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United Church of Christ Warns of Credible Threats to Liberal Churches Now through Inauguration Day

1/16/2021

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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.

 

​

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Our Generational Day of Infamy.  Let's Bring Hope out of Hate

1/6/2021

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Dear Friends,

Today we saw the violent unfolding of the first active attack on our nation's Capitol since 1812.  How do we process this attack on our democracy and our most cherished national symbol - our Capitol?

The riots today that have caused our elected leaders in Congress to go into lockdown were impelled by not just a false narrative about a "stolen" election. They were impelled by the fear of a multi-racial and diverse society.  That includes all of us, people who should be part of the large body of Christianity but are considered massively dangerous because we are largely justice seekers not fundamentalists.  It includes everyone of color, every immigrant, every medical person fighting COVID that the rioters dismiss as a hoax,  everyone not in a small set of white revolutionaries who wish to see America not what it is.

We who bear witness to justice for all, who live for peace and inclusion, who love our fellow humans whoever they may be, WE have been called to stand clearly for our nation's ethos of justice, of inclusion, of fairness, of democratic process.  I don't have to tell you all any of this. It's why we know one another. But we now have to be more outspoken, more present about affirming those values publicly and actively.  We are ignored too often by the media which is our means of contemporary information sharing.  We must raise our voices to be heard loudly proclaiming our devotion to our Christian principles and to the work of democracy unimpeded.  

We learned early this afternoon that the attack on our nation's Capitol was duplicated here in Sacramento.  The Calfornia Highway Patrol and Sacramento Police Department had to shut down streets around our Capitol Park to tangle with insurrectionist rioters intent on breeching the building which, ironically, is empty due to COVID.  Arrests were made, the building is safe. But where will this happen next?  Who is safe?  

Please begin some serious teaching moments in your congregations and communities. Please speak up for the entire process of democracy regardless of electoral outcomes.  Our nation  as a whole is more important than a specific election outcome. Respecting the truth, respecting the process, respecting the Constitution are far more important than that.  Please bear witness as is safe to do for what we believe and for those we value.  We had hoped always that it would never come to this.  It has come.  We can be passive adn quiet no more.

Please stay safe and keep the faith in both our beliefs and in our nation's commitments to a democratic republic.  We have everything to gain. We also have everything to lose.  We must count on your voices to protect what we all value. Democracy is about all of us, together.  Keep that in your hearts and in your actions.

Thank you.

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Help Voters Vote - the new "Freedom Summer"

7/3/2020

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​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!
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Help Refugee Children Here in California

6/24/2020

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Dear Friends:

We are sharing a message from our friend and ally, Fred Morris, a United Methodist Church minister who has long championed the plight of immigrants and refugees.  He has made it his life's work to protect especially children in need of protection from the dangers to their well being in their home countries and now the threats to their lawful status here.  

Last Friday was Juneteenth that we celebrate annually to commemorate the end of slavery and to affirm our belief that all men, women and children are created equal.    Saturday, June 20th, was World Refugee Day.      Let us carry both ideal through our lives by helping raise funds for the children from the San Fernando Valley Refugee Children Center. This is the organization  Fred founded in 2015 to aid the hundreds of children who came to us, unaccompanied, fleeing from gang violence in their home countries in Central America.  
 
With so much going on in the world, we can’t forget that hundreds of children are still fleeing life-threatening violence and traveling to the United States looking for refuge. The Covid-19 pandemic has limited the Center’s ability to raise funds, which means we are struggling to provide children with the resources they need to survive.
 
As a big win this week, the Supreme Court blocked Trump from ending DACA. However, we still have a lot of work to do.

You and I have the influence on social media to bring awareness to this issue and help raise enough funds to help the hundreds of children at the Center. If you’re able to make a donation, please go to tinyurl.com/world-refugee-day to donate, and give a child the support they need and deserve. A donation of even $25 can make a big difference to us. And if you could do that on a monthly basis, it would be even more wonderful.
 
