Bill Wylie-Kellermann

Bill Wylie-Kellermann is a contributing editor at Sojourners.^[1] He is is a nonviolent community activist, retired pastor, and author living in Detroit. His most recent books are: Dying Well: The Resurrected Life of Jeanie Wylie-Kellermann (Case Community, 2018), Principalities in Particular: A Practical Theology of the Powers that Be, and Where the Waters Go Around: Beloved Detroit.

MDEQ protest

(L-R) Kim Redigan, Jay Cummings, Pastor Emeritus, Claire McClinton and Rev. Liz Theoharis.Valerie Jean.

The event that triggered the arrests in front of the MDEQ in Lansing, MI, that blocked the doors to the building.

“We blocked all the doors (and eventually the parking lot) of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) headquarters, plus surrounded the building with crime scene tape because of environmental concerns,” said Rev. Bill Wylie-Kellermann, one of some 30 people arrested. Concerns included the role of the MDEQ in the Flint water poisoning, oil spill threat of Enbridge’s Line 5, and permitting the expansion by US Ecology and Nestlés in the Great Lakes.

The action was part of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. “This contributed to the largest focused and coordinated campaign of civil disobedience in US history . . . the MDEQ needs to make public health the priority, not corporate profit,” said Wylie-Kellermann.

“Some of those arrested took a ‘diversion program’ offer. Others pled ‘no contest’ to a misdemeanor. Thirteen prepared for a trial;” Rabbi Alana Alpert; Carolyn Baker; Claire McClinton; Justin Sledge; Carlos Santacruz; Baxter Jones; Rev. Liz Theoharis; Rev. Deb Hansen; Rev. Ed Rowe; Rev. Bill Wylie-Kellermann; Richard Levey; Sylvia Orduno; and Leah Wiste.^[2]