Utah Senator Mitt Romney joined with protesters Sunday in a march at the U.S. Capitol.
He told reporters that he wanted to support “ending brutality.”
“Black lives matter,” he said.
The march, called Faith Works, was organized by evangelical Christians from local churches in Washington, D.C. Romney is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He has been open about his faith in his public office.
Romney also posted a photo on Twitter of himself at the demonstration.
Over the weekend, Romney also tweeted a photo of his father, George W. Romney, participating in a civil rights march in the 1960s. George served as governor of Michigan.
Demonstrators sang “Amazing Grace” as they marched and held signs bearing Bible verses and “Black Lives Matter.”
Tyler Bowen, a member of Grace Meridian Hill, said the march was about showing how Christians also support ending police brutality and racism.
“There is a branch of the evangelical church— like we saw today— that is standing up against these issues, is speaking out, and believes that Jesus is calling them to speak out,” he said. “Speaking out is being faithful to his commandments.”
Joshua Little, who works at the evangelical Christian human rights group International Justice Mission, said some 2,000 people participated in Sunday’s march.
“It represented a unified show of support of churches in the D.C. area marching for justice,” Little told Religion News Service. “We are uniting as Christians to stand up against racial injustice.
“I felt very glad that there was a protest movement that I could join without being worried that it was going to go in a direction that I wasn’t comfortable with—in terms of violence or in terms of espousing beliefs about the state or the nature of the problems that we face that I fundamentally don’t believe in,” Little said.
Photo credit: Twitter/@MittRomney
Amanda Casanova is a writer living in Dallas, Texas. She has covered news for ChristianHeadlines.com since 2014. She has also contributed to The Houston Chronicle, U.S. News and World Report and IBelieve.com. She blogs at The Migraine Runner.