advocacy

Revisiting Human Sexuality: ELCA Seeks Input on Social Statement Edits

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ELCA social statements are documents that help people think through social issues and that guide the church’s teaching and policies on those issues. However, their language can become outdated over time as laws and language change.   

The 2022 ELCA Churchwide Assembly voted to have our church reconsider certain passages from the ELCA social statement Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust in light of changes in U.S. laws regarding marriage since 2009 and in acknowledgment of the church’s understanding of the diversity of family configurations.  

A task force, with people of diverse perspectives from across the ELCA, has been appointed by the ELCA Church Council to shepherd this process.  

In early November, the task force released a set of draft edits for public comment. These are potential editorial changes only — small word changes that update the text without changing its meaning.   

The task force invites you to review these and to share your feedback. This feedback is critical for our discernment as church together, and the task force will prayerfully consider all comments before proposing changes to the 2025 Churchwide Assembly for their action. The deadline for your response is Jan. 31, 2025.     

You can share your feedback by taking an online survey or by emailing the task force directly at Reconsiderations@elca.org.   To help your discernment, several resources are posted at www.elca.org/reconsiderations, including an explanation of each.

Immigration and Refugee Resources

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As the new administration’s policies and executive orders are revealed, LEAN would like to offer some resources and alerts for Nevada parishioners seeking ways to help protect refugees in our midst.

First, read Presiding Bishop Eaton’s Pastoral Letter on Executive Orders HERE

Also, The Asociación de Ministerios Latinos de la ELCA has released a statement in response to executive orders of the U.S. government. English and Spanish versions can both be found HERE!

Check out Global Refuge’s explainer of the key executive orders and proclamations that directly impact refugees and other immigrants in the United States and beyond. Click HERE.

Attend Global Refuge’s Policy and Advocacy Team on February 4 at 11 AM PT for “Post-Inauguration Days: Understanding Recent Policy Changes from the Trump Administration and the 119th Congress” Register HERE.

Plan a worship welcoming the stranger and centered on celebrating new refugees. Click HERE for the Worship Order!

Learn How Trump’s Rescission of Protected Areas Policies Undermines Safety for All by Reading This Fact Sheet Or This Handout in Espanol

Visit National Immigration Law Center’s Know Your Rights: Expediated Removal Expansion Information. Click HERE.

Print Red Cards & How To Use Your Red Card Available at Your Worship Space

Read The Asociación de Ministerios Latinos de la ELCA‘s statement in response to executive orders of the U.S. government. English and Spanish versions can both be found HERE.

Share AMMPRO’s (Accompanying Migrant Minors with Protection, Advocacy, Representation and Opportunities) Blog With Friends & Family

Sacred Crossroads: The Intersection of Faith and Immigration

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Though the 2024 election is over, there is much work to do here in the West when it comes to protecting our brothers and sisters seeking asylum and, ultimately, legal residence in the United States. This resource raises the importance of centering our values as well as the perspectives of others, includes guidance from ELCA social teaching, facts and statistics about immigration, offers prayer, questions for personal reflection, and questions for Nevada’s elected office, and more! As Christians living in a state with a large immigrant population, we are called to be disciples and advocates for all.

Use this nonpartisan resource to explore key immigration facts from ELCA Ammparo and reflect on how Christian values compel us to pursue justice, help the oppressed, promote human dignity and human flourishing, and pray for a government that serves all neighbors. It’s a quick resource at only 8 pages.

The guide includes:

  • Learning from history
  • Leading with faith values
  • ELCA social teaching on immigration
  • Prayers for discernment
  • Facts about immigrant neighbors
  • Questions for reflection

DOWNLOAD ‘SACRED CROSSROADS’ GUIDE

Sign Bread For The World’s ‘Nourish Our Future’ petition to end child hunger

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Sign the Nourish Our Future petition urging our senators and representatives to end child hunger in the U.S. and around the world!

Why is this important?

Millions of children in the U.S. live in households facing food insecurity. Globally, almost 45 million children suffer from severe hunger, and nearly half of all preventable deaths among children under five are attributed to malnutrition. Child hunger is a local and a global problem, but together we can make a difference. 

Sign Bread for the World’s petition TODAY calling on the 119th Congress to Nourish Our Future, and join Bread for the World online for the Nourish Our Future launch on February 4! It is integral that we show U.S. Congress that there is broad and deep support across the country to ensure all children are fed and nourished.

We want to influence, empower, and work with Congress to pass legislation that:

  • fully funds and modernizes the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
  • expands a Child Tax Credit that prioritizes cutting child poverty and ending hunger
  • increases funding for global nutrition programs for children
  • helps reduce food insecurity on college campuses

Below is more detail on why we want Congress to pass legislation that addresses these issues:

Fully funding and modernizing WIC for all eligible participants

WIC (the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children) provides mothers and young children in the U.S. with nutritious food, nutrition education, breastfeeding support, immunization screening, and important health and social services referrals. The program reaches approximately 6.7 million women and young children, including about half of all infants born in the United States.

