​Editor's Note: Since Libby wrote this piece last week, following the mass murders in Buffalo, we have been horrified to learn of more horrific mass murders at Robb Elem
entary School in Uvalde, Texas.  When will people of faith move beyond "thoughts and prayers" to take substantive action?

​by Elizabeth Sholes, Director Emerita Public Policy

The mass murder of 10 Black Americans Saturday May 14 was sickening to all people of conscience. The shooter left massive evidence of his deliberate and calculated intent in his car and on his electronic gear. This was not an act of a mentally-ill person but one who carefully and deliberately planned the attack to get rid of as many Black people as possible.
 
We by now have read that he embraced the “replacement theory” propagated by extremists. It is the fear, that has been around since at least the 1960s, that the white race (as if it’s one solid block of people) is being replaced by people of color, especially immigrants.  Why that led the shooter to target Black Americans is unclear, but extremism is rarely rational. 
 
The shooting at a supermarket, TOPS, on the East Side has more than general horror for me. I lived in Buffalo for many years and was the originator of an effort to get a community-owned supermarket into that neighborhood.  “Our Market” was its name.  It did not succeed for a lot of reasons, the TOPS finally came to this food desert area. 
 
I’m glad of that, but the effort to build a community owned store was wonderful; it put me in contact with many community members and especially with the Masden District then-Council Member, David Collins who was a man of extraordinary vision and concern for his constituents.  He had a civil rights legacy second to few, and his actions were always principled and concerned for people and their needs.
 
Thanks to David’s friendship, I was involved in his campaigns, his activism for social justice, and through him met other good people, some of whom became friends. For years they were my “warmth of other suns”, anchors in my city to what was good, righteous, just, and downright fun.  I associate all we did as passionate justice coupled with raucous laughter, hard work followed by dancing, unending campaigning and delicious food.  It just doesn’t get better than that.
 
To have this area the target of such hate is incomprehensible. To have these people, these good, decent, hard-working, and loving people, cut down so disgustingly is almost more than I can bear.
 
How do we end these horrors?  For those of us who are white, where is our voice in all this?  How do our congregations and our voices matter?  
 
When do we make manifest that “All God’s Children” does not have qualifiers?  When we hear a congressional representative say children refugees at the border don’t deserve infant formula, when we read of hate crimes on the rise against everyone but especially Asian Americans blamed for COVID, when we see LGBTQ people targeted for simply being who they are, we see that too many professed Christians have “exception clauses” in their hearts.  When people die for the color of their skin, we have well and truly lost our way. 
 
It is up to us. We have to bear witness against hate.. We cannot be silent.  These are not political issues – these are the most profound values of faith and democracy. It takes courage, no doubt about it, but we will not honor either our faith or our nation is we are silent.  Silence is assent. And it is a moral cowardice we can no longer accept.
 
We have to challenge bias, prejudice, hate rhetoric, and acts of violence. We have to call out our elected officials who engage in such disgusting lies. We need to write to them, we need to challenge the media both locally and nationally to stop promoting “replacement theory” or any other biased and inhumane propaganda that serves to dehumanize anyone.
 
When Asian women were shot to death in Atlanta, the chief of police said the shooter was “having a bad day”.  A bad DAY?  The public outcry led to an apology from the chief and a renewed effort to investigate the hate-based murders.  
 
Here in Sacramento at a public meeting a city council member blamed the meth epidemic on Latin American immigrants. That is absolutely not true; meth is a local “cottage industry” in white communities around the Bay Area per the Department of Justice. I called him out on it for inflaming both anti-immigrant and anti-homeless views here in Sacramento. 
 
Word got back to me that he hates me. Fine. Oddly, I can live with that. Who would I be if that had gone unchallenged?  He can hate me. I bet he never says that again.
 
If we are going to sit in our pews on Sunday, we have to live the Word the remainder of the week. No one will stop this hate but us. We must do it with courage and without returning the hate.  But we must do it. 
 
We can be silent no more.

