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People of faith say YES on Proposition 50

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Proposition 50                                                                                         Recommendation: SUPPORT

Authorizes Temporary Changes to Congressional District Maps in Response to Texas’ Partisan Redistricting. Legislative Constitutional Amendment

California Council of Churches IMPACT is the advocacy sister organization of the California Council of Churches.  We serve 1.5 million members within 21 denominations and organizations of the mainline Protestant communities of faith in our state.  We have as the Council offered educational background on public policy since 1913 and direct advocacy on issues via IMPACT since 1995. As an organization, we have no single public policy expertise, but we act for our diverse citizens whose core interest is the preservation of our democratic Republic.

Because of our unique position, CCC IMPACT was part of the Common Cause panel that created what became the Citizens Commission on Redistricting.  It was one of our proudest moments because it put California in the lead nationally for restoring legitimacy to redistricting, ending partisanship in that process.

However well California did, nationally, partisanship has increased not decreased. Today we are faced with a challenge that is painful but necessary.  Redistricting is normally done once a decade based on new census figures. This year, however, naked partisanship and power grabs are leading some states, notably Texas, to do mid-decade redistricting that is blatantly seeking a highly partisan distribution of Congressional seats in violation of the Voting Rights Act and non-partisan outcomes. It is being done to remove Congressional oversight of the Executive branch, and that is entirely unacceptable.

Proposition 50 commits California to balancing that outcome. It will also permit mid-decade redistricting to offer equal numbers of seats to offset those in Texas.  It is a one-time, limited action for the good of the Republic. We, not the legislature, are making this choice.

Proposition 50 will sunset in 2030, the Commission will be restored for the new census, and many of the Commission’s founding groups are, like CCC IMPACT, supporting this ballot measure. We believe we have a larger call to counteract the biased, naked power grab in other states.  We think it is moral and just to take our nation’s well being into account in the face of such a national threat to democracy. By giving us a voice in the decision, we exercise democracy to save democracy. We encourage every voter to support Proposition 50 to restore balance to our federal system. It’s the right thing to do.

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Spread the Word!

We encourage members and friends to distribute these ballot guides from now until the election through “IMPACT Sundays.” More information on IMPACT Sundays is available on our website. We thank you for your interest in encouraging active deliberation on these and all issues that affect our democratic process and our moral perspectives as people of faith. If you find these recommendations helpful, please help defray the cost with a contribution to California Council of Churches IMPACT. You can help us by making sure we have your email address! Because of the cost of postage, we must cut costs by sending our mailings electronically. Please sign up by clicking the “Join Our Mailing List” button on our website! 

You can download a PDF of this document here

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Dear Friends,

This morning, Saturday September 27, the president of the United States ordered ICE and regular military into Portland OR and to ICE detention units to enforce his horrific detention of immigrants.

He ordered these troops, our military, to use “full force” when they thought necessary.

That means lethal action against demonstrators and immigrant advocates. It places our friends and allies with Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity and every volunteer trying to help immigrant families in deadly peril. 

So many of the people swept off our streets into detention have been lawfully present that the abject horror of these deeds cannot be overstated. This is not at all about “the worst of the worst” being removed from our nation. It’s full out war on immigrants whoever they are. 

Now it’s a war on us all.

We call on you to please raise your objections in your congregations, your social circles, and with your Representatives at local, state, and federal levels. The laws of war are clear — lethal force by our military CANNOT be used against American Citizens. Executive fiat is NOT adequate to override the law. 

During the upcoming shutdown of our government, Representatives will be at home. Please use this time to contact them locally. These outrageous violations of our Constitution and our statutory laws cannot go on. Please speak out for justice and for the lives of our brave fighters for justice on the streets.

Thank you.

Eliabeth Sholes

Public Policy Advocate

California Council of Churches IMPACT was part of the convocation established by California Common Cause to create and support the founding of the Citizens’ Commission on Redistricting.  We believe totally in the need for fair non-partisan redistricting to create and maintain legitimacy in our election process.  Voters should have the right to pick their representatives.  Representatives and their parties should not pick their voters.

We have stood 100% on this accomplishment.  Until now.

