After bringing down the house at the British royal wedding last weekend, Episcopal Presiding Bishop Michael Curry is gearing up to take part in a protest in front of the White House this coming Thursday, CNN reports.
Curry and other Christian leaders will host a candlelight vigil to protest the “dangerous crisis of moral and political leadership at the highest levels of our government and in our churches” — crises that put “the soul of the nation and the integrity of faith” at stake.
Around 1,000 people are expected to show up for the event, which will be kicked off by a church service beforehand. Protesters will gather at Lafayette Square, which is right across the street from the White House.
“This weekend I spoke about the way of love. As elders, we view bringing the Reclaiming Jesus declaration to the public square as a tangible example of how to live out that way of love,” Curry said.
It's the moment everyone was talking about during the #royalwedding.
Here are the best bits of Bishop Michael Curry's rousing sermon https://t.co/8CYO4hooEz pic.twitter.com/ncOdvL3OGo
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) May 21, 2018
Curry’s remarks about “reclaiming Jesus” are in reference to a public statement signed by numerous progressive Christian leaders which slams Trump’s “America first” rhetoric as “theological heresy.”
As CNN points out, the letter also condemns the “normalization of lying” and “the resurgence of white nationalism, racism, and xenophobia; misogyny; attacks on immigrants, refugees, and the poor.”
"When love is the way, poverty will become history. When love is the way, the Earth will be a sanctuary. When love is the way, we will lay down our swords and shields, down by the riverside to study war no more." Bishop Michael Curry
— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) May 19, 2018
“We are Christian leaders bearing moral witness to the teachings of our faith in the public square,” Curry said. “As citizens we want our government to reflect our values. As a Bishop I believe we should follow the teachings of Jesus — who taught us to love God and love our neighbor.”
Curry, who has been a pastor for nearly three decades, is known for seamlessly blending spiritual and political themes in his preaching and activism.
As a bishop in North Carolina, he supported the Moral Mondays campaign, which included statehouse protests against perceived inequality. At a rally in 2014, for example, he called for teachers to receive higher salaries and called education a “divine right.”
Curry made waves with his house-raising sermon at the Royal wedding on Saturday, a sermon that many are calling “radical” in how it brought a “distinctively black-church flavor” to St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle in the U.K.
Featured image via screen grab/YouTube
