JPANet June 2021 Newsletter

Getting to the Root of It

In this month’s Getting to the Root, UCC Racial Justice Minister, Rev. Dr. Velda Love, speaks to the importance of loving God and your neighbor through remembering and honoring our past.

What’s Love Got to Do With It?

“Church folks, come and listen to what I have to say. Some of you believe and practice the great commandment to love God, and to love and welcome neighbors and strangers. The rest of you love your nation more than you love God. You serve idols and worship yourselves. You ignore my commandment to love. You hate your neighbors. Your hatred results in violence, death, and murder of God’s good creation. Your toxic self-indulgence unleashes genocide, ethnic cleansing, and ruthlessly kills my sacred family members.” Read more. 

Justice Events

World Refugee Day – June 20

World Refugee Day is a day to lift up refugees displaced by war, civil unrest and persecution, all of which tear away at the fabric of human community. This World Refugee Day explore the many ways your congregation or community can reach out to welcome the stranger. Join us in recognizing the Sunday closest to World Refugee Day as Refugee Justice Sunday. Use worship and advocacy resources from Global Ministries.

National Gun Violence Awareness Day and #WearOrange Weekend

Friday, June 4 is National Gun Violence Awareness Day and the following weekend is #WearOrange weekend, in which students across the country wear orange to honor the victims and survivors of gun violence. To get engaged, find a Wear Orange virtual event near you. Or, check out our gun violence prevention advocacy toolkit for concrete steps you can take on our own, within your congregation and in your community.  

UCC Webinar—Taking a Stand with Indigenous Water Protectors

The Line 3 Expansion is a tar sands oil pipeline project under construction in Minnesota that, if completed, would cross a hundred waterways and hundreds of miles of treaty-protected land that indigenous communities depend upon for drinking water and wild rice gathering. Learn about Line 3 and what faith communities can do to stop it in a webinar on Monday, June 14^th at 1 pm ET.

Justice in Action

Anti-Racism Education includes Critical Race Theory 

Congressional leaders within the Republican party continue to block access to anti-racism education as a corrective to America’s denial that racism exist. In the past month 20 state attorney generals sent a letter to the Biden Administration to “reconsider educational proposals aimed at imposing the teaching of critical race theory (CRT), the 1619 Project and other similar curriculum into America’s classrooms.” Critical Race Theory is an important informative educational component based on the brutal violence of settler colonialism and the fabricated construction of race categories. We must join in taking action and demand access to a more comprehensive education of America’s history that includes Critical Race Theory.

Immigration Update

As faith communities, we continue to work towards immigration reform that could allow a pathway to citizenship for millions of people. There is a shift to focus on DACA recipients, Temporary Protective Status beneficiaries and essential workers through the infrastructure bill. Many faith organizations are rallying around a Fast for Freedom, see toolkit here. Human rights and faith organizations are rallying to restore asylum and push the Biden administration to stop expelling without due process to seek asylum, see the Welcome with Dignity Campaign Action Toolkit, sign the pledge and see the Interfaith Immigration toolkit to plan a vigil to welcome asylum seekers.

Protect Reproductive Health Care Access

The Supreme Court has announced it will move forward this summer with consideration of June Medical Services v. Gee, a case that is a direct challenge to Roe V. Wade and abortion access in the United States. To directly address this challenge, Congress should pass the Women’s Health Protection Act which bars state and local abortion restrictions. Contact your representatives now.

Call for a Just and Adequate Job Plan

Parts of the Biden administration’s American Jobs Plan are to be supported, while other parts fall short of the moral demands placed on us by climate science and the justice demands placed upon us by societal inequities. Fortunately, there is already proposed legislation that points to how Congress can improve the plan. Learn more and call upon members of Congress for just and adequate legislative action.

Justice Resources

DC Action Center

Each week, the D.C. Office creates an action alert based on what is happening at that time in Congress, and offers you the opportunity to contact your legislators with just one click! You can find all the alerts here.

The Pollinator

The Pollinator is a digital platform of the UCC for the sharing of ideas and inspiration. Its focus is the building of a faith-filled and faith-rooted movement for the care of creation

Witness for Justice

Looking for up-to-date social justice commentary? Check out Witness for Justice, a weekly editorial opinion column written by the staff of Justice and Witness Ministries.

Featured Topics:

When Did We See You? | “This is not a conflict; it is a crime.” | The Flames Bear Witness | Justice, Equity, and Ordination