As we watch the march of both fascists and theocrats, we see the erosion of all we cherish. Our entire system of law, polity, decency, freedom is cracking and beginning to fall.  We are, as people of faith, being told we’re unworthy, that our work for justice is somehow wrong because a few can’t tolerate equality.  We are being told our care for creation, our support for the ‘alien’ are wrong, that democracy is expendable, that power and money and might must prevail. 

We resist on every level the erosion of democracy with its liberties and freedoms. We take the Constitution seriously as a secular document that enables our faith values to flourish.  We will not cede any of that. We do not accept fascism, authoritarianism, tyranny. We will not abide any of it without resistance.

We see enablers of authoritarianism in Texas proposing to redistrict mid-decade to hand ONE man, Donald Trump, an utterly complicit Congress.  Unless courts shut down this unprecedented theft of districts, districts designed to eliminate minority voters’ voices and choices, we in other states are commanded to find extraordinary responses.  

We in California have the opportunity to offset the numbers of seats Texas proposes with equal numbers in opposition. It may seem partisan, but the issues of freedom, of accountable government, of the survival of our Constitution are what all is on the line. This is not an ordinary circumstance. It calls for innovative strategies.

In 1776, Thomas Paine wrote in his pamphlet, “The American Crisis” that the colonies faced massive civic, moral, and practical challenges.  “These are the times that try men’s souls” he stated.  

We face the same kind of crisis today. The times today try our souls and call us to resist.

This November there will be a special election to suspend the work of the Citizens’ Commission on Redistricting and allow redistricting to gain more Congressional seats that will provide opposition to authoritarianism in Washington DC.  It is a move made in direct confrontation of the Texas plan that will be followed in other states that seem to have no problem enhancing the march to authoritarianism.  We as citizens of both California and the United States are called to do what is unprecedented and fight back with something we would otherwise find odious.  We see no other alternative. 

We are heartened by the public declaration by the Citizens Commission that they unanimously agree with this ballot measure, this strategy.  The Commission is made up of Democrats, Republicans, and no-affiliation members. That they see the threat to democracy as the Governor, Gavin Newsom does, is stunning. They support passage of the ballot measure.  

I helped create the Commission.  IMPACT backed it. We believe in what it has accomplished. 

But we are urging a YES vote on the dissolution of existing districting in favor of fighting for the greater good.  These are not ordinary times. They require extraordinary measures.

If you ever asked yourself what you would have done if you lived in Weimar Germany in the 1930s, well, the challenge is upon us all. The greater principle of obstructing fascism must prevail.  Germans didn’t get the chance to fight legally and politically against Hitler.  We have the opportunity to fight the authoritarianism closing in around us.  We cannot ignore the call.

Spread the word!  We will issue a formal ballot statement when the measure is ready for the election.  Until then please do the teaching in your congregations and communities.  These are necessary changes to save our nation and all that we believe.  This is a key part of our Resistance.  Please keep it alive!

Thank you.

Eliabeth Sholes

Public Policy Advocate

Dear Friends,

The bill we wrote about earlier, SB 805 the “No Vigilantes””Bill, has passed all its hurdles in committees. Now it’s headed to the Assembly Floor, last step before it becomes a law, and we need your voices.

This bill would give local police the right and duty to demand identification from those purporting to be ICE agents. It would require said agents to remove masks while operating in this state. These are critical issues since we have confirmed reports of criminals posing as ICE to harm people in many ways, and assuring their identity is a major safety measure. 

In another state, two men posing as ICE agents tried to break into a home and were killed by the homeowner. They were not ICE. We deserve, and they need legal identification for our safety — and theirs. Still other cases of abductions of especially women have resulted in rape and murder and cannot be tolerated. We deserve transparency in law enforcement and safety in all police actions.

Please contact your Assembly Member and support SB 805. We do not need the awkward portal for contact, and in fact can’t use it for floor votes, so please go to 

Welcome to the California State Assembly | California State Assembly to obtain your Assembly Member’s contact information. You may email, phone, or use their contact portal to express your support. 

Time is of the essence. Please let the Assembly know how essential this action is to honest law enforcement practices and to public safety. 

Thank you!

Elizabeth Sholes

Public Policy Advocate

Dear Friends,

This is a request to sign on to SB 805 by Senator Sasha Renee Perez (D-Pasadena). It is a new revision to her bill that now requires police to enforce an existing standard of no face coverings for law enforcement of any kind operating in the state of California. 

