On Monday, clergy members and local community leaders led a peaceful demonstration outside of U.S. Senator Katie Britt’s office in Birmingham. The demonstration was part of the so-called “Moral Mondays” movement led by the Repairers of the Breach, a progressive nonprofit organization which emphasizes moral, religious and constitutional values as it looks to address systemic oppression and injustices in the U.S.
The Moral Mondays demonstrations involve prayer vigils, sit-ins and public witness at Congressional offices in direct response to the Republican “Big Beautiful Bill,” which levies dramatic cuts to healthcare, food assistance and other critical social services. The protests also come as Democrats refuse to sign onto a Republican budget to reopen the government unless some of those aforementioned cuts—specifically to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act enhanced premium tax credits—are reversed.
In an official statement Monday, Repairers of the Breach President Bishop William J. Barber II denounced Republicans’ refusal to restore healthcare funding to end the shutdown, decried the GOP’s use of “Christian values” as a political cudgel, and called for continued “nonviolent moral resistance” against the Trump administration and its policies. Barber also acknowledged the organization’s solidarity with the October 18 “No Kings” protests, which saw millions of Americans take to the streets over the weekend to protest the Trump administration.
“Politicians shamelessly traded lives for leverage to pass the big, deadly, destructive budget bill. Every day the shutdown continues, these same politicians are proving that they’re willing to squeeze even more people out of health care if it means scoring political points. Even more horrifyingly, we are seeing leaders invoke ‘Christian values’ to justify policies that harm the very people Jesus called us to care for. While the government may be shut down, our moral responsibility cannot,” said Barber, president and senior lecturer of Repairers of the Breach. “As we join nationwide ‘No Kings’ protests this weekend, we are reminded that the only force strong enough to confront policy evil is nonviolent moral resistance rooted in faith, love, and truth.”
In Alabama, the Repairers of the Breach are specifically calling on Britt and Senator Tommy Tuberville to end their support for the “Big Beautiful Bill” and to repeal cuts to Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and other “essential social safety net programs.”
“Religious and moral leaders have a sacred duty to stand with all of our neighbors—not only those in our congregations, but every person harmed by policy violence like the so-called ‘Big Ugly Deadly Bill,’” said Reverend Carolyn Foster of Greater Birmingham Ministries. “This cruel legislation strips health care and food assistance from women, children, the elderly, and the disabled. We call on Senators Britt and Tuberville to repeal this law and end the suffering it is inflicting on Alabamians already fighting to make ends meet.”
The organizers also stated that the government shutdown has become a “full-blown moral crisis” which threatens to punish working class and low-income families by “cutting health care, food assistance, and essential programs, while politicians trade lives for leverage.”
The Repairers of the Breach hope that their demonstrations encourage Britt, Tuberville and their Republican colleagues to end the shutdown and enact a “moral budget that protects human life and dignity.”
