Presbyterians March for Climate Justice

This Sunday, Sept. 21, Presbyterians will be gathering in New York City with activists and other people of faith to join the People’s Climate March, which is leading up to high-level United Nations climate negotiations next week. U.S. engagement in the international climate talks is essential, as U.S. emissions have disproportionately contributed to the global carbon pollution problem and the already changing climate, which most severely affects the world’s poorest people.*

To connect with other Presbyterians attending the March, visit Presbyterians for Earth Care’s recent blog post. Make sure to check out their link to the plans for the Interfaith Contingent. And even if you can’t be in New York this weekend, you can still join the movement to address global climate change and the United States’ serious carbon pollution problem.

Click here to sign the Faith Climate Petition. 

God has called us to be good stewards of the Earth and care for all of God’s creation, but carbon pollution from our favorite form of energy is fundamentally altering our climate. Together with our ecumenical and interreligious partners, the PC(USA) is calling on political leaders in the U.S. to address issue of climate change and to engage with the international community in coming up with a sustainable response. Join your voice with others as we call on U.S. leaders to take on leadership in helping to craft a moral global framework for the UN climate negotiations.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is also working on a step-by-step approach to addressing climate change (we would need Congressional action for a more comprehensive plan). Right now, the EPA is taking public comment for a new rule proposed to regulate carbon pollution from power plants, which is our economy’s largest carbon emitter (about 30%). There are currently no limits on the amount of greenhouse gases power plants can emit. This is why reducing carbon emissions from power plants must be a top priority for the U.S. if we hope to prevent the worst impacts of climate change and ensure a just and sustainable world for our generation and those to come. The comment period has been extended for two more months, so make sure you get your comments in while there is still time!

Visit our Action Center to tell the EPA to enact these important standards that will help to save lives and help our country transition to a cleaner energy economy.

There are several ways for churches to get involved in the movement to address global climate change.

1. Consider becoming an Earth Care Congregation, a PC(USA) opportunity to incorporate care of God’s Creation in every aspect of our lives together, from worship to lifestyle.
2. Stand in solidarity with this Sunday’s marchers by ringing your church bells. Ring time: Sept. 21, 1:00pm in whatever time zone you are located.
3. Join a Climate March in your home city! – All over the country, people will gather for solidarity People’s Climate Marches. Find an event near you.
4.  Make a pledge to reduce carbon in your own household or faith community.
5. Check out the PC(USA) journal Justice Unbound’s current series on climate change and the movement to address it.
6. Find worship and lifestyle resources from the Presbyterian Hunger Program and our ecumenical partner Creation Justice Ministries.
7. If you are in the greater New York area, find other events related to the climate summit.

*In 2008, the PC(USA) General Assembly approved The Power to Change: U.S. Energy Policy and Global Warming, where it wrote:

“As citizens of the United States, which has historically produced more greenhouse gases than any other country, and which is currently responsible for over a fifth of the world’s annual emissions, we implore our nation to accept its moral responsibility to address global warming.

In agreement with four prior General Assemblies (202nd, 210th, 211th, and 215th) that have called on the U.S. government to ratify the Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol [the successor to Kyoto will be finalized in Paris in 2015], we ask the U.S. government to do nothing less than repent of its efforts to block consensus and to work with the international community as it develops a binding agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.

“As advocates for justice, we reject the claim that all nations should shoulder an equal measure of the burden associated with mitigating climate change. Industrialized nations like the United States that have produced most of the emissions over the last three centuries deserve to shoulder the majority of the burden.

Poverty Drops in the U.S. But Remains Unconscionable

The Census Bureau yesterday released its annual report on poverty data, Income and Poverty in the United States: 2013. After four years of economic recovery from the Great Recession, the poverty rate has finally started to go down, but for 45.3 million people still living in poverty, it is not dropping fast enough.

In 2013 (the year for which this data was collected), poverty continues to afflict 14.5 percent of the U.S. population, down from 15.0 percent in 2012. For reference, the poverty level for a family of four with two children is just $23,624 total yearly income. One in three people in the U.S. are poor or near poor (living below 200 percent of the poverty level). One in five children in the U.S., 19.9 percent, live in poverty, while one in nine children live in extreme poverty (less than half the poverty level). On the bright side, however, this year is the first time since 2000 that the child poverty rate has dropped.

