Thanksgiving is America’s time to gather with friends and family to share a delicious feast. It involves giving thanks for having enough food to eat and having people with whom one can share love, reflections and good company.
One would think that in a country of such enormous abundance and wealth that everyone would be able to share and enjoy plenty on this national holiday. But according to these statistics, nearly one out of every six American families have had trouble getting enough food in recent years. While we can certainly attribute this fact to the recent economic downturn and rising unemployment, this study showed that even before the recession began, more than two-thirds of families with children who were defined as “food insecure” under federal guidelines contained one or more full-time workers.
LPF offers the following free online resources to raise awareness of and take action to end hunger in America, and throughout the world:
August 26 is “Women's Equality Day,” commemorating the 1920 passage of the U.S. Constitution’s 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote. Now in our church we have an opportunity to join in on a study process for women’s equality and justice. The ELCA Task Force on Women and Justice: One in Christ invites individuals and study groups to take part in the 7-session “Faith, Sexism, Justice: Conversations Toward a Social Statement,” being sent to all ELCA congregations, synod offices, and ELCA colleges before the end of summer 2016. Why do we need to talk together about these issues? And what can a study process do?
The 7 sessions raise questions and highlight issues for a study group to discuss such as: How can we address violence against women and girls? Why do images and words for God matter? And how can we challenge the misuse of Scripture against women and girls? Your reflections, comments and questions sent in by the end of August 2017 will help toward developing a draft ELCA Social Statement by the end of 2017. The draft will be carefully examined at synod assembly hearings and other venues in 2017 and 2018. Then a proposed draft will be brought before the 2019 Churchwide Assembly for its discussion, debate, rewording, and finally its up or down vote.
1. Hearten the women in your church and community. Show your church as a place where women’s voices can be heard and respected.
2. Help equip and encourage men as allies. As the group identifies social norms and realities that are unjust to women, men can gain deeper understandings of how systems -- even the church -- have favored white men over women. Men of faith who listen and take action play a significant role in boosting justice for women.
3. Inspire all involved. Help release creative potentials for the cause of peace with justice, and to grow closer to the gospel ideal of community. Create a space where the Holy Spirit can work with us on these issues, locally, synodically, and churchwide. And remember, LPF Women’s Resources are available to you as well, for your women and justice studies!
-- Lily R. Wu, LPF Issue Communicator for the LPF Women’s Initiative
Now when they had departed, behold,( an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him." And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. (Matthew 2:13-15)
World Refugee Day, observed June 20 each year, is dedicated to raising awareness of the situation of refugees throughout the world.
The Israel-Palestine situation is definitely one of the most challenging and complex in the world today. We asked LPF board member Kathy Adam to step back and reflect a little on her own journey of understanding and action on the issues, and to share some especially helpful links to information -- including several on well-known Lutheran Palestinian pastor Mitri Raheb. Here is Kathy on her experience:
In
1998, my
husband and I went to Israel on a “Footsteps of Jesus”tour. We were awed, walking where Jesus had walked
over 2,000 years ago. Our spirits soared as we followed those
footsteps…. At the same time, more and more questions arose for usabout what was happening all around us.
For example, we
were overwhelmed by the number of soldiers
we encountered everywhere, Israeli Defense
Forces
heavily armed with automatic weapons. We
didn’t yet understand the real scope of the situation in which we
found ourselves. We were in the lands of
Israel and Palestine. The Palestinians –
a people I didn’t even know existed
in the 20th century – were under occupa-tion since 1967 by
the State of Israel. We discovered this
was anything but a peaceful land.
Since 1998 I have
visited the region five times to learn
and observe. Sadly I have witnessed Palestinian homes bulldozed to make way
for Israeli settlements, ancientgroves of olive trees uprooted,
Palestinian farmers and shopkeepers cut
off by walls from their lands and livelihoods. I have talked with people who have had family members, including children, arrested and jailed and even tortured.
But during that first
trip, having only our Sunday School Biblical knowledge to help us place the
contemporary situation into perspective, we
found ourselves lost in our limited understanding. I’m verygrateful that our tour group was able
to meet with Mitri Raheb, pastor of
Christmas Lutheran Churchin
Bethlehem, right up the hill from the Church of the Nativity where it is
said Jesus was born. He
invited our tour group into a room with a circle
of chairs one evening. It was then that the Biblical story and the
contemporary situation started to come together for us.
We learned that for over 2,000 years, there has been a Palestinian presence in the land, and
that for mostof that time, Palestinians – mostly Christian and
Muslim – lived side-by-side with Jews in relative peace.It was a political movement,Zionism,that
from its origins at the end ofthe19th Century has caused the problems that have
become so severe ever since.
