MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This chant will be returning to the grounds of the Capitol here in Washington, D.C., today.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ADAM RUSSELL TAYLOR: What time is it?
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: It's time for courage.
MARTIN: Every Wednesday this month, more than two dozen faith-based groups are holding vigils outside Congress. They want lawmakers to push back against Trump administration cuts and what they see as an erosion of democracy. The Christian social group Sojourners is organizing the vigils. They began last week with speeches from Amanda Tyler of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and Darcy Hirsh with the National Council of Jewish Women.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
AMANDA TYLER: We are here to remind members of Congress that they were elected to represent their constituents' interests and not to serve a king.
DARCY HIRSH: Our Jewish faith obligates us to pursue tzedek, tzedek tirdof - or justice. Today, that work requires us to urge Congress to have courage, to be steadfast in the face of an existential threat to our democracy.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
TAYLOR: What time is it, Congress?
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: It's time for courage.
MARTIN: The voice you heard leading the chant at the end there is the voice of Sojourners' president, the Reverend Adam Russell Taylor, who is with us now. Good morning, Reverend.
TYLER: Good morning. Good to be with you.
MARTIN: To whom is this message directed? I mean, is it mainly Republicans who have overwhelmingly voted with the president, or is it to Democrats who seem confused about how to respond?
TAYLOR: To be honest, I think it's directed at all of Congress. We need courage across the board, and it is true that the Republicans control Congress. It's controlled by Republicans, so I think there is a particular need to stoke the conscience of Republicans. But we also need more courage and more outspoken leadership from Democrats as well.
MARTIN: Would you say more about why you and the other people who are joining you in these vigils see this as a question of faith and morality as opposed to partisan politics?
TAYLOR: Yeah. I think these are profoundly faith issues. In our faith traditions, there is a imperative to protect the most vulnerable. And we have seen an administration that has targeted and sometimes villainized and dehumanized people that are often at the margins, and more recently, has tried to cut programs that benefit people that are living in poverty. But it's also a faith issue because we believe that protecting the core systems and norms of our democratic system is critical for how we as a country promote the common good and how we can realize many of our faith convictions to, again, protect the most vulnerable.
MARTIN: So how do you understand the fact that people who identify as Christian - especially white Christians, especially people who identify as evangelical - voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump?
TAYLOR: I recognize that, and it's hard for me to reconcile their vote with a lot of the core Christian values and convictions that I glean from my faith and from scripture. That being said, I mean, I think we need to have an ongoing dialogue with Christians that view politics and view how to apply their faith to politics in a very, very different way. I will say, though, that there are a number of evangelicals, particularly more recent ones that, you know, call themselves evangelical, but when you actually look at whether they're active in a church or if they even understand what that actually means, many of them don't. They've kind of declared themselves evangelical because they see it as synonymous with their support for Trump. It's become kind of a political label.
MARTIN: So before we let you go, I'm thinking about something that a person who worked for Catholic charities told me once - I'm not helping you because you're Catholic. I'm helping you because I am. Is part of this witness a living out of your faith commitment?
TAYLOR: Yeah. I mean, we feel it is our responsibility to really kind of be truth tellers in this moment. Today's vigil has a particular focus on the devastating cuts to foreign assistance - the freeze of aid and the dismantling of U.S. aid. Back when this freeze was put in place by Elon Musk and DOGE, Musk described our U.S. aid program as being evil. I'm reminded of the prophet Isaiah, who said, woe to you, who call evil good and good evil. We are literally seeing programs that do an incredible amount of good being declared evil. And so, yes, the new administration has a prerogative to review programs, even to audit them. But what they're doing is wholesale differently than that. And in the case of foreign aid, they are literally trying to dismantle a program that literally saves lives.
MARTIN: That is the Reverend Adam Russell Taylor. He is the president of Sojourners. It's a group that's leading interfaith vigils at the Capitol every Wednesday through March. Thanks so much for joining us.
TAYLOR: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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