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Dear Friends:

With all that’s going on, massive cuts proposed for both social supports and even our earned income for retirement, the House budget yesterday had infuriating projections for our nation.

Despite cutting TRILLIONS from all government programs, the addition of another massive tax cut for billionaires and corporations will actually ADD $2.2 TRILLION to our national debt.  The cuts to food, medical care, humanitarian aid, and everything else we’ve fought for over the years is just to ease that mischief, not solve a problem.

The loss of income to working families and the poor will have consequences.  Every human being serves two economic functions: they produce goods and services that generate wealth for companies and the nation.  The second function we all have is as consumers. We buy the things we and others make.  Without that function, the entire system collapses.  Silicon Valley sells information technology mostly to businesses. Businesses produce things that we buy.  The failure of us to buy ripples upward to not needing information technology or anything else.  Our role as consumers is critical to the whole mix.  

Using that power and leverage, we at California Council of Churches are working with thousands of groups to encourage a one-day economic boycott of everything except very local businesses.  No shopping means no income to the rich who are getting tax breaks on our backs and those of the poor.  

Yes, it’s a token. But as in “A Day without a Mexican”, sometimes the power of a demonstration has significance to other people’s understanding.   This is also consistent with our Lenten awareness of sacrifice.  It’s a small thing, but it may have huge impacts.

Please join with others and boycott everything – large food retailers, fast food, big box stores, Amazon, and the like. The is foreshadowing for them. If we lose income to finance their tax cuts? They will lose much more from our inability to be consumers. It won’t be just one day then. It will be all days.    

If you know homeless or very low income working people, they are exempt from this. They are living on the margins and, if they need a burger from McDs because they can access it, well, so be it.  We don’t need to ask them to sacrifice more. They already are.  Power matters. So does kindness.

We urge your participation. You can also Google corporate consumer lines to call to let them know you will not be shopping with them Friday and why.  “A Day without Our Dollars.”  We can do this!

Thank you!

Well, the rancid Senate budget is done and on its way to the House.  We could not stop it in the Senate, but we have a serious chance in the House.

Determined to cut $800-plus billion from federal spending, the budget slashes basic programs including Medicaid (in California it’s Medi-Cal) that is a major lifeline for many working families and for the poor.  It also has daggers set toward changing Social Security and Medicare that are NOT take supported and are not in the federal master budget.  Those are savings plans to which each of us contributes per paycheck. The money is deposited to OUR accounts in OUR names for OUR retirement.  

The rationale for cutting SSA is based on lies.  Greedy opponents of SSA claim, without foundation, that people well over 100 years old are collecting, so it’s obvious fraud.  Claims that people who are 200-360 are on the rolls.  First, that’s impossible.  We started paying SSA in 1937, 88 years ago. Very few who collected then were 100 plus, and certainly not 272 years old in 1937!  Hyperbolic lies do not make a case.  Are there names of people who now would be very, very old?  Yes. Historic records of everyone exist. But they obviously can’t collect.  That’s all they found.  Nobody much is abusing SSA because death notices are always sent by officials, not the family, to SSA. So let’s not worry about the miniscule times someone’s icky nephew managed to collect fraudulently.  

SSA is fiscally stable, and Medicare as well.  Yes, they need replenishment, but not for many years yet.  That’s a different story.  Some who opposed all social supports want access to our money to invest. No way!

Medicaid was revolutionized via the Affordable Care Act allowing adults without children to enroll.  It was literally life changing for the working people with no benefits and particularly for the homeless with no children.  People could get treated beyond “charity care” that was always too little to afford anything but rationing. Now people had access to care and medication that saved their lives. With the specter of avian flu hanging over us, we cannot afford as a society to let significant numbers be hurt by removing Medicaid or for us to be hurt by letting people be carriers of a contagious disease.  Medicaid is also what keeps our elders in nursing homes when their own resources have dried up.  Killing or cutting the program is a horrific way to find funds to allow further tax cuts for the rich.

How can we stop these cuts?  

The House margin of pro-cut votes to anti-cut votes is tiny. There are fewer than the 218 needed to pass anything. We need to take advantage of this moment to prevent the harm such cuts to basic programs would do.

