PHILADELPHIA -- After three days of heavy hitting speakers such as First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Mothers of the Movement, and President Barack Obama, the Democratic National Convention (DNC) held here came to a close July 28 with Democratic Nominee Hillary Clinton delivering her acceptance speech. Clinton's highly anticipated and well-received speech would not be the only memorable moment of the night. For several electrifying minutes, the Reverend William Barber transformed the convention arena into a church of revolutionary thought.

The Rev. Barber, chair of the NAACP Political Action Committee, has been making headlines since 2013 when he led a coalition that launched North Carolina's Moral Mondays movement. Moral Mondays is a grassroots organization that uses strategies of civil disobedience and demonstrations to bring attention to voter suppression, social programs cuts, the repeal of North Carolina's anti-death penalty Racial Justice Act, women's reproductive rights restrictions, and other social justice issues across the country. His current project, Repairers of the Breach, aims to frame public policies based on a "progressive agenda rooted in a moral framework to counter the ultra-conservative constructs that try to dominate the public square."

Barber said his travel around the country and working with others on "the revival and calling for a revolution of values," he is concerned by those who "say so much about what God says so little, while saying so little about what God says so much."

Without using the Republican Party's presidential nominee's name, Barber said he was deeply "troubled" by those who cynically use their beliefs "to serve hate, fear, racism and greed."

Instead, the reverend urged a close listening of the Prophet Isaiah, who said what the Lord wants is for the nation "to pay people what they deserve, share your food with the hungry...Do this, and then your nation shall be called a repairer of the breach." (Story continues after video.)

Referencing Dorothy Day and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., he said the problem in America was a problem of the heart. Listing struggles such as: the fight for $15 and a union; combating voter suppression and defending the Voting Rights Act; guaranteeing universal health care; improving public education; defending rights of immigrants, and the LGBT community, fair trade policies, he said these struggles were reviving the "heart of our democracy," and these issues were not a matter of left or right but of right and wrong.

He said, "Our constitution calls us to commit our government to establish justice, to promote the general welfare, to provide for the common defense and to ensure domestic tranquility." He noted that however imperfectly "lived" that "vision" has been, it "ought to be the goal at the heart of our democracy." 

"When we love the Jewish child and the Palestinian child, the Muslim and the Christian and the Hindu and the Buddhist and those who have no faith but they love this nation. We are reviving the heart of our democracy," he said to cheers.

Barber said "when we hear the legitimate discontent of Black Lives Matter" and take steps to "renew justice in our criminal justice system" it was a necessary part of "embracing our deepest moral values and reviving the heart of our democracy."

Barber took on violence and militarism as part of the revival of the democratic heart aand values. "When we fight for peace and when we resist the proliferation of military style weapons on our street. And when we stand against the anti-democratic stronghold of the NRA, we are reviving the heart of our democracy," he said.

The self proclaimed "theologically conservative liberal evangelical Biblicist" said to correct the heart problem in America, the people had to be the nation's "moral defibrillator."

"We must shock this nation with the power of love. We must shock this nation with the power of mercy. We must shock this nation and fight for justice for all. We can't give up on the heart of our democracy, not now, not ever," he said.

Recognizing the importance of Hillary Clinton's campaign and voice, Barber said no individual "can do it alone."

"Vote together. Organize together. Fight for the heart of this nation," Barber called out over the cheering crowd, which had rose to its feet, baptized in compassionate revolutionary values to galvanize them to the polls in November and beyond. 

Photo: Rev. William Barber speaks during the final day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.  |  J. Scott Applewhite/AP