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…
Budget’s Big Picture: A Crumbling Core
So, the question as always comes down to one of vision. The elected chieftains who decide how much money North Carolina’s state government will spend, what it will be spent on and how it will be raised must decide not only which programs and services will thrive and which will dwindle. They must decide to what degree the people of this state are truly a community, with an obligation to provide for the common good in the best interests of all. These are the core issues as the General Assembly…
If a Budget is a Moral Document, Then What Does this One Preach?
The budget blueprint for 2018 released by President Trump on Thursday cuts a wide swath through programs that serve women, people of color, those of low income (for poor women of color, that would mean the same old same old), the arts, the environment, education, job creation, and science. Couple it with the proposed health plan released by Congress, and it feels like some elected leaders at the federal level want to freeze, starve, poison, under-employ, and un-inspire a significant portion of the country’s population. If a budget is a…
Women and Wages
Remarks delivered by Executive Director Jennifer Copeland at a press conference on fair wages on March 8, 2017. Today is a day without women. Across the world women have been encouraged not to labor, whether for pay or not for pay. We are taking the day off, all on the same day, to demonstrate how much of what happens in the world happens because of women. Several schools have canceled classes because they know their schools cannot function without its women. Good for them, but the truth is, the world…
Whispers and Shouts
Sometimes God whispers. Whether through hymns or homilies or kids dancing their way down the aisle to children’s chapel. Sometimes God shouts. Through the amplified suffering of others, known or strangers, all created in the same image. Or through the aftermath of a cataclysmic election. Lately, the lectionary readings have provided desperately needed whispers for me, reminders of what our faith promises. On the third Sunday after Epiphany we were offered Isaiah and the 27th Psalm, promising light and a faithful stand against fear. On the fourth Sunday, the Beatitudes….
Getting Back to Our Normal: Some Suggestions for the Long Haul
Our friend Rob Schofield over at Policy Watch wrote a column on Tuesday that was as vitally important in its truth-telling as it was hard to read for the future it forecasts. One of the crucial facts he offered — those of us opposed to the policies, personalities, and vicious rhetoric of the current administration must be prepared for the long haul. The reality is proving to be every bit as damaging as we thought it might. So what now? A couple of thoughts: Don’t accept the lies. Trust your brain,…
Let’s Keep Marching
At another time in my life, I would not have spent most of Saturday occupying my tiny square of personal space in the heart of Washington DC, literally shoulder to shoulder with a half million others. But there I was, pink hat and all. I chose to be there because my grandmother cleaned other people’s homes and worked in food service in the promise that her two daughters, and then her three granddaughters, would all attend college. I chose to be there because I have raised three brown sons to…
Advent Guide Focuses on Peace
The NC Council of Churches has never taken peace for granted. Indeed, along with our work in opposition to violence, there has long been the recognition that peace manifests itself in many ways – in how we relate to one another, in the policies our elected officials put in place, in who has enough. For this year’s Advent Lectionary Guide, the Council’s staff chose to focus on peace. The reasons may be obvious, but even in the absence of a soul-sucking political climate, our reality is that we need to…
USDA Approves Emergency Food Benefits for Matthew Victims Through 10/26
Residents in 18 counties impacted by Hurricane Matthew are eligible for emergency food benefits through a program called D-SNAP. The application period is very short, ending on Wednesday, October 26. Please visit this link for more information or call your local Social Service office for additional information. Let us continue to hold our sisters and brothers in prayer as they recover from this devastating storm, and let us continue to support those aid agencies providing help on the ground.
2016 Critical Issues Seminar — Register for Workshops
Registration for 2016 Critical Issues Seminar workshops is now available online. If you have not yet registered, please use the form below to do so and include your selection for one workshop each from Session 1 and Session 2. Or you can complete and mail this form to NCCC 27 HORNE St., Raleigh, NC, 27607. If you registered prior to April 5, please email info@ncchurches.org with your workshop selection using subject line CI Workshops; you do not need to register again. This year’s seminar will focus on Race, Power, and Privilege, and takes…
Critical Issues Seminar — Registration Now Open
Join us for the Council’s 2016 Critical Issues Seminar, focused on Race, Power, and Privilege, on Saturday, April 23 at St. Matthew United Methodist Church, 600 East Florida Street, Greensboro. Traditionally held on a weekday, the planners for the seminar decided this year to shift to a Saturday to offer more grassroots activists the opportunity to attend. The program is designed for lay people and clergy alike. The daylong event will feature worship led by the Rev. Dr. T. Anthony Spearmen, the Council’s incoming president and senior pastor of St….
Tenth Annual HKonJ is February 13
Join the NAACP, NC Council of Churches, and other coalition partners for the Tenth Annual Moral March on Raleigh. Historic Thousands on Jones Street 2016 takes place on Saturday, February 13; gather and rally is at 8:30 a.m. and the march begins at 10 a.m. Participants can meet across the street from Raleigh Memorial Auditorium at 2 East South Street. Since its beginnings, HKonJ has drawn together a broad cross-section of North Carolinians committed to justice for all in this state, especially the most vulnerable among us. This year’s march is…
2014 Advent Guide
The Council’s 2014 Advent Devotional Guide is now available as a free download. Each year, Council staff take a social justice theme as a focus for these guides to be used during the season of Advent or Lent. For this Advent season, that focus is the care and well-being of children. As we say in the introduction: As we enter Advent, that time of excited, exquisite anticipation, may we never lose sight of that season’s reality. Jesus, the one we await, was the poor, paperless child of immigrant parents, specifically an unwed, teenage…
Council Post-Election Road Shows to Charlotte and Asheville
What do Tuesday’s elections mean for North Carolina? How can people of faith in the state continue to affect positive change? Join the staff of the North Carolina Council of Churches as we visit Charlotte and Asheville to discuss ways our programs are providing a progressive, faithful voice for issues facing NC residents and how you can be involved. We hope you’ll join us: Monday, November 17, Noon-2 p.m. Park Road Baptist Church 3900 Park Road, Charlotte Bring a bag lunch and join us at 11:30 a.m. for fellowship. We…
Food, Fairness and Faith
“How is this equal?!” I often articulate this simple phrase whenever I take a look at the world these days. Sometimes I mutter the sentence under my breath in disbelief, and sometimes I exclaim it with disgust or utter shock. The question of equality always surfaces whenever I acknowledge the issues we humans face, particularly with simple necessities like food. Although I personally have had some hard times, I never once worried about where my next meal would come from during my childhood. I grew up under a household where…