When legendary civil rights activist Rev. William Barber introduced himself Thursday night at the Democratic National Convention as a “liberal evangelical biblicist”, he acknowledged that it was a description that “may sound strange” in a political society where religious conservatism is often equated with the right wing.
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Without using the Republican Party’s presidential nominee’s name, Barber said he was deeply “troubled” by those who cynically use their beliefs “to serve hate, fear, racism and greed”. Do this and then your nation shall be called a repairer of the breach. There are forces, he said, that are intent to “stop the heart of our democracy”.
Referencing Dorothy Day and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., he said the problem in America was a problem of the heart. We need to listen to the ancient chorus in which deep calls unto deep. When we fight to reinstate the power of the Voting Rights Act and to break interposition and the nullification of the current Congress, we in the South especially know that when we do that, we are reviving the heart of our democracy. Because it’s possible to shock a bad heart and revive the pulse. The watchword of this democracy and the watchword of faith is we. When we hear the legitimate discontent of Black Lives Matter we come together to renew justice in our criminal justice system, we are embracing our deepest moral values and reviving the heart of our democracy.
Barber continued by saying America has developed a moral heart problem and it’s up to the American people to be the moral defibrillators to save this country’s heart. “I know it may sound unusual, but I’m a conservative because I work to conserve a divine tradition that teaches us to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our god”. We must shock this nation with the power of mercy.
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Barber, the president of North Carolina’s NAACP, began his speech by linking faith and morality to progressivism before issuing a call for “a revival at the heart of our democracy”.
