I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness is a great book for folk wanting to know how to help “progressive” churches walk the walk when they are stuck just talking the talk.

From a powerful new voice on racial justice, an eye-opening account of growing up Black, Christian, and female in middle-class white America. 

Austin Channing Brown's first encounter with a racialized America came at age 7, when she discovered her parents named her Austin to deceive future employers into thinking she was a white man. Growing up in majority-white schools, organizations, and churches, Austin writes, "I had to learn what it means to love blackness," a journey that led to a lifetime spent navigating America's racial divide as a writer, speaker and expert who helps organizations practice genuine inclusion.

In a time when nearly all institutions (schools, churches, universities, businesses) claim to value "diversity" in their mission statements, I'm Still Here is a powerful account of how and why our actions so often fall short of our words. Austin writes in breathtaking detail about her journey to self-worth and the pitfalls that kill our attempts at racial justice, in stories that bear witness to the complexity of America's social fabric--from Black Cleveland neighborhoods to private schools in the middle-class suburbs, from prison walls to the boardrooms at majority-white organizations. 

For readers who have engaged with America's legacy on race through the writing of Ta-Nehisi Coates and Michael Eric Dyson, I'm Still Here is an illuminating look at how white, middle-class, Evangelicalism has participated in an era of rising racial hostility, inviting the reader to confront apathy, recognize God's ongoing work in the world, and discover how blackness--if we let it--can save us all.

“Brown talked to Religion News Service about how the church is missing out when it doesn’t listen to black voices, how awkward even progressive spaces can be and how white people can be less exhausting.”  https://religionnews.com/2018/05/09/white-people-are-exhausting/

If you order this book from Amazon, please go to Amazon Smile and choose California Council of Churches as your designated charity!
https://smile.amazon.com/Im-Still-Here-Dignity-Whiteness/dp/1524760854/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1527276465&sr=8-1&keywords=I'm+Still+Here%3A+Black+Dignity+in+a+World+Made+for+Whiteness

On Sunday March 11 from 1:30-4:00 pm, the California premier of “Viet Nam: An Inner View” will be offered free at the Sacramento Public Library,  828 I Street between 8th and 9th.
 
California Council of Churches is sending this announcement statewide due to the importance of the message about our understanding of the long-term impacts of war on mental as well as physical health, on moral injury, and on the need for civilians to see what it is we ask of our troops. The panel will also discuss the enduring need for adequate resources for those who, even now, are suffering impacts from their Viet Nam experience.
 
This screening of a unique inside look at what ordinary soldiers, Marines, and others experienced will be followed by a panel/group discussion with the film’s producers, PTSD counselor Brett Davis, and local veterans including Doug Mitten who arranged the sponsorship of this event by Vietnam Veterans of America Local 500. 
 
“Viet Nam: An Inner View” is an outgrowth of the work of Marc Waszkiewicz, a “Leatherneck” Marine whose experiences in Viet Nam were like those of everyone who served save in one regard; he took 35,000 photos and 8 mm. films that have now become the backbone of this stunning document of what he and his comrades-in-arms saw and did. 
 
The video was based on Waszkiewicz’s book, “The 1000 Yard Stare”.  From Marines to civilians, the faces and expressions of the people caught in this ordeal of war capture the humanity of the experience.  We see the raw nature of shock, fear, grief, and also the humor and friendship that helped them survive the experience.
 
Several oral histories were created in preparation for the video’s production to give voice to other veterans, other memories.  The men tell their own stories ranging from funny to heartbreaking, and their insights add yet another dimension to the story.
 
Produced by Oregon musician Lea Jones, the video has a powerful, original soundtrack of songs written by Jones expressly for the events depicted. 
 
The March 11 event is open to everyone at no charge.  Donations are appreciated but not required.  Full participation in the post screening discussion is encouraged for those who would like to speak.
 
Parking is free on streets surrounding the Library or for a charge at the City Hall garage on I street between 10th and 11th or at the Capitol garage on L street at 10th with the entrance on 10th north of L on the right.  
 
Anyone who would like to know more about the event may call 916-801-1121.  If you cannot attend but would like the materials – the video, soundtrack, and book  - they are available for sale online at VietnamInnerView.com

We hope this event and the resources will stimulate a critical discussion in every community about how we treat our veterans, how we make them whole in our civilian world.  It is one of our most important acts of advocacy that we can do.

Thank you.

An essay by our Director of Public Policy Elizabeth Sholes

I always tried to pay attention to Albert Einstein’s sarcastic comment, “I love humanity. It’s people I can’t stand!” 
 
For years I’ve heard people sneer at those of us who do social justice work saying that is precisely what we do – ignore the people. Then they add (as if they were experts) that if we really knew the people for whom we advocated, we’d hate them.  The final kicker is, if we’re working to find solutions to homelessness, the opposition will snarl, “So how many drifters have you taken into your house?”
 
