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What Part of “All God’s Children” Will We Ever Observe?

5/25/2022

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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?
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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.


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How You Can Help Break the Cycle of Debt for Those Whom You Serve. An Advent and New Year Project

12/1/2021

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Dear Friends,

In our coming days of Advent, we look forward to the promise of hope that lies within the spirit of Christmas. It is a time for spiritual renewal, for ingathering with family and friends. We celebrate and share with those around us. Even drivers are usually more polite! If that’s not a miracle, nothing is. The power of Christmas and Advent lies in touching that which is good in us all.

This year, coming slowly out of a pandemic, we see many still struggling with economic hardships, and we at California Council of Churches think we can offer a glimmer of light for them – with your help. What a better ongoing Christmas gift can we give those whom we serve than help for financial assistance that can get them through hard times?

We have long been allies with Community Development Finance, a nonprofit organization, in Oakland, CA. They run the Community Check Cashing service in the Fruitvale neighborhood. It looks like any other check cashing place, is thus a familiar credit source for the poor, the unbanked, but the services are like no others.

First, they are not usurious. Second, they use comfort with the check cashing operation to give access not only to short term lending help but to teaching financial literacy to those who fear the traditional banking and lending services – with good reason.

Despite being located in Oakland, Community Check Cashing is available for both short-term and long-term loans and credit counseling education to anyone in the state, anywhere they live.

But to do this for the poor, those without access to computers and printers, we could use your help in reaching that population and assisting them in filling out their applications, transferring the few required documents, and helping them do online counseling.

Many of you in various congregations have made debt relief and access to credit a key part of your mission. If you are interested in having a partnership with Community Development Finance (CDF) and acting to assist the unbanked with improving their financial health, we invite you to connect with CDF to help people get that access.

What is needed by your congregation is:
A computer with internet access
A printer
A scanner to upload documents
Assistance in filling out and transferring documents and with setting up financial coaching meetings
Also:
Computers or laptops or books or phones with cameras by which applicants may do credit counseling education if they don’t have access on their own.

Please feel free to contact Community Check Cashing for more information concerning serving as a liaison with them. Their phone is (510) 848-1174. Ask to speak with Dan Leibsohn, the Executive Director. He will then refer you to the Store Manager and Counselor, Luis Diaz. Please tell them you are allied with the Council of Churches, too.

For more information on their lending programs please see their web sites  either here or here.

We hope you will add this service and educational program to your work in debt relief and financial hope. It may give someone the best Christmas present ever: skills and resources to carry through their lives.

Merry Christmas!

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Shifting Our Focus to Our Counties — It's Where We Live or Die

6/2/2021

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JooHee Yoon
www.calchurches.org/uploads/4/1/4/8/41486209/public_defender_sites.pdfA homeless man gets housing - and still dies untended, alone, from a totally treatable condition.
Indifference to state law forces homeless people to re-certify a second time to affirm eligibility for food assistance - and all the paperwork is lost. They go without for months.
A woman's child is taken from her by CPS against state law and department procedure. No findings of harm by her are ever found. Two years later she doesn't have him back.
California Council of Churches and Church IMPACT were founded to keep people of faith aware of what comes before our state legislature. IMPACT advocates for laws that are just and fair, that promote a democratic society where all may find equality and reliability before the law and from fickleness in the law.
We have labored with you to bring about socially responsible legislation that help those most in need and with the fewest resources.  We have, over the years, largely won those battles.
And then we see it all fall apart at the County level.
Monitoring how any given county upholds or abuses the state laws passed is very difficult. Some of the awareness may come initially from those victimized by bureaucratic nightmares. Other wrongs go largely untended.  Our media don't know the stories or the breakdown of justice any better than we do. 
We do know California has observable markers that are warning bells.  We have the lowest use of federal food assistance, "Cal Fresh" here, in the nation. About 50 percent of the available money is left on the table, not given to fully eligible people, meaning lots of people are going hungry for no reason.  
California has the highest rate of poverty in America. 
Through the pandemic there were statewide moratoriums on evictions with federal help going to landlords. And yet the counties abetted illegal evictions.  
Medi-Cal, our state's Medicaid program, is excellent. And yet thousands of very poor people get almost no help as they are assigned to clinics and doctors far from where they live or who have long ago stopped accepting Medi-Cal at all.   During COVID, this left the poor to flood emergency rooms too late to be helped well.  Others were unable to get the care they needed, partly from the clinic closing, partly from lack of all access in even normal times.
Our ask to you - our members, our congregations, our clergy - please start asking people you help if they are getting the programmatic assistance we all fought so hard to achieve.  Please start collecting stories of injustice as it plays out in bureaucracy.  Is someone denied Cal Fresh?  Why?  Is someone going without medical care?  Why?  
You may remember we have a study guide on how to help people with felony convictions served in county jail to expunge those records.  Your county may not have a public defender's office, the key to getting records expunged.  If you have a contract system - a system of defense.  That money-saving system depends on the defense counsel under contract  keeping not the client but the district attorney happy. That means defense is not vigorous, often flawed and rushed, and often sacrifices truth to the fear of not being rehired.  In sum, your county may not have a system of defense at all.  
Many of you support our work with donations.  We can keep advocating on your behalf and for your core values without difficulty.  But what good is it if at your local level it all falls apart?  We don't want you to stop donating! We do need you to help keep our work - and yours - truly meaningful and effective.
Lift your eyes to the counties as well.  Begin to demand accountability for those our state and local systems claim they support.  Let your voices ring out for justice. Because it is not rolling down as a river in our state.  
Feel free to write us with questions about what should be happening if you think it is not. We will do our best to offer up the laws and requirements your counties should be meeting.  We need your eyes and ears to let us know whether things are working or if the system is breaking.  We want to help you.  We must also rely on you.  
Together we may be able to bring real justice to our communities and to the people for whom we care.  Let's make this a new day for those in need.  
Thank you.

