{"id":79,"date":"2017-01-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-01-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/calchurches.planetpov.com\/impact\/index.php\/2017\/01\/05\/faithful-five-minutes-our-new-advocacy-for-democracy\/"},"modified":"2017-01-05T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-01-05T00:00:00","slug":"faithful-five-minutes-our-new-advocacy-for-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/churchimpact.org\/index.php\/2017\/01\/05\/faithful-five-minutes-our-new-advocacy-for-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"FAITHFUL FIVE MINUTES – OUR NEW ADVOCACY FOR DEMOCRACY"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Dear Friends:<\/span><\/p>\n

California Church IMPACT has tried to build on the outstanding and inspiring work of Rev. William Barber in North Carolina who created \u201cMoral Mondays\u201d as a means of bringing faith and justice voices to that state Capitol.<\/span><\/p>\n

We have encouraged you to work locally, to meet and lobby your state Legislators in your own districts.\u00a0 We have encouraged you to do that as \u201cFaithful Fridays<\/strong>\u201d, the day Legislators are most likely to be present where you live.<\/span><\/p>\n

With respect to how we advocate in Washington, DC, we are taking a very different path.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two days ago citizens were successful in stopping the House of Representatives from obliterating the office that oversees ethical issues.\u00a0 Calls flooded the House from every corner of America, and the vote of the full house never came to the floor.<\/span><\/p>\n

We know that emails to Congress are not effective. Calls, however, are. Your voices matter \u2013 and we\u2019ve just seen that in action.<\/span><\/p>\n

We are facing challenges to every single thing most of us hold dear \u2013 abolition of health care, massive cuts to the social safety net, wrenching dislocation of Social Security and Medicare \u2013 things that will impact both the very poor and then all of us.<\/span><\/p>\n

We are now encouraging each of you to participate in \u201c<\/font><\/span>Faithful Five Minutes<\/strong><\/span>\u201d.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

Calls do not have to be long or detailed.\u00a0 Calling Congress involves about five minutes \u2013 the time it takes to brush and floss your teeth.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Democracy requires more of us than just incidental engagement. It is not a spectator sport no matter how often we yell at the television. It\u2019s upon us as citizens and advocates for justice to do more.<\/span><\/p>\n

Please make <\/span>Faithful Five Minutes<\/font><\/strong><\/span> a daily habit. Spread the word to your friends, family, congregation, and especially youth groups.\u00a0 One call, once a day on a topic of concern. You can change the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

Are you worried you will be considered a crank? Well, that\u2019s fine. So be it. Some years ago one woman contacted a California state senator almost daily over her insistence that he take up animal welfare as an issue. He brushed her off since that was not a concern upon which he focused. However, she called regularly, day after day, until finally \u2013 he did it!\u00a0 Her persistence paid off royally.\u00a0 He took up the issue partly to get her to stop calling but also because she taught him something about it. If that\u2019s being a crank, all to the good!<\/span><\/p>\n

With huge money in politics these days,\u00a0 the one things that overwhelms money is votes. If voters \u2013 citizens \u2013 speak up constantly the very force of their presence is more powerful than all the campaign donations in the world. Make clear what you believe and how that translates into support for your elected officials.\u00a0 It\u2019s powerful.<\/span><\/p>\n

Keep on with Faithful Fridays for California legislation<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Include a new daily habit with <\/span>Faithful Five Minutes<\/font><\/strong><\/span>: eat your breakfast, take your vitamins, brush your teeth,\u00a0 CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nothing could be easier.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy name is______ I live at _________ I am part of the ____________ (church, denomination, organization).\u00a0 I want you to vote\u00a0 FOR\/AGAINST________________. Thank you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

We will send information on issues as they arise. For now, the issue at most risk is the Affordable Care Act. We sent information about it, but the message to your Representative simply is “I want you to preserve ACA and improve it. Do not change, or dismantle, or defund it.”<\/span><\/p>\n

To obtain your Representative’s number, please go to: http:\/\/www.churchimpact.org\/take-action.html<\/span><\/a><\/span>
Be sure your address and\/or ZIP are entered, and that will take you to your elected officials’ home page.<\/span><\/p>\n

To call the US Capitol and be connected to your Representative, call (202) 224-3121.<\/span><\/p>\n

Simple, clear, your own voice raised for justice.<\/span><\/p>\n

Faithful Five Minutes<\/font><\/strong><\/span>.\u00a0 It\u2019s the new routine for a robust democracy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thank you!<\/span><\/div>\n

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Dear Friends: California Church IMPACT has tried to build on the outstanding and inspiring work of Rev. William Barber in North Carolina who created \u201cMoral … Read More ›<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/churchimpact.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/churchimpact.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/churchimpact.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/churchimpact.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/churchimpact.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/churchimpact.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/churchimpact.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/churchimpact.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/churchimpact.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}