Help us spread the word through social media by sharing the three images attached or click on our Digital Toolkit for suggested copy, videos, more images, hashtags and other ways you can help. #WorldRefugeeDay  #SFVRefugeeChildrenCenter
 
On behalf of the hundreds of children at the Center we thank you for your support.

The Council thanks you for remembering these children.  While we fight for the little ones still locked in cages at our border, let's make sure no other child is further endagered by our fear of "the alien among us".  Please help Fred help the children with care and legal assistance to keep them safe.

Thank you.

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June 24th, 2020

6/24/2020

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Dear Friends:

Once again we share an insight from our friend and ally, Jim Burklo.  His posts, "Musings" always give us uplift and something to reduce our stress and worries.  We share this with you today.

Sighs Too Deep: Breathing in a time of pandemic and protest

More MUSINGS by Jim Burklo

"Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words."  (St Paul, Romans 8: 26)

I needed to sigh. 

So up to the mountains I went this past Saturday, and hiked among the huge slabs of sandstone at 4,000 feet on the desert side of the San Gabriel Mountains.  I paused to stand under a scrubby 
piñon pine tree and listen to the voice of its stubby needles in the cool clear wind. 

Last week, while I was teaching a mindfulness meditation class for USC students and staff on Zoom, we got into a discussion after I led the group through a "body scan" meditation, guiding them to attend to any emotions that might be associated with sensations in their bodies.  Several said that their breath was the focal point.  One woman said she found herself sighing in the meditation - and sighing a lot in general.  Others reported the same experience.  Then a graduate student in the class spoke up:  "Isn't this what's up for everybody now?  The coronavirus takes away your breath.  George Floyd, as he was dying under the policeman's knee, cried 'I can't breathe!'  And we are all sighing because of the mix of emotions we are feeling!" 

Her astute observation reminded me that when the virus started spreading, and the lockdown began, I found myself sighing a lot.  What was happening to the entire human race, all around the planet, was truly breathtaking.  In recent weeks I have noticed that the sighing stopped.  I habituated. 

I also habituated to police violence against black people. When the news about George Floyd's murder came out, I was saddened and disgusted, but my breath was not taken away.  Just another incident in a long series of examples of the lingering scourge of racism in America. 

Until I read a Facebook post written by a fellow member of Mt Hollywood Church in Los Angeles.  Hilary's anguish was palpable.  As a black woman with a son, she was in despair that what happened to George Floyd could happen to her own child.  Her despair broke through my spiritually-insulated, white-privileged soul.  With hers, finally, my sighs were too deep for words. 

I'm grateful that Hilary took my breath away.  I'm grateful to belong to a church where the Spirit can blow down the walls that inhibit our vulnerability, as she did for me. 

If we're sighing, we're not alone.  We're sighing with the Holy Spirit of divine Love who comisserates with us.  The biblical Greek word for "spirit" is "pneuma", which also means "breath".  If we're sighing, we're feeling emotion.  And emotion is energy.  Mindfulness practice and contemplative prayer are not about breathing deeply and being relaxed.  They are about paying attention to our experiences and thoughts and emotions and letting them be, even if they're hard.   And if we know our emotions, we'll be in touch with their energy, and then we can channel that energy into creative, positive work to relieve the suffering and injustice around us. 

Contemplative practice is the very opposite of withdrawal from the world and its struggles.  It is what we do in order to feel again when we've become hard-hearted, and to get clarity about how best to direct that power for the good of others.  When I am hard-hearted, when I am complacent, I don't know how to pray as I ought.  I need help.  Hilary helped.  And so did that piñon tree in the mountains.

Each kind of pine has its own voice in the wind, tuned to the length of its needles.  I stood and listened to the piñon, until divine Love made me sigh once more.

 
JIM BURKLO
Blog: MUSINGS
Senior Associate Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life, University of Southern California
JIM BURKLOSenior Associate Dean, Office of Religious Life, 
University of Southern California
 
 
Copyright © 2019, Jim Burklo. All rights reserved.

