Five faith leaders were arrested while praying in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Monday, May 5, the second time in as many weeks clergy and others have been handcuffed as they speak out against the Republican-led budget bill.

Among those arrested was Shane Claiborne, a longtime activist and co-director of Red Letter Christians, a Christian social justice group. Claiborne prayed side by side with others for several minutes before being arrested by Capitol police.

“Reorder our moral compass,” Claiborne said, standing near a statue commemorating famous suffragettes and abolitionists. “Stir the conscience of our nation. Let justice rise up on these very steps, let truth trouble the chambers of the Capitol. Let there be no peace where there is no justice. Let there be no comfort for those who legislate cruelty.”

Claiborne added: “Let those of us gathered here rise not with fear but with fire, because as long as the details are still being worked out in committee …” as the group, which included Christian and Jewish activists, responded in unison: “You can work a miracle.”

Shortly after an officer gave multiple verbal warnings, roughly two dozen officers surrounded the group and began arresting them one by one.

Members of the group prayed and some sang “This Little Light of Mine” as they were led away.

Also arrested were the Revs. Alvin Jackson and Hanna Broome, both affiliated with Repairers of the Breach; Ariel Gold, USA director of The Fellowship of Reconciliation; and the Rev. Joel Simpson, pastor at First United Methodist Church in Taylorsville, N.C.

Police cleared the Rotunda to make the arrests but allowed press to continue documenting the scene. In an email to RNS, Capitol Police confirmed they arrested five people after multiple warnings, charging them with “crowding, obstructing, and incommoding.”

Reached by phone after his release, he cited inspiration from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s civil rights advocacy and argued the GOP-led budget constituted an emergency for the poor.

“We think that these are extreme times, and they warrant extreme measures,” Claiborne said. “So we’re going to bear witness, non-violently.”

The protest is the latest in an ongoing Monday effort launched last month by the Rev. William Barber, a prominent pastor and anti-poverty activist. The campaign targets the proposed Republican budget, with organizers protesting potential cuts to Medicaid and other programs designed to help low-income Americans.

Last week, Barber and two others were arrested while praying in the Rotunda.

“It is a sad day in America when you can be arrested in the people’s house for merely praying because the congresspeople in a party in that house are choosing to prey — P-R-E-Y — on the most vulnerable of this nation, along with the president of the nation,” Barber told RNS. “But we will not bow. We will not stop. We have to raise moral dissent.”

“We are gathered here in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, and in the shadow of the Capitol, to stand up and to speak out about a federal budget that seems to have emerged like a phoenix from the very pit of hell,” said the Rev. Leslie Copeland-Tune of the National Council of Churches.

Claiborne also railed against the bill and criticized those who have invoked faith to defend President Trump’s policies. He held up a version of the four biblical gospels with all verses about the poor, love, and compassion redacted.

“It’s called the Gospel of Donald Trump,” he said.

Organizers say they plan to continue the demonstrations as Congress continues to debate the budget bill. Claiborne said even as he and the others sat in the back of a police van on Monday, they were already planning future actions.

“We were doing two hours of organizing with Rev. Alvin (Jackson) in there,” Claiborne said, laughing. “One less Zoom call.”