Carolyn Foster, tri-chair of the Poor People's Campaign speaks at a protest of the war in Iran on Monday, March 30, 2026, at the federal courthouse in Montgomery. (Ralph Chapoco/Alabama Reflector)
Clergy from at least a half dozen churches located throughout Alabama gathered at the federal courthouse in Montgomery Monday to protest what they called an “unholy war” that President Donald Trump has waged against Iran.
“Here we are, during Holy Week, in the middle of an ‘unholy war’ that is costing billions of dollars per day, when we have people right here in Alabama who are hungry, need food assistance, who need health care, who need better housing, who need a better, living wage, not just here in Alabama but all over the country,” said Rev. Carolyn Foster, tri-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, an organization that advocates for economic justice.
The protest is part of 15 that are planned nationwide for the day as part of the “Moral Mondays” rally led by Rev. William Barber II, president and senior lecturer of Repairers of the Breach.
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Local organizers also penned a letter to U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, to express their concerns regarding the cuts to the social safety net programs. The clergy members tried to deliver the letter to his office, but they were not allowed to enter.
Organizers also wrote a letter to commemorate Monday’s event that they plan to mail to Tuberville.
“Faith must never be used to justify violence,” the letter said. “No holy tradition calls for us to normalize war, abandon the poor or sanctify destruction.”
Speakers at the event focused exclusively on the war and its financial burden on the country. The U.S. Department of Defense told Congress that the first six days of the war cost about $11.3 billion and the price tag for the first few days alone totaled $5.6 billion, according to a report from the Center for Strategic & International Studies.
Foster said that money could have funded a host of other resources, from Head Start to scholarships for university students.
Taking a figure from the Institute for Policy Studies’ National Priorities Project that the Pentagon estimated that the current conflict in the Middle East will amount to $1 billion per day, Foster said that “For a billion dollars a day, 104 million children could be on Medicaid for one year. For a billion dollars a day, 41.69 million people could be placed in public housing for one year.”
The conflict with Iran is the most recent military entanglement after the attack on Venezuela in January.
“We have a Constitution of the United States of America which requires Congress to approve a war,” said Rev. Lawton Higgs Sr. “This war we entered into illegally without approval. It is immoral because it was enacted by people acting in criminal ways.”
The local organization has staged multiple demonstrations at the federal courthouse in the past couple of years. Last fall, organizers hosted a mock funeral procession to protest funding reductions to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Medicaid under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) that Congress passed into law last year could cost the state more than $200 million.
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Author: Ralph Chapoco