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Dear Justice-Seeker,

This issue of MFSAVoices is jam-packed with resources and information. So much so that it won't all fit in your email message so be sure to click view entire message at the bottom of this email to view the entire issue. Our newsletters are designed to be used all month long. So take a quick glance and take note of important dates to add to your calendar but also come back in the following weeks to work your way through the action items.  

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We continue to see the urgency of our work to make broad systemic change. Change that honors the dignity and worth of all people, puts people over money, and honors the earth and all her inhabitants. Since 1907, MFSA has been shining a light on injustice and organizing to change it.  

You make our collective work possible by your witness for justice every day in your church, community, and Annual Conference. MFSA does not receive any financial support from the United Methodist Church's giving channels. 100% of our budget is funded through your membership dues and your generosity in giving.

An Advent Vision of Hope for the World
by Sharon Delgado

In Advent we anticipate the coming of Christ, who is already with us but whose liberating presence is not yet fully revealed. Early Advent texts vividly portray apocalyptic images, warnings to keep awake, and John the Baptist’s fiery calls to repentance. This year, as we reflect on these texts “with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other” (Barth), they come to life in contemporary scenes of war and slaughter in the Holy Land. Such images, together with mass shootings, persistent injustices, and climate breakdown, make clear the violence and destructiveness of what Walter Wink called “the domination system” and Marcus Borg calls “the normalcy of civilization.”

The texts then turn to the stories of Mary and Joseph in the lead up to Jesus’s birth. What is often missed is the overtly political nature of these stories, which shed light on how the gospel writers understood the meaning of Jesus’ birth in the context of the powers that dominated the world in their day. According to Matthew, wise ones come from afar bearing gifts fit for a king, indicating Jesus’ universal significance. King Herod tries to trick them into revealing the whereabouts of this rival “king.” Mary and Joseph later flee with their infant son into Egypt as political refugees to escape Herod’s genocidal attempts to hold onto his throne (Matt 2:13-15), which leads to the “slaughter of the innocents” and “Rachel weeping for her children.” Rachel’s cries resound in events today.

Luke’s gospel portrays Mary as a young unmarried woman who nonetheless celebrates her pregnancy with the remarkable words of hope for the poor and oppressed that have come to be called the “Magnificat” (Luke 1:47, 52-53):

My soul magnifies the Lord,

and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior…

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones

and has lifted up the lowly;

he has filled the hungry with good things,

and sent the rich away empty.

Mary’s words could hardly have been more political or threatening to the powers. Soon afterward, Matthew tells of Mary and Joseph travelling to Bethlehem to be registered by Rome, presumably for reasons of taxation or conscription.

Advent culminates on Christmas Eve, with the story of Jesus’ birth. An angel appears to the shepherds and announces the coming of “a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Then “a multitude of the heavenly host” praise God and proclaim the meaning of his birth: “Peace on earth and loving mercy towards all people!” (Luke 2:14, World English New Testament).  

This is a glorious vision of hope for the world, which is relevant in the context of the Advent texts and our current global situation. Herod was not wrong! The coming of Jesus does challenge the ruling powers, but not through violence or domination. Rather, the coming reign of God is based on the values that Jesus lived and proclaimed. One way to demonstrate these values is to work with people everywhere to build an intersectional global justice movement, a “movement of movements,” a “people’s globalization,” a “globalization from below” with power to bring about systemic change. This movement is growing in strength in the UMC and beyond. It includes MFSA, which has been working with partner organizations for over a hundred years to support intersectional issues of peace, justice, and the flourishing of creation.

During Advent, we anticipate the coming in power of the one who shows us what God is like and what human life and community can be when lived in the presence of God, the one who teaches us to pray and work for God’s reign to come (that is, God’s will to be done) on earth as it is in heaven, the one who calls us to live in the direction of the world as God intends it to be--a world of “Peace on earth and loving mercy towards all people!”

The Reverend Sharon Delgado is the Convener of Fossil Free UMC. She is author of The Cross in the Midst of Creation, Love in a Time of Climate Change, and Shaking the Gates of Hell. She blogs at sharondelgado.org. 

An Invitation to Stand with Palestinians this Advent

This advent season we along with the World Methodist Council, Methodist Church in Britain, and The General Board of Global Ministries invite you to to leave the second candle of advent along with the rest of the candles of advent unlit this season as a sign of solidarity and continued mouning. 
 