California Council of Churches IMPACT has long had a Legislative Principle upholding women’s right to access abortion as a reproductive option. They also have the right to refuse that option. The fundamental moral underpinning of this position is respect for women’s moral agency and their first amendment right to exercise personal conscience over their own lives.

We therefore condemn the new Texas law allowed into operation by a cowardly action of the Supreme Court. The latter did not even hold a hearing. It denied standing to women, certainly the people most impacted. It made this decision by indecision – in the dark of night without a single voice raised about differences of morality, law, and faith being raised. This is too large a decision for such a small act from the highest court of the land.

The Texas law now limits a woman’s access to abortion to the 6th week of gestation, long before most women even know they are pregnant, and worse, allows snoops and snitches, even total strangers, to accuse women of having an abortion, to turn them in to a web site, and for anyone who aided her – physician, nurse, friend who drove her to the doctor – to be fined $10,000 with the money going to the snitch.    Brave New World.

The Bible is entirely silent on abortion. We will find no laws or rules there. We can find clear evidence from the New Testament and Jesus’ inclusion of women among his followers that he did not perceive them as second-class people, as objects of disregard or control. Women were prominent in his ministry, the ones who kept the faith with him through the crucifixion, to whom he appeared in resurrection.  Literal or mythical, the story is important in our regard for women and their moral capacities. Jesus honored that. So should we.

We can also be clear about how we may judge when life begins. One may recall that in some versions of scripture, Mary is described as “quick with child” just prior to Jesus’ birth.   The Texas law decided that life begins with heartbeat.  That’s their rationalization for the 6-week limitation.  Common Law and much of Protestant assessment of conception, maintains it begins much later at viability, the point at which a fetus can live outside the womb. Common Law determined that before viability, a woman was “merely pregnant” but not “quick with child”.  

This law also violates the religious freedom of those, such as many in the Jewish faith, whose teachings are clear that life does not begin until the ruach (breath/spirit) enters the body with the first breath. 

That distinction is upheld in Roe with no limits on abortion until viability or when the fetus is “quick”.  After viability only compelling needs for the mother, her health and life, can justify an abortion.  

Roe v Wade was decided by the Supreme Court in 1973 based on these long-standing Common Law assessments regarding conception and pregnancy. The decision built on fundamental principles about human reproduction that had operated in England and its colonies then in the United States for centuries.  

Texas law and Supreme Court ruling has thus radically deviated from our own nation’s laws. 




​
(from The Rev. Susan Russell (@revsusanrussell), All Saints, Pasadena)
​

The whole point of the 1973 Supreme Court decision is to give women agency over these matters. For some, personal belief makes abortion unacceptable. For others, these principles of faith and Common Law are moral precepts that offer her abortion as an option in her life.  In other words, Roe compels no one to act against her conscience. She is the only person, in consultation with those of her choosing, to decide what is morally essential in her life.

Texas, with the aid of an indifferent and irresponsible Supreme Court, has imposed a single religious view on every woman.  That is heartily unacceptable. Those promulgating the Texas law have spoken of upholding “Christian values”. That’s not remotely accurate. Where Roe gives total freedom of choice to those not wishing to have an abortion as well as those who do, the Texas law has eradicated the open-hearted Protestant and many other religions’ views of life and value of women.  

There is not one good thing to be said about either the Texas law or the craven way it was authorized to proceed. We as people of faith stand in opposition to this law and the Supreme Court decision. We encourage our members to raise their voices against both the denigration of women and the evisceration of our own right to faith principles.  

Thank you.

Dear Friends,

California Council of Churches and Church IMPACT have long advocated for effective legislation to fight the scourge of hate crimes.  We are facing another challenge this year.

No one can observe the shocking data on the rise of hate crimes in our state. Who among us has not seen the horrific videos of Asian Americans being brutalized, of rancid assaults on Jews, of increased violence against trans-gendered people, and vicious racism hurled at all people of color.

CCC and CCI represent a highly diverse body of people who can be potential targets of hate. We are thus part of a large coalition seeking to strengthen our hate crimes laws to stop these acts and protect our beloved community. We therefore are part of a 41-group coalition advocating for better and more effective hate crimes law enforcement.