In the years since meeting Pastor Raheb, I’ve done all I can to inform myself about the region.
Perhaps you too have read or heard Pastor Raheb, and beeninspiredby this visionaryLutheran advocateof peace
with justice. Itwasno
surprise to me that he
recently received the
prestigious Swedish Olof Palme
Prizeof 2015.
He shares this award with Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, who
campaigns for his country's withdrawal from Palestinian territories. They both received the award foroffering “aglimmerof hopetoaconflictthat fortoo long has plagued and continues to plague millions of people and affects
world peace.”
Afew
years agoIbegan volunteeringwith
“BrightStarsof Bethlehem,”the US organization supporting the ministries led by Pastor Raheb in Palestine. I’m often encouraged by Mitri Raheb’s insight into the challenge of peacemaking: “We’ve been conditioning ourselves to run a
hundred yards, but we are in fact in a marathon,” he says. “Our struggle is neither easy nor short, and wehave
to condition ourselves for the long
challenge ahead. We need moments of joy and hope inthe midst of all this hopelessness.
Otherwise we won’t be able to
continue our journey.”
Indeed, peace does
not come
easily in this part of the
world, as with conflicts in so many other regions of the world.
Nor does peace always come easily in our communities, or even in some of our
close relationships. In our efforts to bring about peace in the
various areas of life, we need moments of joy and hope. We also
need resources to help
us. I
was impressed by the resources
offered by LPF when I first explored them a few years ago.
More recently,
I have been grateful for the
opportunity tocontributeto LPF’s
efforts to share informationabout these issues and struggles. To help frame advocacy options. To help
support this valuable and much-needed service. To offer resources and links through LPF blogs like this one,as
well asposts on the LPF facebook page, program updates,
and the rich variety of material on
LPF’s website…
by Kathy Adams, LPF board member
Here are some especially helpful, informative links on these issues:
Mitri Raheb, Bright Stars, Diyar Ministries
www.brightstarsbethlehem.org - Bright Stars of Bethleham (Christian,
Lutheran, working with all faith traditions in the Middle East.)
Members of the ELCA-Lutheran World Federation delegation at the 59th
UN Commission on the Status of Women, 2015, NYC.
What does our church say about women and justice, to generate discussion and encourage action? And how can we take part? Here are links and related resources:
1. Know that an ELCA Social Message on Gender Based Violence was adopted by the ELCA Church Council on November 14, 2015. ELCA Social Messages are "topical documents" that "focus attention and action on timely, pressing matters of social concern to the church and society.”
2. You are being invited to join in on developing an ELCA Social Statement on Women and Justice that will be presented to the ELCA Churchwide Assembly in 2019. ELCA Social Statements are teaching and policy documents that help us discuss social issues in the context of our faith and life.
The ELCA Task Force on Women and Justice: One in Christ, a 19-member group from diverse walks of life, has the responsibility for leading the study process, with an anticipated timeline. Materials will be sent to every ELCA congregation and downloadable online, to invite responses from June 2016 to June 2017. Have an idea or concern? You can send a message to the task force at any time: womenandjustice@elca.org.
4. For an overview on women and justice issues worldwide, and our church's involvement, here is an excellent summary about the March 2015 United Nations meeting"Beijing+20." You can also listen to a radio show about it. The UN Commission on the Status of Women is meeting again in March 2016, with ELCA and Lutheran World Federation participation.
Violence has power. But active peacemaking has power too. Have you heard of One Billion Rising? It’s the largest mass action in human history to end violence against women. This global movement is based on the horrifying statistic that 1 in every 3 women in the world will be raped or beaten in her lifetime. With the world’s population at 7 billion, that’s one billion women and girls.
Launched on Valentine’s Day 2012, One Billion Rising expanded to 200 countries by 2014. It evolved in 2015 into the One Billion Rising Revolution. In 2016, the revolution escalates!
• The rallying cry is for systemic change: “overhauling, challenging, and fighting” corrupt systems…
• The goal is justice “for all survivors of gender violence and the impunity that protects perpetrators...”
• The determination is to “create a new kind of consciousness – one where violence will be resisted until it is unthinkable.”
Thanksgiving is America’s time to gather with friends and family to share a delicious feast. It involves giving thanks for having enough food to eat and having people with whom one can share love, reflections and good company.