United Methodists in UMKR, like so many throughout our church, are weeping for the people of the Holy Land. We decry the indiscriminate attacks on all civilians, both Israelis and Palestinians. We mourn with those who are grieving for the dead, we suffer for those who are injured, starving, or living in fear today, and we seek the safe release of all the political captives held by both the state of Israel and Hamas. We pray fervently for the millions in Gaza who are living through the ghastly terror of a genocidal military assault.

UMKR deplores the targeting of unarmed Israeli civilians during the Hamas military attack on October 7. It was a criminal act committed by a militant force that has emerged from a brutally oppressed population, terrorized for decades by a frighteningly powerful apartheid state with the permission and aid of the world's mightiest nations.

Clearly, that attack cannot be depicted truthfully as "unprovoked," as it has been so often described. We are shocked by the hypocrisy and disinformation in worldwide responses to and reporting of these events.

We are aware of Israel’s expertise in creating disinformation that exonerates Israel and accuses or defames Palestinians. In that vein, we note the reports of atrocities committed by Hamas that have no confirmation, and contested evidence that purportedly clears Israel of responsibility for the bombing of Al Ahli hospital. We concur with Israeli citizens who are demanding an independent commission and trustworthy information.

We are disturbed by the outpouring of selective moral outrage from so many Western government leaders and flooding mainstream and social media, depicting the events of October 7 in a historical vacuum and serving to promote retribution against millions of Palestinians who have long been Israel's invisible victims.

The world must see those victims now, the millions who are living under a brutal military occupation and racist apartheid regime that subjects them to savage violence every day throughout the year, year after year. We must hear their cries, in the West Bank, inside Israel, and especially in Gaza.

Please read this call of repentance from Palestinian Christians  and this call for a cease fire from Jewish Voice for Peace .

Racial Audit Implementation Team Announced

In 2017, MFSA committed to becoming an intentionally anti-racist organization. We worked to recruit people of color (POC) to serve on our Board of Directors and staff. At the end of 2019 we continued on our journey towards becoming a more anti-racist organization by forming a Racial Audit Team and partnering with Crossroads Antiracism and Training, a non-profit that focuses on dismantling systemic racism and building anti-racist multicultural diversity within institutions and communities, to conduct a full organizational racial audit. This Racial audit was completed/adopted in Jan 2023 and presented publicly in Feb 2023. In June 2023 the MFSA Board of Directors created the MFSA Racial Audit Implementation Team to implement the recommendations of the Racial Audit. Our goal is to be better structured to perpetuate justice and equity throughout MFSA, our church, and our world.

Now's the Time for Action

Here are a few ways you can seek justice and work for broad systemic change:

1. Call for a ceasefire now 

2. Help defend reproductive rights by telling Congress to support legislation that safeguards the right to access abortion and all reproductive health care nationwide.

3. Sign this petition to tell Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas today to decisively end its collusion with Operation Lone Star and do everything in its powers to remove Gov. Abbott's dangerous barriers in the Rio Grande.

4. Protect and support Climate Justice by joining your voice to calls on Congress to prioritize protecting our environment.

5. Support the Paycheck Fairness Act and protect workers from pay discrimination.

6. Protect Native Families in your state by pressing your state legislature to pass a statewide Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) law.

7. Here is a list of products and services to boycott of companies that are supporting Israel's apartheid of Palestine.

8. Sign this petition urging Congress to support the Abortion Justice Act.

9. Mandatory minimum sentences restrict the ability of the courts to show mercy and compassion to those accused of crimes. They lead to mass incarceration and are often used for drug offenses instead of other avenues that may be more successful like treatment. Learn more and push for more just practices in your state.

10. Take the pledge to bring racial justice into our education system. From curriculum to student life, there is so much we can do to make schools a safe and equitable place for all children.

11. Shop small this holiday season. Check out the Chez Nous Guide to inclusive and socially conscious brands to find BIPOC, Women, and LGBTQIA+ owned businesses near you.

In Case You Missed It

1. Learn how you can support your local public library by reading our article Reading Banned Books as An Act of Resistance.
2. Access the latest recording and resources from MFSA and UMKR's webinar, "Storytelling as Resistance: Palestinian Identity and Resilience in Literature for Young People"
3. Visit the Racial Audit Report page on our website.