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The Arc of Justice in an Age of Extremism: Which Side Are We On?

6/3/2020

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Dear Friends:

Sacramento is under curfew.  The National Guard is in our streets.  Glass still litters our sidewalks, and a friend dubbed the Sacramento downtown "Plywood City". .The whole city is in mourning, over 130 businesses shattered by violence. The original protests for justice have been overshadowed by mindless rampages not from within the protest but inimical to it. 

These scenes are being played out across California and also across our nation. 

We are under siege and have not seen the likes of this since the end of the Civil War. 

The protests against police violence that kills and harms so many Black and Brown people are not the cause of but the excuse for the violence sweeping our land. By and large the rioters seem to be white, have their own nihilistic agendas. They pay no attention to Black community leaders trying to keep their movement peaceful, the issue focused on harm to people of color by excessive police actions. 

The rioting has its own momentum, takes no heed of anyone.  Too many times the community has found neo Nazi graffiti, anti -"Black Lives Matter" slurs, hate messages against many groups. It's not clear who is behind the violence at all. And yet the White House and media keep referring to the protest on racial justice as the source.  It is not. It is just the extremists' excuse.

There are now threats from the White House that active military will be sent to places with unchecked rioting and looting. The president told Governors on a conference call Monday  that he would use the Insurrection Act to bring control. The threat is horrifying. Yes, this happened in limited ways during the 1950s school desegregation uproar. Again it was applied during the Los Angeles riots of 1992. It has never before been threatened against an entire nation. 

The laws are clear: the 1807 Insurrection Act can be triggered by civil unrest, but only with the consent of Congress who are not likely to give it.  That was briefly changed in 2006 giving more unilateral power to the president, but the provision was repealed in 2008 thus restoring the original meaning of  the dominant Posse Comitatus Act (1878) that limits federal power over troops on domestic soil and removed the president's unilateral authority from the Insurrection Act.  No one person can order the placement of active military into our communities, our states, our lives.


Following  the phone call with Governors. we witnessed active military from Fort Bragg, NC arriving in Washington, DC. The District of Columbia is the one place troops can be placed without Congressional approval since it is federal jurisdiction.  At their arrival, the president directed that protesters be tear gassed and removed from the White House area despite the fact they were peacefully standing and sitting, nothing else.  In the ensuing assault,  clergy at nearby St. John's Episcopal Church, compiling medical kits for the protesters, were also gassed and driven off their property. The president then walked from the White House to the church to simply hold up a Bible for a photo op. 

This, according to analysts who understand the symbolism, was not just an odd public relations moment. This gesture was an affirmation to ultra conservative Christians that the actions the president was taking were being done under the rubric of fundamentalist Christianity. He was signaling his belief he would be both king and prophet, bringing End Times and the Second Coming through his work. It was affirmation to his followers that he was indeed acting our their version of the Lord's business as read by them in prophecy.  It was a sign he is the "Chosen". He is their man.

But that vision is not ours. It also isn't that of our members in the Episcopal Church. where he stood.  Bishop Mariann Budde of the District of Columbia dioceses was infuriated. She denounced both his use of force against protesters and clergy and his use of St. John's without anyone's permission.  She said it was craven and that they at St. John's were on the side of the protesters seeking justice for people of color. 

And here is where we are. We are called to respond to the great schism of today.   Which side are we on?  We at the Council have long embraced the principles of justice, of equality and equity, of love and compassion, care for our fellow humans. We seek to Bend the Arc toward Justice not capitulation to the anger of either mobs on one hand or tyranny on the other.  Which side are we on?

We have military in our streets,  troops in DC and National Guard elsewhere.. We still have Black men and women, elders and children begging America to respect their worth and protect their lives while seeking justice, seeking changes in policing, seeking safety in our society.  Which side are we on?

These are dark days. Choices and actions will have to be taken by us individually and by us together.  Which side are we on? 

