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A UMNS Report
By Emily Snell*
6:00 P.M. EDT October 11, 2011
Eleven faith leaders were arrested after they refused to stop public prayers
in the U.S. Capitol. A web-only photo courtesy of Common Cause.
Two United Methodist leaders and nine other faith leaders arrested
July 28 in the Capitol Rotunda after refusing to stop public prayers
have agreed to a pretrial settlement.
The settlement will not involve fines or jail time, but most of
those arrested — now known as the Rotunda 11 — will be required to
complete a drug-screening program and to stay out of the Capitol
building for six months.
The Rev. Bob Edgar, a United Methodist elder and president of Common Cause, a national advocacy group, and Jim Winkler, top executive of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society,
the denomination’s social action agency, were among those arrested and
charged with a misdemeanor. The group held a prayer vigil in the
rotunda of the Capitol as a response to the budget crisis.
The action, which was termed a “faithful act of civil disobedience,”
lasted about 90 minutes before police began making arrests.
Winkler said after the arrests that the vigils were an
interreligious effort to raise the voice of people of faith on behalf
of the poorest and most vulnerable. “We are sending a visible signal to
those in power that we do not believe the negotiations over the debt
ceiling and budget can be resolved on the backs of poor people, ” he
said.
“We understood at the outset that the vigil could have legal
consequences,” Edgar said. “While we accept the agreement to resolve the
charges against us, we do not regret or apologize for our actions,” he
said.
Jim Winkler, top executive of the United Methodist Board of Church and
Society, was among the 11 arrested. A UMNS photo by Jewel DeGuzman.
View in Photo Gallery
A news release from Common Cause
said the settlement was a resolution to the charges filed when the
leaders performed a prayer service in the rotunda of the Capitol
building “on behalf of the poor and voiceless.”
“We went to the rotunda at the height of the budget debate to
refocus the attention of Congress, President Obama and the nation on
the plight of millions of sick, poor and working Americans,” Edgar
said. “We must keep their struggles paramount in all our minds as we
attempt to fashion solutions to our nation’s fiscal problems.”
Winkler said he also had a personal reason for getting involved. He
recalled how legendary Vietnam-era pacifist A.J. Muste stood alone for
nights on end outside the White House, holding a candle to protest the
war. When a journalist asked if Muste truly thought he could “change
the policies of this country by standing out here alone at night with a
candle,” Muste had a simple reply:
“Oh, I don’t do this to change the country,” he said. “I do this so the country won’t change me.”
Winkler wrote in a Sept. 27 commentary in Faith in Action,
a publication of the Board of Church and Society, that “social justice
ministry is difficult, no argument there. It is a daily struggle. As
followers of Jesus Christ, we cannot withdraw from the battle, though.
Instead, we must draw on his compassion for the least, the last and the
lost to re-energize us each time we may falter.”
Before the sentencing, a small prayer service took place outside
the D.C. Superior Court. Four members of the group spoke and prayed.
The coalition of arrested leaders in addition to Edgar and Winkler included:
- The Rev. Jennifer Butler, executive director of Faith and Public Life
- The Rev. Paul Sherry, director, Washington, D.C., Office of Interfaith Worker Justice, and national coordinator, Faith Advocates for Jobs Campaign
- The Rev. J. Herbert Nelson, director of public witness, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
- The Rev. Michael Livingston, past president, National Council of the Churches of Christ (USA)
- Sandy Sorensen, director, Washington Office, United Church of Christ
- Martin Shupack, director of advocacy, Church World Service
- Jordan Blevins, director of Peace Witness Ministries, Church of the Brethren
- Jean Stokan, director, Institute Justice Team, Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, and policy advisor, Pax Christi USA
- Rabbi Arthur Waskow, The Shalom Center, Philadelphia
The cases of two of the demonstrators were handled separately. At
the hearing, Stokan pleaded guilty and was fined the minimum of $50.
The sentence for Waskow is pending because of his health-related
absence.
*Snell is a United Methodist Communications intern and a senior at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Maggie Hillery, Nashville, Tenn., 615-742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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