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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. COVID-19 continues to highlight the inequities in our society that has literal life or death consequences. Since 1907, MFSA has been shining a light on injustice and organizing to change it. 

MFSA would not be what it is without our Justice-Seekers. If you would like us to feature and celebrate the life of a Justice-Seeker, please contact mfsa@mfsaweb.org.

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.

Webinar: Unmasking the Evil of Colonialism

Valentine's Day of Action: #DumpWendys

"For over eight years now, Wendy’s has stood alone in the fast-food industry as the only major company to refuse to embrace the gold standard for enforceable protections against sexual assault, forced labor and other human rights abuses for farmworkers in its supply chain by joining the CIW’s award-winning Fair Food Program."

This Valentine's Day, join hundreds in taking action by "sending a virtual Valentine to DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub, and Postmates demanding they show essential farmworkers some love and call it quits with Wendy’s!"  Here's how to send a virtual Valentine:

1. Write and decorate a Valentine’s Day-themed message on a piece of paper to DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub, and Postmates urging them to support farmworker justice and #DumpWendys
2. Take a cute selfie with your Valentine card
3. Post it on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook (or all three!) and tag @DoorDash, @UberEats, @Grubhub and @Postmates and use #DumpWendys so we can amplify it online.

Reclaiming and Living Covenant

A Lenten Experience of Scripture, UMC Social Principles and Antiracist Action to Build Beloved Community 

In this year's Lenten Season, follow the Baltimore Washington Conference in a six-season Lenten study of Scripture, UMC Social Principles, and antiracist action to build Beloved Community.  Begin each week's lesson "with Scripture followed by exploring United Methodist Social Principles, learning from the witness of United Methodist ministries around the world, and reflecting on how God is calling each of us to faithful action in the face of evil forces that seek to divide and demean the human family."

Boycott Pillsbury

Did you know that Pillsbury makes its frozen baked goods in an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied Palestinian territory, violating international law and contributing to gross human rights abuses?

Take action today:

1. Learn more and sign the letter to the CEO of Pillsbury's parent company to stop doing business in illegal settlements.
2. Boycott Pillsbury products until the company stops manufacturing on stolen land, and bake for Palestinian rights!
3. Join the No Dough for the Occupation campaign by sharing photos of your baking creations with the caption: “I made this without any Pillsbury products. #BoycottPillsbury”

Save the Date

National Farmworker Awareness Week
March 25-31

"[O]ne of the most dangerous jobs in the United States," farm work is an essential work that is too often invisibilized.  Without our farm workers and their labor, we wouldn't have the supply or the same access to fresh fruits and vegetables since "85% of our fresh fruits and vegetables are handpicked."  And yet, farmworkers are not afforded the same rights and protections such as overtime and unemployment insurance like other jobs.  "Farmworkers were excluded from almost all major federal laws passed in the 1930s," and the 1978 amended Fair Labor Standards Act mandates "minimum wage for farmworkers on large farms only and it still has not made provisions for overtime."

Let us join our food heroes, our farm workers and learn, educate, and raise overall awareness on farm worker issues and rights during National Farmworker Awareness Week.

Chapter Highlight: North Carolina
Visions on Health Care NC

By Nancy Van Antwerp, NCC MFSA

Among the challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic has been how to hold a conference in the era of social distancing. The North Carolina Conference chapter (MFSA-NCC) successfully tackled both the issue of health care and new technologies, producing a series of three webinars, Voices on Health Care NC, broadcast live, three evenings in October.

Housing Justice on the Upper West Side NYC

By K Karpen, Senior Pastor, St Paul & St Andrew UMC

What happens when 283 homeless New Yorkers with substance abuse disorders suddenly move into a luxury hotel on the famously (supposedly) liberal Upper West Side of Manhattan?  And in the middle of a pandemic?  Well, it’s complicated.

The first I heard of this situation was from a friend, Rabbi Lauren Grabelle Herrmann, rabbi of a synagogue called SAJ: Judaism for All.  Her schul is down the block from us, and we had been collaborating on a lot of anti-racism work.  Her message read, in part: 

…a major backlash against the housing of homeless men at a neighborhood hotel has erupted on the Upper West Side. Moving these men to this location is part of a city-wide response to the public health crisis of unhoused people being on the streets or in shelters where social distancing is not possible.

Elected officials, local and city-wide, are hearing from angry Upper Westsiders who are claiming that this move undermines their safety and their children's safety, and threatens the character of the neighborhood.

There are many of us who believe that housing the homeless is a public health need AND a moral necessity. There are those of us who want to see that these men are talked about and treated with dignity, even as we address any particular concerns of our congregants. There is also a race component that needs to be addressed.

If your church, small group, ministry group, or community is interested in becoming a Justice-Seeking Community, please click the link and check out the JSC Covenant: https://bit.ly/2HUTgA1

Now's the Time for Action

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

1. Demand our essential farmworkers be treated with dignity by creating a virtual Valentine to the major food delivery services to #DumpWendys
2. Has your country signed on to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons?  Contact your elected officials to support the end of nuclear weapons in the world.
3. Check out the BDS Toolkit and learn what economic actions you can take to fight along the side of Palestinians and their struggle.
4. Learn how you and your ministry can truly embody open hospitality by enrolling in Be A Disciple's courses and getting a Certification in Ministry with People with Disabilities.
5. Manufacturing in an illegal Israeli settlement is a war crime.  Tell General Mills to stop making Pillsbury products on stolen Palestinian land by signing the petition, sending an email to the CEO, and #BoycottPillsbury.
6. Sign your name in the petition to say no to the USDA's plans that will cut the wages of farmworkers.
7. Contact your elected official to sponsor the Philippine Human Rights Act (PHRA).  If passed, the PHRA "will block all forms of U.S. aid to both the army and police of the Philippines until human rights conditions are met."
8. Write a letter and join the grassroots organizing for the rights of refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants.
9. Sign the petition and join Palestinian Cry for Hope: a Call to Decisive Action, a global movement set by Kairos Response that "rouses churches to action and awakens civil society to the reality of Palestinian suffering."
10. Take free online university courses on systemic racism.
11. Host a virtual Card Writing Party to write and mail letters to immigrants in detention via The Casa Mariposa Detention Visitation Program.
12. Call your legislators (202-224-3121) and advocate for permanent federal paid sick leave, expanded unemployment benefits, SNAP increases, and a moratorium on evictions, utility shut-offs, and payments. 

In Case You Missed It

1. Watch the discussion with the I’m Black. I’m Christian. I’m Methodist. writers and editor Rudy Rasmus, moderated by M. Garlinda Burton.
2. MFSA Reflection on January 6 on Martin Luther King Jr Day
3. Understand what to expect from the new Congress and new Administration related to Palestinian rights.
4. MFSA has a new website! www.mfsaweb.org Our new site has a new and improved resource section, along with the ability for you to renew your membership through your chapter directly on our site. 

We at MFSA encourage you to be a witness and a good neighbor. Please continue to do your part in flattening the curve by practicing physical distancing.