Well, now I can answer that last question:  twenty-two.  Plus three dogs and one cat.  Oh yes, a toad that lives in an aquarium.  Some stayed inside temporarily, some lived on either the front porch (the police asked us not to do that) or in the backyard in a sheltered gazebo or the garage.  Others came to dinner for the holidays and still others come over to visit and share food.
 
Do I like all of them? Yes, actually, I do.  Even Speedy.  Speedy is pretty hapless because he has no idea how to be polite.  I’ve given up doing much more than feeding him  because the biggest success I’ve had in five years is to make him stop saying, “Yo! Mama!” when he sees me. That’s all I’ll ever get from him. It’s enough.
 
We are not called to like everyone who deserves help.  I freely admit I do judge some actions more than others. I don’t interact with people who hold arguments with other people I can’t see.  I don’t tolerate drug use at my home ever, and I do push sobriety where I can.   
 
My one demand is that, over a period of time, they get signed up for the programs we have, as advocates, fought tooth and nail to obtain for them – food stamps, health care, basic minimal income.  If I’m giving out money, they need to make that effort so I can give out less.  I agree with folksy, progressive radio commentator, Jim Hightower: “Money’s like manure, he said. “You gotta spread it around.”  When people have basic benefits, my own fertilizer goes further.
 
This all started with a very simple act – I let homeless people use our address for their mail.  This is life altering for them since with an address for their mail they know when they have to update their records, know they have benefits at all, and prevent loss as reporting changes occur.  We get our own first class mail at a PO Box anyway, but it was such a simple thing and has made an enormous difference for all those people. 
 
Having protection from the vagaries of both homelessness and being out of touch has made a difference.  A lot of them are Vietnam vets, have worked, and are too old to find employment anymore. A few have disability income finally, one is on Social Security, and others have applied.   The cat lived on a harness and leash for two years to keep him safe, and now he and his owner have their own small apartment because they regularized their social service contacts via our address. We are thrilled for them both.  Others have gone home to family, and still others have VA or HUD housing.  All of this happened because they had an address.
 
I come by this outreach honorably.  During the Depression years, my grandmother fed “hoboes and bums” in the backyard in exchange for some work.  At some point one of them carved a simple figure on the gate – a curled up cat – telling other such men that “a kind-hearted woman lives here.”  Well I don’t have the sign, but everyone knows who we are, including the police who look away because our corner of the universe is calm, peaceful, and clean.  Our neighbors love the men living in the backyard and hire them for weekly clean up and small jobs. 
 
I can walk my extended neighborhood and see people I don’t know who know who I am.  When I had a medical crisis (that turned out to be nothing but was temporarily very painful) I was surrounded by care from everyone we’d helped.  We are a community. I consider them my friends. I’m afraid of no one because no one would let anything happen to me.
 
Obviously what helps this along is that there is a public bathroom a block away that is open 24/7.  I don’t think I have a solution for that where such things don’t exist.  But I’d probably rent a porta-potty or buy a compost toilet – it’s really not too much to do.
 
But if I did nothing more than make sandwiches and hot soup or cold drinks depending on the weather, just sharing our front porch mailbox would, to them, have been enough.  We morphed into the living situations. It’s not for everyone, but it works for us.  There are, however, totally possible solutions we can offer.
 
How life changing would it be if churches put up cubbies with numbers that become “apartments” in the public records to give homeless people an address they can access during business hours? They would keep their social services, have a contact if they got ill, and otherwise just make stability in a small way where otherwise the system rolls over those who are already just barely scraping by?
 
How hard is it to put out a water station and plastic cups (plus a waste basked) in the heat of summer days?  How hard is it to have “cup o’ noodles” and insulated cups for cold weather? 
 
Homeless people give back.  Recently an entire field got cleaned up because a friend who leaves home baked goodies for the people who camp there got harmed.  She does cat rescue work, leaves food bins to make it easier, and those bins got stolen. She got REALLY mad and took them back forcefully from the new homeless man who’d taken them.  The other homeless people who saw what happened rallied around, drove the thief away, and then cleaned up every inch of the mess he (mostly) had made.  She was amazed.  I told her – they did this for you. They know what good you do for animals and for them, and they wouldn’t tolerate the decay of their fragile community stability that teeters on the kindnesses you show them.
 
I am adamant no one needs to repay me, but they DO have to “pay if forward” to others in harm’s way.  They do that – I’ve seen it repeatedly. But they also bring me presents. I have a gorgeous scarf one gave me, bracelets, a bird feeder- things they found, nice things they salvaged – to say thanks.  I treasure them. And no – these things aren’t stolen.  You’d be appalled at what people throw away.  The homeless are masters of finding and salvaging what others merely toss.
 