WIC participation leads to healthier eating, increased birth weights, fewer premature births, and fewer infant deaths. The program helps support proper brain development in young children, contributing to the child’s ability to learn and thrive later in life. WIC also has a significant economic impact due to reduced healthcare costs.

Recognizing these powerful outcomes, Congress has fully funded WIC on a bipartisan basis for decades. In 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act modernized and strengthened the program to reach more eligible families. Unfortunately, due to congressional inaction and polarization, not only have these changes been rolled back, but WIC is in jeopardy of not being fully funded for the first time in 25 years. 

We are urging Congress to: 

  1. Recommit to fully fund WIC now and in the future, so that all who are eligible and apply have access 
  2. Restore reforms that strengthened the program and made it easier for families to sign up.

Expanding a Child Tax Credit that prioritizes cutting child poverty and ending hunger

The Child Tax Credit (CTC) serves as a lifeline for the most vulnerable and a beacon of hope for millions of families in the U.S. The expanded CTC, enacted as a part of the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021, significantly reduced child hunger and led to the lowest child poverty rate in our nation’s history. Bread for the World worked hard to pass the Child Tax Credit expansion in 2021. The expansion increased the amount of the credit and made two other critical policy changes, which have now expired 
and which Bread is working to restore. Those changes are:

  1. Full Refundability – This provision meant that even the poorest families who don’t make enough money to pay taxes still receive the full tax credit.
  2. Monthly payments rather than annual lump sum payments after tax filing. Data shows that families used the monthly payments to meet basic living expenses, with food topping the list of such expenses.

The proven, measurable success of the expanded Child Tax Credit and the 45% increase in child poverty since its expiration make clear that the passage of a similar bill would make an immediate and dramatic impact on child poverty and hunger.

Increasing funding for global nutrition programs for children

Programs that help prevent and treat child malnutrition in low-income countries save lives, help families and communities thrive, and build resilience and stability for generations to come. Increasing funding for these programs, a tiny fraction of the U.S. budget, is a compassionate and strategic response to soaring rates of child malnutrition right now and a wise investment in our shared future. 

Priority nutrition programs include: 

  • Treatment of acute malnutrition
  • Education and promotion of breastfeeding
  • Nutrition supplements for children, adolescent girls, and pregnant women
  • Education and promotion of good feeding and hygiene practices for infants and young children
  • Preventive malaria treatment
  • Fortification of staple food crops with nutrients

Developing solutions to college student hunger

Nearly 23% of all college students were food insecure in 2020, and students who were food insecure were less likely to get their bachelor’s degrees than those who were food secure. In addition, there is a substantial “SNAP gap,” meaning students who are eligible for SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) or other assistance but do not receive benefits. 

To help close the SNAP gap, Bread for the World has identified three priorities: 

  1. Pass legislation in Congress that addresses this gap, such as The Opportunity to Address College Hunger Act or Closing the College Hunger Gap Act. 
  2. Persuade the Department of Education to inform low-income students matriculating on college or university campuses of their potential eligibility for SNAP, WIC, and other benefits.
  3. Partner with a research institute to study best practices for closing the SNAP gap and to identify which interventions have the potential to be brought to scale and to attract public funding through future advocacy.

How it will be delivered

Bread for the World representatives will deliver these petition signatures to the local and DC offices of Members of Congress.

SIGN THE PETITION!

Join LEAN’s Mission As It Enters New Era

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As the state of Nevada awaits the November 2024 general election and start of its next biennial legislative session in February 2025, Lutheran Engagement and Advocacy in Nevada (LEAN) finds itself in a transition period with plenty of potential for growth in advocacy action ahead.

LEAN’s advocacy work is indeed central to God and the church’s continued presence in the world, and with so much ongoing need among what Jesus called “the least of these” in Matthew 25, the organization will continue speaking up for the voiceless, powerless and marginalized in Nevada, guide by the ELCA’s Social Statements.

A Successful Session

LEAN entered 2024 on the heels of a fruitful 2023 legislative session. A total of 12 bills supported by LEAN on the basis of its main areas of advocacy — Criminal Justice, Health Care, Education, Children and Family, and Housing and Human Dignity — were passed by the legislature and signed into law by Gov. Joe Lombardo thanks to the hard work of Advocate Bill Ledford, blessings of the LEAN Policy Council, and continued support of Evangelical Lutheran Church in America congregations throughout the West, especially those in the Grand Canyon Synod (Southern Nevada) and Sierra Pacific Synod (Northern Nevada). While other supported bills did not make it to the governor’s desk, the session as a whole yielded positive, justice and fairness-driven change at the state level as the world continued to recover from the economic and social shocks of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Fond Goodbyes

The year 2023 also brought loss to the LEAN family.

