William Barber, and the Question of Faith and Politics

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Politics, Arts, News, Wnyc, Books, David, Storytelling, Society & Culture, Yorker, New, Remnick

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 29 January 2021

⏱️ 36 minutes

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Summary

The North Carolina pastor William Barber, who spoke at the inaugural prayer service at the start of the Biden Administration, wants politics to be guided by faith and morality. But conservatives, Barber thinks, are deeply confused about Christ’s teachings. Then Paul Elie considers Biden as only the second Catholic President. Elie thinks that Catholics demoralized by decades of the Church’s abuse scandals are welcoming Biden as a “moral authority” outside the religious hierarchy.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:08.0	Welcome to the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.
0:13.0	Well, we are in a jam today. Trouble is real. And whether we like it or not, we are in this mess together as a nation.
0:21.7	When this word of the Lord came to Isaiah, his people were also in a jam.
0:26.2	The morning after the inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris,
0:30.1	the Reverend William Barber delivered the homily for the inaugural prayer service.
0:34.9	The prayer service, usually at the National Cathedral, follows the inauguration
0:38.2	every four years. It's a given, part of the whole ceremony. But the event tells us something
0:43.6	about a president's relationship with religion. And in that context, the fact that Reverend
0:49.1	Barber was asked to give the homily was deeply significant. Barbara is explicitly political in his ministry.
0:56.6	He wants government policies to reflect Christian values.
1:01.1	His agenda, though, is nearly the opposite
1:03.3	of what the Christian right has successfully advanced
1:05.8	for so many years in Washington.
1:08.6	We can't accept the poverty and low wealth of 140 million Americans before COVID and many more
1:15.8	million cents.
1:17.4	We must have a third reconstruction.
1:20.8	We must address the five interlocking injustices of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, denial of health care,
1:29.8	the war economy, and the false distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism.
1:35.6	These are breaches that must be addressed, and according to the text, repairing the breaches
1:41.7	will bring revival.
1:43.5	Barbara is firmly in the center or more so on the left of the Democratic Party on matters of
	...

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