New Beginnings: A Congregational Guide to Restorative Justice Through Expungement
County-by-County List of Public Defender Contact Information for use with the New Beginnings Study Guide
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Please help the people of Beirut Lebanon - Here's how

8/7/2020

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Dear Friends,

Whether you saw the video of the horrific explosion on social media or witnessed the appalling aftermath on news broadcasts, few people cannot be stunned at the breadth of damage done to the people and buildings of Beirut. 

Reports confirm that unstable substances, confiscated from a ship some many months ago, erupted in a violent explosion sparked by a nearby fire. The devastation is almost impossible to take in. 

So far the death toll is 150, but that will no doubt increase.  Over 4000 people have been injured, and entire blocks of buildings destroyed leaving already imperiled families and individuals homeless.  Beirut and Lebanon in general have been suffering grave economic insecurity due to the upheavals in the Mid East and the influx of refugees from war torn areas.  

Now comes this explosion and it's threats to so many lives going forward as well as impacted by the explosion.

Please help the people of Beirut.  There's not a lot we can do from so far away, but if you are able, please help with a contribution toward their medical needs, housing, food, etc.  If you are inclined, please go here to make a donation today.   The tally is given in pounds, but your donation will be calculated by the dollars you can contribute and converted by the charity.  

Thank you for any help you can give.
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Beating Boredom with Budget Challenge from Next 10!

7/15/2020

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Dear Friends,

Once again California is in lockdown. We still can't eat inside at restaurants, can't - or shouldn't - convene groups of friends in close proximity. We are worried about our children and grandchildren in the deliberation of whether to send them to school or not.  It's boring and worrisome all at the same time.

And then there's the dullness.  You've cleaned the house, you've mowed the lawn, you've cooked new things (for better or for worse). You've watched every movie and TV series you can stand, and you've read every book you can lay hands on.  You've called old friends who may or may not remember you, and you've gone to worship virtually that is a necessary connection to your congregation but not very fulfilling emotionally.  What else do you have to do?

So, to alleviate our collective ennui, let's take the Budget Challenge!  This year, more than most, we have a budget that is based on hope more than actual income.  Today is Tax Day, and the state will determine whether or not there are sufficient revenues for the expenditures we would all like to assure.

Next 10, long-time allies of the Council and IMPACT, has the "California Budget Challenge" online.  You can use your best insights and best judgement to figure out what we should fund and how we should fund it.

If nothing else the Budget Challenge will let you exercise your intellect and express your frustrations with our current situation. Next 10 gives you the parameters - what our situation currently is - and lets you take if from there.  If you decide on a workable, moral, and human budget, would you then consider running for public office?  We need you!  If not, just bask in the glow of a job well done.  And possibly share your thoughts with us to pass on to others.  We do look for more than "defund it all and Devil take the hindmost" answers, we will say that up front.

To take the challenge, please click here   Let us know what you decided if you'd like us to share.  And anonymity is assured upon request!