We at the Council stand with those in pain, those who are hurt and left behind by our society. We stand with justice and love and community. We stand with joy and laughter and kindness.  We stand with all good people of good heart whoever they may be, protester and police officer alike.

We stand for what Jesus taught us in the two commandments. Love thy God and Love Thy Neighbor.  They are equal in our lives.

We will stand by that. We hope our nation will do the same.

May God shed blessings on this nation to be what our Constitution promises and upon us all to have the strength to carry that promise to fulfillment.

Thank you. 


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How can we be non-complicit in an age of hate?  Some suggestions

5/27/2020

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Dear Friends:

Our post yesterday about the hate incidents and crimes we've seen unfold via internet links calls for suggestions on how to be a witness for equity and justice.

We see today that last night the police in Minneapolis, MN drove people protesting the death of George Floyd into the streets with tear gas and rubber bullets. Mr. Floyd is the man who apparently died when a police officer knelt on his neck for what witnesses said was several minutes.  The crowds that came to protest were very diverse, many people outraged by this death. That diversity did not stop the use of force by the Minneapolis police.  We have no knowledge of what transpired last night, but we do see that for once people's 'whiteness' did not confer privilege. Yes, there are risks to standing for justice no matter who you are.

So we are confronted as well by our own apprehensions and fears if we, no matter who we are, stand up to power, speak truth to power.  What can we do if we are of brittle bone and unfirm stance but still wish to make our anger and our anguish known on these issues of injustice?  More to the point, how can we be proactive in preventing hate actions rather than reactive to them?  I once said I'd never again go to a candlelight vigil for victims of hate. My work in life was to create whatever conditions I could to assure we didn't need them. That work goes on.

If we genuinely wish to stop acts of hate, we need to begin with opposing it. We need to attend city and county public meetings, generally safe spaces, to raise our voices. Silence implies indifference if not actual consent to crimes against people under "color of authority".  This is where we can make sure that's not swept under the rug, where we demand that our officials act with decency.

But this is a long process that needs, once again, to interrupt "common sense" bigotry at the start.  Yes, it's true hate is not inborn but taught. We can reverse that process.  In 2000 I was living in Yolo County, CA, a fairly rural community but a diverse one.  It's also the home of University of California, Davis making Davis a pretty liberal town in a fairly conservative county.  Nevertheless, Yolo has been a leader in confronting hate crimes.  The county obtained a grant from the Southern Poverty Law Center to have a three-year program implementing their excellent program, "Teaching Tolerance".  There was a wonderful man from the Sheriff's office whose sole job was to go from school to school with this program.  He was welcomed in every school but one, and over the course of time, hate crimes dropped off, and bullying subsided.  Of the crimes or incidents that did occur, the perpetrators could all be traced to the one school where the "Teaching Tolerance" curriculum had not been used.  You rarely get data that are this blatant, but the experience served to show how important education of young people can be to ending hateful behavior.

As adults move to make their voices heard by public officials, we can simultaneously educate our young people.  Denominations, interfaith groups, youth ministries as well as civic organizations and school districts can access "Teaching Tolerance" curricula including online resources. Grants are available with simple, clear guidelines if personnel are needed to implement an extensive program.  For more information on where to start, you can go here

For specifics on interfaith understanding, don't forget our "oldie but goodie", Building Bridges of Understanding.  Produced by California Council of Churches in the wake of 9/11 and the uptick of anti Muslim hate (that is once again revived), you can self instruct via our online and downloadable study guide.  For a copy of the guide, please go  here  Building Bridges is at the bottom of the list.  The video that accompanies the guide is in very short supply, so please let us know by return on this email if you're interested, and we will try to ferret out a copy.

For combating anti-LGBTQ hate, also on the increase, that same link can take you to our study guide, Living Lovingly.  With all our study guides, directions on how to lead study circles and to engage conversations are given.  We see these as ways to interact with people who are uncertain about how our faith principles dovetail with justice issues, how to give safe space for hard discussions and meaningful resolutions.  

