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A Call to Get out the Vote |
FaithfulAmerica
invites progressive Christians to make phone calls encouraging low-income,
minority and young voters to go vote [10-20-04]
We're passing along a note from the organization
"Faithful America"
Dear Friend,
The election on November 2nd may be the most important election of our
lives, but millions of people, including many of those most affected by
unjust government policies, will not show up to vote on election day. Here's
a simple way that you can make a huge difference: make brief phone calls to
encourage low-income, minority and young voters to go vote. It's simple,
quick, and enormously effective. Just click on the link below to sign up and
start calling:
www.faithfulamerica.org/signup.htm
Over 2 million young, low income and minority voters have
registered to vote in this election for the first time ever. That's 2% of
all voters. If all these people vote, they have the potential to make a
powerfully progressive impact on American democracy, compelling our leaders
to bring greater justice to our country, and peace to the world. Experts
agree that calling voters can make all the difference between them voting
and not voting. If you can make just 10 phone calls by the weekend, together
as FaithfulAmerica.org
members we can contact over one million of these new voters. Sign up and
start calling today:
www.faithfulamerica.org/signup.htm
Our set-up is simple and easy to use. You can call from anywhere you have a
phone and access to the web - alone at home, or together with friends or
colleagues. You can call as many, or as few people as you like - there's no
minimum or maximum commitment required.
This effort to mobilize voters is part of the "Vote ALL Your Values"
campaign, a non-partisan coalition of progressive to moderate faith-based
groups who are calling America away from the current focus on a narrow set
of values to a broader range of values including truth at ALL times, justice
for ALL people and community among ALL nations and faiths. The campaign is
kicking off with a National Day of Action this Saturday, October 16th. To
find out more and get involved in the Day of Action go to:
www.voteALLyourvalues.org
For too long our democracy has been only for some. Our faith, which
proclaims the inherent value of each and every person as created in God's
image, calls us to make a democracy for all. This year, it's just a few
phone calls away.
Blessings,
The FaithfulAmerica.org Team
P.S. - Want to know more? Here's how the calling system works: Our database
contains newly registered voters from thousands of low income and minority
neighborhoods around the country. Once you've registered, you can login
through a website and pull up voters' names and phone numbers and an
easy-to-follow call script. You then just call the voters, record how the
conversation went and submit the record back into the database. |
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America: Follow Your Conscience,
Vote ALL Your Values
A Call to Action to the
Progressive Faith Community
[posted here 10-6-04]
Click here for lots of
suggestions for action.
Dear Friends,
At many points in our nation's history, from the struggle
for the abolition of slavery, to civil rights, to the effort to fight
poverty, the progressive faith community has come together as a movement to
offer our nation a message of hope.
Our nation needs us again. We are sacrificing our sacred
values to the narrow and ideological agenda of a few - values of truth at
all times, justice for all people, and community among all nations and
faiths. In the midst of the most important election in a generation, some
vocal religious groups are trying to convince America that our faith calls
us to vote only on a narrow set of issues and values. Our message to America
is: Vote ALL Your Values!
Time is short, and we have begun a 40 day period of
prayer, fasting and work. We ask all people of faith to join us in this plan
of action:
A) National Day of Action, October 16th
- From Sacred Places to Civic Spaces. We ask our movement to come
together in a National Day of Action on Saturday, October 16th.
Through coordinated events across America and a Clergy and Lay person's
march in Philadelphia, we hope to make sure the country hears our message.
We call upon people of faith to move from sacred places to civic spaces,
organizing our faith communities in marches and vigils in front of public
offices. If you can't organize a vigil, hold a 'hungering for
justice' fast for the day and meet up with friends in a potluck
dinner, to strategize your get out the vote campaign (see below). Start
organizing your event now, and advertise your event on an electronic map
of America at
www.voteALLyourvalues.org
B) Vote ALL Your Values Campaign - We
call for a mobilization of our community in a non-partisan voter
mobilization effort called 'Vote ALL Your Values'. Together, we will call
and visit millions of low income and minority voters before the election.
Encouraging these citizens to have a voice in democracy could play a
decisive role in the country's future, and research shows that contact by
a 'trusted source', such as a member of a faith community, is most
effective in persuading people to vote. You can be a part of it by
organizing your own get out the vote team in your faith community, or even
just by calling voters from your own home. We'll help you every step of
the way.
If you are called to act, the next step is to go to
www.voteALLyourvalues.org
to join the effort. If you find the internet difficult to use, call
us toll free at 1-866-456-VOTE. And don't forget to pray, or perhaps fast
for a day to ask God's guidance in this momentous time. So much is at stake,
our faith calls us to action.