They are smart, funny, kind, and engaging.  Yes, some have mental health issues, now with Medi-Cal largely under control.  Some have records, freely disclosed and, from me, not judged.  They work hard both at keeping body and soul together and keeping our neighborhood clean and crime free.  Being poor is the hardest work there is, and they put their shoulders to the wheel, day after day.
 
Arrests for illegal camping are almost non-existent in our area because if they are rousted, they can temporarily leave their things in the backyard while they move their sites.  Nothing is more stupid than the ‘cat and mouse’ ticketing of homeless for sleeping outside and making them move their stuff, then ticketing them if they can’t.  Then comes the warrants for their failure to appear (they have no transportation to court or work details), then jailing them for 3 days only to have the cycle repeat.  Just giving them a place to store things while they relocate has cut down on the cycle and let them get legally placed. 
 
One woman a block over – I dislike her far too much to consider her a neighbor – hates the homeless.  She has made as many as 52 calls in one night to the police claiming one man – ONE – was doing terrible things in the alley by her house. These are all lies.  Why isn’t she cited for false police reports? She’s a homeowner. That’s why.  When my homeless friend asked her why she was so angry with him (he had permission to sleep several houses down from her) she said, “Because I’m a CHRISTIAN!” 
 
Seriously.  She said that. 
 
She has called the police on us, to no avail, for giving access to our own property.  She has filed complaints that we are messy and lowering property values (thanks to the homeless men, our house is lovely – neat, trimmed, clean, raked.)  So her brand of “Christianity” does not prevail, thank goodness.  I see her peeking down my driveway from time to time, so I recently put a sign in the front window, “Matthew 25:40 Lives Here.”  For some reason she hasn’t been by since.  Wonder why…
 
“As ye have done to the least of these…”  That is the crux of what faith teaches me. No rules, no ritual, no rites will matter so much as that one directive. Walking the walk on whatever level you can is all we are asked to do.  It’s amazingly simple to find a way to be kind.  And guess what?  You get back friends.  Who knew?  

December 05, 2017 by Rachel Held Evans


It’s an unconventional birth announcement.
Defiant.
Prophetic.
Unsentimental.
We like to paint Mary in the softer hues—her robes clean, hair combed and covered, body poised in prayerful surrender—but this young woman was a fierce one, full of strength and fury. When she accepts the dangerous charge before her, (every birth was risky in those days, this one especially so), rather than reciting a maternal blessing, Mary offers a prophecy:
My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,    
and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him    
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;    
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,    
and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things,    
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,    
in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors,    
to Abraham and to his descendants forever. 
When sung in a warm, candlelit church at Advent, it can be easy to blunt these words, to imagine them as symbolic, non-specific, comforting.
But I’m not feeling sentimental this Advent. I’m feeling angry, restless. 
And so in this season, I hear Mary’s Magnificat shouted, not sung: 
In the halls of the Capitol Building…. 
"He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.”
In the corridors of the West Wing…
“He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly.”
In the streets of Charlottesville…
“He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.”
Among women who have survived assault, harassment, and rape...
“He has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed.”
Among the poor, the refugees, the victims of gun violence, and the faithful ministers of the gospel who at great cost are speaking out against the false religions of nationalism and white supremacy…
“His mercy is for those who fear him, from generation to generation.”
With the Magnificat, Mary not only announces a birth, she announces the inauguration of a new kingdom, one that stands in stark contrast to every other kingdom—past, present, and future—that relies on violence and exploitation to achieve “greatness.” With the Magnificat, Mary declares that God has indeed chosen sides.
And it’s not with the powerful, but the humble.
It’s not with the rich, but with the poor.
It’s not with the occupying force, but with people on the margins.  
It’s not with narcissistic kings, but with an un-wed, un-believed teenage girl entrusted with the holy task of birthing, nursing, and nurturing God.
This is the stunning claim of the incarnation: God has made a home among the very people the world casts aside. And in her defiant prayer, Mary—a dark-skinned woman, a refugee, a religious minority in an occupied land—names this reality.  
“God is with us. And if God is with us, who can stand against us?”I hear a lot of professed Christians right now suggesting that it’s okay if powerful men resort to a little lying, bigotry, abuse, and misogyny as long as Americans “get to say Merry Christmas again.” Besides the fact that virtually no one in this country has ever been prohibited from saying “Merry Christmas” in the first place, such a sentiment stands in blasphemous contradiction to the very doctrine of incarnation we are meant to embrace this time of year.
God did not wrap himself up in flesh, humbling himself to the point of birth in a stable and death on a cross, eating, laughing, weeping, and suffering as one of us, so that I can complain to management when a barista at Starbucks wishes me “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.” The incarnation isn’t about desperately grasping at the threads of power and privilege. It’s not about making some civic holiday “bigger and better.” It’s about surrendering power, setting aside privilege, and finding God in the smallness and vulnerability of a baby in a womb.
To claim that the lighting of a national Christmas tree each year makes this country “a Christian nation,” while its powerful systematically oppress the poor, turn away refugees, incite violence against religious and ethnic minorities, molest and harass women and girls and call them liars when they dare to speak up, is, in the words of the prophet Amos, sickening to God.
“I hate, I despise your festivals,” God says in Amos 5, “and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies… Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
We cannot claim to embrace the Holy Family while withholding justice from those who would most identify with them. We cannot talk of “making Christmas great again” while taking the side of powerful and violent over the vulnerable. 
The season of Advent is meant to be a time of waiting.
 In years past, I lit candles, sang “O Come Emmanuel,” and pondered in stillness the joy of Christ’s first coming and the hope of his second.  
But this year I cannot be still. This year, hope is hard, belief is hard.
And so I’m waiting with the angst of the prophets, with the restlessness of the psalmist who cried “How long, oh Lord, will You hide your face forever?” and with the stubborn, unsentimental hope of a woman so convinced the baby inside her would change everything, she proclaimed in present tense that the great reversal has already arrived--
The powerful have already been humbled.
The vulnerable have already been lifted up.
For God has made a home among the people.
God has made a home with us.

