Prayer in Public and in Prison
Public Theologian William Barber gets arrested
This is a busy week already. I apologize for placing an item in your in-box almost every day. But lot’s is happening. Look forward to Monday, June 2, 2025, and a Washington protest on behalf of the victims of the Big Beautiful Bill. Click on the conversation between Robert Reich and William Barber.
Should a public theologian pray in public? And then pray again after getting arrested? Bishop William J. Barber is ready and willing. Wearing a liturgical stole saying that “Jesus was a poor man,” the bishop prayed silently and aloud in the Washington Capitol Rotunda on Monday, April 28, 2025. He asked God for guidence regarding Republican backed tax cuts for America’s large businesses and most wealthy individuals while robbing the working class through tariffs and stealing the inheritance of our grandchildren by raising the national debt. “Jesus was a poor, man” the good bishop reminded everyone.
Barber along with two colleagues, the Rev. Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and Steve Swayne, took turns praying. They lamented potential budget cuts to social safety-net programs such as Medicaid. The three often chanted together: “Against the conspiracy of cruelty, we plead the power of your mercy”. After all, Jesus was poor. We need to remember this.
The Episcopal News Service reports that, “after issuing verbal warnings, dozens of officers expelled everyone in the Rotunda — including credentialed press — and shut the doors, obscuring any view. Press and others were then instructed to leave the floor entirely.” This so that the public would not witness the public arrest.
University of Pennsylvania theologian Anthea Butler told Religious News Service: “Arresting Rev. Barber and others at the Capitol after announcing a task force to eradicate anti-Christian bias in government is an absolute travesty. Seems like this administration only wants Christians who are supporters of Trump to have access to pray in the Capitol and express their faith.”
Public Theology at Yale
The Good Bishop Barber leads a program I admire at Yale University, namely, The Center for Public Theology and Public Policy. He and his Yale colleagues think that “theology is not an isolated practice, but must necessarily challenge the things that adversely impact people’s lives. We work at the intersection of theology, social justice, and public policy.”
What is the mission of Yale’s Center for Public Theology and Public Policy?
To prepare a new generation of moral leaders to be active participants in creating a just society using academic, practical, and research tools of past and present social justice movements.
The day following the arrest of Bishop Barber, the 47th president of the United States told reporters, “I’d like to be Pope.” How will he take the news that popes typically take a vow of poverty?
Conclusion
Key to the public theologian’s witness is the belief that leaders of the body politic are doing God’s will when they embrace compassion in their hearts and justice in their policies. To remember that Jesus was poor reminds us of this.
Substack PT 3107 Prayer in Public and in Prison
Patheos PT 3255 Paula White and Christian Nationalism
Substack PT 3263. Persecuting Christians in America?
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For Substack, Ted Peters posts articles and notices in the field of Public Theology. He is a Lutheran pastor and emeritus professor at the Graduate Theological Union. His single volume systematic theology, God—The World’s Future, is now in the 3rd edition. He has also authored God as Trinity plus Sin: Radical Evil in Soul and Society as well as Sin Boldly: Justifying Faith for Fragile and Broken Souls. In 2023 he published. The Voice of Public Theology, with ATF Press. This year he has published an edited volume, Promise and Peril of AI and IA: New Technology Meets Religion, Theology, and Ethics (ATF) and along with Arvin Gouw an edited collection, The CRISPR Revolution in Science, Religion, and Ethics (Bloomsbury 2025). See his website: TedsTimelyTake.com.
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