Signed,
Rev. Steven Baines, People for the American Way
Rev. Chloe Breyer, St. Mary's Manhattanville Church
Rev. Dr. William Sloane Coffin, Honorary Chair,
FaithfulAmerica.org
Rev. Dr. Robert Edgar, General Secretary, National Council
of Churches USA
Maureen Fenlon, OP, National Coordinator, NETWORK Catholic
Social Justice Lobby
Rev. Dr. James. A. Forbes Jr., Senior Minister, The
Riverside Church
Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, President, The Interfaith
Alliance
Rabbi Steven B. Jacobs, Kol Tikvah Temple
Rev. Peter Laarman, Director, Progressive Christians
Uniting
John Podesta, President, and Melody Barnes, Senior Fellow,
Center for American Progress
Dave Robinson, Executive Director, Pax Christi
Rev. Dr. Paul Sherry, Coordinator, Let Justice Roll
Coalition
Adam Taylor, Director, Global Justice
Rev. Jim Wallis, Editor, Sojourners Magazine
…and many, many more supporters and leaders in the Progressive Faith
Movement.
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Day of Action
[10-8-04]
On October 16th,
congregations around the country will mark the Day of Action by fasting and
praying, and will come together for a potluck dinner in the evening to
celebrate the virtues of community in God's love.
We encourage you
to organize an event in your community. Please do whatever you feel is
appropriate for you to organize. Whatever you decide to do, please sign up
to put your event on the map. We'd love to know what you're up to. And if
you'd like help informing the media - always a good idea - please contact us
at
information@voteallyourvalues.org.
Congregations
are different, and one size does not fit all. So we invite you to choose
from among this list, or use it as a springboard for your own ideas of how
to dramatize the Day of Action:
 | Congregations
that so desire are encouraged to hold candlelight vigils, as a sign that
we are watching for good government, and holding a light to the values
that have been ignored.
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| In order to
honor the dead Iraqi civilians, gather to read 14,000 names from the local
phone book. Americans do not know the names of the deceased Iraqis, so we
cannot read their names as we read the names of those who died on
September 11th.
But we can read 14,000 names of people we know in the local community - just
by reading 14,000 names in alphabetical order from the phone book. (If your
community has fewer people, you can repeat.)
This will
dramatize those losses. People will know that their own name may be read,
and will reflect on what it is like to be the innocent victim of an
international conflict. Such a reading does not make a statement on whether
or not the war was justified - it simply pays its respects to those Iraqis
who had nothing to do with the war, and died at our hands. |
We estimate that
reading this many names will take up to 15 hours, although it may well take
less. By assigning volunteers to read in shifts, and starting early, a
congregation can finish it by dinner. Or you can start later, and keep
reading throughout dinner and into the night. It's your choice.
But the reading
of these names is a way to demonstrate compassion and empathy, rather than
ignoring the civilian losses or explaining them as 'collateral damage.' We
believe that the image of those names being read from the local phone book
is perfect for local media, and if your congregation chooses this form of
vigil, we urge you to contact your local newspapers, TV and radio stations
for coverage. Again, if you would like to learn how to do this, contact us.
| Congregations
can post "Missing" or "Wanted" posters around town: 'MISSING: Peace," or
"WANTED: Justice." Alternate signs can say 'Have you seen our values? We
don't know what happened to Peace, Justice, or Compassion.'
At the bottom of
such posters, congregants can print details of their Actions, or invite
community members to join them on Saturday.
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| Before the
meal, faith leaders may give an invocation along these lines: "God, we thank
you for preserving America's democracy, for keeping safe our ability to
vote. We ask your grace as we choose our leaders, and we ask you to guide us
to an America that is more Bedford Falls than Pottersville - a place where
people feel safe, where they matter to each other, where the poor do not
suffer unduly, where power and wealth are not concentrated in the hands of a
few, but are shared by the many.
"We know that we
were all born weak, and that those of us who live long enough to become old
will become weak again. We remember that you have asked us to be kind to
those who are not strong. We want our nation to be kind to its poor, just as
we ask You to show mercy to us."
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| Synagogues
may mention the Day of Action at the Sabbath morning services, and may
decide to come together after the sun goes down to celebrate the havdalah -
the separation of the past from the future, or chaos from order, or whatever
is appropriate.
Rabbis may also
note that the Day of Action comes as the Jewish people are coming out of the
holiday of Sukkoth, a holiday that commemorates taking shelter in huts while
wandering through the desert. Synagogues may emphasize the importance of
shelter to all of creation.
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| Mosques may
want to tie the Day of Action in to the feast of Ramadan, which begins
that weekend. The Day of Action gives Muslims something else to think
about as we fast, and the tradition of breaking fast at sunset means the
potluck will come at a welcome time.