For communities of color, the picture is bleaker. African American communities are suffering poverty at the Depression-era rate of 27.2 percent. Nearly two in five black children (38.2 percent) are living in poverty. For the Hispanic community, 23.5 percent were living in poverty (down from 25.6 percent in 2012). This includes almost one in three Hispanic children (30.4 percent).[i]

In response to the Census Bureau’s findings, the Reverend J. Herbert Nelson, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Director for Public Witness said:

"It is unconscionable that people continue to live in poverty in America. We live in a land of plenty, where there is enough for everyone. But as the economy expands after the Great Recession, wealth continues to concentrate at the top, leaving those workers at the very bottom far behind. Today’s data release only reinforces what we already know – that we must do better at all levels of society to make sure that every person has what he or she needs to live healthy, fulfilling lives. But we in the Church cannot meet the need alone. We need a healthy partnership with government to address systemic injustice and alleviate the worst of today’s need.

Meanwhile, Congress has done worse than nothing, attacking the very social safety that is meant to catch people in dire need. They have cut social services and hunger programs, they have failed to raise the minimum wage and extend Unemployment Insurance. It is time for our decision-makers, from the President on down through Congress to local County Councils, to take proactive steps to improve jobs, reduce economic inequality, and lift people out of poverty. We have the tools and the knowledge to end poverty in this country, if only we would create the political will to see it done."

In good news, a nuanced calculation of poverty, the Supplemental Poverty Measure, shows that our safety net is doing its job when Congress allows it to work. Official poverty measure calculations do not take into account income from federal anti-poverty measures like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), the Child Tax Credit, or SNAP (formerly Food Stamp) benefits. But once we take those sources of income into the formula, we find that SNAP alone lifted 3.7 million people above the poverty line. Unemployment Insurance lifted 1.2 million people out of poverty (or would have, had that income been included in the above statistics).[ii] This sort of supplemental calculation shows that, while the main economic goals still need to be reducing inequality and improving jobs and wages, we must continue to invest in anti-poverty measures. They work.

As Presbyterians, we value the dignity of work and believe that God has endowed each person with the right to productive work. Over and over again we have affirmed the right of each person to earn a dignified living and meet basics needs for herself and her family. We must pay attention to these statistics. Even as the economy is growing and unemployment is declining (most likely because people are giving up and dropping out of the job market), the recovery has not reached those worst affected by the recession. Both the income and net worth of the top 10 percent of income-earners have increased, while both income and net worth for the bottom 20 percent of workers have declined. The decrease for low-income people of color is ten times that of whites. [iii]

Yesterday’s data show that U.S. policies continue to lift up the rich and the powerful, while neglecting low-income workers and the most vulnerable people in our society – children and traditionally marginalized groups. We must support economic growth that benefits all, in addition to continuing to fund important safety net programs like SNAP, Unemployment Insurance, and the EITC. We must invest in people and in people’s lives. That means standing up against economic and racial injustice and systemic inequalities that trap generations in poverty and low-wage jobs. We need jobs that keep people out of poverty, not trap them in it.

Below are some additional highlights from the numbers:

• 14.5 percent of the population, or more than one in seven Americans, lived below the poverty line in 2013 ($23,624 for a family of four with two children), down from 15.0 percent in 2012. This is the first drop in poverty since 2006. The number of people in poverty, 45.3 million, was not a statistically significant difference from 2012.
• Median household income did not rise significantly and remained 8.0 percent (or $4,497) below its pre-recession level in 2007 and 8.6 percent below its level in 2000, before the 2001 recession.
• Nearly 19.8 million people lived in extreme poverty (below 50 percent of the poverty line) in 2013
• Over 106 million people, or 33.9 percent of the population, were poor or near poor in 2013 (living below 200 percent of the poverty line)
• Child poverty dropped from 21.8 percent in 2012 to 19.9 percent in 2013, the first annual drop since 2000.
• Close to one in nine children, nearly 6.5 million in all, lived in extreme poverty in 2013 (below half the poverty line).
• 27.2 percent of African-Americans, and 23.5 percent of Hispanics lived in poverty in 2013.
• 38.3 percent of African-American children, and 30.4 percent of Hispanic children lived in poverty in 2013.
• The official poverty numbers do not account for programs like SNAP (formerly food stamps), the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), or the Child Tax Credit. Accounting for SNAP, 3.7 million fewer people would have been in poverty.