Have, if not fun, a diversion.  Enjoy it if you can!

Thank you
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Avoiding consumer/healthcare scams in the Age of Pandemic - you're invited to a webinar

6/17/2020

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Dear Friends,

We always appreciate ingenuity and intelligent responses to our world's crises.  The current crisis is no exception. Families are uniting via conference calls, Zoom, Skype, and other social media.  Classes and even concerts are being offered the same way.  These are wonderful offerings to break isolation, learn something new, share a moment of collective joy.  

What also arises are efforts to exploit people, to extract money from people with big hearts wanting to help others.  New cottage industries of scams have arisen, and it can catch even the most computer and social media savvy people off guard.  Rather than putting energies to good, too many spend that effort trying to maximize their own benefits at the cost of your well being.

Through our allies at Consumer Action, we are posting an invitation for a Webinar you might find useful.  There are many scams that have appeared along with the Coronavirus. This webinar will help people wade through what is real and what is fraudulent to avoid harm in already stressful times.  
Dear Community Partner,

It’s the same old story, but this time it has a scary twist. Whenever disaster hits, greedy scammers and fraudsters begin to pounce on unsuspecting victims. Even during these strange times, nothing has changed. As the coronavirus spreads throughout our communities, disrupting our way of life and instilling fear among us, we must remain vigilant. If not, enterprising criminals will take advantage of that fear to perpetrate consumer fraud.
 
Scammers are expert at shifting tactics and changing their message to catch consumers off guard. They are using phone, text, mail, email and fraudulent websites to tout everything from fake COVID-19 test kits to miracle cures. Their schemes also take advantage of the fact that medical supplies and equipment for combatting the virus, along with basic living essentials, have become difficult or nearly impossible to obtain.
 
On Wednesday, July 15, Consumer Action will host an informative “COVID-19 Scams and Healthcare Fraud” webinar to address fraud that seeks to exploit consumer confusion and fear in the coronavirus era. The webinar will be led by Micki Nozaki, director of the Senior Medicare Patrol project at California Health Advocates.
 
The webinar will cover:

  • Scams that are flourishing during the COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19-related investment scams
  • How charitable giving scams work
  • Healthcare scams and fraud
  • Consumer warnings and safety tips
  • How to complain
Register to participate:
Wednesday, July 15, at 10:00 a.m. PDT/ 11:00 a.m. MDT/ 12:00 p.m. CDT/ 1:00 p.m. EDT
Register here

There will be a live encore presentation the same day, at 1:00 p.m. PDT/ 2:00 p.m. MDT/ 3:00 p.m. CDT/ 4:00 p.m. EDT.
Register here

Tweet chat: You’re invited to join us on Twitter (follow us @consumeraction) for a live chat during the webinar. Follow the hashtag #CAWebinars to participate.

If you have any questions, please contact Linda Williams at linda.williams@consumer-action.org or 800-999-7981, Ext. 766. We look forward to your participation.




We at California Council of Churches hope this helps.  Please feel free to share with your congregations, family, friends.

Thank you.


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May 29th, 2020

5/29/2020

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Compassionate Capitalism: How we can return to work in a new way

5/28/2020

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Dear Friends,

As California and America look to return to work, we have an opportunity to think about what we've learned during the shut down.  

From our beloved ally and former Board Member, Rev. Dr. Art Cribbs comes a short video on "Compassionate Capitalism."  Many of us want to find ways to honor the essential workers who have kept us going during the pandemic. These are often the forgotten people who do the hardest jobs for the lowest pay with the worst conditions. Many of us want to reconsider how we can treat people better in the future, how we can be less exploitative of essential people, how we can create a more just and fair economy that works for us all.

Please feel invited to hear Art's encouraging words in a two-minute video that we hope will be the start of a series of thoughtful reflections on greater justice in our society.

You may access the video here

Thank you.  And please stay safe.

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Helping people on food assistance get delivery orders

4/17/2020

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Dear Friends:

People on Cal Fresh or any other version of SNAP ("food stamps") who use Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) Cards, now have some help getting to use their cards to obtain grocery delivery services.  This is very important for reducing risk to already fragile populations. 

for example, in West Oakland, CA Community Foods will take EBT for home delivery.  To check their delivery area, go here

Other large commercial chains allow this at certain stores for certain people such as those with disabilities.  Safeway (Von's in Southern California) do have the program for those with disabilities who are at high risk being inside stores.  Raley's, a northern CA chain, does it for a broader category of people but at only certain stores, not all.  Each store needs to be called to find out the exact location of the EBT/delivery options.