If Muslims
decide to do the "Wanted" posters, above, some have said they would like to
make one that says "WANTED: Tolerance for those of other faiths."
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| On the theme
of "Remove the log from your own eye so that you may see to remove the
speck from your brother's," Christian congregants may carry a log for a
small distance, and set it on fire. This will symbolize America's desire
to remove the log from its own eye - to view the sin within, and atone for
it.
Naturally,
congregants should check with the local firefighters to be sure this is done
safely.
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| The Feast Day
of St. Francis, one of the most ecumenical of all the Catholic saints, was
October 4th.
The 16th
is not too long after that. Some congregations may want to host events
involving kindness to animals, can bless animals, etc.
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| Christian
churches may also decide to dramatize the Beatitudes, demonstrating what
it looks like when people hunger and thirst for justice, when they mourn,
are poor in spirit, are merciful, are meek, etc. In this way they can make
meekness, which some outsiders may see as a weakness of progressive
Christians, into a strength, by portraying it as the virtue Christ says it
is.
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| "Holy Ghosts"
-- Congregants with a flair for performance may decide to dress up in
ghostly garb, with the words "Compassion," "Hope," "Patience,"
"Gentleness," "Cooperation," "Friendliness" and others printed across
their chests. (And you can put pictures of these ghosts on the Missing
Posters, above.)
The Holy Ghosts
can haunt the edges of the vigils, symbolizing their absence from the
mainstream of American policy. At the end of the evening, they can leave the
gathering in a dramatic way.
The ghosts can
travel around the town over the following two weeks, reminding Americans of
values that now seem dead, but whose memory haunts us. The day after
Halloween, the values can come back to life, as a one-day lead-in to
Election Day - saying 'The old values are alive again, but it's up to you to
see that we're still around after Election Day'
This also gives
you something to do later, no matter how things turn out on that day. If
people in your community like the ghosts (and the press covers them), they
can come back to haunt us again next election. |
Again, whatever
you decide to do, please sign up to put your event on the map. We'd love to
know what you're up to. And if you'd like help informing the media - always
a good idea - please contact us at
information@voteallyourvalues.org.
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Visit
our lively
new website! |
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GA actions
ratified (or not) by the presbyteries
A number of the most important actions of the 219th
General Assembly have now been acted upon by the presbyteries,
confirming most of them as amendments to the PC(USA) Book of Order.
We provided resources to help inform the
reflection and debate, along with updates on the voting.
Our three areas of primary interest have been:
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Amendment 10-A,
which removes the current ban on
lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender persons being considered as
possible candidates for ordination as elder or ministers.
Approved! |
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Amendment 10-2,
which would add the Belhar Confession to our Book of
Confessions. Disapproved, because as an amendment
to the Book of Confessions it needed a 2/3 vote, and did not
receive that. |
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Amendment
10-1, which adopts the new Form of Government
that was approved by the Assembly. Approved. |
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If you like what
you find here,
we hope you'll help us keep Voices for Justice going ... and
growing!
Please consider making a special
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Click here to send a
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Or send your check, made
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our PVJ Treasurer:
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Some blogs worth visiting |
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PVJ's
Facebook page
Mitch Trigger, PVJ's
Secretary/Communicator, has created a Facebook page where
Witherspoon members and others can gather to exchange news and
views. Mitch and a few others have posted bits of news, both
personal and organizational. But there’s room for more!
You can post your own news and views,
or initiate a conversation about a topic of interest to you. |
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Voices of Sophia blog
Heather Reichgott, who has created
this new blog for Voices of Sophia, introduces it:
After fifteen years of scholarship
and activism, Voices of Sophia presents a blog. Here, we present the
voices of feminist theologians of all stripes: scholars, clergy,
students, exiles, missionaries, workers, thinkers, artists, lovers
and devotees, from many parts of the world, all children of the God
in whose image women are made. .... This blog seeks to glorify God
through prayer, work, art, and intellectual reflection. Through
articles and ensuing discussion we hope to become an active and
thoughtful community. |
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John Harris’ Summit to
Shore blogspot
Theological and philosophical
reflections on everything between summit to shore, including
kayaking, climbing, religion, spirituality, philosophy, theology,
politics, culture, travel, The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), New
York City and the Queens neighborhood of Ridgewood by a progressive
New York City Presbyterian Pastor. John is a former member of the
Witherspoon board, and is designated pastor of North Presbyterian
Church in Flushing, NY. |
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John Shuck’s Shuck and Jive
A Presbyterian minister, currently
serving as pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Elizabethton,
Tenn., blogs about spirituality, culture, religion (both organized
and disorganized), life, evolution, literature, Jesus, and
lightening up. |
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Got more blogs to recommend?
Please
send a note, and we'll see what we can do! |
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