving programs.
For Barber, a minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), what’s particularly needed in this moment is a revival of nonviolent principles. The crowd on Monday practiced what he preached by peacefully marching down 16th Street (in the area formally known as “Black Lives Matter Plaza” before its demolition last year) and then briefly blocking traffic to pray in the middle of H Street (in front of the closed Lafayette Square and the White House). After singing songs like “Down by the Riverside (Ain’t Gonna Study War No More),” the clergy marched to the music of a saxophonist.
“Strongmen — or women — are intimidated by real strength, which is what this nation and our world desperately needs right now. Real non-violent moral strength rooted in love and justice and truth-telling,” he declared. “We need the power and the moral authority of love to fight people who get up every morning and ask how they can use their power to hurt people that they see as enemies. We need the power of true moral authority to stand against the policy of violence that threatens lives here at home and around the world.”
“Nonviolence is not opting out of the struggle against the world’s injustice. Nonviolence is opting in to the struggle. Opting in to training and preparation for the use of a force more powerful than fist and guns and bombs,” he added. “They used to say in the Civil Rights Movement, we’ve got something inside of us that water can’t wash out and fire can’t burn out and bombs can’t blow out.”
As part of the effort to build a nonviolent resistance to the Iran war, Barber noted they are planning for larger rallies in D.C. and across the country on May 11. Additionally, he and other clergy read a “Declaration of Nonviolence & Prayer of Commitment” that they hope clergy across the country will sign as part of their advocacy for peace.
“We will make a witness of the world as it ought to be and not the society that is,” Barber insisted.
Additionally, Barber stressed the importance of helping young people who are being “devoured by a war machine that is serving the selfish interests of billionaires.” So the efforts he announced also include a commitment to teach young men about conscientious objection to war, especially in light of the move by the federal government to automatically enroll eligible teens and young men in the military draft starting next year.
“Our mass movement against unholy war must confess that we’ve not sufficiently at times invested enough in recruiting and training young people for non-violence. The U.S military spends billions of dollars recruiting poor and marginalized youth for the military, sponsoring video games and sporting events that provoke violence as the answer to society’s problems. They try to get so many people to study war.”
With Monday’s rally occurring just two days after a man carrying a gun sought to attack Trump and others at the White House Correspondents Dinner, Barber condemned that intended act of violence while also blasting the hypocrisy of Trump’s call for “unity” in comments after the shooting.
“President Trump has spent a decade or more exploiting every possible fault line to divide America. He has incited violence against members of the media at rallies,” explained Barber, who also mentioned Trump’s attacks on Democrats and others.
While acknowledging that there was still more to learn at that point about the shooter, who wrote a manifesto invoking the Bible to justify violence, Barber argued some things were already “clear” that show similarities between the worldviews of Cole Allen and Trump.
“Allen believes what the president and many others in our society believe. And that is that peace will come when their enemies are obliterated. And they must use violence to win the world that they want,” Barber said. “This idea is what Jesus called bad leaven, a spirit of division and violence that cannot be easily turned off once it has been unleashed to serve some political goal. Once this bad leaven is unleashed, once this impure spirit is unleashed, it’s hard to turn it off.”
“People with power have sown to the wind and now we are reaping the whirlwind. Saturday’s attempt at revolutionary violence was as misguided as Trump’s war of choice in the Middle East,” Barber added. “We cannot be distracted by diversions. Nor can we capitulate to the nihilism that accepts the chaos we are experiencing as inevitable.”
As a public witness,
Brian Kaylor