Please call your House member every day regardless of party to emphasize how much we need Medicaid, Social Security, and Medicare to keep our society functioning.  Call all Reps – never mind party – to express your support for Medicaid and also for Medicare and SSA.  

PLEASE CALL THE CAPITOL TODAY AND EARLY TUESDAY.  202-224-3121 and ask for your Representative.  Our voices are needed NOW!

Thank you!!

Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness…Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’  Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy,^[a] drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.       

—Matthew 10: 1, 6-7

Dear Friends:

The most recent news from Congress is that our upcoming budget needs $880 BILLION in cuts. To secure that amount – which, oddly enough, would cover the massive new tax cut to the most wealthy – the key program being targeted is Medicaid. In California the program is known as Medi-Cal.  

This, as you likely know, covers millions who otherwise cannot afford any health care at all.  What you may not realize is that in most states, the care of the indigent is required by law, but the states have to pay providers in hospitals “charity care” which is a huge drain on state resources.  It also produces substandard care since state reimbursements are very low, and patients are often “dumped” back onto the streets, homes if they have them, to recuperate on their own.

Since the advent of the Affordable Care Act implemented in 2013, millions who never had insurance now do. This includes the homeless since it also covered single adults for the first time.  As you can well imagine, living outside in tents in all weather has health impacts on this population, and their ability to get care to keep healthier and to live longer has markedly improved.

As we face a possible new pandemic of “avian flu”, removing medical care from lower income people would be disastrous for us all.  If it becomes transmissible between humans, it will be catastrophic to have uninsured populations who cannot receive flu shots and other protections.  They, in turn, would imperil us all.  Avian flu untreated is far more lethal than even COVID.  

It is imperative that we make our voices heard NOW to prevent the “least and the lost” from becoming sacrifices to pay off billionaire tax cuts.  Please start calling your Congressional representative whoever that may be, and make clear that taking medical coverage from the poor may be lethal to us all.  For those Representatives who might be open to a moral framing, please remind them that Jesus put healing the sick as the first thing for his disciples to do. If they claim to be Christian, how can they ignore that priority?

Please call the US Capitol switchboard: 202-224-3121 to ask for your Representative.  If you are unsure who that is or want their direct number, please check Find Your Representative | house.gov   We understand that normal switchboard numbers are about 40 per hour.  These days it’s about 1600 per hour, so you may wish to call directly.  You CAN call the district office or offices, but the Capitol is more effective.  Leave a voice mail if the phone is unanswered.  Be sure to give your name and city, and it’s always useful to cite your congregation if you have one.  Every bit of “weight” we can bring to bear is useful.  Call daily if you can.  Please enlist others as well.

I will mention, though probably not needed, that politeness counts.  We have heard that folks from our side are angry and occasionally abusive.  This is not useful.  It tends to get one discounted as a “crank”.  I always say I am proud of our members for being good spokespeople who are rarely rowdy.  In this day and age, that alone makes one stand out.  So if you share this information, please remind new people we aren’t (yet) Jesus flipping the tables in the temple; we are being persuasive. 

Thank you!

• Psalm 71:9“Do not cast me off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength is spent” 

Dear Friends:

As you no doubt have read, an unelected and actually unappointed person, Elon Musk, has taken access of our personal records at several different federal agencies not least of which is the US Treasury.  He has said that he and his totally unqualified and also unappointed “team” of young computer people ages 19-25, are reading our records in preparation for ending our services.

• Romans 16:18“For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites” 

These include Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California).  They purport to be looking for fraud as if a cursory reading could remotely determine that among millions of recipients.  At particular risk are those on disability that they think is all fraud. Anyone who ever tried to get it knows how hard it is to be granted such status. The monthly payments for disability barely keep one’s head above water. 

SSA and Medicare are OUR savings plans in OUR accounts, in OUR names. Those on disability are also served by these programs even if they are children with disabilities or serious medical problems.  We all contribute to make that possible. It is part of “promote the General Welfare” of the Constitution.

