An excellent and deeply important interview. ― Molly
While tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered near the heavily fortified border with Israel for nonviolent protests against the U.S. Embassy’s opening in Jerusalem Monday, a new Poor People’s Campaign launched in the United States. Rev. Dr. William Barber II, a co-founder of the movement, is bringing together low-wage workers, clergy and community activists around the country to advocate for the rights of the poor. People in 40 states are participating in actions and events starting today that will culminate in a mass protest in Washington, D.C., on June 23. We are joined by Rev. Dr. William Barber, president of Repairers of the Breach and distinguished visiting professor of public theology at Union Theological Seminary, to discuss human rights from Gaza to Washington, D.C., and the anti-gay, pro-Trump pastor from Dallas chosen by the Trump administration to lead the prayer at the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.
AMY GOODMAN: I
was wondering if you can comment—as you’re there in Washington, D.C., there are
mass protests in Gaza. And it looks like the deadliest day of violence, with
Israeli military gunning down, it looks like, at this point, something like 37
protesters. Overall, since March 30th, thousands have been injured, I think
something like 84 people killed. But the person who is opening the ceremony for
the U.S. Embassy to be moved to Jerusalem is Pastor Jeffress, who has spoken
out against Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, gay men and lesbians,
Mormonism. Can you comment on what this Southern Baptist preacher represents,
from Dallas, Texas?
REV. WILLIAM BARBER II: Well,
yes, and it’s hurtful, but it’s necessary. You know, I’m thinking about that
this May 10th was the end of the Birmingham campaign, 50-some years ago, 55
years ago. And remember, we saw the images of dogs attacking children and women
in Birmingham. And today we see the images of drones attacking our Palestinian
brothers and sisters. We see our president playing every race card he can, and
connecting—he’s an extremist, and he’s connected with Netanyahu, who’s an
extremist. And now they’re connected together. And he’s doing this for all the
wrong reasons, splitting people, splitting people who historically are brothers
and sisters.
And now he has chosen not only Jeffress,
but Hagee, who once actually described—John Hagee, I understand, described
Hitler as a hunter, a God-sent hunter, who was designed, ordained by God to
hunt the Jewish people, to force them to come back to Israel in order to bring
about the coming of Christ. Jeffress, as you remember, also said at President
Trump’s inaugural sermon that God endorsed the building of walls. Now, both of
these men, if you really check their theology, they are not preaching Christian
theology. They are heretics, in many ways. What they’re talking about is
heresy. They claim to be Christian, and they claim a certain brand of
Christianity. But when you look at it theologically, it does not line up with
the Scriptures’ call to love. It does not line up with the Scriptures’ call
that you treat the person or persons that are not of your particular race or
your particular lineage as brothers and sisters. It does not line up with the
Scriptures’ anti-violence, anti-killing. This is just a form of what—it’s
nothing more than a modern-day form of what my good friend Jonathan Hargrove
calls slave religion, the kind of religion that abuses the Scriptures and uses
it to support political opinions that are not the politics of God or the
politics of Christ. Jeffress is spewing hate and meanfulness. And by the
president choosing him, that joins him to that kind of theology.
And we see it happening in this country.
That same group of people will go in and pray—P-R-A-Y—with President Trump and
his other allies in the Congress and bless them, while Trump and his allies are
preying—P-R-E-Y-I-N-G—on the poor and the broken and the hurting and the least
among. It is sad. It is theological malpractice. It is costing people their
lives. It is mean-spirited. And the world should stand up and speak out against
it. And clergy and people of faith should speak out against it. And we should stop,
in the media, assigning “Christian” and “evangelical” to persons like this. If
we say it, we should say it in quotes, or we should call it what it is. It is
not Christianity. It is not evangelicalism. It is not the religion of Jesus,
who, in his first sermon, said to follow Jesus was to preach good news to the
poor, to care for the brokenhearted, to provide liberty and healing to the
bruised, and to declare the acceptable year of the lord. Nothing in that says
endorse killing, endorse hatred, endorsed meanness.
And lastly, Amy, the two pastors that are
going over there, they don’t even like Jewish people. They have some weird
theology, that by creating certain actions in Israel, it can force the coming
of Christ. But they don’t even believe anybody, except people who believe like
them, are going to go to heaven. Well, I say what my grandmother and what the
slaves used to say about slave master religion: Everybody talking about heaven
ain’t going there. And Jeffress and Hagee and others like that, who are abusing,
who are misusing the theology of Christ to promote these attitudes and these
actions of hate, they are wrong. It is heretical. It is theological
malpractice. And it’s high time that people of faith take it on. I’m an
evangelical, and I’m deeply offended—deeply offended—by what they’re doing.
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