 Top 10 states (including the District of Columbia) with the highest poverty rates:

1.  Mississippi: 22.5%

2.  New Mexico: 21.7%

3.  District of Columbia: 21.3%

4.  Arizona: 20.2%

5.  Kentucky: 20.0%

6.  Louisiana: 19.2%

7.  North Carolina: 18.6%

8.  Tennessee: 18.1%

9.  Nevada: 17.4%

10.  West Virginia: 17.3%

Many Thanks to Bread for the World for help in compiling the Data Highlights.

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i. Income and Poverty in the United States: 2013. Current Population Reports. By Carmen DeNavas-Walt and Bernadette D. Proctor. U.S Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce. Issued September 16, 2014. http://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2014/demo/p60-249.pdf

ii. Ibid.

iii. The New Poverty Data: Using it to Show What Works (and What Doesn't) to Reduce Poverty. Presentation by Jared Bernstein. Coalition on Human Needs Webinar. Presented September 11, 2014

Letter to House on Democracy for All Amendment

Alliance for a Just Society • American Association of University Women • American Family Voices Center for Media and Democracy • Common Cause • Conference of Major Superiors of Men Consumers Union • Communications Workers of America (CWA) • Corporate Accountability International • Daily Kos • Food & Water Watch • Franciscan Action Network • Free Speech for People Greenpeace • Jobs with Justice • Leadership Conference of Women Religious • League of Conservation Voters • Main Street Alliance • Money Out Voters In (MOVI) • National Education Association (NEA) • NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby • OurTime.org • People for the American Way • Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) • Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) Progressive Democrats of America • Public Campaign • Public Citizen • Sierra Club • Sisters of Mercy of the Americas – Institute Justice Team • United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries USAction • U.S. PIRG • Voices for Progress 

September 17, 2014 

Dear Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader McCarthy: 

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions in recent years in Citizens United v. FEC, McCutcheon v. FEC, and other cases have subjected our democracy to a tidal wave of corporate and special interest money in elections. This unlimited campaign spending seriously threatens our democracy and silences the voices of average Americans. As Justice Breyer wrote in his dissent to McCutcheon, “where enough money calls the tune, the general public will not be heard.” 

Because our government is becoming too dominated by big money interests to be responsive to the needs of everyday Americans, we are writing to urge you to allow a vote this year on H.J. Res. 119, the Democracy for All Amendment. 

This proposed constitutional amendment, which has more than 100 cosponsors, would re-establish Congress and the states’ ability to pass common-sense guidelines for election spending. It can help to ensure that our elected officials pay more attention to the people who elect them rather than their campaign donors. The amendment would overturn Citizens United v. FEC, McCutcheon v. FEC, and the 1976 Buckley v. Valeo ruling and restore First Amendment values of democratic self-government. 

If the wealthiest Americans and corporations can drown out the voices of ordinary Americans, we cease to be a democracy. In fact, a 2014 Princeton study analyzing 1,800 different policy initiatives over a 20+ year period concluded that we have now become an oligarchy in which “economic elites and organized groups representing business interests” wield the most power. 

We cannot fully address the many challenges our country faces—jobs and the economy, energy independence, housing security, and many others—until we solve the root issue of money dominating politics. Passing a constitutional amendment is a critical way to elevate the voices of everyday Americans so that everyone, not just the wealthy few, can be heard. To date, 16 states and 500+ localities representing more than 100 million Americans have called on Congress to pass an amendment to get big money out of politics. 

Amending the Constitution should only be done in the rarest of circumstances. However, America has reached a tipping point in which big-moneyed interests exert control over all levers of government. Instead of being of, by, and for the corporations and ultra-wealthy, American democracy needs to turn to an era of, by, and for the people. A majority of senators have voted for a fair and open debate on a companion Democracy for All Amendment, and the House should have a debate as well. We strongly urge you to allow an open debate and a floor vote on H.J. Res. 119, the Democracy for All Amendment, so that ordinary Americans will again have a voice in our democracy. 