One would think that in a country of such enormous abundance and wealth that everyone would be able to share and enjoy plenty on this national holiday. But according to these statistics, nearly one out of every six American families have had trouble getting enough food in recent years. While we can certainly attribute this fact to the recent economic downturn and rising unemployment, this study showed that even before the recession began, more than two-thirds of families with children who were defined as “food insecure” under federal guidelines contained one or more full-time workers.
LPF offers the following free online resources to raise awareness of and take action to end hunger in America, and throughout the world:
Now when they had departed, behold,( an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him." And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. (Matthew 2:13-15)
World Refugee Day, observed June 20 each year, is dedicated to raising awareness of the situation of refugees throughout the world.
The Wake County Chapter of LPF has actively participated in the Moral Monday and Forward Together Movement which began in North Carolina on April 29, 2013. They have attended the weekly demonstrations and will continue their weekly involvement when the movement resumes in April. Two members did civil disobedience and were arrested in 2013 and one member was a presenter at one of the events.
The movement was in response to several actions that a newly elected conservative legislative majority was doing to a tradition of caring for the least fortunate. The movement was grounded in a yearning for social justice that enlisted many thousands of people to protest those choices. The protesters were a wide range of citizens, with many religious progressive movements represented. On that first Monday, 17 protesters were arrested. Each Monday, multitudes of protesters gathered at the state legislature building while the general assembly was in session. The protests were characterized by engaging in civil disobedience by entering the state legislature building and then being peacefully arrested. As the movement built momentum, 924 people were arrested in 2013.
The movement encompasses a broad coalition, including advocates for immigrant rights, LGBT rights, criminal justice, worker’s rights, environmental issues and others. They were responding to the conservative faction within the General Assembly who chose to deny emergency unemployment benefits to 170,000 hard-working people; refused to expand Medicaid and give affordable health care to 500,000 North Carolinians; revised the tax code to raise the burden on poor and working class families while easing it for the wealthiest 11 percent and corporations; drastically cut funding from public education; repealed the Racial Justice Act; and passed a voter suppression law that makes it harder for people of color, the elderly and students to cast ballots.
The movement was formed under the leadership of Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II and the North Carolina NAACP. Rev. Barber often says: “We’re not asking people to go left or right. We’re asking them to go deeper.” North Carolinians suffer as a result of legislative changes he calls extremist, and this suffering should worry everyone, regardless of political party. The movement is about the moral fabric of our entire society. People are advocating for the type of democracy that places the common good at the center of public policy. They demand that we must have a society that articulates the connection between the moral call for justice and the constitutional call for the common good. The movement continues to go FORWARD TOGETHER NOT ONE STEP BACK.
In 2014 people from the movement met with their congressional leaders and they continued to gather weekly while the legislature was in session. On February 8th 80,000 people participated in an annual march called HKonJ (Historic Thousands on Jones Street). It was reported to be the largest Civil Rights protest in the South since the Selma-to-Montgomery marches in 1965. On February 14, 2015 the Moral Monday Movement participated again in the HKonJ Assembly. The movement will begin to gather weekly at the legislative building weekly beginning in April.
The Moral Mondays Movement has spread to Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, and Missouri. Rev. Barber has also gone on to do training across the country in how other organizers can learn lessons from North Carolina's Moral Monday movement, including advising in the civil protests surrounding the police shooting in Ferguson, Missouri.
Speak up for women’s rights or equality, and you’ll get different reactions depending on who’s listening. It’s par for the course for an activist, isn’t it? We need inspiration, resources, and kindred spirits to sustain and encourage us. International Women’s Day (IWD) March 8 reminds us there’s a global sisterhood and its supporters: to honor women, celebrate women’s achievements, and continue to press for justice and equality.
Women Made the Movement Happen
In 1908 in New York City, 15,000 women marched to demand shorter work hours, better pay and the right to vote.
In 1908 in Great Britain, the Women's Social and Political Union adopted a purple-white-green color scheme to show solidarity with Suffragettes.
In 1910 in Copenhagen, 100 women from 17 countries formed the first International Women’s Day.
In 1915 in Bern, Switzerland, the movement took on the cause of peace. At a demonstration to urge the end of World War I, women on both sides of the conflict took part.
The United Nations has observed IWD on March 8 since 1975. Issues have included rape as a weapon of war, sexual assault, domestic violence, and physical sexual violence.
Women in Action Today
Visit the International Women's Day website, a global hub for news, events, and resources. Learn from selected videos. See their “Make It Happen” theme page for action ideas -- including “Paint it purple.”
Explore LPF’s Women's Resources, a five-part treasure trove to affirm women and girls’ empowerment.Who in your church would be most interested? How can you support women’s efforts to “make it happen”?
