Thousands of pastors and religious leaders marched in Washington, DC yesterday in a politically charged protest against white supremacy.
As many as 3,000 religious leaders, spanning a range of traditions, gathered on Monday as part of a demonstration titled 'One Thousand Ministers March for Justice,' as RNS reported.
The march was intended as a faith-based protest against hate crimes and discrimination, held on the 54<sup>th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr's March on Washington, in which King made the infamous 'I have a dream speech'. However, the recent white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia – and its political fallout – escalated the import of and interest in the event.
'We wanted to say this nation is in moral trouble,' said the African-American Rev Al Sharpton, whose organization National Action Network organized the rally.
He added: 'You're going to see the victims of Nazism, the victims of white supremacy march today to the Justice Department. And say we don't care what party's in. We are not going to be out.'
The activist and pastor Rev Jim Wallis was amongst the assembled, and urged the need for clergy to speak out against white supremacy. 'We have to preach from every pulpit in America that racism is America's original sin,' he said.
Sikh leader Rajwant Singh spoke to the crowd: 'Let me tell all the white supremacists and KKK and everybody that America is a multifaith country — Do you all agree? America belongs to all of us.'
Baltimore Methodist Episcopal pastor Rev. Jamal-Harrison Bryant criticised the evangelical advisers surrounding Trump who support the 'lie' that 'Donald Trump is a man of God'.
'They do not reflect the body of Christ at large', Bryant said. 'He [Trump] is not God's man.'
