How Moral Fusion Organizing Can Transform Civic Life
The Exchange: A Conversation with Moral Leader Bishop William J. Barber II
Murmuration’s Chief Marketing and Operating Officer, Michael Slaby, sat down with William J. Barber II, President & Senior Lecturer of Repairers of the Breach and Founding Director of the Yale Center for Public Theology and Public Policy for The Exchange, our interview series featuring influential thought leaders, organizers, advocates, and others who are shaping the future of civic life.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Michael Slaby: Welcome and thank you for taking some time to speak with us today. To start us off, could you introduce yourself and explain how Repairers of the Breach came to be?
Bishop William J. Barber, II: We founded Repairs of the Breach, a national organization that trains moral leaders and builds social justice movements, in 2015 after eight years of mobilizing in North Carolina and building a model of state-based mobilizing. We said there needed to be a form of movement that learned from the First and Second Reconstructions in this country. A Third Reconstruction needed to be deeply state-based; rooted in our deepest moral, constitutional, and religious values; not left or right, not conservative or liberal, not Republican or Democratic, but focused on the issues. Out of that need, Moral Monday happened, one of the most successful historic gatherings, where, for over two years, people went into the state house every Monday and challenged extremism. We founded Repairers of the Breach to be a teaching organization to train people in “moral fusion organizing”, what we call moral analysis, moral articulation, moral agenda building, and moral action, and to do it from the state up. We developed 14 guidelines for moral fusion organizing and started training across the country.
What we were calling for was a national moral revival, saying something is off that we can’t get people to move past partisanship to focus on things like healthcare, for example. Repairers of the Breach says, you can’t address these interlocking injustices—systemic racism, systemic poverty, ecological devastation, denial of healthcare, the war economy, and the false moral narrative of religious nationalism—without an intersectional moral fusion movement. And it must be from the bottom up–moral leaders, impacted people, and activists. We are an organization that’s not trying to build loyalty to Repairers of the Breach. We’re trying to build loyalty to our deepest moral and religious values. That’s what Repairs of the Breach is about, building that moral commitment.
You can’t address these interlocking injustices—systemic racism, systemic poverty, ecological devastation, denial of healthcare, the war economy, and the false moral narrative of religious nationalism—without an intersectional moral fusion movement.
Michael Slaby: The term “repairs of the breach” comes from Isaiah 58:12 in the Bible, a story about people who restore a community after destruction. The idea that our public civic life is founded on moral commitments to each other is something that often sounds religious or spiritual and is often led by people of faith, but Repairers of the Breach is a moral movement, not a religious one. What is it about faith that continues to act as a catalyst for justice and progress in civic life, especially given the declining participation in traditional religious institutions?
Bishop William J. Barber, II: The greater the pain, the greater the people recognize there’s a sickness. For instance, if you think that Trump is the issue—one person—that is a weak analysis. Part of what’s happening is that authoritarians and neo-fascist movements have been allowed to rise because the door has been left open for them to come in. We didn’t close the door by fixing the issues in America, like poverty, for instance. So what happens is they go to places and say to people, “We love you,” but really it’s not love; it’s a form of spiritual religious malpractice when they try to use religion as a tool of hurt and harm, and not for addressing the issues people are facing.
In my class at Yale, I bring in a Bible that has every passage about how to treat strangers and the vulnerable. I say to the students, do not address public theology where morality becomes a tack on. What is it that you stand for, no matter who’s in office? What is it that you stand for, no matter what party is leading? When Jesus did his first sermon, he said, “I’ve come to bring good news to the poor, those who’ve been made poor by economic policy. Every nation will be judged by, “When I was hungry, did you feed me? When I was naked, did you clothe me?” There has to be a movement that uses its voice to say to the nation, “This is sin,” but also gives a vision for the future. What you have to do is give people a vision. Prophetic imagination must precede prophetic moral implementation.
Michael Slaby: I think that to get past the grievance and the shared pain and diagnosis, and into the world of solution, we need to talk about the necessity for using moral clarity as a way to co-organize with “a world full of allies” who might not always share the same priorities. Can you talk a little about your “moral fusion” organizing model and why you believe it’s essential to build power at the local and state levels rather than at the national level to achieve lasting change?
Bishop William J. Barber, II: What we often hear is “elect me because of what I’m against.” And for us, the question is, “What are you for?” That doesn’t mean you ignore the grievance. You simply don’t allow the grievance to have the last word. Because if you do that, then you end up giving power to those who are creating the pain, because you’re refusing to organize those people who are being hurt. The people who are being hurt and the impacted, connected with moral advocates, are more than those who are doing the hurt. For instance, there’s not a state in this country where poor and low-wage people don’t represent between 36%-42% of the electorate. And there’s not a state in this country where if you mobilize 20% of those poor and low-wage people, whose number one reason for not voting is nobody talks to us, you won’t see new political possibilities.
You simply don’t allow the grievance to have the last word. Because if you do that, then you end up giving power to those who are creating the pain, because you’re refusing to organize those people who are being hurt. The people who are being hurt and the impacted, connected with moral advocates, are more than those who are doing the hurt.
In conversations across the country, I have realized authoritarianism is deeply afraid of three things. It is afraid of truth-telling movements because telling the truth is the most powerful first thing you can do in a season of lies. The second thing authoritarians fear is people and movements that believe there’s something greater than the authoritarian. They freak out about that! The last thing they fear is movements that start from the bottom. So when a movement decides we’re gonna go after the root, and we’re gonna organize the pain, we recognize that the only way is to organize from the bottom. Dr. King said in his 1965 “Our God Is Marching On!” speech at the Alabama State Capitol, following the Selma-to-Montgomery march, that the greatest fear of the greedy oligarchy in this nation is for the masses of Negroes and the masses of poor whites and others to come together and form a voting bloc that can fundamentally shift the economic architecture of the nation. So if we are all black in the dark, we need to be smart enough to unite for the light. And that’s what we have to do right now, build a movement that this country cannot do without.
