NC Council of Churches

Strength in Unity, Peace through Justice

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Pray and Vote

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The North Carolina Council of Churches believes that participating in our democracy is one critical component of our call to be the hands and feet of Jesus in this world. We also believe that local and state elections provide significant opportunities to impact policy that affects our neighbors, our children, our elderly, our infirmed, our imprisoned, our impoverished, and all in our community who live and work and have their very being under the heavy weight of personal and institutional racism.    And we believe that all of these are indeed…

Critical Issues Seminar: The Wisdom of Women

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2018 is shaping up to the be the Year of the Woman. From the halls of government to stages and theaters from coast to coast, from marches and protest to industry strikes and the leadership of young students: Women are raising their voices and telling all of us about the world as they see it and the world they want to us become. It’s no surprise the North Carolina Council of Churches has chosen Wisdom of Women as the focus for their bi-annual Critical Issues Seminar. Partnering with a host…

The Commission Came to Town

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Only rarely does the United States Commission on Civil Rights hold hearings outside of Washington D.C.  In February they came to town, convening in Raleigh to hear testimony about obstacles to voter access.  Notably, former NC Supreme Court Justice Patricia Timmons-Goodson serves as Vice Chair of this commission.  Experts from all over the country gathered to testify. Gerrymandering, a hot topic in a handful of states including North Carolina, was not at issue.  Rather, this hearing focused on barriers that keep people, and especially minorities, from voting.  Specifically, the commission…

With Rights at Stake, Judges Stand Tall

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The pattern has become familiar – and a welcome pattern it is, even if brought about by the Republican-controlled General Assembly’s relentless abuses of our democratic system. Call it, “Judges to the rescue!” Legislators have moved to make voting more difficult, to gerrymander election districts so as to insulate themselves from meaningful competition, and to inject conservative partisanship into North Carolina’s courts to protect their flanks. They’ve tried to gum up the oversight of elections to boost their party’s chances. Even with lawsuits still ongoing and legislative chiefs hoping to…

N.C. Judges on Trial

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Well, here we go again. If the Republican-led General Assembly in 2017 focused on trying to exert its dominance over a freshly installed Democratic governor, then 2018 could bring the climax of legislative efforts to “reform” the courts. Translated, that means efforts to stack the state’s judicial deck in favor of Republican goals and priorities. The upshot could be a double-dose injection of conservative politics into a court system that is supposed to be independent and politically neutral. And that would be bad news for those who look to the…

Tax Plan Twist: Churches, Charities, Candidates

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With Republicans on Capitol Hill and in the White House desperate to post a big legislative win, their push for so-called tax reform – the label being used to sugar-coat costly tax changes mostly benefiting profitable corporations and the wealthiest among us – has reached red-line intensity. On the merits, the tax plans now being bulldozed through Congress have little to recommend them in terms of helping the economy or making the tax system more fair. Which unfortunately is beside the point. This is all about giving GOP chiefs and…

Democracy Under the Reign of God

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As I continue to follow court cases addressing Gerrymandering at both the federal level (Gill v. Whitford) and in North Carolina (Common Cause v. Rucho), along with the latest move by the North Carolina General Assembly to make judicial elections more partisan, I despair for our democracy. I’ve spoken at press conferences, sat on panel discussions, done interviews, and lain awake at night thinking about the three legged stool that is our democracy and discussing the many ways it is wobbling in North Carolina. I’ve also lain awake thinking about…

GOP’s Goal: A Tilted Bench

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To the Republicans who run the N.C. General Assembly, the concept of judicial independence – central to our bedrock American principle of checks and balances and to the rule of law – must seem as alien as the one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people-eater of vintage Top 40 radio. Yes, it must be a strange concept indeed. Or as the old song remarks, “What a sight to see!” But in reality, it’s not strange at all. Consider this straightforward pronouncement in the state constitution: “The legislative, executive, and supreme judicial powers…

Regaining our Faith in Democracy

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In surveys conducted during the months leading up to the 2016 election, large numbers of Americans reported little interest in the political process. They said things like, “nothing will change,” “the elected leaders just do what they want to,” and “my vote doesn’t really count.” And that, my friends, is the beginning of the end of democracy. We believe there is a better way. For five days across North Carolina, we will offer Faith in Democracy workshops and provide an alternative to the fatalism many feel about the political process….

Uh-Oh – It’s the Legislature, Again

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Better get used to it. The N.C. General Assembly, after an all-too-brief adjournment during July, is about to reopen for business in its marble and masonry maze on Raleigh’s Jones Street. Given this legislature’s track record so far, the big question would seem to be: How much more damage will unfold as majority Republicans seek to carve their narrow-minded agenda even more deeply into the state’s civic bedrock? Legislative sessions held during odd-numbered years – the so-called long sessions that typically begin in late January – have varied widely in…

Gerrymander Remedy: Redraw, Now

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The Republicans who took control of North Carolina’s General Assembly with the elections of 2010 were, it could be said, licking their chops. They knew that when they came to Raleigh in 2011, a big prize awaited. All they had to do was seize it. And seize it they did. Because of the timing of the most recent, once-a-decade U.S. census, conducted the previous year, 2011 would be the year in which congressional and legislative voting districts were adjusted to account for population changes. The districts are supposed to be…

UPDATE — High Court to NC: Draw Those Districts Fairly

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UPDATE In separate, party-line votes on June 8, the state House and Senate rejected Gov. Cooper’s attempt to convene a special session for the purpose of redrawing legislative voting districts. Leaders of the Republican majority argued that Cooper’s proclamation failed to meet standards set forth in the state constitution by which special legislative sessions can be called by the governor.  ____________________________________________________________________________________________ What a relief and cause for celebration it would be if North Carolina’s legislative chiefs collectively slapped their brows and exclaimed, “Oh, now we get it! We’re not allowed…

Lines of Influence: Justices Zap Voting Map

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Following the elections of 2010 – tilted as they were by an intense right-wing pushback against President Barack Obama midway through his first term – Republicans in the N.C. General Assembly saw themselves as large and in charge. For the first time in the state’s modern history, they had won majorities in both the House and Senate. And the timing was beautiful. They would control the fateful process by which legislative and congressional voting district boundaries were adjusted to reflect population changes documented in the 2010 national census. They would…

2018 Budget Proposal is the Antithesis of our Call

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Plenty of analysis is already happening around the 2018 budget proposal out of the White House. The Washington Post provides two helpful graphics here and here. More is being written than most of us can fully absorb, but  Politico offers a key observation: On close reading, the budget is less a credible attempt to eliminate, or even pay down, the U.S. debt and more an ideological policy agenda disguised as a program of fiscal responsibility. If the proposal is, as such plans are often described, a place to begin discussion…

Justice on Gerrymandering

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Today’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court affirms what many in North Carolina knew – the state’s congressional districts were deliberately drawn in 2011 to mute the voices of minority voters. By upholding last year’s lower court ruling, the justices reinforced the value of every vote. For the Council and others, this has been and remains a key tenet of justice and equity — allowing every voter, regardless of circumstance, to equally impact the democratic process. This very welcome decision ratifies that.