Rio Texas Methodist Federation for Social Action

Join us on Tuesday October 25 for a courageous conversation on the topic of Civility at the Raindrop Turkish House.

Please RSVP in advance!

Thursday, October 6, 12:30-2 pm

Sexual Violence: Women’s Issue, Men’s Problem

Recent attention to the problem of sexual violence on college campuses raises inevitable questions about how men and women are trained to understand gender, sex, and power. While enacting and enforcing policies that can help ensure the safety of students is crucial, it is also important to deepen the discussion to confront the history and contemporary reality of institutionalized male dominance. What social norms and values create an epidemic of sexual violence?

A panel discussion on these questions will be led by Dr. Diane Rhodes, who teaches courses in social justice in the University of Texas School of Social Work and has extensive experience in domestic violence and sexual assault prevention agencies, including service as Chief Program Officer at SafePlace in Austin; and Ted Rutherford, Communications Program Director at the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault.

The program is sponsored by the Senior Fellows Honors Program of the Moody College of Communication and the Voices Against Violence program at the University of Texas.

Location: Belo Center for New Media, BMC 5.208, 300 W. Dean Keeton, Austin

Tuesday, October 11, 7:15 pm

“Faith, Inequality, and the Pursuit of the Common Good”

1. Carlos “Tim” Anderson, pastor of St. John’s/San Juan Lutheran Church in Austin, will speak on common good in the light of increasing social and economic inequalities in American society.

Anderson is the author of Just a Little Bit More: The Culture of Excess and the Fate of the Common Good, which describes commerce, materialism, and consumerism as the prevailing religion of the land. The book promotes egalitarianism as the best way forward from the excesses of this overreaching religion.

Location: St. John’s/San Juan Lutheran Church, 409 W. Ben White Blvd., Austin, 78704

Thursday, October 13, 8:30 am-4 pm

Building Green Justice Forum: Race, Health, and the Environment

Huston-Tillotson University will host the third annual Building Green Justice Forum, this year focusing on “Race, Health, and the Environment” from scientific, sociological, political, and historical perspectives.

Keynote speakers will include Mario Sims, social epidemiologist with the Jackson Heart Study and a professor in the University of Mississippi’s Department of Medicine, addressing the Jackson study’s research on the greater prevalence of cardiovascular disease among African Americans and the reasons for the disparity.

Also delivering a keynote address will be Paula Flores-Gregg from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Rev. Eugene Keahey, pastor of the Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church, who will discuss the fight for environmental justice in Sandbranch, a community southeast of Dallas that has been battling for water rights for over 30 years.

A panel will report on public health interventions and environmental hazard investigations from Argentina to Austin. Moderated by Dominique Bowman Vining of HT, the panel will include Emily Spangenberg from the University of Texas’ Department of Sociology and Shannon Jones, director of Travis County Health and Human Services.

Other presentations will feature activists, community members, students, and researchers working on issues of environmental justice and health.

Registration and coffee begins at 8:30 am, with speakers, panels, and workshops throughout the day.

The forum—which is sponsored by Green is the New Black, The Dumpster Project, and the Third Coast Activist Resource Center—is free but please register online. For more information, contact Karen Magid, kmagid@htu.edu, or Amanda Masino, ammasino@htu.edu.

In the past three years, Huston-Tillotson University has introduced an Environmental Studies major; created the Center for Sustainability and Environmental Justice with a full time Sustainability Director; made green improvements to campus such as a 240kW rooftop solar array and organic food garden; and supported student environmental leadership development through campus organization Green is the New Black. HT also just launched, in partnership with the University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School, the Sandra Joy Anderson Community Health and Wellness Center, which will focus on access and disparities in HT’s historically diverse neighborhood.

Location: Dickey-Lawless Science Building, Huston-Tillotson University, 900 Chicon St., Austin, 78702, with free parking in the Chalmers Avenue lot and free street parking around campus.

Friday, October 21, 4-6 pm

Rob Nixon on “Environmental Justice and the Anthropocene”

Princeton University professor Rob Nixon, author of Dreambirds: the Natural History of a Fantasy and the award-winning Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor, will speak on “Environmental Justice and the Anthropocene.”

The event is co-sponsored by Environmental Humanities, Department of English, and the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice of the School of Law at the University of Texas.

Location: University of Texas, Liberal Arts Building (CLA 1.302E), Austin

Join the 50th Anniversary Commemorative March for Farm Worker Rights, September 11th in Austin

On Sunday, September 11, 2016, march to honor the justice struggles of farm workers 50 years ago—and to commit to the justice struggles that remain unfinished today.

