Talking About Religious Exemptions Laws is a guide to building effective conversations about the ways in which harmful religious exemptions threaten not only laws that protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people from discrimination, but also health care (including women’s reproductive freedom), public safety, and more.

The guide offers approaches for talking about both broad religious exemptions laws (like proposed state RFRAs) as well as religious exemptions that are often specifically designed to harm LGBT people and circumvent nondiscrimination laws. It also focuses on approaches for talking about the ways in which broad religious exemptions laws can interfere with women’s reproductive health.

Click here to visit the LGBTMap site to download the guide: http://www.lgbtmap.org/talking-about-religious-exemptions-laws

Dear Activist,
 
December 1, is #GivingTuesday.  
 
Today, join others around the globe in playing a major role in coming together and make a gift to support the important work of the California Council of Churches.  The spirit of giving is the pulse of who we are and what we do.  Your gift will support our ongoing role of educating ALL communities to pursue justice, equity and fairness in the treatment of all people, in particular those most often get excluded.  Your gift today sums up this quote by Teddy Kennedy: “For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”
 
Gifts can vary in size, and every dollar will go toward our mission working for equality and justice for all.  After mourning the materialism of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, please join in the generosity of #GivingTuesday and give a gift that will help make things better for your sisters and brothers throughout California.
 
Please click here to make your tax-deductible gift today

Please click here to watch a short video by the President of our Board of Directors, the Rev. Dr. Alan Jones.
 
Thank you for your unwavering support.  We still have work to do.
 
With deepest gratitude,

The Rev. Dr Rick Schlosser
Executive Director
 
P.S.  Another way you can support our work is to help us build our activist list.  Please forward this email to others you know who might support the work we do and invite them to join our activist list at http://www.churchimpact.org/take-action.html

Our #GivingTuesday team:  Board President, the Rev. Dr. Alan Jones, Administrative Assistant Robert “Stefan” White, videographer Cameron Lewis, and Director of Development Kendra Lewis.  Not pictured: Director of Public Policy Elizabeth “Libby” Sholes” and Executive Director Rev. Dr. Rick Schlosser.

California Council of Churches with its 1.5 million members within the mainline and progressive Protestant communities of faith, hailed the US Supreme Court ruling this morning affirming that same sex couples do have equal rights to marry.

“We have been working toward this day for over four decades,” said CCC Executive Director Rev. Dr. Rick Schlosser.  “We believe that all people have the right to marry the person whom they love just as opposite sex couples do.” 

CCC was the lead organization on the faith statement concerning marriage equality submitted to the Supreme Court as a formal amicus as part of the Obergefell-Hodges case that was the central case among several submitted to the court for its ultimate review on marriage equality.

“We are proud to be the lead petitioner in this acclaimed amicus brief,” said Rev. Schlosser. “We affirm that within our Christian traditions, full equality is a central value to achieve justice. We cannot exist as a moral society or a functioning democracy without that,” he said.

In reply to those opposing the ruling as a threat to their religious freedom, Rev. Schlosser said, “We also see this as vindication of our denominations’ First Amendment religious freedom rights.  It is those congregations and denominations supporting marriage equality that have been barred from free exercise of religion all these many decades.”

He explained that thanks to the First Amendment, no church or denomination will be forced to perform same sex weddings, rent out their facilities to same sex couples, or be prohibited from speaking their views in the pulpit. 

To reinforce this right, California Church IMPACT, the Council’s sister organization, supported SB 906 authored by San Francisco Senator Mark Leno, affirming that no religious body opposed to same sex marriage would be in any way forced to violate their beliefs.  “We believe every faith has room to follow its own lights. Although many denominations have been barred from exercising profoundly held ideals in not being able to perform same sex weddings, no one should have their views compromised because of this Supreme Court ruling,” Schlosser said. 

