Religious leaders arrested in Capitol

[rug]

Source: AP

Jul 28, 1:57 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Eleven religious leaders protesting budget cuts affecting the poor were arrested in the Capitol Thursday as the House began debate on a bill to cut spending and raise the debt ceiling.

Before making the arrests, police cleared the Capitol Rotunda where the protesters, organized by the group Common Cause, were kneeling, praying and singing.

Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine said on the House floor that they were praying for those who will be "hurt the hardest" by the bill being considered.

One of those detained, Rev. Michael Livingston, past president of the National Council of the Churches of Christ, said: "Our elected officials are protecting corporations and wealthy individuals while shredding the safety net for millions of the most vulnerable people in our nation and abroad."

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_DEBT_SHOWDOWN_ARRESTS?SITE=FLPEJ&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

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This is the entire article to date.

[pampango]

1. Huffpo: Religious Leaders Arrested At Capitol for Budget Protest

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/28/religious-leaders-arreste_n_912337.html

A small group of religious leaders was arrested Thursday afternoon in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C. after refusing to stop a prayer vigil asking for lawmakers to keep social safety net programs intact during negotiations to raise the nation's debt ceiling and cut federal spending. The group, which included representatives of ten religious groups and denominations, has held daily vigils at the United Methodist Building near the Capitol for three weeks, but organizers said the continued lack of a resolution to the debt ceiling crisis led them to take more drastic action.

“Congress is paralyzed by toxic partisan politics while people suffer,” said the Rev. Michael Livingston, Past President of the National Council of the Churches of Christ (USA), in a statement. “Our elected officials are protecting corporations and wealthy individuals while shredding the safety net for millions of the most vulnerable people in our nation and abroad. Our faith won't allow us to passively watch this travesty unfold....Today, we ‘offer our bodies as a living sacrifice’ to say to congress ‘Raise revenue, protect the vulnerable and those living in poverty.’”

The representatives said that if programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are cut or changed as part of spending reductions, responsibilities for assisting the poor and elderly would fall heavily on houses of worship, which they said are already strained for resources.

In addition to Livingston, those who were arrested included Jim Winkler, General Secretary of the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church; Rabbi Arthur Waskow of the Shalom Center in Philadelphia; the Rev. Jennifer Butler, Executive Director of Faith in Public Life; the Rev. Paul Sherry, Director of the Washington Office of Interfaith Worker Justice; the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, Director of Public Witness in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); Sandy Sorenson, Director of Washington Office of the United Church of Christ; Martin Shupack, Director of Advocacy of Church World Service; Jordan Blevins, Director of Peace Witness Ministries of the Church of the Brethren; and the Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, President of Common Cause.

Also on Thursday, 70 Catholic clergy, theologians and scholars from Ohio released a letter to Republican House Speaker John Boehner, who is from the state and is Catholic, encouraging him to not slash social programs.

[checks-n-balances]

2. I recognize some of these names and I'm not surprised they turned out

They worship with their feet and their lives to try to call attention to "the least of these."

So opposite of the right wing grandstanders who have dominated the public discourse for the past 40 years.

With them, I pray that someone in power was listening and will take the side of those who will be suffering if these cuts actually do, needlessly, take place. It's also an injustice that these protesters broke no law that I'm aware of, yet they were arrested. Yet I'm sure they were prepared to expect that possibility.

Sadly, I doubt that more than a handful of people in D.C. care about anything except their own hides.

Edit to add: At least so far most of the posters on HuffPo are sympathetic to the protesters and recognize them as the real deal and not religious impostors.

[No Elephants]

3. Arrested for refusing to stop a prayer vigil against cuts for the neediest.

and it gets 4 paragraphs.

Glenn Beck, however, can lead prayer in the nation's capitol as long as he wants. And the media cover it as though it were significant.


When did our priorities get so messed up? Were they ever really straight? Maybe not.