Ralph talks to Reverend Graylan Hagler about, among other things, the criminalization of poverty, right wing Christianity, and The Poor People’s Campaign to fight all of that. Then, conservative Constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, joins us to express his reservations about Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, especially his views on executive power.
Reverend Graylan Hagler is senior pastor of Plymouth United Church of Christ in Washington DC. A long-time social justice advocate, Reverend Hagler is the Chairperson of Faith Strategies, a collective of clergy, who consult, advise and organize to help bring social justice issues into the faith community. A big part of that work is the Poor People’s Campaign, which was inspired by the vision of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The Poor People’s Campaign fights for voting rights and economic justice, and against ecological devastation and military aggression, all of which hurt poor people the most.
“Theologically and historically, there’s what I call ‘Empire Christianity’ versus Christianity that tries to speak to the human condition. And ‘Empire Christianity’ is that which is represented by the evangelical community right now, that basically cares nothing about morality, just want to basically apply their own sense of morality to everybody else in terms of abortion, around being being anti-gay, all those types of things… And on the other side, we have people that have been doing the work, feeding the hungry, caring for the poor, clothing the naked, visiting those in the jailhouse.”
Reverend Graylan Hagler on behalf of The Poor People’s Campaign.
Bruce Fein is a Constitutional scholar who was Associate Deputy Attorney General under President Ronald Reagan. Mr. Fein has been a Visiting Fellow for Constitutional Studies at the Heritage Foundation and an adjunct scholar at American Enterprise Institute. He has advised numerous countries on constitutional reform, including South Africa, Hungary and Russia. He is author of “Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy,” and “American Empire: Before the Fall.”
“This is the most important thing we have to remember, I believe, the cornerstone of our republic, the cornerstone of due process and the rule of law. It’s a moral principle: it’s better to risk being a victim of injustice than to be complicit in it. That one principle ‘better to risk injustice than to be complicit in it’ is what keeps our republic alive.”
Constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein
Poor People’s Campaign/Brett Kavanaugh