Taylorsville Pastor Arrested in Peaceful Protest at US Capitol

 

Rev. Joel Simpson

Rev. Joel Simpson, pastor of First United Methodist Church down the mountain in Taylorsville, was arrested in the first of a new round of "Moral Mondays" at the U.S. Capitol in May 2025 while protesting the proposed Republican-led federal budget. He was one of five clergymen detained. Simpson and other clergy members also protested a later version of the budget, dubbed the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," in June 2025. He and the protestors described the legislation as "immoral" and "deadly" due to deep cuts to social programs. About the budget, Pastor Simpson told the Hickory Daily Record he was concerned about the cuts to Medicaid, which he said would "devastate" communities like Alexander County. (AI summary) More recently, The Daily Record headlined a Simpson op-ed in which he criticized the record of Congresswoman Virginia Arbuthnot Foxx: "Taylorsville pastor: 'This federal budget is not just a failure of values; it is a death sentence.' "

Pastor Simpson interviewed with The United Methodist Insight soon after his arrest in May, and he clearly knows what he's talking about. Simpson said:

The Taylorsville House is a memory care facility that currently has 44 residents in Alexander County. If Medicaid funds are cut, Taylorsville House and other care facilities in our community such as Valley Nursing and Rehab (which also has members of my church) will be in trouble....

Even with Medicaid, 9% of people don’t have health insurance at all in Alexander County. That’s over 3,000 people.

The impact doesn’t stop there, however. Food assistance is also at risk of being cut, with the House budget resolution calling on $230 billion in cuts over 10 years for the Agriculture Committee, which oversees SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).

14% of Alexander County is a part of the food stamps program SNAP. This is a little over 5,000 people and it’s still not enough support. Last year, the Christian Crisis Center food pantry in Taylorsville gave almost 15,000 people food and served almost 6,000 families. This was only one of many food pantries in our county. People will be deeply impacted by these cuts.

 

Otherwise what I know about Joel Simpson, I got from the Taylorsville church website: 

Joel Simpson has been preaching at First United Methodist since April 2018, with his first “official” Sunday as Pastor on June 3. He grew up in Morganton, and most recently served as Associate Pastor at Mt. Zion United Methodist Church in Cornelius. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing from UNC Charlotte, and completed seminary at Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta.

In my dusty part of Texas growing up, the Methodists were always the most liberal. Lord love 'em!

According to LinkedIn, "He blogs regularly at substack.com/@joelsimpson, Red Letter Christians, and the Western NC Conference of The United Methodist Church." He's apparently known locally for a regular Wednesday morning video chat via Facebook. In those videos he speaks very carefully and clearly as a way of warding off the Devil and never mentioning Trump by name.