Sincerely, 

Alliance for a Just Society 

American Association of University Women 

American Family Voices 

Center for Media and Democracy 

Common Cause 

Conference of Major Superiors of Men 

Consumers Union 

Communications Workers of America (CWA) 

Corporate Accountability International 

Daily Kos 

Food & Water Watch 

Franciscan Action Network 

Free Speech for People 

Greenpeace 

Jobs with Justice 

Leadership Conference of Women Religious 

League of Conservation Voters 

Main Street Alliance 

Money Out Voters In (MOVI) 

National Education Association (NEA) 

NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby 

OurTime.org 

People for the American Way 

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 

Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) 

Progressive Democrats of America 

Public Campaign 

Public Citizen 

Sierra Club 

Sisters of Mercy of the Americas – Institute Justice Team 

United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries 

USAction 

U.S. PIRG 

Voices for Progress 

CC: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer 

Women Deserve Equal Pay for Equal Work

Women continue to earn less than men. In 2012, the last year for which we have data, women earned 76.5 cents for each dollar earned by a man—a figure which has remained essentially unchanged since 2001. The statistics for women of color are even more staggering, with African American women earning 64 cents and Latinas only 54 cents for each dollar earned by a white man.

This practice is bad for women, bad for families, and bad for our local economies.

April 8 was recognized as Equal Pay Day because it marks the date a woman’s salary finally catches up with a man’s salary from the previous year. Additional “Equal Pay Days” throughout the year mark the even higher discrepancies for particular groups of women: June 12 for mothers, July 16 for African American women, and November 12 for Latinas. The Senate voted down the Paycheck Fairness Act earlier this year, which would have taken a critical step in the right direction to eliminate the gender wage gap.

But for the first time ever, the Senate last week agreed to move on to a full debate of the Paycheck Fairness Act, by a vote of 73-25. We’ve passed the first of many hurdles, but it's not over – this is the Senate’s chance to do the right thing.

Act now! Urge your Senators to vote in support of the Paycheck Fairness Act and a fair up or down vote.

Paycheck Fairness Act: Background

The most blatant forms of pay discrimination based on gender are illegal, but current law is too narrow to serve as an effective deterrent or tool for enforcement. The Paycheck Fairness Act (PFA) would help narrow the gender pay gap by closing some of the loopholes in current law and give employees the legal tools they need to challenge the wage gap itself. Specifically, the PFA would:

• Require employers to demonstrate that wage differentials between men and women holding the same position and doing the same work stem from factors other than sex;
• Prohibit retaliation against workers who inquire about their employers’ wage practices or disclose their own wages, and permit reasonable comparisons between employees within clearly defined geographical areas to determine fair wages;
• Strengthen penalties for equal pay violations;
• Provide guidelines to show employers how to evaluate jobs with the goal of eliminating unfair disparities;
• Encourage proactive enforcement of equal pay laws by re-instating the collection of wage-related data and providing training for the workers who enforce our equal pay laws.
• Modernize the Equal Pay Act to make it more in line with the class action procedures available under Title VII.

President Obama has signed an executive order prohibiting federal contractors from retaliating against workers who discuss their salaries. We must extend these same basic protections to all working women!

As faithful advocates, we know we must respond to the command in Leviticus 19:13, “Do not defraud or rob your neighbor. Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight.” Ask your Senators to continue to shed light on the issue with each passing Equal Pay Day by passing the Paycheck Fairness Act!

What does the PC(USA) say?

The 218^th General Assembly (2008) approved “God’s Work in Women’s Hands: Pay Equity and Just Compensation.”  “For the ‘promotion of social righteousness, and the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world’ (Book of Order, G-1.0200)” the Assembly “recommitt[ed] itself to the support of institutional policies and legislation that would:

• Expand women’s civil protections to include equal pay for work of comparable worth;
• Provide prorated compensation and benefits for part-time employees;
• Heal work/family conflict through adequate financial support for those providing childcare and elder care, more flexible work hours, paid medical and family leave, family-supporting wages for all workers, and universal access to quality health care;
• Establish quality education as a basic human right;
• Uncover and eliminate racial bias in hiring and employment practices;
• Reduce the growing inequality in wages, benefits, and wealth.

“God’s Work in Women’s Hands” further directed the Washington Office and the UN Office to advocate for the ratification of the Equal Remuneration Convention and urged “synods, presbyteries, and individuals to advocate for local, state, and federal legislation that support these (above) policies.”

Uphold Protections for Migrant Children and Families!