One thing congregations can do while members are in seclusion is call stores, large and small, in your area to find out who takes EBT for deliveries or at least pick up.  Share your information with one another. Make lists of stores that offer this service, and duplicate it to put in places people still go - gas stations, clinics, bus stops, etc.  It's something we an do in solitary work that can help lots of unseen and unknown people enormously. 

People in need often have far fewer resources than we do. Let's give them the help with information they might not get on their own?

Thank you!

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Wading the waters of AB 5 on employees v contractors

1/24/2020

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Dear Friends:
 
Last year our state legislature passed AB 5 that sought greater worker protections for what is called the ‘gig’ economy.  The term likens independent contract workers to performers such as musicians who work erratically in temporary settings. Many workers now have this designation from Uber and Lyft drivers to, well, some of our congregational workers.
 
Employees are covered by contributions from employers to their taxes, state and federal, and to Workers Compensation and Unemployment. These come via the W-2 forms most of us know well.  The employee pays a share. The employer pays an equivalent share plus disability and unemployment. This includes Social Security and Medicare contributions, both divided between employer and employee.
 
Contractors who receive their whole pay thus must pay their own taxes via the 1099 form. They will have no withholding and at tax time or quarterly, contractors file the full tax burden covering both their own and the hiring body’s contributions to state and federal taxes. They receive no coverage on Workers’ Compensation or Unemployment Insurance.
 
AB 5 sought full employee status for these people so that, among other things, they’d be covered by Workers’ Compensation and Unemployment Insurance payments they could use in case of workplace injuries or illness.
 
AB 5 is well intended. Who among us proffering justice for working people doesn’t want employees to be cared for properly?   However, the definition of a legitimate Independent contractor and an actual employee is now highly confusing.
 
Here is a short clarification of the standards.  It does appear to us that many of our congregational people who perform the work of our churches and ministries have been designated as contractors when they should have been employees.  None of this will clear up confusions about, say, temporary clergy or people fulfilling a short term project.  Thus the final disposition is probably best found at the California Employee Development Department (EDD) in your local area.
 
It should also be said that there are now lawsuits against AB 5. Should any of them win, all this will again change.  Will it be for the better? For the worse?  It probably depends on who you are and how you are impacted.
 
Basic Test for Employee v Contractor status.
 
The three part “test” of contractor v employee status is the “A B C” provision in AB 5.
 
A person is a contractor IF:

(A)  The person is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity in connection with the performance of the work, both under the contract for the performance of the work and in fact. 
(B)  The person performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business.
(C)  The person is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business of the same nature as that involved in the work performed.
 
In other words, the person either as a sole entity or with a business outside of the church who is fixing your overhead lighting now and then is a contractor. The person present every day or a few days to run the office or clean the sanctuary is an employee.
 
This in no way influences the amount of time, the flexibility of schedules, the hours, or any and all volunteer work.  The fundamental rule on the latter is that if you are not paid at all, you are neither a contractor nor an employee.  You are just what you appear to be – a volunteer.  It also does not impact part-time work in relation to benefits other than as already established in law. It does give everyone reclassified as an employee far greater security in case of accident or illness than they have now. That's a common good we should try to honor. 
 
The Southern Baptist Conference in Southern California has offered an excellent analysis we share here    We do think there remain some very murky areas about employment status that are not going to be clarified without EDD advice.  But this should help overall to get a sense of what to do - and what not to do.
 
The financial impact of transitioning from contractors to employees will be small if handled well.  It is moral and proper to reduce what is paid to the new employee/former contractor by exactly the amount that person formally paid of the employer share of taxes so that the congregation or organization can have those funds to pay those new employer taxes. It’s an absolute trade off. No one is harmed financially.  It does increase bookkeeping by the church, but it’s pretty minimal.  What we do know about Workers’ Compensation is that it’s also very small.  If we’ve read the directions properly, it’s $7.00 per employee per year maximum.  The computation is annoyingly complicated. The financial impact on the congregation, however, is almost nil.
 
We trust you will turn to EDD for further clarification.  No use coming to us.  We’ve exhausted our knowledge here.  We will try to provide updates on law suits and changes as they arise, but we aren’t attorneys, don’t even play one on TV, so it’s far better to go to the experts than to ask us. Good luck!

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