This week, we continue coverage of the United Nations climate negotiations known as COP30 held this year in Belém, Brazil. Last week, we had the Texas Impact team reporting from Belém, and today, Rev. Dr. Becca Edwards joins the program soon after returning from the COP to talk to us about the latest from the conference with a few days remaining.

Becca wears two hats—one as Dr. Becca Edwards, the climate scientist, and the other as Rev. Becca Edwards, United Methodist pastor. So, she will share her perspective as both a scientist and a pastor who has been writing about the role faith and morality played at the COP and the role people of faith have in responding to the climate crisis.

Check out our team's work on Texas Impact's substack and YouTube as well as through Texas Impact's media partnerships with the Austin Chronicle, Baptist News Global, and United Methodist Insight.

The Texas Impact team is on the ground and churning out great content from the United Nations climate negotiations known as COP30 Belém, Brazil. Make sure you are following along on Texas Impact's substack and YouTube as well as through Texas Impact's media partnerships with the Austin Chronicle, Baptist News Global, and United Methodist Insight.

This week on Weekly Witness, members of that delegation–Bee Moorhead, Rev. Becca Edwards, Dylan Le and Regina Banks join the conversation with updates from COP30.

This content is important to help us understand the global climate emergency and how the negotiations can shape our future work at the federal, state and local levels as well as in the corporate, NGO and faith community spaces–and help us understand the role the faith community plays in that work.

Follow along with updates on Texas Impact's Substack, social media and via our media partners.

https://texasimpact.substack.com/

https://www.austinchronicle.com/cop30/

https://baptistnews.com/

https://um-insight.net/in-the-world

Get full access to Texas Impact at texasimpact.substack.com/subscribe

The Texas Impact team is on the ground and churning out great content from the United Nations climate negotiations known as COP30 Belém, Brazil. Make sure you are following along on Texas Impact's substack and YouTube as well as through Texas Impact's media partnerships with the Austin Chronicle, Baptist News Global, and United Methodist Insight.

This week on Weekly Witness, members of that delegation–Bee Moorhead, Rev. Becca Edwards, Dylan Le and Regina Banks join the conversation with updates from COP30.

This content is important to help us understand the global climate emergency and how the negotiations can shape our future work at the federal, state and local levels as well as in the corporate, NGO and faith community spaces–and help us understand the role the faith community plays in that work.

Follow along with updates on Texas Impact's Substack, social media and via our media partners.

https://texasimpact.substack.com/

https://www.austinchronicle.com/cop30/

https://baptistnews.com/

https://um-insight.net/in-the-world

The election is over, and even though there weren't big statewide or federal races on the ballot, local elections and good public policy matter, and so we are excited to welcome Texas Impact's Outside Legislative Counsel Beaman Floyd back to the program to talk about the election results and where we go from here in the legislative calendar.

Now that the constitutional amendment election is in the rearview mirror, we expect at some point to begin tracking interim hearings. The candidate filing deadline for Texas races is about a month out, so primary election season will be upon us soon.

As always, Texas Impact has tools and resources to help you stay engaged. Learn more at texasimpact.org.

The election is over, and even though there weren't big statewide or federal races on the ballot, local elections and good public policy matter, and so we are excited to welcome Texas Impact's Outside Legislative Counsel Beaman Floyd back to the program to talk about the election results and where we go from here in the legislative calendar.

Now that the constitutional amendment election is in the rearview mirror, we expect at some point to begin tracking interim hearings. The candidate filing deadline for Texas races is about a month out, so primary election season will be upon us soon.

As always, Texas Impact has tools and resources to help you stay engaged. Learn more at texasimpact.org.

Get full access to Texas Impact at texasimpact.substack.com/subscribe

This week we are recording during early voting before election day next Tuesday, November 4, and we know that all of you are doing everything you can to make sure your friends, neighbors and communities of faith are taking this election season.

For many of us, the policy implications of what's going on in the world right now are hitting close to home. The government shutdown and corresponding freeze of SNAP benefits, and so many other vital programs, is impacting our communities, and that requires our attention.

There are important elections on the ballot right now. The constitutional amendments matter. Many of your communities have school board races, local government elections and bond elections. Those matter too—so we hope you have voted or are making a plan to vote.

Here to talk to us about elections, both the current November 4 election and our election infrastructure, is Natalia Contreras, reporter with Votebeat Texas.

