WASHINGTON (RNS) — The Rev. Barbara Williams-Skinner, a coordinator of Faiths United to Save Democracy, sees relationships as the key to her work and her life.
“I don’t see people as categories,” she said of her bridge building with people of different races, religions and political parties. “I see them as either souls to be saved or friends to be won.”
Williams-Skinner, who calls herself “a pro-life, pro-traditional-marriage Democrat who’s homeless in my own party,” has worked at the intersection of faith and politics for decades, most especially of late around the preparation, participation and protection of voting rights.
Starting in the ’80s with her husband, the late Rev. Tom Skinner, she brought people together at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual prayer breakfast, recently renamed “A Day of Healing.”
Now, she is working with a multifaith, multiracial nonpartisan coalition to train poll chaplains and peacekeepers to be a welcoming and calming presence as people arrive at voting centers for the upcoming election.
“We’re just 50 days away, and unfortunately, we see mounting attacks on our democracy, mounting disinformation and misinformation, bombing threats of violence and refusals by some officials to even certify,” she said, as she opened a mid-September training. “But when we come together the way we are now — Black, white, brown, Asian, Jews, Muslims, Christians, people of faith and no faith, labor, nonprofits — there is nothing we cannot do together.”
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Williams-Skinner, 80, spoke with RNS about the prayer breakfast she co-created, her visits to the White House and her hopes and fears about the 2024 election.
The interview was edited for length and clarity.
You and your husband started the prayer breakfast at the CBC Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference in 1981. How has it developed over the years?
After I’ve married to Tom, we see Black leaders gaining more power, but we’ve become more disconnected from one another. And so after I had this transformational (faith) experience in my own life, I thought, wow, that would be great not to have 10,000 people coming to Washington and just have a legislative exposure and the big dinner and raise money. There’s something in this setting where people become unmasked and their titles and positions don’t even matter, where they get to know each other at a deeper level, whether they’re corporate or a lady from the church down the street who got a ticket.
And the first year we couldn’t have it as an official event. Stevie Wonder was performing at the gala. The piano was left over until 9 o’clock in the morning. So we asked the hotel if we could just gather people around the piano until they had to take it out. We had 50 people, and we sang, and had church. After that, it’s exploded to what it is today.
About how many now?
More than 2,000. But it’s the same vision and the same spirit in the same atmosphere, because the same model was being used, even though I’m not running it anymore.
You are ordained. When did that happen?
That happened in 2000. Metropolitan Baptist Church in Washington, D.C.
John Lewis talked about how he could have been a pastor but chose a different kind of ministry. Is that the approach you’ve also taken?
Yes. First, I didn’t grow up in the church, so I don’t have a passionate, deep connection to the organized church. I left it for so many years. I’m following Jesus. Getting ordained was a way of connecting to people as a faith leader. My focus is really on reaching people in the world who don’t know Jesus, who don’t want to know him, who were like me. Church is great, but God operates in the world. So people need to understand that they can find God anywhere, any time.
The Rev. Barbara Williams-Skinner, center, teaches local clergy about the Affordable Connectivity Program during a training event in Jacksonville, Fla. (Courtesy photo)
How many times have you visited the White House? And under which administrations?
Maybe once with Carter, once with Bush, because remember, he started the faith-based initiative, and I was in that meeting. A ton of times with Obama. Some with Clinton.
Any time in the Trump administration?
I don’t think so. I don’t think I really had a reason to go. I don’t think we had a connection. They were so busy tearing down everything I stand for. I mean, why would I go meet? Even though I do meet with people I have differences with, there wasn’t anybody I knew there. Even under the Bush administration, there were people I knew that I could connect with and I could argue about issues. I could present alternative language. I could make suggestions.
You were among religious leaders, specifically Black church leaders, who were calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. How is that issue shaping Black leaders’ views about the election now that there is a Harris-Trump contest rather than a Biden-Trump race?
That was at the very beginning, right after Oct. 7. I believe that is one of the unspoken issues impacting a lot of younger Black voters and other voters of color, even young white voters for that matter, but particularly for young Black leaders. They think of the Palestinians as oppressed. They see themselves as oppressed so they identify and they do not understand how American taxpayer money is being used to kill 41,000 people. They’re not antisemitic. They’re not anti-Israel. It is pro-life. It is the valuing of all human life. And the inconsistency is just so blatant. So, yes, I think that’s a big issue today and I think it’s an issue that Harris is going to have to deal with.
What makes Faiths United to Save Democracy nonpartisan, which you emphasize at the beginning of the training?
I don’t know if those white people or brown people on the screen are Democrats or Republicans. I don’t care. What you have to know about me is: I don’t care what your label is. I feel like I’m on a mission to connect with and build bridges with as many people as possible, to deconstruct racism, to deconstruct systems that dehumanize people of color and immigrants and others. I don’t care what party they’re in, so I don’t think about it.
People attend an online poll chaplain and peacekeeper training session, hosted by Faiths United to Save Democracy, Monday, July 15, 2024. (Video screen grab)
At the recent Test of Faith: A Summit to Defend Democracy, a woman spoke about her fear in Georgia. What is your general advice for people who, on the one hand, are willing to be trained to be poll chaplains, but on the other hand, are fearful?
Fear is a good thing, because fear helps you to be cautious. So fear is not bad. It just can’t be debilitating. That’s why the training is so important, because people know A, they’re not alone. B, there’s a number to call. We tell people we are not asking you to risk your life to help somebody vote. We want them to understand there are several ways to restore peace or to end conflict before it ever gets to violence. I think the reason people have not dropped out, even after they’re hearing more threats of violence, is because they know they’re not going to be alone. We also offer a buddy system, so people are buddying up.
What worries you most about this election season and what gives you the most hope?
I worry the most about people who have gotten turned off and who feel they have no stake in the country, because they feel this country has no stake in them. And that’s why in 2016 there were people who just didn’t even bother to register.
Many of those are Black young people?
Overwhelmingly Black and overwhelmingly poor people who feel forgotten, not seen. So that worries me. My greatest hope is also in young people. You know, the vote.org reported the other day that over (400,000) young people have registered, and their registration is going up. So despite the concern about issues like Gaza, they must be feeling hope or feeling a commitment to being part of making the change, being part of the freedom that has yet evaded us.
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