Michael Slaby: In February, Repairers of the Breach organized a “Moral March from Wilson to Raleigh” and a “Mass People’s Assembly” to draw attention to opposition to the new congressional map passed by the North Carolina General Assembly, which Repairers of the Breach say unfairly redrew the 1st Congressional District, taking away the voting power of Black, Latino, and poor and low-wage people. How does this effort fit into the broader history of justice marches in the South, and why is it essential to bring people together to create highly visible moments of collective power today?
Bishop William J. Barber, II: President Trump called North Carolina and told the MAGA state legislature, I want the First Congressional District. It’s a district created by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, predominantly minority Black. So we went and had meetings. At the first meeting, we had about 500 people show up, and they didn’t say, let’s go after Trump or let’s go after Johnson. They said let’s connect. Let’s show that when you attack voting rights, you’re also attacking healthcare. That people don’t just want this district for benign reasons. They want the district because they want the power to continue to inflict pain.
So, Repairers of the Breach organized a Wilson to Raleigh march this past February. The people said, let’s do it right now, in the middle of winter. We walked 51 miles in four days. When we started that morning, there were 278 people. By the time we got to Raleigh, it was thousands. And they didn’t just come for the rally, or to voice their opposition to Trump—I don’t think anybody mentioned his name at the rally. What we were talking about is what we love, what we embrace.
Michael Slaby: That leads me into my next question. What is giving you hope for the future right now?
Bishop William J. Barber, II: This past Sunday, I was in Little Rock, Arkansas, for a justice revival event, and the place was packed. It’s Black, it’s White, it’s Brown. And it’s not just people who came to hear me speak. It was people saying, “Let’s organize! How can we build an agenda?” When I talk to young folk or when I’m teaching my classes, I always share Jürgen Moltmann’s “Theology of Hope,” and I’ll paraphrase him here. He says that whenever people of deep moral conviction see something that is wrong and decide that they can no longer accept it and they put their hands to the work of changing it, that’s where hope begins. Love, truth, and justice have a power that has won before, and that is greater than extremism and authoritarianism. But you have to be willing to do the work to cause that movement to rise.
Love, truth, and justice have a power that has won before, and that is greater than extremism and authoritarianism. But you have to be willing to do the work to cause that movement to rise.
Michael Slaby: That invitation to love and be in community and not to focus on the grievance feels so refreshing right now. People keep talking about how the world feels like it’s on fire, and that feels like water.
Bishop William J. Barber, II: You know, since we did the “Love Forward Mass People’s Assembly Moral March Mobilization,” we’ve been getting calls from all over from people wanting us to come to help them. And when that happens, Repairers of the Breach doesn’t say, “Barber is the one; let him come in and lead.” Dr. King didn’t believe in that kind of leadership. What we need is to give people the tools to build from the state up. Transformation happened from Raleigh, Greensboro, Montgomery, Jackson, and up. It doesn’t happen from D.C., right?
Every week, I go back and listen to the agenda of the 1963 March on Washington because popular history acted as though all that happened there was Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. But there was an agenda–an agenda that’s yet to be realized. That’s why I say we haven’t finished the second Reconstruction. Each Reconstruction was killed or murdered or maligned, but it’s still there. The possibilities are there.
Remember that breath is too precious to waste on lies, injustice, hate, meanness, and inequality. And if I have breath–whether it’s six seconds, six minutes, six hours, six days, six weeks, or 60 years–I should commit myself to using my breath to breathe the life of love and justice and mercy into the world.
I’d like to leave you with one last thing. During COVID, when so many had lost so much, one family in our movement lost 12 members. I said, “Lord, why these people? I’m not more special than them. Why is it that they’re dying?” And one night it came to me that that’s always the wrong question. Why are you still here? Why are you still alive? Nobody can answer that question. The question that you must answer is, what are you still here for? And it dawned on me that if COVID didn’t teach us anything else, it showed those of us who are yet living that the only way we honor those we lost is to remember that breath is too precious to waste on lies, injustice, hate, meanness, and inequality. And if I have breath–whether it’s six seconds, six minutes, six hours, six days, six weeks, or 60 years–I should commit myself to using my breath to breathe the life of love and justice and mercy into the world. Don’t worry about why you’re here. You’ll never be able to answer that question. But as long as you are here, there’s work to do. And that’s what you set yourself to do with every breath you take.
About William J. Barber II
Bishop William J. Barber II is a Professor in the Practice of Public Theology and Public Policy and Founding Director of the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School. He serves as President and Senior Lecturer of Repairers of the Breach and Bishop with The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries.
About Michael Slaby
Michael Slaby is a leader in how values, systems, strategy, and technology drive movements and organizations. At Murmuration, he leads marketing, fundraising, network engagement, and culture. Before joining Murmuration, he was a senior strategist and head of community at Harmony Labs where he worked on accelerating media reform and transformation. He founded and was head of mission of Timshel, a social impact technology company, and was a fellow at the Shorenstein Center at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Michael helped lead the Obama for America campaign as chief integration and innovation officer in 2012 where he oversaw all technology and analytics and as deputy digital director and chief technology officer in 2008.
Murmuration is a nonprofit working to transform America into a nation where everyone can thrive. We organize a network of community-focused partners and equip them with the insights, tools, and services they need to help communities build and activate power more effectively. murmuration.org
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