“We celebrate the validation of equal opportunities along with all the same sex couples now able to do what traditional couples take for granted – marry the person you love.  That is a measure of the power of our democracy and the affirmation of our nation’s sense of justice.” 

We are proud to be the lead petitioner in an acclaimed amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold marriage equality.  The California Council of Churches has long been the largest faith-based organization in California actively working to achieve full equality and rights for all God's children, including our LGBTQ sisters and brothers.  From being the first Council of Churches in the nation to welcome the Metropolitan Community Churches with open arms, to advocating and educating for justice and equality for over 40 years, we have been at the forefront of the struggle.  We have filed many Amicus Briefs in support of marriage equality in state and federal courts.  Thanks to the ever-brilliant Eric Alan Isaacson, the brief he submitted on our behalf to the US Supreme Court in the current case is quoted in the article below.

May justice and equality prevail for ALL God's children!!

How Marriage Equality Opponents' Arguments Are Getting Turned Against Them
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2015/03/13/3632995/children-religious-liberty-tradition-supreme-court-marriage-equality/

To read the full brief: http://www.supremecourt.gov/ObergefellHodges/AmicusBriefs/14-556_California_Council_of_Churches.pdf    

Health Care Enrollments 2015 – CA Council of Churches Invites You to Help.

Dear Friends:

As most of you know, we have been engaged in Outreach and Education to help members of your congregations, neighborhoods, communities find out what is available in health care coverage via Covered CA health plans.

Now CCC is embarking on a new aspect of this work, applying for a Covered CA Navigator grant.

Navigators are trained certified enrollers who work with the health care Exchanges – the ‘marketplace’ where health care policies are available – to help people walk through health care options. Navigators help find what subsidies are available, help people understand who is eligible in their households and who is not (such as those on Medicare), what subsidies are offered, etc. Then the Navigator will help those applicants complete their applications.

Since congregations are the most trusted partners in any community, we are looking for those congregations that can:

- Provide people willing to be trained as Navigators who understand the complexities of the health care options in their areas;
- Have people who can help those with insurance re-apply for the next year;
- Offer space in recurring, regular NON-working hour periods such as weeknights and weekend times;
- Work closely with their communities and have outreach to underserved populations who may be employed in low-wage work’
- Have populations that qualify for Covered CA and not just Medi-Cal.

While Navigators may enroll people in Medi-Cal, our project statewide is to complete 1200 applications for insurance obtained through the Exchanges. We will have 8 months in which to do that. We need your congregation’s help achieving that goal. ONLY Covered CA completed enrollments are counted for our grant although Medi-Cal counts toward the Common Good.

Are you interested in becoming a partner with CCC to help this occur?

- CCC will make sure one or more of your congregational members or trusted allies is trained.
- CCC will be able to secure the background checks and fingerprinting at no cost to the Navigator.
- CCC will assure your Navigators or your congregations are eligible for reimbursement.

For each completed and enrolled application (what Covered CA terms an ‘effectuated application’) the Navigator or congregation will receive $58 whether the application is for an Exchange coverage or for Medi-Cal. This payment will continue as long as funds are available from the federal government.

It is critical that part of this work is reaching out to those eligible for the health care plans offered through the Exchange. That means anyone making $16,000 as an individual, or roughly $32,000 as a family would be Exchange eligible. This is a critical link in the sustainability of the whole health care provision.

We will be sending our application to Covered CA on or before July 28. We have a few congregational allies now, but we need YOU.

Please let us know as soon as possible if you are interested. There is no commitment, but it helps us see where our work needs to be. The largest pocket of those eligible for Covered CA health plans remains in Los Angeles, but everyone can participate – there are tens of thousands who still do not have any health insurance or who need new options due to life changes (births, deaths, marriage, divorce, job or income change).

This is a service you can offer your congregation, your neighbors, your community and receive income at the same time.

Please respond before the middle of the month to healthcare@calchurches.org to let us know if this is of interest to you and your congregations.

Thank you!