Since October 2013, an estimated 63,000 unaccompanied children have been apprehended at the U.S./Mexico border, the majority of whom are fleeing rampant violence and poverty in Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. [i] This number has more than doubled since last year. We must leverage emergency resources both to care for children and provide them access to appropriate legal services. Prior to leaving for the August Recess, the House passed H.R. 5230, which would only minimally fund the care of children and take away the protections afforded these children under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPRA).

 Daily, children like these are apprehended by Border Patrol. Photo source: AP

Now that Congress is back in session, the Senate may vote on H.R. 5230. Weakening the protections of the TVPRA in exchange for new resources is a false choice, especially when many of these resources further militarize the border. Instead, we must uphold the law that grants migrant children access to social services and legal counsel.

Contact your Senators Today

Tell the Senate to support funding to care for unaccompanied children, while opposing H.R. 5230 and any other legislation that would weaken the protections for unaccompanied children provided by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPRA)

Background on the TVPRA:

The TVPRA, passed in 2000, provides certain protections to unaccompanied children arriving in the U.S. from noncontiguous countries. Under the TVPRA, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), rather than Homeland Security, has custody of the child.  HHS is required to place the child according to his or her best interests, which often means a family placement. A child is then screened for his or her claim to humanitarian protection in a safe setting by persons trained to interview children.

Under H.R. 5230, a child would remain in detention and immigration officers, not trained social workers, would question him or her about trauma and possible humanitarian claims. Moreover, this bill requires a child to have a deportation hearing within fourteen days, giving him or her no time to prepare a case or get access to attorney. If this bill becomes law, children will not be afforded meaningful hearings and they will be deported back to danger, exploitation and death. One youth was shot dead hours after being deported back to San Pedro Sula, Honduras . [ii]

We must oppose changes in the law that would weaken the protections given to unaccompanied children. In addition, we must support additional funding to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to deal with the humanitarian crisis at the border. Before leaving for August Recess, the House of Representatives voted on a supplemental funding bill that beefs up border security instead of supporting the agencies most in need of additional funding—the ones that are providing for the basic needs of children who are fleeing widespread violence in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.

E-mail your Senators today to support funding for ORR.

God calls us as Christians to welcome the stranger and to love our neighbor. Central American families, our neighbors to the South, are showing up at our border, seeking refuge from great harm. We have yet to act to protect them.

The 217^th General Assembly of the PC(USA), in a renewal of our call to love our neighbor, stated, “We affirm the PC(USA)’s commitment to providing sanctuary to anyone in need of safe space, food or shelter.” Keeping the Trafficking Victims Protection Act intact and funding agencies that meet the needs of these children are important ways to do this.

Tell your Senators today that we must keep the protections of the TVPRA intact.

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[i] "Children at the Border" http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/15/us/questions-about-the-border-kids.html?_r=0

[ii] “In Honduras, U.S. Deportees Seek to Journey North Again, LA Times” : http://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-fg-honduras-deported-youths-20140816-story.html

  

Ferguson Looks Like a War Zone; Here's Why:

By now we have seen that the tragedy of institutionalized racism and brutality in this country continues to play out in Ferguson, Missouri. Read J. Herbert Nelson’s A Call for More Than Judicial Remedies to the Killing of African-American Boys and Men.

We have repeatedly watched how police in Ferguson are treating the people they are supposed to serve and protect as the enemy. Armed with weapons and riot gear, the police officers look like they're coming from a war zone. Their equipment did.

The Ferguson Police Department received military-grade equipment -- free of charge -- from the Pentagon as part of the 1033 program. And they've been using the weapons and gear against protestors following the police shooting of Michael Brown, and unarmed 18-year-old.

Ask your representative to stop the Pentagon from sending weapons of war to local police departments.

Military equipment makes it too easy for police officers to think of their communities as the enemy. In a criminal justice system where young black men are too often presumed guilty (see: stop and frisk, the War on Drugs, mass incarceration), that's just one more step towards a tragedy like this one.

Representative Hank Johnson (GA-4) is about to introduce legislation that would stop local police departments from getting weapons designed for war from the Pentagon.

Urge your representative to cosponsor legislation to keep military-grade weapons off our streets.

Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with Michael Brown's family and the people of Ferguson.

Many thanks to our partner Friends Committee on National Legislation for the language of this action alert.