We have been working to strengthen police enforcement of existing laws. We have amendments we wish added to the existing anti-hate crimes bill, AB 57 (Gabriel, D-45). The bill, while good, lacks what we believe are critical requirements that would massively strengthen our ability to stop hate crimes and offer far better justice to victims.

Our coalition is focusing on two things recommended by a recent state audit on hate crimes enforcement: 
-a requirement that every law enforcement agency have a model policy in conformation with that created by California's Police Officers Standards and Training (POST) and 
-that the state Attorney General be empowered to get compliance and reporting from those agencies.

We are inviting you and your congregation to join our coalition to add the weight of your moral voice and advocacy for your members to this petition. If you are willing to join us, please send your congregation's name, address, phone, and contact person's information to our coalition organizer:  Greg deGiere at greg@thearcca.org.  His phone is 916-224-7319.

Every congregation is welcome to become part of this coalition. We are also urging those congregations in San Diego to become involved for the simple reason that it is the home of our President pro tem of the Senate, Toni Atkins.  As AB 57 moves forward and can still be amended to include our requirements, her support needs San Diego area voices in particular.

If you wish to see our amendments and to read the bill itself, please let us know, and I will forward our 10-page fact sheet to you.  

We hope you will make a commitment to join us in this critically-important work.  We don't want just a bill - we want a bill with real ability to halt hate crimes and improve enforcement of our laws. 

 Hate violence and terror have to stop.  We need your help to get that done.
​
Thank you!

The United Church of Christ has issued a warning to Conference Ministers and others to be on alert for attacks on liberal churches. Those supporting racial justice, LGBTQ equality, immigrant rights, economic rights, etc. may become targets of extremists. 

The alert is based on threats made to various churches in advance of both promised rightwing extremist actions at state capitol buildings and at the upcoming inauguration.  The alert particularly focuses on January 17-20.  

Here is a link to a Newsweek brief story on this alert.     Here is the UCC statement.  

We do not think this is alarmist.  We think it is a prudent warning.

Many of you may recall that a few months ago an historic Black church, Asbury United Methodist, in Washington DC was vandalized for its "Black Lives Matter" banner.  The same happened in Sacramento, CA to a UCC church there.

This warning, while originating with UCC, is not limited to that denomination's churches.  Any church that has promoted justice issues or possibly with congregations that are dominated by immigrants or people of color may also be vulnerable.

Clearly state capital cities are a prime area of concern, but any area that has encountered contentiousness, threats, or high levels of political action need also to be on alert.

We recommend contacting your local police department and noting this warning.  As UCC recommends, those churches able to hold gatherings due to their COVID status, may wish to revert to online or other remote forms of worship from tomorrow through next week.  

Blessings on all of you, part of our beloved community, with heartfelt prayers for your safety and for that of your churches and centers of worship.  May all be safe from harm.
​

​Dear Friends:
 
Our elections are the foundation blocks of our democracy. Free and fair access is imperative.  We have only four months until the next general election, November 3, 2020, and assuring that everyone legally entitled to vote can vote is essential.
 
Black Church PAC has created the contemporary “Freedom Summer” program to reproduce the courageous voter registration drives of the early Civil Rights Era.  While this drive is targeted to more Southern states than to our northern and western ones, every state has pockets of voter suppression. No one is immune.
 
Monday, July 6 at noon California time, there will be a webinar on Freedom Summer voter registration drives.  You are invited to participate if you are Black clergy and laity or if you serve a diverse population in areas where voter suppression or obstacles may occur.
 
To register for this critical voter registration and enhancement webinar, please click here  
 
Other steps you can take, no matter where you reside, is to prepare for long lines and delays at the polls. While in California all voters will be receiving “vote by mail” ballots, things still can go wrong, and support for those standing in line will be needed,
 
Bring cases of water, some food, folding chairs.  Enlist your youth to hold line spots for voters needing bathroom breaks. Have masks available for anyone without one. Think about entertainment (socially distanced, of course).  There will be spots in every state, even California, where things will not go smoothly.  We need to anticipate those problems, be prepared to help voters vote. 
 