On April 15, Larry Struve, who for more than a decade led the advocacy efforts for LEAN and its previous incarnations including Lutheran Episocopal Advocacy in Nevada, Lutheran Advocacy Ministry in Nevada and the Religious Alliance in Nevada, passed at age 80 after a long illness. Larry spent more than 26 years in public service, including stints in the Nevada Attorney General’s office and Washoe County District Attorney’s office, and as Director of Nevada’s Commerce Department and Director of Business Finance and Planning for the Nevada Department of Business and Industry. He was also a lifelong member of Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Reno.

Larry set the standard for faith-based advocacy in the state, chronicling his efforts in his 2013 book A Humble Walk for Justice: Advocacy for the Least of These in Nevada, 2001-2012. “When the simple act of advocacy directed at the hearts and minds of those entrusted to govern made policy decisions that better served the common good, something was at work that appealed to the better nature of those officials,” he wrote in the book’s introduction. “The words spoken by an advocate, grounded in the wisdom of scripture, helped define what justice required in modern times.”

Larry’s successor, Mike Patterson, passed on November 13. An ordained Episcopal priest and former school teacher, Mike acted as LEAN’s legislative advocate for several years, speaking strongly for state support of the public education system and stronger laws against the scourge of human trafficking. He also led several direct community outreach efforts on LEAN’s behalf, including food drives for the Food Bank of Northern Nevada and what he called “Pencils for Pupils,” which provided school supplies to teachers in at-risk elementary and middle schools.

Larry and Mike were tireless, dedicated, and focused advocates on behalf of thousands of Christian believers in Nevada’s halls of power. Their spirits will live on as LEAN charts its way forward, toward the next legislative session and beyond.

Another Goodbye, New Challenges

In November 2017, LEAN named Bill Ledford as its new legislative advocate on the recommendation of Mike Patterson, who went on to mentor Bill during the 2019 session while continuing on as a policy board member (another experienced Christian advocate and board member, Allan Smith, also served as an interim LEAN advocate and advisor as well as a board member).

Recently relocated to Nevada from Oregon with a young family, Bill brought to LEAN a deep desire to live out his Christian faith as tireless voice for the state’s marginalized residents, including LBGTQI+ communities. He served with distinction through three legislative session even as he attended Lutheran seminary and learned the liturgical and leadership ropes as an intern at Lord of Mercy in Sparks, Nevada. He completed his studies and was recommended for ordination as the new year dawned.

Bill’s commitment to Christian leadership and service was realized with his calling to be pastor at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Logan, Utah, a congregation in the Rocky Mountain Synod of the ELCA. He was ordained as pastor of word and sacrament at Lord of Mercy on March 3 with Rocky Mountain Bishop Jim Gonia presiding, and will begin his pastorate in Utah on March 10.

Bill’s blessed departure positions LEAN at an important crossroads, with much discernment and direction to be undertaken and pursued over the balance of 2024, with input from national and synod leaders, congregations and their pastors, and other interested parties.

While the policy board update its partnership agreements and job descriptions in preparation to seek and identify at least one new legislative advocate—and perhaps two, representing the northern and southern halves of the state—longtime board member Vic Williams will serve as as connection point for Bill’s ministry partners throughout the west and state, reaching out to stakeholders to maintain a continuous conversation regarding ideas, goals and best practices. Meanwhile, the policy board will continue its work to identify and welcome new members to its ranks, with the goal of establishing proper representation from all corners of the state. The board nominally meets monthly via Zoom with the legislature is in session and at least bimonthly during off years, and strives to meet in person periodically as well.

Broad goals for LEAN in the near term also include:

• Identifying and recruiting contacts at the congregational level to keep members apprised of activities, events and advocacy opportunities, and inviting policy input at the pew level

• Planning and coordinating informative, effective, and useful events on a regional or congregational basis. These could include seminars on various public needs and ministry goals, led by LEAN and its advocacy partners, non-profit organization and public assistance agencies, and other stakeholders

• Work more closely with other organizations and agencies to identify opportunities for fundraising and volunteer involvement

LEAN will post updates on policy objectives, staffing and board progress, and other news in the coming months. In the native, Nevadans who feel called to become a LEAN policy board member or serve in some other capacity can contact Vic Williams at vwilliams@leanforjustice.org.

LEAN POLICY BOARD

Pastor Diane Drach-Meinel, President

Dr. Ed Cotton, Vice-President

Vic Williams, Secretary/Treasurer

Pastor Mari Larson, At-Large Member