From Monday, June 6 to Monday, June 12, 2023, family members of students who were killed at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida on February 14th, 2018 will hold a seven-day Youth Survivor sit-in at the U.S. Capitol. They are inviting survivors from across the country who have been impacted by gun violence to join…
On July 1 2023 the U.S Supreme Court is due to render a decision that will impact the future of the Indian Child Welfare Act. It is urgent that as United Methodists we lift our voices on behalf of God’s children and align our faith with the prophetic call to “learn to good; seek justice,…
On March 3, 1819, the passage of the Indian Civilization Fund Act authorized and encouraged the harmful and forceful assimilation of Indigenous peoples. The Act was instrumental in the proliferation of Indigenous boarding school policies. Over 200 years later, efforts to address and to repair generational trauma continue. On May 11, 2022, the Department of the Interior…
Join the Baltimore-Washington Conference and the Peninsula-Delaware Conference for our 2023 Legislative Advocacy Days! Legislative Advocacy Days are an opportunity for United Methodists to meet their representatives and advocate for United Methodist values. This allows the voices of United Methodists to be heard and considered when our representatives make important decisions that impact the lives…
On October 5, 2022, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the 2021 district court decision that ruled the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy unlawful. The case now goes back to the district court for renewed consideration of the new DACA rule published by the Biden administration. However, only Congress has the tools…
For more than two hundred years assimilation processes have been adopted by the United States Government. These policies were intended to strip American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children of their Indigenous identities, beliefs, and languages. These Indian Boarding School Policies established federally funded, off-reservation, and Christian-run Indian boarding schools. The motto to “kill…
As of July 2022, our nation has been traumatized by 617 mass shootings. Bishop LaTrelle Easterling has released a number of statements as these shootings have continually unfolded in places like Smithsburg, MD, Uvalde, TX, Buffalo, NY, Charlottesville, VA, Colorado Springs, CO, and Chesapeake, VA. We mourn, grieve and pray for those who have lost…