'Repent!' Reverend William Barber burns down GOP lawmakers with testimony on 'sin' of voter suppression

Dr. Rev. William Barber on Wednesday chastised members of Congress for failing to take on voter suppression.

At a House Oversight and Reform Committee on voting in minority communities, Barber noted that the Voting Rights Act had not been renewed in nearly three years. The minister called out Republican Rep. Mark Meadows, a fellow North Carolinian, by name.

"I wish my good friend Mr. Meadows was still here," Barber said, observing that the congressman had left the room. "I wanted to ask him to truly be a friend to the friend he claims in Elijah Cummings and support his vision to deal with voter suppression. If you can't support my truth, friendship is really questionable."

Barber concluded with a fiery sermon on the morality of voting rights.

"Voter suppression is sin!" he exclaimed. "So to supress the vote is to, in fact, suggest that you have entered a God space and you can determine other people's reality and to suppress the vote is to suggest that other people do not have the same imago dei -- image of God in you."

Barber asserted that voter suppression "is a form of idolatry and sin."

"And on this Ash Wednesday, I call on on those who have fought against the right to vote and have lied about voter fraud and have pushed voter suppression and who have smiled smirkingly at it, repent!" the reverend shouted.

"Repent!" he said again. "For the Bible says, 'Woe unto those who legislate evil and rob the poor of their rights and make women and children their prey.'"

Watch the video below from C-SPAN.