This replaces the original version of SB 805, so if you bump into insurance issues, that is no longer the focus and language of the bill. 

Why Sen. Perez did this:

As you no doubt know, ICE agents have been obscuring their ID and covering their faces with masks, gaiters, hoods to prevent detection by the immigrants they are apprehending and bystanders videoing them.  The problem is, no one has verified, since they drive private vehicles, that these are actual federally authorized agents.  We have learned that several times they have been vigilantes, bounty hunters and opportunists, sweeping people off the street who are never heard from again.  

Phony ICE gear can be purchased on Amazon. Anyone can pretend to be an agent. Many of the quasi-official ones are actually bounty hunters defying California state limits on their actions and don’t want this known.  We know of one horror story of a fake ICE agent who, in another state, abducted, raped, and killed four women while a fifth escaped to tell the story.  This is horrific and has to stop!

We urge you and your congregations to support this simple law – reveal identities, show your faces.  No excuses about “risks” cover them more than for any California law enforcement officers.  

Your letter should go to Assembly Public Safety before July 15.  

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR LETTER. WE HATE THIS, BUT HERE IT IS:

Now, the second part of this is to tell you how to submit a letter.  Since COVID, all letters have to be filed electronically through a “legislative portal”.   

The Public Safety Committee has a direct link to where you file the letter: Welcome to the Committee on Public Safety | California State Assembly  It is right below the pictures of the committee leadership. 

It is one of our greatest beefs that this system is not very easy to use, so Public Safety has provided a guide usable for all letters to all committees.    

2019 Committee Services: Position Letter Portal (Quick Reference Sheet) (ca.gov)

One does have to set up an account either organizationally (page 1) or individually (page 2).  Once that’s done, the REALLY annoying part, it will always come back to you for any future letters you want to send.  Thus one bad time of figuring this out will pay off now and later.

We think this simplifies life in the Capitol and offices – and complicates it for citizens, especially those not really comfortable with technology and with legislative templates. They mean something if you already know them – but not if you don’t.  The guide is helpful on those points.  The system just is not very user friendly.

But be assured if I could do it – known widely as “The Queen of the No. 2 Pencil” – you will be able to as well.  Going through the Committee link actually helps. You minimize a few steps, but you STILL have to set up an account.  Sorry – we find no workaround on that.

Please take the time to thrash this out so you can express your support for transparency and safety in every corner of our state. We deserve to know who is operating in a law enforcement capacity – and if they are real. 

No Gestapos! No Secret Police! No Vigilantes!   Keep our state and all its people safe. Support SB 805.  

Thank you!

Elizabeth Sholes

California Church IMPACT

Dear Activists,

The Senate has just passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” and it is now racing toward a vote in the House—a vote could happen at any moment.

We need you to pick up the phone right now and call your Representative to demand they vote NO on this deeply harmful Budget Reconciliation bill. Time is critical. Every minute we wait puts more lives at risk.

If your Representative is on the fence—or worse, feeling pressure to support this bill—they need to hear from you immediately. Remind them: their vote on this bill will be remembered, and they are up for reelection in just 16 months.

This bill directly contradicts the values Christ taught us about compassion, justice, and care for the vulnerable. Urge your congregation, your family, and your community to join you in calling. Forward this email. Post it. Share it everywhere.

If you’ve already called—thank you—but we need you to CALL AGAIN. The pressure must be relentless.

Here’s why this is urgent:

• The Senate version is significantly worse than the House bill.
• House Members were told issues around Medicaid and SNAP would be fixed in the Senate. They were not.
• According to the latest CBO report:
  • 17 million more people will become uninsured.
  • Over $1 trillion will be cut from Medicaid alone.
  • That’s even worse than the already-devastating House version, which would uninsure 16 million.

We cannot allow this to become law.

📞 Call your Representative TODAY.
📢 Ask your friends, your family, and fellow justice seekers to do the same.

You can find your Representative’s contact information on their website or at this link: Find Your Representative

Let’s flood the phones. Let them know we’re watching—and we won’t forget.

In solidarity,
The Rev. Dr. Rick Schlosser, Executive Director

California Council of Churches IMPACT

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