The Prayer That God Hears
National Day of Prayer's hypocrisy reveals the power of cries rising from our streets
In the White House Rose Garden for a National Day of Prayer ceremony, House Speaker Mike Johnson bowed his head and prayed on Thursday not only for the nation, but also for the immoral budget that he has agreed to champion as “one big, beautiful bill.” Earlier in the week, Johnson could not help smirking as he used Trump’s moniker for the monstrous budget at a Susan B. Anthony “Pro-Life America” banquet in Washington. “Don’t judge me if I have to name it that,” Johnson chuckled, “it’s what we, uh, it’s what he, wants to do.”
I can understand why Johnson wants to use humor to relieve the tension, but a bad joke cannot make the moral dissonance go away. The billionaire-funded political movement that uses faith to empower politicians like Johnson has reached a point where its benefactors are laughing in the face of the faithful. While the global Catholic communion is still mourning the death of Pope Francis, the White House posted a meme of Trump as Pope.
This intentional violation of norms is an attempt to distract from the policy violence they are pursuing. But we must be clear: both religious nationalism and buffoonery are being deployed toward the singular goal of passing a budget that steals public goods from the American people in order to give billionaires a windfall.
This is not a popular agenda. When laid out as a master plan in Project 2025, most Americans rejected it, and Trump publicly disavowed it. But as soon as he was in the White House, Trump appointed Russell Vought, a primary author of Project 2025, to lead the White House Office of Management and Budget. The “skinny budget” Vought sent to Congress this week, outlining the White House’s priorities, is Project 2025 as a spreadsheet.
During Trump’s first 100 days, he tapped Elon Musk to begin implementing the Project 2025 plan illegally through DOGE. Again, Americans rejected the plan. Only 35% of people surveyed supported the DOGE effort to freeze government funds that were already appropriated by Congress and, in many cases, claw back grants already distributed to organizations that serve local communities.
So, why hold prayer ceremonies to bless something that most people hate?
The biblical prophets teach us that this kind of violence-dressed-up-as-prayer is one of the most dangerous political realities any society can face. “There is a conspiracy of her princes within her like a roaring lion tearing its prey,” the prophet Ezekiel wrote, enumerating the ways the politicians of his day “make a profit from the poor,” oppress “the foreigner,” and “shed innocent blood.” When political leaders make bad policy decisions, it is as violent as a lion eating its prey, Ezekiel said. But having served in the religious cultus of his day, Ezekiel also understood how prayer can be manipulated to cover up policy violence. “Priests do violence to my law and profane my holy things,” the prophet declared; “they whitewash these deeds for [the politicians] by false visions and lying divinations.”
About this all of the prophets speak with a single voice: God does not hear the prayers of those who whitewash political violence.
A National Day of Prayer that props up and blesses a violent regime is not only a waste of time; it is a desecration of all that God holds dear. “I hate your solemn assemblies,” God says through the prophet Amos. “I despise your religious festivals.”
Amos makes clear what kind of public prayer God wants:
Go out into the streets and lament loudly!
Fill the malls and shops with cries of doom!
Weep loudly, ‘Not me! Not us, Not now!’
Empty offices, stores, factories, workplaces.
Enlist everyone in the general lament.
I want to hear it loud and clear when I make my visit.
By this definition, America’s National Day of Prayer was not observed at the White House, but on our streets at the more than 1000 events organized to protest the agenda of the billionaires and stand with working people. (Some of the best coverage of these events is right here on Substack. Shout out to The Contrarian and The Dworkin Report.)
These rallies continued over the weekend, and Moral Monday will be back the US Capitol tomorrow, May 5, to continue to lift our shared prayer for salvation from this disastrous budget.
Below is the prayer Bishop Barber, Steve Swayne, Alvin O’Neal Jackson, Hanna Broome, and I were praying in the Capitol rotunda last Monday when we were arrested. We invite you to share this prayer with others and join us wherever you are at noon this Monday.
Prayer for the US Congress
God, we are gathered beneath this dome of political power to pray that Your mercy which sustains us all will prevail to save us from an immoral budget that would destroy millions of lives.
Against the conspiracy of cruelty, we plead the power of Your mercy.
