As many of you already know, Rev. William Barber and the state NAACP are organizing weekly protests at the General Assembly, voicing opposition to the direction our state is being taken during this legislative session (that direction being backwards). These protests include, for those who choose to take part, nonviolent civil disobedience and arrest. In the last three weeks, nearly a hundred people have been arrested. The call has also been for supporters, people [...]
Continue reading Moral Mondays – Clergy Issued Special Invitation for May 20
A misguided push in the General Assembly to get capital punishment back on track is generating a well-deserved pushback. People of Faith Against the Death Penalty, a group that for years has helped focus the case against executions, is bringing religious leaders to the Legislative Building as the debate again heats up. PFADP got its start as a program of the Council; we strongly support its stance and encourage legislators to listen with open minds [...]
Continue reading Execution Foes at Legislature
The National Council of Churches, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, and others are sponsoring an Interfaith Call-in Day to ensure that the voices of faithful Americans are heard throughout the halls of Congress on April 9. You can call NC Senators Hagan and Burr at 1-888-897-0174 and urge them to act to prevent gun violence.
As the President of the Christian Conference of Connecticut wrote following the passage of historic legislation there last week, “It was [...]
Continue reading Interfaith Call-in Day to Prevent Gun Violence April 9
Exploring the power of witness in the midst of a raging immigration debate, Scott Schomburg reflects on his experience interviewing Rev. Julio Ramirez-Eve, pastor of Iglesia Hispana Emanuel in Durham, NC. [...]
Continue reading Stories That Lean Toward Liberation: My Discussion with Rev. Julio Ramirez-Eve
On March 1, new federal cuts will begin to take effect. If nothing is done, many hundreds of thousands of people will be hurt by across-the-board cuts to education, job training, home heating assistance, public health, and social services, to name only a few areas. In NC, 18,300 children and mothers would lose WIC nutrition aid and 2,855 families would lose rental housing vouchers. In addition, NC would lose services for people with disabilities and services to [...]
Continue reading Protect the Vulnerable Against Federal Cuts
Our friends at People of Faith Against the Death Penalty have provided a bulletin insert for churches interested in helping work to repeal the death penalty. PFADP, which began as a program of the Council, has been a leader in this movement. There has not been an execution in North Carolina since 2006, and leadership by organizations like People of Faith has been instrumental. Now, with efforts to repeal the Racial Justice Act underway, it is [...]
Continue reading Bulletin Insert from PFADP
Congress is overwhelmed with lobbyists for corporations, Chambers of Commerce, AARP, the Department of Defense, etc. But those living in poverty are short on lobbyist as the so-called ‘fiscal cliff’ is debated and cuts as well as revenue sources are considered.
People of faith and compassion are being called to serve as lobbyists for the voiceless and the vulnerable. The faith community must lift a voice. If our senators hear from 100 faithful constituents each [...]
Continue reading Needed: Lobbyists for the Voiceless
Thank you for your decision to conquer evil with good. You have decided to defeat opposition and resistance with diligence and perseverance. But above all, thank you for allowing love and hospitality to prevail over hate and hostility. When I arrived to this country it was precisely people like you, women and men of faith that practiced hospitably and your Christian love, who left an impression and transformed my life forever. Please don’t have any doubt that God uses every gesture of Christian love and radical hospitality that you make towards an immigrant in order to transform lives. [...]
Continue reading Sharing the Story: Empowerment through Radical Hospitality
Before the room could come into focus, I found myself in conversation with pastors, organizers, and advocacy groups, recognizing both a patience and an urgency that seems to come with this work. Our day together unfolded a compelling narrative of faith leaders in North Carolina moving forward in solidarity to make communities better for immigrants. This story of challenge and hope, of conflicting conceptions of justice, and of faith leaders forming a public voice, captured my attention early. [...]
Continue reading On Finding Comrades: The 2nd Annual Faith & Immigration Summit
Did you know that the detention of immigrants is big business? Over the last several years we’ve witnessed the disturbing trend of private, for-profit prison corporations benefitting from new anti-immigrant laws. These prisons operate like hotels, where each and every bed that is filled provides profits for the company. Every empty bed, on the other hand, costs money. These companies have a financial incentive to detain as many immigrants as possible, and they have poured millions of dollars into lobbying efforts ensuring maximum profits. [...]
Continue reading Immigrants are Big Business for Private Prison Companies
Not all immigrants are farmworkers, and not all farmworkers are immigrants. Yet as the following facts show, our agricultural system has always relied on the labor of displaced people that do not have the benefit of full citizenship in this country—whether indentured servants, slaves, sharecroppers, or undocumented immigrants. [...]
Continue reading Farmworkers and Immigration
Kim Bobo, a religious and workers’ rights activist and executive director of Interfaith Worker Justice, will meet with other faith and worker rights activists in the Triangle this week to highlight worker-justice issues. She is a highly regarded expert in her area of work and is the author of “Wage Theft in America.” In his review of the book, “New York Times” reporter Steven Greenhouse said, “Kim Bobo shines a bright light on this often invisible, alarming [...]
Continue reading Worker Justice Leader in the Triangle This Week
Half in Ten reminds us that one in five children in the US lives in poverty (sadly, it is one in four in North Carolina) yet the presidential candidates are not discussing poverty in a meaningful way. The Coalition for Human Needs is joining with Half in Ten and Every Child Matters to try to change this discussion. At the Half in Ten website you can learn about sending a simple tweet to bring to the media’s attention that [...]
Continue reading Tweet on Behalf of Children in Poverty
Recently, I heard a powerful message from the Rev. William Barber. Many Council folks know him. He’s the President of the NC NAACP and pastor of the Greenleaf Christian Church (Disciple of Christ) in Goldsboro. The power of his message was not in fiery delivery. It was a low-key conversation with a group of fifty or so progressive leaders, sitting in a circle in the chapel of University United Methodist Church in Chapel Hill. The power was in the profound thoughts he expressed and in the clear rightness of his words. [...]
Continue reading Reclaiming the Bible’s Prophetic Voice
“So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them…God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good” (Genesis 1:27, 31)
“But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 3:20)
This summer I’ve dived into immigration conversation and have been shocked, appalled, frustrated, but also hopeful [...]
Continue reading Immigrants Are People (despite what the news tells you)
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