Share this blogpost with others. Join in to inspire change, stop violence and nurture peace with women!
-- Lily R. Wu
(Illustration from IWD 2011 on their 100th anniversary.)
Here’s a statistic so shocking that it defies belief: 1 in every 3 women in the world will be raped or beaten in her lifetime, according to the One Billion Rising Revolution. Such a staggering issue calls for mighty action. Now here is our opportunity!
Launched on Valentine’s Day 2012, the One Billion Rising movement expanded to 200 countries by 2014. It is evolving in 2015 into the One Billion Rising Revolution: “the biggest mass action in human history to end violence against women.”
The call is for systemic change: “overhauling, challenging, and fighting” corrupt systems.
The goal is justice “for all survivors of gender violence and the impunity that protects perpetrators...”
The determination is to “create a new kind of consciousness – one where violence will be resisted until it is unthinkable.”
You can help too by passing this blogpost on to your friends. And do share with us what is inspiring you to stop violence against women and girls, and to promote peace instead!
Thanksgiving is America’s time to gather with friends and family to share a delicious feast. It involves giving thanks for having enough food to eat and having people with whom one can share love, reflections and good company.
One would think that in a country of such enormous abundance and wealth that everyone would be able to share and enjoy plenty on this national holiday. But according to these statistics, nearly one out of every six American families have had trouble getting enough food in recent years. While we can certainly attribute this fact to the recent economic downturn and rising unemployment, this study showed that even before the recession began, more than two-thirds of families with children who were defined as “food insecure” under federal guidelines contained one or more full-time workers. Food banks and meal programs are stretching themselves to the limit to serve more people impacted by increasing hunger in America.
For the last three years, the Lutheran Peace Fellowship has been implementing the "Lutheran Hunger Volunteer Training and Support Project" to help support and train volunteers in U.S. hunger programs. This project has great potential to help by offering effective support, resources, and workshops to strengthen and expand a crucial element in Lutheran hunger programs: the core volunteers and leaders.
LPF’s expertise in these areas has such respect that in 2009 we were awarded a grant from Wheat Ridge Ministries to support the project. But there is much work still to be done. Please consider making a generous donation to LPF to help us keep this vital project going.
LPF offers the following free online resources to raise awareness of and take action to end hunger in America, and throughout the world:
This Thanksgiving, LPF is thankful as ever to you, our supporters. We thought of you when we read this interview with Anne Lamott on her new book "Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Survival Prayers," about asking for guidance, offering gratitude and expressing wonder. We give thanks for God and for you!
There has been a deluge of reporting and commentary on the killing of an
unarmed black teen in the Ferguson suburb of St Louis, and on the protests that
followed. Yet the way forward has been clouded
by inadequate attention to at least four important issues: 1. Militarization of Police – A
growing problem, visible to activists for years, has finally broken through to
the media and the public. Police have
been purchasing (and receiving free from a major Pentagon program) large
quantities of military style weapons. It’s gear that looks more like a Transformers movie than legitimate
police equipment. It ranges from body armor and armored personnel carriers, to sniper rifles and 2nd generation tear gas. (What
Military Gear Your Police Department Bought)
Such gear separates police from protesters, undercuts legitimate “protect and
serve” orientation and programs, and often makes confrontations more lethal. It
also equips, emboldens, and legitimizes the Rambo-style officers in most police
depts. Most people are shocked to learn that “roughly
137 times a day, a SWAT team assaults a home and plunges its inhabitants and
the surrounding community into terror.”(One
Nation Under SWAT.)
2. Racism – Like minority communities
in scores of other cities, Ferguson protests build on the frustration of people of
color who have faced decades of poor education, lack of jobs and resources, and
discriminatory policies that have been the root of unrest since the 1960's. (See an activist’s view of Unresolved
Race and Economic Issues, or the views of this pastor
or another
activist.)
One example: Blacks are pulled over by police in far greater numbers and
received larger tickets than whites, and are a key reason why US incarceration
rates are the highest in the world. (See the middle section of In
Ferguson or Exposing
the Toolbox of Racist Repression.)
3. Budget Priorities – The huge
expense of race- and class-skewed policies cited above siphon money from sorely
needed programs that would address underlying problems of prejudice and
inequality. The list is familiar and includes greatly expanded jobs, social
service, and community-building programs.
Funding for such programs must come from reducing military spending – which
like all too many police and urban spending efforts emphasizes violent, 11th hour interventions that are ultimately ineffective, instead of major (but
ultimately cheaper) programs to address underlying causes…. Moreover, those
problems are at the heart of the ability of radical groups to find recruits. (See
From
Gaza to Ferguson or Ferguson,
Gaza and Luhansk, or 90-Year-Old
Holocaust Survivor Arrested in St. Louis. For clear data on spending, see tables 2 or
7 or use the full LPF Budget
Priorities computer-based activity.)
