America has often chosen wrong and had to pay for it later. This week, over 71 million people chose to return Donald Trump to the White House. Whether they were right to do so will be determined by whether the anger and vitriol he spewed towards his fellow Americans defines how he will treat them as president.

In the Bible, Joshua says, “Choose ye this day...” Howard Zinn said, “You can’t be neutral on a moving train.”

Right now, we face a choice.

I joined 1,000 clergy to endorse VP Harris in our personal capacity. I hope other faith leaders will do the same. cnn.com/2024/10/27/pol… My full statement:

In my role as both a bishop of the church and a leader of a non partisan movement, I maintain a position of not endorsing any candidate for public office. But as the law allows, I reserve the right in my private capacity to endorse candidates openly.

Dems, we love your use of “weird” to describe Trump & Vance. But when there are 140 million poor & low wage ppl struggling to make it in this country, it’s also weird to not speak to them. Yes, it’s weird for Trump & Vance to call policies that would reduce poverty “communism.” But it’s also weird for Dems to not say “poor” if they want poor people to support their agenda.

For years, we’ve been fed a pernicious myth that poverty is only an issue for Black people. This myth not only demeans Black people – with racist images of Black mothers on welfare dominating the imaginations of so many Americans – but also obscures the poverty of tens of millions of white people. When you frame it as being poor people are Black, other folks are working, what you're doing is dismissing millions of poor and low-wage white people.

In a unified act of solidarity, @GovBillLee joined governors of the former slaveholding states Texas, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Alabama to make a joint statement this week against the @UAW's efforts to unionize autoworkers in the South. Calling the union a “special interest,” the governors claimed that unions threaten not only good jobs, but also the “values we live by.”

As a preacher from the South, I am tired of politicians trying to co-opt faith with talk about “values” when they do not have the facts to back up their claims.

We're in North Carolina with the @NC_PPC for the final tour stop on the Moral March to the Polls Tour. We are calling on state governments to enact a #ThirdReconstruction agenda, that’s not about left versus right politics, but about what’s right versus what’s wrong.

https://twitter.com/RevDrBarber/status/1761893423521624295

@NC_PPC In North Carolina, there are 3.5 million poor and low-wealth eligible voters. If we mobilize and organize together, we have the power to change voting outcomes in every election in our state.

Last night, I lent my voice to a multi-faith vigil in front of the White House, calling for a ceasefire to stop the indiscriminate killing.

People from Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions around the world are coming together to cry for peace. 1/4 Some say cease-fire, some say a “cessation of hostilities,” some say humanitarian pause. Some just say, “Stop for the babies!” But the world is experiencing a kind of Pentecost as people cry out in different tongues with a unified call to end the violence. 2/4

All over the world, I have seen & joined Muslims, Jews, Christians, & people of conscience nonviolently saying we must stop the killing, end the indiscriminate bombing, end the violence of apartheid, resist the lure of revenge, & study war no more. After Oct 7, I saw many Jews, Muslims, & Christians denounce the violent terrorist acts of Hamas against innocent civilians, including women & children.

Poverty is a policy choice, reflecting low wages, the high costs of living and the unwillingness of politicians to act. 1/4 In Mississipi, there were 1.3 million poor and low-income people, accounting for 46% of the population. 2/4

We have hateful rhetoric coming out of the mouths of politicians in Florida from the highest levels every day. From the governor to the former president, it is hate against Black history, hate against wokeness, hate against trans people, hate against immigrants. 1/7 Words of hate create an ethos of hate, an atmosphere of hate, a political, social petri dish of hate and eventually spoken words become deeds. 2/7

This is a terrible day for our nation and its laws. The 14th Amendment–put in place in the aftermath of slavery–has been abused by the majority of this Court. But we cannot make this merely a Black vs. white issue. This is white supremacy and denial of anti-Blackness on full display by whoever embraces and distorts the continuing reality of systemic racism, whether it is Mike Pence, Tim Scott, Justice Roberts, or Justice Thomas.

In America, poverty is a death sentence. It’s the fourth leading cause of death in the country – more than homicides – but gets way less attention. And it’s only getting worse. 1/6 Now hundreds of thousands of people have been kicked off Medicaid as a pandemic-era policy that prohibited states from removing people from the program winds down. 2/6

The great contradiction of this debt ceiling deal is that, while poverty is the 4th leading cause of death, this deal will make it harder to get food stamps but easier to spend money on war. When Republicans took the House, they committed to use their power to manufacture this crisis & impose “austerity” that would cut funding for poor & low-income people, tribal nations & states, not the biggest beneficiaries of government spending: corporations & property owners.

What the extremists are doing in state houses are political coups. This is a throwback to a pattern Southern states used to overthrow movement success in the 1870s and 1970s. 

We must remember why we find ourselves here: First, two Dems and 50 Republicans blocking restoration of pre-clearance Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act and the following confusing political decision by some social justice orgs to not join a mass mobilization even after thousands rose up to demand the passage of John Lewis… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

We just witnessed a political massacre and a coup d’état by the North Carolina Supreme Court. Five Republicans—all white—with two African-Americans dissenting, decided to be the focal point of voter suppression in North Carolina. On one day, they have rolled back our victory against racialized gerrymandering. They rolled back reenfranchisement for over 50,000 former felons, and they rolled back the ruling against voter ID.

Today we were joined by two of 13 families, one Black and one White, grieving from the untimely deaths of their loved ones in state jail. bit.ly/3ZcIQln We are calling on @Sen_JoeManchin and @WVGovernor to step up and investigate this urgent matter. (1/7) The families are united by the pain of these unnecessary deaths. Through the hurt, they shared with the media the inconsistencies in the autopsies and state level investigations. They are demanding answers and requesting help from
@Sen_JoeManchin - bit.ly/3ZcIQln (2/7)

On this Presidents' Day, we call for an action-rooted commemoration of Bloody Sunday on Sunday, March 5. Read and sign on to open letter to President Biden and Members of Congress. #SelmaIsSacredGround, not a place for political pretense. breachrepairers.org/selma. @BRepairers Ahead of the 58th anniv. of Bloody Sunday, @brepairers is joined in this call by Rev. Liz Theoharis @liztheo, Hank Sanders, Faya Rose Toure, Rev. Mark Thompson @ministter, Rebecca Marion, Board Chair, Bridge Crossing Jubilee, Rev. Carolyn Foster of the @AlabamaPPC, and others.

Mr President, in your State of the Union address tonight, please don’t forget the 140 million poor & low-income people who were struggling to survive before you took office & are still hurting w/out living wages & access to healthcare. This other America has struggled under every administration w/out their voices & policy issues being heard. 700 souls die every day in this nation b/c of poverty.

In a nuclear age, the constant escalation of force can lead to a nuclear war that kills us all. This spirit of death and warring madness must be challenged. theguardian.com/commentisfree/… Those of you who choose to respond please listen to the sermon I preached on this issue. Don’t respond in a vacuum.

Jesus said the Gospel is about good news to the poor, welcoming all people, caring for the least of these: the immigrant, the hungry, the sick, the imprisoned. Christian nationalism attempts to sanctify oppression and not liberation. It attempts to sanctify lies and not truth. At best, Christian nationalism is a form of theological malpractice. At worst, it's a form of heresy.

Today I’m glad to announce the new Center for Public Theology & Public Policy at @YaleDivSchool. This new Center will prepare a new generation of moral leaders to be active participants in creating a just society. theologyandpolicy.yale.edu I’ve been a pastor & moral activist for 35 yrs. I want to share what I’ve learned & lead research on the deep connection between theology & just policies.