As you can watch here (https://on.msnbc.com/2NX9ryx), MSNBC has offered to host this round table on faith in the public square. Please either respond to their producers who have reached out to you or let us know an alternate public venue in which you prefer to “give an answer for everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope you have,” as Scripture says we must always be prepared to do (I Peter 3:15). Sincerely, Bishop William J. Barber, II, Pres. & Sr. Lecturer, Repairers of the Breach Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis , Co-Director, Kairos Center for Religion, Rights & Social Justice Bishop Yvette Flunder, Presiding Bishop, The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries Minister Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Director, School for Conversion

Moral leaders have always been first responders to injustice—from battling Jim Crow, to ensuring voting rights and marriage equality, to protecting health care and the rights of marginalized communities. Now, we must take the lead in pursuing justice on gun reform! Speak up, vote, lobby, march, protest, blog, tweet, and insist that our lawmakers recognize the worth of every person by passing legislation to ensure universal background checks, including guns sold on the internet, at gun shows, and in stores. Now is not the time to make it easier for people to carry and use guns. Now is not the time to turn our teachers into armed guards. Now is the time to pass federal gun law reform! While the House has headed the call and passed universal-check measures, the Senate continues to play politics with the lives of innocent people. We call on Republican and Democratic Senators to put partisanship aside and work together to pass universal background checks and other legislation that’s needed to address the moral concerns of our time. Community safety is a human issue, not a partisan one. We’ve had enough, and we need the U.S. Senate to act NOW! Let's lift our voices. Let's flood the Senate phone lines. Let’s be the groundswell that changes the tide! Enough! The Rev. Jacqueline J. Lewis, Ph.D. Senior Minister, Middle Collegiate Church Auburn Senior Fellow Rabbi Sharon Brous Founder/Senior Rabbi, IKAR Auburn Senior Fellow

Psychologists tell us not to dwell on the past because it prevents the life of now from being embraced and utilized for best growth into our future. This theory is reflected on a grander scale also. What is oil/petroleum\coal? These are the remnants of creatures that lived long ago. Not only did the Eternal Source Creator destroy them but also buried the majority of it very deep and away from the living world. What has become of our collective thoughts in society when we have lived myopically embracing the past? We have become a culture of worshipping the dead, preventing others from embracing life. We saw it with the Buffalo, the Passenger Pigeon, the North Carolina Parakeet countless others and now in the midst of a 6th mass extinction. Species are dying at an average of 5000 times the normal rate.* How is this happening? Through the sense of entitlement. From 1950 fishing increased from 18 to 100 million metric tons per year, ¾ of fishing grounds are depleted most large fish gone and industry would rather let their carcasses rot than offer the protein at below market rate while still edible. Furthermore industry says that the decomposing lives must go in landfills where they create the gas methane up to 71% more toxic than carbon dioxide. When the creatures of our time and space are returned to the soils of now they fertilize the ground with their knowledge and love allowing the next generation to rise from the ground with a power built upon their foundation of being. It is in the human psyche to return things to the Mother Earth. It used to be seeds and peels and shells and other biodegradable waste that nourished the soil in many ways. Now we are feeding the death industry by spreading the gift of our hands as plastic waste. Americans use 100 billion plastic bags a year, which require 12 million barrels of oil to manufacture. It only takes about 14 plastic bags for the equivalent of the gas required to drive one mile. Target gives away enough plastic bags a year to wrap around the Earth 7 times. The average American family takes home almost 1,500 plastic shopping bags a year. According to Waste Management, only 1 percent of plastic bags are returned for recycling. That means that the average family only recycles 15 bags a year; the rest ends up in landfills as litter. Up to 80 percent of ocean plastic pollution enters the ocean from land. At least 267 different species have been affected by plastic pollution in the ocean. 100,000 marine animals are killed by plastic bags annually. One in three leatherback sea turtles have been found with plastic in their stomachs. Plastic bags are used for an average of 12 minutes. It takes 500 (or more) years for a plastic bag to degrade in a landfill. Unfortunately the bags don't break down completely but instead photo-degrade, becoming microplastics that absorb toxins and continue to pollute the environment.* How is our immersion into clouding our beings any different; the news glorifies dyfunction, most tv programming also, video games affect the entire society as people retreat into a world of make believe. Grocery stores need to be returned Our waterways are in peril: Jordan river near dried up, 1 in 10 rivers around globe stop flowing through the year, Dead Sea shrinking at a meter per year and Western India has 30% of wells dried up and the Colorado River no longer reaches the sea. By 2025 2 billion people affected by water shortage. This is nothing short of affluent greed: 800-1000 liters of water per person per day in Las Vegas,Palm Springs has lush golf courses. We have used the living waters of this planet to feed the greed of animal exploitation where creatures that have no voice to protest in governments are trans-species raped, their children forcibly removed from their wombs, mutilated and violently assaulted through their lives and then sent to a slaughterhouse were they see, hear and smell the death of their breed and their own impending demise. We know that every entity on this planet has a portion of water within its being. Water does conduct electricity and emotions are electrical conductions. When we consume their pain, suffering, bewilderment of being so savagely attacked and sorrow for the loss of life experience ingrained in their psyche how can it not alter the thoughts of our own being? Is this a reflection of the oils of the past (death) integrating into our present and creating a new life in misery? www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/biodiversity/elements_of.../extinction_crisis/ http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/population_and_sustainability/expect_more_bag_less/facts.html https://www.google.com/search?q=water+footprint+of+meat&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=XTwZKw6DMGt7_M%253A%252Cf9zUaKyv5TPjKM%252C_&usg=__q5ioZJ9LKgmfXweHH0AvVNLBC3s%3D&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiOj_Sa_P_ZAhVS0VMKHQsdAt4Q9QEIuAEwEg&biw=1164&bih=631#imgrc=UppEVqXtLVKfcM:

