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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.

Fourth of July Reflection

"I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn..." - Frederick Douglas, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”

Read the full speech here. 

Racial Audit Update

2021 began with the Organizational Racial Audit Team completing the second of three tools, the Continuum on Becoming an Antiracist Multicultural Institution.  This was the second instrument for qualitative analysis of patterns of white-supremacy culture and anti-racist policies and practices in MFSA.  It provided a method to examine the ways that MFSA was moving beyond functioning as passively non-racist and reaching toward becoming a multicultural institution.  

Following the completion of the Continuum, the audit team worked to begin drawing out common themes from that tool and the previously completed Matrix.   The Matrix examined ways that racism functioned on individual, institutional, and cultural levels in MFSA.  The themes that emerged from this comparison formed the basis for the third instrument, the Survey.

The Survey provides a quantitative analysis to be used alongside the two qualitative tools, forming a triangulated analysis of MFSA.  The Audit team wrote 30 questions to explore the eight common themes from the Matrix and Continuum.  These questions were them presented to a sample of respondents from among MFSA’s membership and stakeholders.

The audit team expressed deep gratitude to everyone who participated in the Survey process, in one or both of its phases.  The first phase of the survey was sent to a broad list, seeking as many respondents as possible to simply provide demographic information.  We received over 560 responses, which allowed us to create a sample for the second survey which matched the racial demographics of the UMC.  The second survey generated 116 responses, and while the responses were anonymous, they also included self-reported demographic information.

Since receiving the responses to the second survey, the audit team has been hard at work conducting a detailed analysis of the data it generated.  This has allowed the team to evaluate the themes not only by a general sense of the degree to which MFSA members and stakeholders see those themes present, but also the ways in which people of various races, ethnicities, and other identities differ in their perceptions of each theme.

Finally, the audit team has recently begun a triangulated review of each theme – drawing on information from each of the tools.  This review will form the heart of the final report, and will provide the basis for the recommendations that the audit team will ultimately bring to the MFSA Board of Directors.  We look forward to completing this work this summer, and sharing it with MFSA through the MFSA website, and a number of online presentations.  

Again, we are so grateful for the support of all those who have shared their feedback.  The focus groups, interviews, and survey responses have been invaluable in gaining a more complete understanding of the culture and practices of MFSA, its national bodies, and its chapters.  We look forward to the ways this audit will equip MFSA to take its next steps toward becoming an anti-racist organization.

Influencing Our Elected Leaders and Holding Them Accountable: Power of the People

Action Alert: Supreme Court Decision on Roe V. Wade

This Supreme Court Decision directly harms all who seek reproductive justice especially BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and low income people in our communities.

As Methodists we are called to Do No Harm and Love our Neighbors. This action directly goes against our values as Christians and the rights of American Citizens.

We as people of faith must come together to ensure that all people, particularly the most vulnerable, have free and equal access to abortion.

How can you take action?
1. Contact your local representatives and demand they vote yes on the Women's Health Protection Act: https://actforwomen.org/take-action/
2. Donate to local abortion funds and providers: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/supportabortionfunds.
3. Participate in local events and protests in your community: https://map.wewontgoback.com/?source=ppfa
4. Register to Vote and/or help others to register to vote: https://vote.gov
5. Vote in the upcoming Midterm Elections

Chapter Highlight:
East Ohio MFSA presents two Bishop James S. Thomas Leadership Awards

In 2004, the East Ohio chapter of the Methodist Federation for Social Action (MFSA) inaugurated an annual award to recognize people for excellent leadership in peace and justice ministries in the church and the world. Following a 2-year delay due to COVID, two recipients received the Bishop James S Thomas Leadership awards in 2022. The 2020 award was to Joy T Watts and the 2021 award was to Rev. Debbie Gibbons. 

Join the Hot Farm Workers Summer Campaign

Farm workers are on the frontlines of climate change. In fact, they are 30x more likely to suffer from heat death than any other civilian occupation. With temperatures reaching over 90 degrees,  join the UFW Foundation in increasing awareness on the impact of climate change on farm worker communities. This #HotFarmWorkerSummer, help us ensure that everyone remembers that the farm workers who feed every American household are working in extreme heat caused by climate change. Only a few states have temporary heat protections in place.