Thank you!

Join Faith Leaders In Demanding Congress Support the Equality Act

As people of faith, we urge Congress to support the Equality Act. Our faith traditions teach us that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, straight, cisgender, and queer people are all created with sacred dignity and worth. We are taught to respect and love others as ourselves in our words, deeds, and laws. Now is the time to update our federal laws to respect and uphold the sacred dignity and worth of all people. In doing so, we will live up to our nation’s values of freedom, equality, and opportunity for all.

In our country today, LGBTQ people—our neighbors, family, friends, and fellow congregants, and for some signatories, we ourselves— are at risk of being fired from a job, refused a place to live, refused service in a place of business, told to leave a bathroom, or refused critical medical care because of who they are or who they love. Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or, gender identity is unjust and immoral. We call on Congress to remedy this injustice by passing the Equality Act. This legislation ensures equal protection for all people on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
​fpl.actionkit.com/sign/equality-act-congress
As people of faith, we believe it is possible to both protect LGBTQ people from unjust discrimination and uphold the freedom of religion. That freedom is one of our nation’s most fundamental values, which is why it is protected in the Constitution and remains protected under the Equality Act. As people of faith, we rely on this freedom every day to hold the beliefs we choose and to practice our faiths free from discrimination. It does not give us the right to harm or discriminate against others or impose our religious beliefs on others. We value the freedom of religion and the freedom from discrimination, and we urge Congress to protect both by passing the Equality Act.

We believe equality is a right. Our nation’s laws must uphold our values of loving and caring for our LGBTQ neighbors as ourselves. As people of faith, we have an obligation to be part of healing the world. We will not cease in pursuing our commitment to these values until Congress has passed legislation protecting all people from discrimination and fully funds enforcement of these protections. We lament the ways in which religion has been used throughout our nation’s history to justify discrimination, including on the basis of race. We refuse to be complicit in attempts to use religion to marginalize LGBTQ communities.

We call on Congress to pass the Equality Act today.

Click here to Join Faith Leaders In Demanding Congress Support the Equality Act

Dear Friends,
 
Our nation faces one of its most grave crises. We are watching the chief executive amass unprecedented power, defying the rule of law. Nothing in our history has prepared us for this challenge to our Constitution, to our statutes, to our interactions among the branches of government.  We are fighting for the soul of democracy.  No one can stay idle in the face of this challenge.
 
I was born in the early wave of the post war “baby boom”. I grew up with “Holocaust Consciousness” followed quickly by awareness of post-war threats to our own democracy in the wave of anti-communist fervor from many in Congress and society. Then came a growing awareness of the evils of Jim Crow segregation.  To say I was a scared little kid would be an understatement.  I remember my parents watching the Army-McCarthy hearings, not understanding much other than the danger to innocent people, Hearing my parents and their friends talk about those threats to democracy and equality, to justice and fairness was pretty overwhelming.  
 
I have dreaded the day I’d have to find my courage to stand up against something as evil and scary as fascism had been in Europe. Would I have what it takes to resist? To be as brave as Miep Gies who hid the Frank family? To defy authority in the name of democracy and of my faith in Jesus’ teachings on justice for all people?  
 
In 2003, just before the start of US bombing of Iraq, I participated in an 8-state convening against hate crimes that even then were on the rise. The last night we saw a film about German pastor and theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his anti-fascist resistance during the Third Reich.  In the discussion that followed, the group leader said, “Be prepared from here on, to lay down your life for what you believe.” When asked what that meant, he said, “Devote your life to standing for justice. And, if needed, to lay down your life for that purpose.”  
 
It was incredibly sobering and frightening to hear this. Would we need to do this? In America?
 
We at the Council of Churches have tried to live by that principle: lay down your life for what you believe.  Some of you know that we have been under siege from vandalism and threats for doing exactly that. Some of our denominational affiliates have been contacted by extremists demanding they drop out of the Council, always by those who detest our stands for equality and for justice. No one has dropped out, and the retaliation, while minor, has resulted in vandalism, stalking, threats. 
 
