Texas Impact's Weekly Witness

This week we are excited to introduce Robert Rivera, who wears many hats. Among them, he is Vice President of the Synod Council of the Gulf Coast Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He is also part of the Houston Faith Votes leadership team, and part of the Houston Faith Votes cohort of congregations working on civic engagement as part of his lifetime of service to the church and justice ministries-specifically ministries related to immigrant communities.  

This conversation is an important reminder of the stakes of civic engagement. From the local community to the highest office in the land, we are electing people who will impact immigrant communities. As people of faith, we owe it to our communities and our neighbors to make sure we are participating.

 

Find out more about the ELCA's upcoming Immigration Forum: Understanding Immigration Law on October 17th.

This week we are excited to introduce Texas Impact’s legislative agenda with our Executive Director, Bee Moorhead. Listeners will remember a few weeks ago we had three board members join the program at the conclusion of the three day board retreat to talk about their experience with the process creating the agenda. In the weeks that followed, all of the wordsmithing and voting took place to ensure there was consensus on the final product, and today, Bee joins us to talk about where the board landed, and what our listeners can do with it. 

We are not going to go through the entire document bullet by bullet, so I hope you will check out the full document on the website.

This week we are talking weather and climate from an interesting perspective as we welcome two former colleagues of our very own Dr. Becca Edwards. With us are Dr. Ian Giammanco who serves as Director of Standards and Data Analytics and Lead Research Meteorologist at the Institute for Building and Home Safety and Dr. Tanya  Brown-Giammanco who serves as Director of Disaster and Failure Studies at the National Institute of Standards and Testing.

 

We will discuss resilience and how changes in climate impact our homes and buildings, and what we can do about it from both a consumer and advocacy perspective.

 

It is also a good reminder that Texas Impact has tools for you to learn more and get engaged on this and all of our other issue areas. Join one of our issue champion teams like our Climate Action Team to connect folks interested in this issue–or find a team connected to another issue you care about.

 

Find out more about the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes here.

 

If you live in an area that experiences wildfires, find out how you can get prepared.

This week we are recording from Trinity Church of Austin following a three day Texas Impact Board Retreat. The Texas Impact Board of Directors represent a wide range of judicatories and faith traditions from across Texas. Every two years they come together to create a consensus set of legislative priorities to guide the organizations’ work throughout the biennium. 

Scott talks to three of our board members about the process as they reflect on where we are as a state and how this work intersects with their faith. We are joined by Rev. Jessica Cain Pastor of Living Word Lutheran in Buda, Rev. Dan DeLeon Sr. Pastor at Friends Congregational Church in College Station and Rev. Leslie Jackson, Sr. Pastor at St. Peter UCC in Houston. 

Find resources and ways to get involved this election season on our Texas Faith Votes page.

This week we are having a timely conversation on voting and voting systems with Daniel Griffith, Senior Director of Policy with Secure Democracy USA. As the name implies, Secure Democracy USA works to protect voting rights and oppose efforts to suppress votes. 

It's important work, but the most important work right now is to reassure voters that their vote matters and that your vote will count. There is a lot of noise surrounding the election to discourage voters, and Texans of faith and Texas faith leaders can play a key role in cutting through the noise and encouraging our communities to take our civic responsibility seriously.

Find out more about the work of Secure Democracy USA and the Secure Democracy Foundation and their resources at www.securedemocracyusa.org and securedemocracyfoundation.org

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Texas Impact equips people of faith and conscience with information, opportunities, and outreach tools to educate their communities and engage with lawmakers on pressing public policy issues. Find out more at texasimpact.org

We are especially excited for this week's episode as we welcome John Hill to the program. John is days away from completing his service as the Interim General Secretary of the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society, an agency charged with leading the denomination’s social witness around the world. 

It is a perfect time for this conversation as we move into a critical election season where the social witness of the church will be of the utmost importance–and faith leaders will be called to lead. But, also, because the United Methodist Church recently concluded an historic General Conference where they approved a complete revision of their Social Principles–their positions on community and policy issues and, after decades of strife, took historic votes to remove harmful LGBT policies from their Book of Discipline.

Find out more about the work of the UMC General Board of Church and Society.

Last weekend the Texas Impact team had a chance to hang out with a hundred Texans of faith representing congregations from across North Texas, and y’all the vibes were real. People were excited to hear from faith leaders talking about what they are doing to engage people this election season. They heard from non-profits and voting officials giving tips, tools and resources to help engage their community.

This week, we are bringing you the Faith Leader Panel from the North Texas Faith Votes event. Joining Scott on stage was Robyn Carafoil with Temple Shalom, a Past President of the Temple’s Sisterhood, and a current member of the Board of Trustees. Rev. Danielle Ayers, Pastor of Justice at Friendship West Baptist Church, a 12,000 member church in Dallas. Danielle is  a devoted author, preacher, and teacher, and a Texas Impact Board Member. Finally, Rev. Cathy Sweeney, Associate Pastor of Adult Discipleship at Arapaho United Methodist Church. Cathy, a former real estate developer, now dedicates her life to non profit work supporting people experiencing homelessness and poverty and promoting racial reconciliation.

Watch the panel and presentations from Dallas County Elections, ACLU and Ride2VoteAware on Texas Impact's Youtube channel.

This week we are joined by Amanda Tyler, Executive Director of the BJC, the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, leading the organization as it upholds the historic Baptist principle of religious liberty: defending the free exercise of religion and protecting against its establishment by government. We are excited to talk about Amanda's work with Christians Against Christian Nationalism and the proposed curriculum for Texas public schools.

Find more about the BJC and Christians Against Christian Nationalism here: bjconline.org christiansagainstchristiannationalism.org

Listen to Respecting Religion presented by the BJC:

hbjconline.org/respectingreligion

Read Amanda's book How to End Christian Nationalism here:

www.broadleafbooks.com/store/product/9781506498287/How-to-End-Christian-Nationalism

This week we are excited to launch our fourth season of Weekly Witness and who better to kick things off than Texas Impact’s esteemed Executive Director, Bee Moorhead. We thought this would be a timely conversation as we move out of the usually slower summer months and into a consequential fall election season which will lead into the 89th Texas Legislative session in January. 

Texans of faith are leading, and it is so inspiring to see. If you want to find out how you can get involved, check out texasimpact.org and for sure check out the Texas Faith Votes page for tools and resources.

 

This week we are once again joined by Texas Impact Policy Advocate, Heather Malkawi, who was recently invited to attend the 6th Pan African Conference, otherwise known as Sankofa 2024. This conference is hosted about every five years by the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians. Heather shares highlights from her trip and about how these theologians are processing, leading and acting. 

 Texans of faith are also leading, and it is so inspiring to see. If you want to find out how you can get involved, check out texasimpact.org, and for sure check out the Texas Faith Votes page for tools and resources. Learn more about Sankofa and the CCAWT here circle.org.za and in Heather's blog texasimpact.org/journey-to-ghana