This is how we start. We need the commitment and the will.  We don't have to be maced to make a stand. 

Do whatever you can, however you can, for as long as you can.   It all counts.

Thank you. 

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Racial factors in the Age of Pandemics: Join our ally, Race Forward, in understanding how

5/5/2020

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Dear Friends,

For many years California Council of Churches and California Church IMPACT worked with an outstanding organization, the Applied Research Center. Originally based in Oakland, CA, they created several powerful programs to examine racism in our nation particularly in California.  We found their work to be of the highest standards as they examined legislative voting records, bias in our state budget and bills, and followed factors in our society that too often barred both equity and equality for communities of color.. 

Renamed Race Forward their programs have become truly national in scope. We now invite you to explore one of their new webinars looking at racism as a factor in how our nation is responding to the coronavirus pandemic, and how the pandemic is revealing the racism that already exists.

Please feel invited to share their work May 8 in the first of a series of webinars on this important topic.  Whether your concern is the unduly high mortality of Black and Brown people dying from COVID 19 or the rise of anti Asian hate crimes, these webinars hold important information for those of us dedicated to justice in our world.

To learn more please go here  We think you will find their in-depth analysis as helpful as we always have. 

Please stay safe and practice the best in pandemic prevention and in the creation of a humane society.

Thank you!

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Resources for Congregations on Responding to ICE Raids

6/25/2019

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Dear Friends,

Although new reports seem to indicate wholesale round ups of immigrants have been postponed, the threat remains.

For those concerned about the threat against both undocumented and documented immigrants, we offer a resource.

Interfaith Mobilization for Human Integrity, a California based activist and advocacy organization we trust, has a comprehensive guide to action.

Take a look here   

We encourage those in California to join with IM4HI in their trainings and with their activist alert rapid response efforts, all spelled out in this link.

Please do whatever you can.  

If you wish another action, you can call the office of Sarah Fabian of the Justice Department who argued that children in concentration camps (our words, not theirs) don't need soap, toothpaste and brushes, and other items such as beds and blankets. She made this argument before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday, June 18.  If you'd like to address these issues, her office number is 202-532-4824.

If you'd care to address these issues with your Senator or Representative, please call 202-224-3121

Below are examples of posters you can print out and display at your home, place of worship, or place of work.


Whatever you can do, please do it. This is a potential crisis of historic dimenstions. Human lives are on the line. We need your witness and your action to protect families, channel them into human and responsible paths to residence and citizenship.

We must never be left with the question: where were YOU when the families were rounded up?

Thank you.
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Threatened mass deportations. What can we do?

6/18/2019

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Dear Friends:

The Washington Post reports that our government is sending Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) throughout the nation to round up and deport millions of immigrants whom they believe to be undocumented. You can read the story here   For the faith community concerned with justice and due process for our immigrant brothers and sisters, this is alarming news.

What can we do?

In Northern California immigrant rights activists have rapid response teams on standby.  These teams cover northern and central CA counties from Humboldt down to Kern.  They can give you information on participation and offer phone numbers where you can report ICE activities requiring a response.  To access this list, please click here   

We are waiting for updates from Southern California groups. We will try to repost those later.

Other resources, organizations from which you may get information on how to help, are available here  This list includes the American Civil Liberties Union that has been on the forefront of many court cases judged in favor of due process and in opposition to mass roundups of immigrants and family separation policies.

If you can act, please do. If you are unable, please witness. If you can't do that, please donate to groups that are and can.  If you cannot do that, please advocate.

There are laws on our books at state and federal levels that are being ignored both for the crisis of asylum seekers and their children and for those suspected of being undocumented. No one present inside our borders can be denied due process. That's what looms for them if this mass deportation round up occurs. 

Please raise your voice, do what you can. This is a massive human rights violation, and we can be silent no more.

Thank you!

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