On Capitol Hill, Faith Leaders Mark Ash Wednesday With Criticism of Trump and GOP

WASHINGTON (RNS) — In overlapping demonstrations and events on Capitol Hill, faith leaders and Democratic lawmakers gathered on Wednesday (March 5) for a day of advocacy for the poor and the vulnerable, marking Ash Wednesday with prayer and protest against President Donald Trump’s salvo of executive orders and the Republican-led budget proposal making its way through Congress.

Outside the U.S. Supreme Court, the Rev. William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, was surrounded by a large crowd of Jewish, mainline Christian and Black Protestant clergy in full vestments carrying an open letter calling for repentance and activism. Barber railed against what he said were the administration’s efforts to undermine the 14th Amendment.

“We write today because we are clear that the only way that wannabe kings can be kings is if we bow,” he told the crowd at the rally, which was organized by Repairers of the Breach. “But bowing is not in our DNA. It is not in our souls, it is not in our spirits, and we will not bow.“

Barber, who heads Yale Divinity School’s Center for Public Theology and Public Policy, stressed the need to defend Americans who are mired in poverty against congressional Republicans’ plans to cut some $2 trillion from the federal budget over the next decade. While the GOP leadership has insisted it won’t cut Medicaid, the health care program that aids the poor, analysts argue the measure adopted by the GOP-led House of Representatives last week would necessitate cutbacks in Medicaid as well as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which millions of Americans rely on for food security.

“What they are about to do with the budget is the most dangerous thing that’s going on in this country right now,” Barber said.

In a rarity for a pastor known for his defiant preaching, Barber’s voice broke as he read from one section of the letter. “We know the people of this country,” Barber said. “We have blessed their babies, listened to their confessions, buried their dead, and celebrated the values they hold dear. Our political leaders have bowed in fear to the tyranny of technology; by doing so, they have ceased to represent us.”

He summoned faith leaders to take the lead in resisting the cuts. “If there has ever been a time that pastors — particularly preachers — and rabbis and imams must stand up, it is now.”

The Rev. Terri Hord Owens, general minister and president of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), followed Barber, noting that her denomination is one of dozens of faith groups that signed on to a recent lawsuit filed against the Trump administration after it overturned a policy discouraging immigration raids at “sensitive locations” such as houses of worship.

“The freedom to worship is on the line,” Owens said.

The Rev. Amanda Hendler Voss, who leads First United Church of Christ in Washington, highlighted the plight of federal workers in her congregation who are facing potential layoffs under Trump. “This administration calls them lazy, but they are the most dedicated, principled people,” she said.

Voss then stirred the crowd with a fierce rebuke of Trump, juxtaposing his actions against passages from Scripture. “This administration says ‘America first,’ but Jesus said, ‘What you do to the least of these, you do unto me,’” she said. “This administration calls migrants criminals, but the Bible says, ‘Love the migrant among you, for you were once strangers.’ This administration says only the strong survive, but the Good Book says God chose what is weak in this world to shame the strong. So don’t get it twisted: The acts of this administration have nothing to do with the way of Jesus.”

After the speeches, clergy fanned out to different government buildings to present the open letter to lawmakers.

The demonstration followed another Ash Wednesday-themed event convened earlier in the morning in the Longworth House Office Building, where some of the same faith leaders, joined by Catholic and Quaker leaders, railed against the Republican budget proposal alongside Democratic lawmakers.

After the group prayed together and clergy imposed ashes on people’s foreheads according to Ash Wednesday tradition, Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, who helped lead the event, recounted the biblical parable of the talents. Noting that the term “talents” referred to money in Scripture but is now more commonly used to describe personal gifts, he criticized Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress the night before.

“Last night we heard Donald Trump’s version of DEI — divide, exclude and insult,” Clyburn said, adding, “So that tells us our talents are needed like they’ve never been needed before.”

Clyburn was followed by lawmakers and religious leaders who addressed what they said was an onslaught aimed at health care, food assistance, immigration, taxes and the stability of American democracy. Many of the speakers held up Jesus’ call in the Gospel of Matthew to care for the hungry, thirsty, sick and others.

“We are lamenting congressional attempts to cut health care, housing and food assistance to pay for tax cuts which will be given to the rich,” said the Rev. Karen Georgia A. Thompson, general minister and president of the United Church of Christ. “We heard it today: We stand with the hungry. We stand with the poor.”

The Lenten season that began on Wednesday, normally one of introspection and personal spiritual observances, has become a season of resistance this year, with Atlanta pastor Jamal Bryant organizing a boycott of Target and other companies that have paused DEI efforts after Trump’s assaults on such programs and Christian leaders and denominations launching a pair of open letters earlier this week tied to the season. On Wednesday, 11 Christian LGBTQ groups also sent a protest letter timed to the start of Lent.

At Wednesday’s event, Rep. Chuy Garcia of Illinois carried the theme forward, urging Republicans to “give up billionaires for Lent.” Meanwhile, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri, himself a United Methodist minister, was strident in his condemnation of his conservative colleagues.

“For somebody with a 3,500-square-foot home, two cars, $174,000-a-year job in Congress to talk about cutting money out of Medicaid is a sin,” Cleaver said.

In her closing prayer at the event, Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie, head of the National Council of Churches, said Lent should also be seen as a springboard for action.

“We cannot claim to follow Christ and ignore the cries of the oppressed,” she prayed. “The ashes on our foreheads are not just a symbol of mortality. They are a reminder of our duty to act in love, to stand with the marginalized and work towards a world where justice flows like a mighty river.”

Later in the day near the Capitol, a few dozen faith leaders huddled in the rain for a separate event organized by the advocacy group Sojourners and the Washington Interfaith Staff Community and slated to recur every Wednesday moving forward. As at the other events, speakers, including some who spoke at the earlier demonstrations, urged supporters to reach out to lawmakers.

Amanda Tyler, head of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, said she hoped Congress would take up its mandate to claim “the power of the purse” instead of ceding it to the executive branch.

“We are here to remind members of Congress that they were elected to represent their constituents’ interests and not to serve a king,” she said.