https://rachelheldevans.com/blog/unsentimental-advent

Enroll between now and January 31, 2018!

From our friends at Health Access California:
 
Today, Covered California begins open enrollment for around 1.4 million Californians, who will be able to choose among eleven health plans regardless of pre-existing conditions and get financial assistance to afford health coverage. California's open enrollment continues through January 31, 2017, even as President Trump has cut that time in half for many other states. California has taken multiple steps to shield consumers from the sabotage of the federal attacks.  

We know there's been a lot of confusion, but Covered California is open for business!

Despite federal uncertainty, affordability assistance continues to be available to ensure that 86% of those in Covered California will not have to pay more than a percentage of their income for a silver-level plan. Thanks to steps taken by the state, those who qualify for subsidies--which includes families of four who make up to $96,000--will be protected from rate hikes, including the "Trump tax" created from President Trump's decision to defund cost-sharing subsidies. 

Consumers should not be scared off by premiums at the first glance as they may be eligible for financial assistance, or cheaper options. Those who are subsidized should take advantage of the silver plan's cost-sharing reductions; those who are not subsidized can avoid the 12% surcharge caused by the President's actions by choosing from other tiers or even off the exchange.

It's more important than ever that consumers actively shop and compare plans. For those who are renewing individual insurance coverage, the best deal last year is not necessarily the best deal this year. Instead of just renewing your existing coverage, shopping around could limit rate increases to as little as three percent. Over 96% of Covered California consumers will have at least 2 plan choices and 82% of consumers will have more than 3 plans to choose from. If your Anthem or Cigna plan is leaving your area, California has instituted protections through SB 133 (Hernandez), to ensure that you will have continuity of care and can keep seeing your doctor if you're in the middle of treatment.

The federal fight around health care isn't over, but that shouldn't stop any Californian from meeting their critical coverage and care needs. To protect our progress on health care, the best thing we can do is sign up for coverage, and then make it really hard for our Congressmembers to take it away.

Dear Friends,

There is no doubt we live in tense and dangerous times.  The rise of hate crimes and incidents has escalated to unprecedented levels.

Recent and ongoing events in Elk Grove have created fear and anxiety in many people, and it is upon us in the faith community to find ways to address these events, call upon authorities to take hate crimes and incidents seriously, and to end the hate where and when we can. 
Please be invited to a community discussion and forum Thursday, October 19 from 6:00-8:00 p.m. 

Speak Up and Out Against Racism and Injustice.
Elk Grove United Methodist Church
8986 Elk Grove Boulevard
Elk Grove CA 95624

Discussion leaders will be LaKenya Jordan, MPH and Addie Ellis, PhD, both experienced problem solvers and discussion facilitators within our community.

From vile messages and vandalism at an Elk Grove African American hair salon to racist graffiti scrawled on a local home, hate incidents and crimes have not mobilized the authorities to take action on these obvious hate crimes.  Too often authorities have dismissed these hate crimes as acts of juveniles as if that makes a difference. It doesn’t. 

Such acts are a warning – the canary in the coal mine – that tell us something is terribly wrong in our town. They too often are precursors to greater and more deadly violence. We cannot allow this to escalate!  Our public safety officials and government leaders must take these incidents seriously!

Please join us even if you’re not from Elk Grove to lift voices of concern and possible solution to this danger that confronts us. Please also come to assure the victims they have our care. 

This event is sponsored by California Council of Churches, Elk Grove UMC, Sacramento NAACP, and California Church IMPACT, and the South County African American Coalition.  Please join us for this important community action. 

Hope to see you there!