Visit the Votebeat Texas website and sign up for the newsletter at www.votebeat.org/texas

Want to know more about the constitutional amendments on the ballot? Visit Texas Impact's Substack to read Rebecca McIlwain's four part series texasimpact.substack.com/p/dig-in-then-vote

Get full access to Texas Impact at texasimpact.substack.com/subscribe

This week we take a break from the news of the day to talk about work important to many of us in the faith community—caring for our siblings who are being systematically marginalized by harmful public policy.

Our transgender friends and neighbors have been specifically singled out for attack since at least 2017 in high profile and public ways starting most prominently in Texas when the first "bathroom bills" started coming to the forefront.

For many Texans, there is a lot of ignorance on the subject, so we thought this week we would bring in an expert to talk to us about the science and help us understand this topic from a medical perspective so we can be more effective advocates.

Texans of faith who care about equity need to stand up in support of our transgender neighbors specifically with our faith hats on because the attacks are largely coming from Christians and we need to speak up to say clearly—you do not speak for us. There are people of faith and good conscience who believe in equality.

So, joining us for the conversation this week is Dr. Lolly Lockhart, who has been an RN for over 60 years and loves nursing. She has been an active member of the American Nurses Association, Texas Nurses Association and has served as a consultant, and seemingly every other position, in the nursing world a person could hold in addition to providing expert testimony at the Capitol on behalf of herself and others.

Lolly is a treat, and I hope you enjoy the conversation this week.

Get full access to Texas Impact at texasimpact.substack.com/subscribe

This week we take a break from the news of the day to talk about work important to many of us in the faith community–caring for our siblings who are being systematically marginalized by harmful public policy.

Our transgender friends and neighbors have been specifically singled out for attack since at least 2017 in high profile and public ways starting most prominently in Texas when the first "bathroom bills" started coming to the forefront.

For many Texans, there is a lot of ignorance on the subject, so we thought this week we would bring in an expert to talk to us about the science and help us understand this topic from a medical perspective so we can be more effective advocates.

Texans of faith who care about equity need to stand up in support of our transgender neighbors specifically with our faith hats on because the attacks are largely coming from Christians and we need to speak up to say clearly—you do not speak for us. There are people of faith and good conscience who believe in equality.

So, joining us for the conversation this week is Dr. Lolly Lockhart, who has been an RN for over 60 years and loves nursing. She has been an active member of the American Nurses Association, Texas Nurses Association and has served as a consultant, and seemingly every other position, in the nursing world a person could hold in addition to providing expert testimony at the Capitol on behalf of herself and others.

Lolly is a treat, and I hope you enjoy the conversation this week.

This week we are excited to be joined by State Representative Mickey Dollens from Oklahoma. You might ask why Texas Impact would have an Oklahoma state representative on the program. That's a great question—and we have an answer.

We met Rep. Dollens at a recent event focused on combating Christian Nationalism sponsored by Interfaith Alliance. He shared his story of crashing a meeting with the National School Chaplain Association and how that group and similar groups are pushing a Christian Nationalist agenda in state legislatures across the country.

He has been leading the fight to protect Oklahoma public school students from a religious takeover of their schools and shares some insights for those of us fighting the same fight here in Texas. For those of us who are people of faith, we hope this conversation creates a sense of urgency to do our part to speak up and organize against efforts to implement Christian Nationalism in every facet of our society.

For more ways you can get involved visit us on our website at texasimpact.org

Get full access to Texas Impact at texasimpact.substack.com/subscribe

This week we are excited to be joined by State Representative Mickey Dollens from Oklahoma. You might ask why Texas Impact would have an Oklahoma state representative on the program. That's a great question—and we have an answer.

We met Rep. Dollens at a recent event focused on combating Christian Nationalism sponsored by Interfaith Alliance. He shared his story of crashing a meeting with the National School Chaplain Association and how that group and similar groups are pushing a Christian Nationalist agenda in state legislatures across the country.

He has been leading the fight to protect Oklahoma public school students from a religious takeover of their schools and shares some insights for those of us fighting the same fight here in Texas. For those of us who are people of faith, we hope this conversation creates a sense of urgency to do our part to speak up and organize against efforts to implement Christian Nationalism in every facet of our society.

For more ways you can get involved visit us on our website at texasimpact.org