President Trump's FCC just held a 3-2 vote that tries to end the Internet as we know it. But the fight isn't over. Championing the vote were telecom giants who want more control over what happens on the Internet. On the other side of the debate is everyone else  —  start-ups, businesses, educators, artists, advocates, and people of all backgrounds who are defending net neutrality, the principle that keeps the Internet free of corporate control. They argue that net neutrality is necessary for American democracy and the economy. There’s also an unexpected voice in the chorus: America’s leaders of faith and moral conscience. Free speech, including moral and religious expression, depends on the open Internet. The Internet has already become a prophetic platform for faith in the United States. Faith groups are using the Internet as a medium for spiritual life, service, prophetic leadership, innovation, and social justice. This would not be possible without meaningful net neutrality protections. Losing these protections could be the end of the Internet as we know it. Net neutrality rules codify principles that have governed the Internet in the U.S. for decades. They ban carriers like Comcast and AT&T from blocking or slowing down websites at will — or charging websites money for access or a faster connection to their users. It keeps the Internet an open space for free speech and dissent, vital now more than ever. In this critical window, faith voices could help persuade Congress to protect net neutrality — not just as sound policy but as a moral imperative, but only if they hear from enough of us. We will press to use the Congressional Review Act to reverse this hasty and misguided FCC action. We have 60 legislative days (i.e. days when Congress is in session) to pressure Congress to act. Sign and share this to tell Congress that you oppose the FCC’s rollback and support full net neutrality protections for everyone.

At some point in our lives, we will all need care. This need is growing; the U.S. elder population will double over the next two decades and our system is unprepared for this elder boom. In-home care work is one of the most affordable and desired long-term care solutions available yet this work is often unheralded and severely undervalued. Many families struggle to access and afford the highly skilled care they so desperately need. The situation is untenable. The stakes are high. We need a new way forward. Start by joining others around the nation who will be watching CARE. Want to join the CARE National Watch Party Initiative? Sign up to join or host a party: https://action.groundswell-mvmt.org/calendars/care-documentary-watch-party

Two years ago, millions of us rose up in a movement to protect the open Internet, and we won. The open Internet is a space where all of us -- no matter the content of our beliefs, color of our skin, size of our wallets -- have an equal voice. We will not let President Trump's appointee overturn net neutrality protections. In this critical time, we need net neutrality now more than ever to fight and defend the future of our democracy. Our marches, vigils, petitions, and calls to action depend on organizing on an open Internet. So we vow to continue to champion faith and moral voices in the fight to protect the open Internet as a moral imperative. We, as people of many faiths and backgrounds, ask lawmakers to do the right thing as a moral imperative.

For our students to be successful, they need a stable school environment. Negotiate a fair contract that will stop the revolving door of employees and end the persistent instability for students. We, the undersigned want a resolution to the contract negotiations with the Waverly teachers. We want the board and/or the Waverly superintendent to settle the contract now. You have heard different parents and community members speak. We are here to show you in numbers how much we want this NOW. This petition is signed by parents, coummunity members and alumni. SHARE

We, people of faith and moral conscience, reclaim Valentine's Day as a Day of Revolutionary Love, Day of Rising. We resist all executive orders and policies that put people in harm’s way. We commit to fight for social justice through the ethic of love -- love for others, our opponents, and ourselves. On Valentine's Day, we will rise up across the U.S. and around the world in music, poetry, dance and action to declare that #RevolutionaryLove is the call of our times.