And yet we have stayed the course. Did we have any real alternative?
 
Now we call on all of you to do whatever you can for love of our fellow human beings, for the preservation of democracy, for the protection of the rule of law.
 
Remember the “Faithful Five Minutes” of calls to your elected officials every day. Bolster the strong, chastise the weak. Speak up and out for justice and our Constitution. 
 
Rally when you are able. Join diverse coalitions of immigrant rights groups, labor, racial justice groups, civil rights groups, and diverse faiths then go to your representatives’ and senators’ offices, both federal and state level.  Fight for the rule of law. Stand against oppression.  Keep abreast of current events. Speak out where needed. Your voice is powerful. 
 
We are struggling to keep the soul of our nation intact. This is the greatest threat we have faced since the Civil War.  Today as I write, it is the 154thanniversary of the Confederate surrender, the Army of Virginia, to the forces of the Union Army at Appomattox. It saved the nation.  Can we do this again, this time we hope without the bloodshed?  
 
Only our actions through law can prevent another civil war, another rise of dictatorial power, another threat to democracy and our constitution.
 
I may be retired, but I will never stop working against injustice and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves.

Please do whatever you can, however you can, for as long as you can.  Our nation’s survival is on the line.
 
Thank you. Blessings on all you do.
 
Elizabeth Sholes
Director Emerita Public Policy

“Hello Brother”.
 
Words of greeting.
 
“Hello Brother”.
 
Words of peace.
 
“Hello Brother” were words from a young Muslim man who stepped up trying desperately to deflect the gunman entering a Christchurch, NZ mosque Friday March 15th. The words, meant to stop the shooter, were the last words the Muslim man spoke. He was killed. Forty-eight more lost their lives before the rampage through two mosques ended.
 
In this latest of horrors, the rampant self-justification from the shooter’s own words shows he thought Muslims deserved to die.  As the shooter in Pittsburgh, PA earlier shot down Jews for the same demented reason and Dylan Root shot nine Black AME Christians in Charleston, SC. They deserved to die for simply being who they are. Sikhs slaughtered in WI, Unitarians in TN. These are the victims of both religious hate and racial hate, but many more acts of violence have taken down people just trying to live their lives. We are losing count.
 
This isn’t a “Muslim problem”. This isn’t a “Jewish problem”. This isn’t a “Black problem”.
 
It’s a white Christian problem. 
 
Before anyone says, “not all white Christians”, let us consider, in our hearts, if we have done all we can to make sure we didn’t turn a blind eye, stay silent instead of speak. Have we earnestly done all we can do to stop the new global wave of white, Christian terrorism, for that is what this all is, from spreading unchallenged?  We have to search our hearts and our lives to see if we can do more.
 
I, for one, am tired of showing up after the fact. I hate candle light vigils and don’t attend them. I’m sick of press conferences decrying bloodshed and loss of valuable lives. I’m anguished by the sense of impotence at failing to prevent another senseless massacre.  I’m frightened that there will be more.
 
Forty nine dead in New Zealand.  Eleven in Pittsburgh.  Nine in Charleston.
 
When will it end? 
 
We are in the grip of an administration that demonizes “the other” be it immigrants, Muslims, people of color.  We have unleashed waves of hate and resentment from white people who think equality means a loss to them.  Males who see female equality as a threat.  If you have to enforce your superiority with violence, are you really superior at all?
 
We can’t dismiss this thinking that we would never do this kind of thing to anyone. It flourishes if we tolerate it, if we don’t actively stop it.  Silence is tacit assent. 
 
We have to stand up, speak out, act affirmatively not passively in the name of our country’s promise and our faith’s direction.  This isn’t on Muslim, Jews, Sikhs, Unitarians. It isn’t on Black people, Brown people, immigrants, indigenous people. 
 
It’s on us: white, middle class, mainstream Christians.  We are the only people who can speak out and uphold these truths of nation and faith.  We can stay silent no more.
 
Hello brother. Hello sister.  Hello everyone. End the silence. End the violence. It’s on us.