Take the Sí Se Puede Pledge and stand alongside millions of farmworkers to stop worker exploitation, stop the use of dangerous pesticides, establish a national heat safety standard, bring better wages and overtime to farmworkers, and fight for citizenship for all 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.

Now's the Time for Action

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

1. Contact your Senators and demand they vote yes on the Women's Health Protection Act. 
2. Donate to local abortion funds and providers
3. Send a message to your legislators in Congress to speak out publicly and also urge the Biden administration to press Israel not to fulfill its plan for ethnic cleansing and destruction in Masafer Yatta. 
4. Urge your Senators to pass gun safety legislation now. 
5. #Standwithblackgirls and encourage your legislators to pass the Pushout Act H.R. 5325 (IH) – Ending Punitive, Unfair, School-based Harm that is Overt and Unresponsive to Trauma Act of 2019
6. Call on Congress to pass an Afghan Adjustment Act which will help keep families together and ensure lasting protection for at-risk Afghans. 
7. Join a National Nonviolent Moral Direct Action Call-In in calling the offices of Senator Manchin, Senator Sinema, Senator McConnell, and Senator Schumer. 
8. Write your Representative to join Representative Susan Wild and urge the Administration to hold officials responsible for grave human rights violations in the Philippines accountable through targeted sanctions.
9. Sign up for Coalition of Immokalee Workers Fair Food mailing list to learn more about what you can do to advocate for farmworker rights. 
10. Urge your members of Congress to co-sponsor HR 2590: Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act. 
11. Join the #WelcomeWithDignity movement by signing the pledge to reimagine the way our country and our communities treat people seeking safety.
12. Contact your Senators and Representatives to pass common sense legislation that saves the lives of farm workers like the Asunción Valdivia Heat Illness and Fatality Prevention Act.
13. In solidarity, join workers demanding $15/hr and tell McDonald’s to raise wages now.
14. Check out what military acquired by your local law enforcement, and sign the petition to demanding more police transparency.
15. Contact your elected officials and demand Congress cut funding for ICE and CBP and defund hate.
16. Tell your Member of Congress to support the Accessible, Affordable Internet for All (AAIA) Act, an act that can help bridge the digital divide that disproportionately impacts Black, Latinx, Indigenous, rural, or low-income people.
17. Write to the leadership of the township of Fairfield, CT to contact Sturm Ruger, the largest firearm manufacturer in the United States with headquarters in Fairfield, and demand the company suspend weapon and bullet sales to Israel.
18. Tell President Biden and Vice President Harris to hold Israel accountable to its obligations as an occupying power and insist that Israel provide COVID-19 vaccines equally and fairly to Palestinians living under its occupation.
19. Contact your elected officials to take an intersectional response to the incidents of AAPI hate and to center the needs of those most impacted, Asian American women and elders.
20. Check the State Voting Bills Tracker to find out if your state lawmakers have introduced one of the 253 bills aimed at suppressing voting rights, and contact your state lawmakers to demand they support voting rights.
21. Sign the petition and tell Congress to abolish the federal death penalty.
22. 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.
23. Check out the BDS Toolkit and learn what economic actions you can take to fight along the side of Palestinians and their struggle.
24. 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.
25. Write a letter and join the grassroots organizing for the rights of refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants.
26. 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."
27. Take free online university courses on systemic racism.
28. Host a virtual Card Writing Party to write and mail letters to immigrants in detention via The Casa Mariposa Detention Visitation Program.
29. 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. Access the latest webinar and resources from part 5 in the Stealing the Earth webinar series, "Undoing the Doctrine: Developing a Theology of Repentance & Repair." 
2. Access the latest webinar and resources from MFSA and UMKR's webinar: "Ukraine & Palestine: Double Standards, Hypocrisy, Racism...What does it mean for the Palestinian rights movement?" 
3. Read the 2021 MFSA Annual Report