The President has directed our government to construct a wall on our southern border, punish sanctuary cities, facilitate the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and construct a pipeline despite the protests of indigenous people. He has made statements to roll back voting rights and police brutality protections. Most recently, he closed our borders to refugees for 120 days and has banned all immigrants from select Muslim-majority countries for a period of time -- a de facto Muslim ban. Altogether, these policies target people for who they are, not anything they have done. The danger of this presidency is no longer hypothetical -- it is happening now. In his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Dr. King wrote that all nonviolent campaigns have four steps: collecting evidence of injustice, negotiation, self-purification, and direct action. The President's executive orders confirm evidence of injustice. Faith leaders have continued to ask for a meeting with no response. Many of us have fasted, prayed, or meditated in self-purification. (You can take this 6-hour meditation with Repairers of the Breach on how to prepare for moral resistance: http://www.breachrepairers.org/moralresistance). We are now ready. People of faith and moral conscience around the nation are preparing for direct actions to protest the laws and policies of this administration. We pledge to support nonviolent civil disobedience as a form of #MoralResistance. We will learn about the moral framework for civil disobedience and choose a role for ourselves, whether as protesters, medics, legal observers, witnesses, or care providers. We will train in civil disobedience as practiced and perfected by thousands before us. And we will show up in the time, place, and manner we are needed. Nonviolent civil disobedience is grounded in the ethic of love – for others, opponents, and ourselves. When people use civil disobedience to protest not just a single policy but widespread injustice, then this act of love becomes revolutionary. It can change a community, a culture, even a country. #RevolutionaryLove is the call of our times. We pledge to answer the call together.

Pursuing a more perfect union is serious work for any human being. We want to pray for you because we know this is an especially difficult task today. In the prophetic tradition, we want to exhort and challenge you because you cannot do this work alone. Our sacred text honored by Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike declares we must do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly before God. America’s Constitution begins “We the people…” because it points toward a form of government that requires a broad and engaged coalition of citizens in order to thrive. We want to pray and point towards these essential goals. Mr. Trump, we hope it is your desire to be successful. Success is measured by how we welcome the stranger, care for the sick, care for the poor, and care for the hungry in practice and in policy. In order to be successful in the eyesight of God, leaders must repent when they are wrong, and they must be committed to promote that which is rooted in justice and good will. As clergy dedicated to the care of souls, we know you can neither succeed in a way that pleases God nor fulfill the duties of your office unless you repent. All of us, even persons who hold powerful positions, are called to repent when we violate the deep principles of love, justice, and mercy towards all, especially the least of these. Since your election, our communities have been fractured by harassment and intimidation. People of color and religious minorities are afraid. Poor working people who you appealed to in your campaign are disappointed that you have attacked their union leaders while appointing Wall Street elites who use them to your Cabinet. We are deeply concerned by the policy vision that your Cabinet selections suggest. After inviting Steve Bannon’s white nationalism into the Oval Office, you nominated Jeff Sessions to head the Justice Department—a man who did not receive Senate approval for a federal judgeship in 1986 because of his long history of racial discrimination in Alabama. If he maintains his past positions on civil rights and voting rights, he could overturn and undermine years of victories and protections secured and signed in the blood of the martyrs. Equally insulting to African-Americans is your nomination of Ben Carson, a black man with no experience in government or housing, to head HUD. But race can never be separated from class in America. We are equally concerned about Andy Puzder’s resistance to the movement for a living wage, which impacts over 60 million Americans and 54% of all African-Americans. We are concerned about Tom Price’s expressed commitment to repeal the ACA and take away healthcare from people with preexisting conditions, veterans, and nearly 30 million Americans. We are troubled that you have chosen several people to lead federal agencies that they have publicly attacked in the past. Both this nation and the rest of the world desperately need your heart to grow into a source of courage, so you might work with all people of goodwill to uphold the most sacred moral principles of our faith and constitutional values, which are: 1. Protecting and expanding voting rights and ending voter suppression and unconstitutional gerrymandering. We must also pursue women’s rights, immigrant rights, LGBTQ rights, labor rights, religious freedom rights, all with a commitment to the fundamental principle of equal protection under the law. 2. Pro-labor, anti-poverty, anti-racist policies that build up economic democracy through employment, living wages, the alleviation of disparate unemployment, a just transition away from fossil fuels, labor rights, affordable housing, direct cash transfers and other support for all families struggling to get by, and fair policies for immigrants; and by critiquing policies around warmongering that undermine our moral standing and ability to address domestic issues; 3. Equality in education by ensuring every child receives a high quality, well-funded, constitutionally diverse public education, as well as access to community colleges and universities and by securing equitable funding for minority colleges and universities; 4. Healthcare for all by expanding Medicaid in every state, ensuring access to Medicare and Social Security, moving decisively towards a universal, transparent, and equitable healthcare system, and by providing environmental protection and protecting women’s health; 5. Fairness in the criminal justice system by addressing the continuing inequalities in the system for black, brown and poor white people and fighting the proliferation of guns; We do not believe that these are left or right issues. They are right or wrong issues. And while we know no human being is perfect, we wish to speak with you about these moral issues because far too much is at stake for you to succumb to your worst demons while in public office. Our faith calls us to love all people but this love can never refuse to tell the truth and stand against hate, systemic racism, and economic inequality. We cannot simply congratulate you on your victory and say, “Peace, peace” when there is no peace. We are bound by our vows to tell the truth in love and stand together for justice, love and truth. As this tumultuous year draws to a close, we will hold a National Watch Night service on December 31st at the historic Metropolitan AME Church in Washington, DC. We will gather to remember the enslaved people who came together to celebrate the possibility of a more perfect union of the eve of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Like them, we will also enlist free women and men to fight for freedom and justice for all people in 2017 and beyond.