4. The Essential Contribution of
Nonviolence – Ferguson also exposes
the still rampant illusion that nonviolent responses to conflict are nice but don’t
ultimately work: “Real” problems require “real” (violent) responses. But as Desmond Tutu put it, nonviolence is “a
force more powerful” than military – or militarized police – responses to
conflict,as history repeatedly shows in both arenas.(See LPF Nonviolence
resources from a Shalomdiscussion essay to an AV-rich Nonviolence
Forum.)
But Ferguson also reveals inadequacies of efforts to organize and deploy nonviolence
campaigns. Activist groups have been too
complacent and isolated from younger generations who lack experience with the
power of nonviolent responses to conflict.
Ferguson must be a wake-up call to activist groups as well as police forces,
urban planners, state and federal budget officials.(See In
Ferguson, young demonstrators are finding it’s not their grandparents’ protest and Nonviolent
Protest and Accountability in Ferguson.
All this points to the importance of efforts like Campaign Nonviolence
- LPF is a member - which is highlighting over
125 nonviolent actions around the US in the week following Sept. 21, the ”International Day of
Prayer for Peace” – see our next blog post. And consider participating! )
The news media in recent days has been awash with stories about teen killings and military action in Israel-Palestine. Media coverage has often been sensationalist, one-sided, or superficial. We've heard from LPF members asking for help in moving beyond those depictions, to connect with root causes, and explore options for both de-escalation and lasting solutions.
In fact, this crisis urgently calls for a response from us – in particular, it is important for us to reach out to others, both those who are active on such issues, and those on the sidelines or who haven’t known how they might actually help in such a complex situation. (The basics are straightforward. As one commentator put it, "you can't bomb your way to peace.")
The best of our sister organization agree that a crucial need is for us to share information that would "change the public discourse on the conflict."
We can also be calling for specific responses including disinvestment to put pressure on the Israeli government -- a strategy which played an important role in ending apartheid in South Africa. The World Council of Churches has announced its support for divestment from corporations responsible for global warming. We can be asking our church leaders to take such a stand on this issue.
Our own government needs more encouragement to play a positive role. The message can be quite simple. As Rabbi Michael Lerner of the Jewish group Tikkun puts it "My fervent prayer: Stop all the violence, end the occupation, and create a lasting peace and a reconciliation of the heart." Challenging the enormous US subsidies for Israel gives us tremendous leverage. The threat of significant reductions could make a big difference.
Below are links to several sources of reliable and balanced information, from Lutheran and other sources. They can help us explore – and share with others – how the current struggle fits into the continuing spiral of violence, key underlying causes, and what the US can do to help move things in a positive direction.
We are called to respond and to encourage others to do so. Please don’t let this one pass by! Here are some good links to help us deepen our understanding of those crucial underlying issues, help others do so, and do our part to address this important challenge:
Please share this alert and links with friends and congregation members by email and printed copies. The situation is urgent, and it also offers an opening to help break through the misinformation and stereotypes, better understand the issues, and advocate for responsible U.S. action.
We urge LPF members to tell President Obama and your members of Congress that you oppose the U.S. engaging in any form of military action in response to the growing conflict in Iraq. The peace community is united around this position, and for good reason. A wide range of experts agree that military action would not be an effective and constructive response to the conflict. In fact, it could easily make a bad situation worse -- "like pouring gasoline on a fire" is how one Peace Action leader put it. So please contact your elected leaders today!
A little background: In the past decade, the US invasion of Iraq, other military action, and taking sides in regional differences (and demonizing others a "terrorist") have played a major role in deepening existing conflicts. Instead, as we have been saying for years, the US needs to join with other nations to use diplomacy and address the roots of these conflict(s) such as poverty and discrimination. At the same time, we need to help ease tensions and move toward reconciliation among the various groups (Shia, Sunni, Kurd, etc.). Such a longer-range approach has its own challenges, but imagine if a decade ago, we had begun spending even a tenth of what the war cost on development aid, supporting democratic initiatives, working with other nations.
We need to put a barrier in front of the push for military action; and move the US toward collaborative action with other nations on strategies that have a chance of success over the long-term. Contact your elected officials today!
Thanksgiving is America’s time to gather with friends and family to share a delicious feast. It involves giving thanks for having enough food to eat and having people with whom one can share love, reflections and good company.