We have read the text of the prophet Isaiah which says, “Woe unto those who legislate evil and rob the poor of their right, making women and children their prey.” We have also read the budget resolution of this Congress, which calls for $1.5 trillion in cuts to life-saving and life-sustaining programs in order to give a tax break to billionaires. To keep faith with our moral commitments, we must stand together and cry out to You:
Against the conspiracy of cruelty, we plead the power of Your mercy.
We have made promises to You and to our communities; among them is a promise to tell the truth, even when it is difficult. We have taught our communities that a lie destroys the fabric of trust which knits us all together. When we hear the Speaker of this House parrot a regime he aims to please by calling this ugly and immoral budget “one big, beautiful bill,” we recall the prophet Isaiah’s woe against those who call what is good, evil and what is evil, good. And we pray for the leadership of this body.
Against the conspiracy of cruelty, we plead the power of Your mercy.
All of our religious traditions affirm care for the sick and the dying, but this budget proposes an $880 billion cut to Medicaid, which could result in 36 million Americans losing access to healthcare. As people who bury the dead in our communities, we refuse to go along with policy murder and say, “God called them home.” We cry out now and ask You to spare the lives of those this budget would kill.
Against the conspiracy of cruelty, we plead the power of Your mercy.
In the Christian tradition, You have said that nations will be judged by how we treat You in the hungry among us. But the proposed budget of this Congress threatens to take SNAP benefits away from tens of millions of our most vulnerable neighbors.
Against the conspiracy of cruelty, we plead the power of Your mercy.
We are here, O God, because we have heard the cries of your people who are already hard pressed and unable to meet their basic needs. We have also heard the confessions of people who suffer from the alienation that greed plants in the human soul. Deliver us, Lord, from the deceptive lie that says our nation will be better off if those who have little get less and those who have too much get more.
Against the conspiracy of cruelty, we plead the power of Your mercy.
God, we have too often confused ill-gotten gain with your blessings. We have praised success that came at a cost to the vulnerable and worshipped wealth built by taking from poor and working people. We have come to confess the ways we have been too quiet for too long while far too many suffered, and we repent of the ways we’ve allowed the language of symbols of our faiths to prop up abuses of power.
Against the conspiracy of cruelty, we plead the power of Your mercy.
In the mystery of Your might, interrupt us in this moment to re-order our priorities. More than half a century ago, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called for a radical revolution of values in our common life that would turn our attention toward Your concern for the least of these, the poor and downtrodden, the forgotten and rejected of our society. But we did not listen to Your prophet, God. We killed him. And we allowed people to use Your name and Your sacred gifts to us as justification for a religious nationalism that has pitted us against one another.
Against the conspiracy of cruelty, we plead the power of Your mercy.
Unite us, O God, in a movement focused on Your love, truth, and justice. Grant us wisdom to touch the pain of each and every American, and courage to embrace the bold policies that could genuinely address the inequalities in our society. Order our steps, O Lord. Order our steps with Your love, Your truth, and Your justice.
Against the conspiracy of cruelty, we plead the power of Your mercy.
We are here, crying out to you, O God, because we have heard the cries of Your people. We are also here because we know that You have heard their cries and called us to stand with the downtrodden, defend the oppressed, and care for the widow, the stranger, and the orphan. We have stood with Your people and we have seen the salvation that you can bring when the stones that the builder rejected become the chief cornerstones of Reconstruction.
Against the conspiracy of cruelty, we plead the power of Your mercy.
We come, God, as prisoners of hope, bound by the belief that You can make a way out of no way. As long as the details are still being worked out in committees, You can soften the hearts of representatives who refuse to hear from their constituents. As long as the final vote has not been cast, You can spare us from wholescale devastation by legislation. As long as the Constitution still exists, You can move us, the people, to work to establish justice and promote the general welfare. As long as you are on the throne, O God, You can super-rule over those who hold earthly authority.
Against the conspiracy of cruelty, we plead the power of Your mercy.
We pray this not only for the sake of those who will suffer most, but also for those who wrongfully believe that this immoral budget will benefit them. Teach us again, O God, how we are “from many, one” and that we cannot become the more perfect union You’ve called us to be unless we lift from the bottom so everyone can rise.
Amen.
Thank you for sharing this very intimate occasion that occurred on April 28. While my heart is heavy for the people of our country now, I am uplifted by this testimony and excited to see progress as we move forward on May 5 to continue the fight to stop this terribly immoral budget.
The words of Speaker Johnson, “don’t judge me” indicates he is well aware of the immorality of this legislation.