[Español Abajo] • Live Stop towing is financially crippling for low-income families. An average Live Stop tow costs $500 to $1,000 in fees and tickets. If a driver cannot pay, or is scared about being undocumented, and does not claim their vehicle within 15 days, the car is sold at public auction. • Live Stop towing leaves families on the side of the street in the middle of the night, putting people in danger. The fear of being pulled over or losing a car has an emotional and mental impact on people. •Philly grew for the first time in 50 years because of the immigrant population. Immigrants are key to a thriving city and help the growth of Philadelphia through starting new businesses, paying taxes, and enriching the city’s culture. Live Stop towing undermines these benefits. • Nearly half a million Philadelphia residents have been affected by Live Stop since 2002. This has a disproportionate effect on undocumented immigrants who are barred from obtaining driver’s licenses in Pennsylvania. Reinterpreting the law will have a tremendous impact on the lives of immigrants and all low-income families in Philadelphia. • This is an opportunity for Philadelphia to be a leader in the state and country. While we work on a statewide campaign for driver’s licenses for all immigrants, regardless of immigration status, Philadelphia can take a concrete step that will alleviate the negative impacts of not having a license. ******************************************************************************************************* • El remolque de vehículos tiene un efecto financiero agobiante para las familias de bajos ingresos. El costo estimado por un encuentro con Live Stop es de $ 500 a $ 1.000 en cargos y multas. Si el conductor no puede pagar, o tiene miedo por ser indocumentado, y no recupera su vehículo dentro de 15 días, el vehículo se vende en una subasta pública. • El remolque de vehículos deja a los conductores en la calle en medio de la noche, poniendo a las personas en peligro. El temor a ser detenido o perder el vehículo tiene un impacto emocional y mental en las personas. • Philadelphia creció por primera vez en 50 años debido a la población inmigrante. Los inmigrantes son clave para una ciudad próspera y ayudan a su crecimiento a través de la creación de nuevos negocios, el pago de impuestos, y enriquecen la cultura de la ciudad. El programa Live Stop que remolca los vehículos menosprecia estas contribuciones y beneficios para la ciudad. • Casi medio millón de residentes de Philadelphia se han visto afectados por el programa Live Stop desde el año 2002. Esto tiene un efecto desproporcionado sobre los inmigrantes indocumentados que son excluidos de obtener una licencia de conducir en Pensilvania. La re-interpretación de la ley tendrá un tremendo impacto en la vida de los inmigrantes y todas las familias de bajos ingresos en Philadelphia. • Esta es una oportunidad para que Philadelphia sea líder en el estado y en el país. Mientras trabajamos en una campaña para que el estado de PA otorgue licencias de conducir para todos los inmigrantes, independientemente de su condición migratoria, Philadelphia puede dar un paso concreto ahora para aliviar los efectos negativos de no tener una licencia.

Today as in the past, we need the Supreme Court to maintain immigrant rights, voting rights, women’s rights, civil rights, workers’ rights, and marriage rights for all who call America home. But the delay in Senate consideration of Judge Garland’s nomination leaves a vacancy on the Supreme Court – jeopardizing our freedom, equality, and access to justice. As people of faith from different and diverse faith traditions, we know from firsthand knowledge that millions of our neighbors and their livelihoods are on the line. We call upon the Senate to take action because we recognize and honor the sacred task with which our nation’s Supreme Court justices are charged. Within our western religious canon, we are guided by the words of King Solomon – wisest of judges – who conferred his Proverbs with this purpose: “That (people) may know wisdom and instruction, understand words of insight, receive instruction in wise dealing, righteousness, justice, and equity.” (Proverbs 1:2-3) Today the work of justice in our nation is at risk of being thwarted and wise guidance being denied its people by the continued refusal of the Senate leadership to hold hearings. As representatives of many religious and spiritual traditions, we therefore, respectfully urge the Senate to fulfill its duties as outlined in the Constitution by holding a fair, timely, and comprehensive hearing for Chief Judge Merrick Garland. In faith and in shared hope for our democracy,