Tennessee clergy and their congregants march on state Capitol to protest gun violence

Answering the call of the Rev. William Barber II, hundreds of Tennessee clergy and their congregants marched to the steps of Tennessee’s Capitol to protest gun violence and injustice in the state legislature.

Forty-six of them carried six caskets. Others marched in lines of four, carrying signs saying, “Every day, 120 people in America are killed with guns” and “Faith without action is dead.”

The rally featured local clergy marching side-by-side with nationally prominent faith leaders, some of whom are regularly involved with Barber’s Moral Monday movement and the Poor’s People Campaign, following tragedy and political unrest in Tennessee.

There were six victims in The Covenant School shooting on March 27: 9-year-olds Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney and staff members Katherine Koonce, Cynthia Peak and Mike Hill.

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“Have these deaths scared us to life yet?” Barber, a nationally prominent faith leader from North Carolina, asked the audience at McKendree United Methodist Church in downtown Nashville, where there was a pre-march rally.

Barber enthused the crowd, which then read through a “covenant of nonviolence,” or terms of nonviolent demonstration. Then, people processed out of the pews and the main hallway of McKendree UMC, leading to Church Street.

The Moral Monday movement is organized by Repairers of the Breach, a nonprofit focused on building a “moral fusion coalition.” Its events typically focus on a variety of issues at once, or what Barber called on Monday the “politics of death.” In addition to gun violence, speakers addressed issues of affordable healthcare and housing, and voting rights.

The rally followed the fight over the “Tennessee Three,” when the Tennessee House of Representatives expelled two of three Democrats who broke House rules and led gun reform protests from the chamber's floor following the mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville.

Republicans in the state House expelled Democratic Reps. Justin Pearson of Memphis and Justine Jones of Nashville over charges they broke rules for speaking without being recognized and disrupting legislative business, which Republicans called "disorderly behavior." Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, survived expulsion by just one vote. 

Both Pearson and Jones returned to the House last week after interim appointments by the Shelby County Commission and Nashville's Metro Council.

During the April 6 debate in the House over whether to expel Jones and Pearson, both freshman lawmakers invoked scripture and cited their Christian faith when they spoke before their colleagues who were trying to oust them. Jones, who joined part of Monday’s events, has studied at Vanderbilt University Divinity School.

The demonstrators on Monday placed the caskets on the steps of the state Capitol, where some led the audience in song with a chorus of "we got to set it right again."

Then, audience members heard from Angela Ferrell-Zabala, senior vice president for movement building at Everytown and Moms Demand Action, Vanderbilt University students who volunteer with Students Demand Action and The Equity Alliance, and Sarah Neumann, a Covenant School mom.

"We had everything, we had the security, we had locked doors, we had intense active shooter training," Neumann said to marchers, many of whom were in tears. "We had everything. Our cops were heroes. They didn't hesitate a second. It was not enough."

Local clergy and denomination leaders also called for gun reform, including the Rev. Stephen Handy, pastor of McKendree UMC, Rabbi Shana Mackler with The Temple, a Reform Jewish congregation in Nashville, and Rabbi Lindsey Danziger with the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism, who lives in Nashville.

“We can no longer wait to buy another casket or bury another loved one. We can no longer wait on our children screaming, ‘why not help us now?’” Handy said. “We can no longer wait to hear the deaf cries from the graves and the ground beneath us throughout the state of Tennessee.

The clergy remarks Monday mirror that of many Tennessee faith leaders who have been calling for gun reform in sermons, according to a project by The Tennessean looking at recent services at faith communities.

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Mackler called out an “idolatry” of the Second Amendment. She said, “As a nation, we have been sacrificing to this idol, offering our loved ones up in schools and synagogues and churches and on street corners and in malls and in movie theaters.”

The demonstration ended inside the state Capitol, where many waited for hours to protest proposed legislation in the House that would arm teachers. However, House Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-Portland, successfully motioned to table the discussion on HB 1202 until Wednesday to the dismay of the protesters.

Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean. Reach him at ladams@tennessean.com or on Twitter @liamsadams.