WASHINGTON (RNS) — Two groups with decidedly differing views of the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol marked the fifth anniversary of the day’s events on Tuesday, both appealing to what they argued were divine truths.
On Tuesday morning, at a vigil at Luther Place Memorial Church, a historic Evangelical Lutheran Church in America congregation in downtown Washington, a dozen or so clergy assembled as the church’s pastor, the Rev. Karen Brau, recounted the story of the vigil held five years before. At the time, thousands of supporters of President Donald Trump rallied in Washington to protest, insisting the 2020 election was stolen — a false claim.
Two Trump supporters marched into the prayer circle, Brau recalled, and mockingly reenacted the murder of George Floyd. “This unjust and harsh interruption was designed to pull our attention away from the prayerful space we were inhabiting,” Brau said, adding, “It did not work.”
The theme of this year’s vigil was truth-telling, Brau told Religion News Service, an idea she traced to Scripture. “As we were bearing witness here that first time in 2021, we were part of a truth that was happening,” said the pastor. “I think the ongoing truth-telling — being able to, in some ways, hold the narrative for what is our experience and rooting that in God’s love and justice — remains relevant a …