Together, We're Shifting the Moral Narrative

A thank you note to all who've helped us launch Our Moral Moment

Friends,

Three months ago today, we launched Our Moral Moment as a new independent medium to “lift up the voices of people who can anchor an opposition to the abuse of power in a moral vision for the reconstruction of American democracy.”

Throughout the Moral Mondays in DC campaign anchored by Repairers of the Breach, we’ve written to keep you updated on the policy violence advancing on Capitol Hill and the growing moral movement that is both nonviolently resisting attacks on the most vulnerable and building power for a better future.

When we teach moral fusion movements, we ask our students to note how low points in our nation’s past often served to catalyze the moral movements that pushed America toward a more perfect union. That’s why we wanted to pause today to celebrate breakthroughs that happened in recent weeks while terrible meanness was in the headlines. Even amidst terrible retrogression, a shift is happening that opens to the way to new and better possibilities.

In opposition to Trump’s Big Ugly Bill, two of the most powerful speeches ever given from the floor of the US House and Senate quoted directly from the language we have been using in our moral movement for the past decade. We celebrate that this message is breaking through and shaping the public narrative of a moral opposition.

To conclude his 25-hour speech that broke Strom Thurmond’s record for the longest filibuster in US history, Senator Cory Booker quoted our moral movement when he said, “This is a moral moment. It’s not left or right; it’s right or wrong.”

This is the language and framing we used to organize folks from the hood to the holler in Kentucky. And as we wrote in our book White Poverty, when a gubernatorial candidate in 2019 embraced this language, he won state-wide, beating a MAGA incumbent. Moral messaging has the power to galvanize a coalition broader than political parties.

Just last week, when Leader Jeffries held the floor for the longest speech in the history of the US House of Representatives, he turned to a moral framing at the end and talked about the hypocrisy of those who pray - P-R-A-Y- on Sundays but then come to Congress and prey - P-R-E-Y - on the most vulnerable.

This is a prophetic critique of Christian nationalism that comes from the ancient texts we have taught and preached for years, including throughout our Moral Mondays in DC campaign. We stood with Jeffries and Booker on the Capitol steps when the Big Ugly Bill before Congress was first introduced, before we rallied thousands to stand and pray at the Capitol during Moral Mondays. When these political leaders stood on the floor before the nation to rally an opposition, they adopted the language of our movement.

As Rev. James Lawson said, our public actions are not ends in themselves. The point of prophetic proclamation is not the applause at the end of a speech; it is the message that echoes through communities and shifts the collective conscience of a people. Speaking truth to power is not just about speaking; it is also about inspiring leaders to take stronger and more radical stances rooted in love for the saving of the heart and soul of the country.

This is why we brought Moral Mondays to Washington, DC. It’s why we submitted to arrest when the leadership of the Congress said we could not pray in the rotunda, despite the fact that they had hosted a Christian nationalist worship in that very space. Speaker Johnson and his colleagues do not mind prayer that does not challenge their political violence, but they are afraid of praying people who will also become acting people, liberating people, and voting people who pray against their policies, putting a light on the ugliness.

Last weekend, The Guardian profiled our work to build a moral movement to counter the immoral actions of those leading our government. This article raises the question that every generation has asked of moral movements: can moral fusion really work to stop those who use and abuse raw power?

This is the same question the abolitionists faced as they organized an Underground Railroad and built a moral opposition to chattel slavery in the 19^th century, challenging it in the courts, in the streets, and at the ballot box. It’s the question the Freedom Riders of 1961 faced when they risked their lives to get on buses and ride through the South, sitting together as the equals that God and the law told them they were. Can such nonviolent acts of resistance really make a difference in the face of brutal abuses of power?

The answer to this question has never been a philosophical argument; it is, instead, the collective action of people in every generation who do their part to build a moral movement.

Many of you have contributed over the past three months to grow Our Moral Movement into an active community of people helping to shift the moral narrative in America. You’ve subscribed, you’ve shared this message with your networks, and you’ve invited us into new networks that are determined to tell the truth in these times. Last weekend, we re-read the Declaration of Independence as we marked the 249th birthday of these United States. As we do with our students when we read Danielle Allen’s brilliant book Our Declaration, we noted the specificity of the 27 charges against King George – the accusations that make up the majority of the text. Those were not charges that Thomas Jefferson or the other primary authors of the text thought up themselves. They were a summary of the stories that a growing independent media network in the colonies had gathered – a movement of concerned citizens who dedicated themselves to telling the stories that created a new democratic knowledge base.

As we mark three months of Our Moral Moment, we’re writing to thank you for helping us create a similar independent media network in this moment. In a time of lies, there is no act more powerful than working together to tell the truth.

Forward together,

Bishop Barber & Jonathan

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We want to make sure you’ve heard that Moral Mondays are headed South on July 14 - to Memphis, TN and the local offices of Congress members across 11 states. You can watch a livestream from Memphis or register here to get information about how you can join the delegation to a Congress member’s office in your state.