Schedule

12 p.m.:  Program on the Quad at St Edward’s University

1 p.m.:  Start of 4-mile march to the Capitol

4 p.m.:  Arrive at Capitol for a rally

Background

In July and August of 1966, hundreds of people—including whole families—marched 400 miles from Rio Grande City to Austin to call attention to the plight of farm workers in Texas. On Labor Day, more than 10,000 supporters, including Cesar Chavez, walked with marchers the last four miles from St. Edward’s University to the South Steps of the Capitol. Texas religious leaders were among key supporters of the march, “La Marcha”—and of the movement for better pay and working conditions for farm workers.

The Rio Grande Melon Strike started in June, 1966, when workers who were paid between $.40-$.85 per hour called for a minimum hourly wage of $1.25. Rebecca Flores, former director of the United Farm Workers in Texas, notes: “It has been 50 years since the farmworker march and strike called attention to harsh working conditions and microscopic pay in Texas, but the issues of the minimum wage, poor working conditions, and substandard housing for migrant farmers are just as relevant in Texas in 2016. Remembering what the farmworkers did in 1966 is much more than a lesson in history.”

A United Methodist deacon at the time, Bishop Joel Martinez participated in La Marcha and has been instrumental in supporting this year’s commemorative march. “If we forget the previous generation’s struggles,” he warns, “we’re not going to do the justice work in the present generation. We have a lot of unfinished business in the state of Texas in terms of justice work around the issues of fairness in the workplace, educational opportunity, healthcare, and immigration policy. All of that is unfinished business for this generation and the generation yet to come.”

Repairers of the Breach

On September 12, people of faith and moral courage will gather at state capitols in 25 states to deliver the “Higher Ground Moral Declaration”, which calls on governors, senators, state legislators, and candidates for office to move away from extremist politics and policies that benefit the few and move toward policies and laws that are just and fair and guarantee a better life for the majority of the people.

TO: 2016 CANDIDATES FOR PRESIDENT, SENATE, AND GOVERNORS

By Rev. Dr. William Barber II, Rev. Dr. James Forbes, Rev. Dr. Traci Blackmon, Sr. Simone Campbell

We declare that the deepest public concerns of our nation and faith traditions are how our society treats the poor, those on the margins, the least of these, women, children, workers, immigrants and the sick; equality and representation under the law; and the desire for peace, love and harmony within and among nations.

Together, we lift up and defend the most sacred moral principles of our faith and constitutional values, which are: the economic liberation of all people; ensuring every child receives access to quality education; healthcare access for all; criminal justice reform; and ensuring historically marginalized communities have equal protection under the law.

Why is this important?

Our moral traditions have a firm foundation upon which to stand against the divide-and-conquer strategies of extremists. We believe in a moral agenda that stands against systemic racism, classism, poverty, xenophobia, and any attempt to promote hate towards any members of the human family. We claim a higher ground in partisan debate by returning public discourse to our deepest moral and constitutional values. Please add your name to call on our 2016 presidential candidates, senate candidates, and governors to advance a moral agenda.

http://www.breachrepairers.org/

September 12 at 11:00am-12:00pm in each time zone at the State Capitol.

“The Revival: Time for a Moral Revolution of Values” is a national tour to redefine morality in American politics and challenge leaders of faith and moral courage to be more vocally opposed to harmful policies that disproportionately impact the poor, people who are ill, children, immigrants, communities of color, and religious minorities. The first part of the national revival tour has over 19 stops from April 2016 to January 2017 including New York, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Texas, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Missouri, Washington DC, Tennessee, Indiana, Minnesota, New Mexico, Kentucky, and Virginia.

The Revival is co-led by the Rev. Dr. James A Forbes Jr. and the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, architect of the historic Moral Monday Movement in North Carolina. They will be joined in some states by other national social justice leaders, including the Rev. Dr. Traci Blackmon, acting executive minister of the United Church of Christ’s Justice and Witness Ministries, and Sister Simone Campbell, leader of the “Nuns on the Bus” and executive director of the Catholic social justice lobby NETWORK in Washington, DC. Sponsoring and supporting organizations include:

• Repairers of the Breach
• Drum Major Institute
• Healing of the Nations Ministries
• Auburn Seminary
• Kairos Center
• Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference
• The Middle Project

In each state, we will lead revival services and hear testimony from people who have been impacted and hurt by regressive policies. Prior to the revivals, the leadership team will train hundreds of faith and moral leaders in each state to strengthen local and state activism from the bottom up. Lastly, local faith leaders, citizens, and persons impacted and hurt by regressive policies are invited to participate in direct actions in their state capitals during three Mondays in September, and sign on to the “Higher Ground Moral Declaration” calling on our political system to rise above hatred, fear, and left and right politics, in order to reach our highest values of love and justice.