No one should be cut off, especially without full case review.  These funds support our elders when their own resources are gone. It’s what we spend 40 years building up so we can be secure in our old age. Everyone has contributed something to the fund. It’s ours for our old age and for those whom we love.

Please call immediately to your Congressional Representative and make clear that this money must remain intact and for our benefit!  No interloper can be the judge of us and our uses of our own funds.  That’s theft!

Please call the Capitol Switchboard 202-224-3121 and ask to speak to your Congressperson.  Please share this widely around the country.  Congress MUST hear from us now.  There is no time to waste.  Call as often as you feel necessary no matter who your Representative is.  They have to know our views.  Please add “weight” of opinion to saving our own resources!

Thank you! 

Listen here, mortal: God has already made abundantly clear what “good” is, and what [The Holy One] needs from you: simply do justice, love kindness, and humbly walk with your God. 

— Micah 6:8, Inclusive Bible

Dear Friends:

The worst assault on religious freedom lies before us.  

As you no doubt know, the homily offered by Bishop Mariann Budde of the Washington National Cathedral was not well received by many in the larger Christian community.  

Within mainline Protestants, her comments were uplifting and central to our view of mercy and compassion, for kindness to the “stranger”, and care for the oppressed in our society.  To others, however, her comments were seen as hateful simply for being expressed to a man in power.

California Council of Churches IMPACT and all of us in the mainline Protestant communities of faith now face a rancid House Resolution, H.Res. 59 by Oklahoma Congressman, Josh Brecheen.  The resolution calls for condemning Bishop Budde by declaring her statement both political and a “distorted message.”  A DISTORTED MESSAGE?  

The Congressman is using the power of the House to declare what Americans can and cannot believe. It implicitly dictates what even a Bishop can and cannot say of the denomination’s principles.  This is the opening salvo in the assault against freedom of religion.

Never in the history of the United States has Congress ever sought to dictate what comprises acceptable faith principles.  The sheer gall it takes to denounce the Bishop who heads our national cathedral where all views and faiths are welcome is appalling. It is also dangerous. This Resolution abets a march towards theocracy that cannot stand.  

Please do not hesitate.  Call your Representative this week, many times this week, to denounce the Resolution as a clear violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution and of Congress’s duty of care to uphold the right to all views without interference from them. 

Please call the US Capitol House switchboard at:  (202) 224-3121.   To find your Representative’s name and direct line, please go to”

Find Your Representative | house.gov

Thank you!   We cannot let this assault on religious freedom go unchallenged. 

Dear friends,

Many of us are experiencing a heavy, familiar grief as we get ready for the chaotic years of the upcoming administration. We dreamed of progress, concern for the welfare of all, and a nation that values compassion and justice. We hoped to guide our congregations to expand their focus on the common good so we can embrace all of God’s children without exception. Rather, we find ourselves preparing our churches to deal with the harsh reality that this struggle is far from over. We bear the burden of the future and the heartache of knowing that hatred and division have gained new ground.

Many congregations affiliated with our member denominations throughout California have long and faithfully worked to address the most pressing needs in their local communities. Others have struggled to discern how they can make a difference for the most vulnerable in their neighborhoods.

In response to urgent needs for churches to find the best resources available to help them pursue their most needed social justice ministries and protect the most vulnerable among us following the recent national election, the California Council of Churches is ramping up plans to create a statewide Best Practices Network and Resource Center. This is to offer support, training, and empowerment to thousands of congregations in our mainline and progressive member denominations in every corner of the state to identify and address the social justice issues they feel are most pressing in their local communities.

We will accomplish this by gathering best practices: actions and resources from our member denominations, judicatories, and congregations and creating an online Justice Seekers Resource Center for issues they support effectively in housing, food, medical help, community gardens, coops, etc., provide useful reading materials as well, both spiritual and practical, and provide public policy training and advocacy to empower local congregations to advocate on the local and federal levels for compassionate and just policies to protect and lift up our neighbors. As funding permits, we plan to offer workshops throughout the state for congregations to come together and work with trained consultants to help them develop effective social justice ministries in their local communities and connect with existing organizations doing effective work in their areas of concern.

Many of you have long supported the work of the Council and IMPACT and you know that the combination of the end of denominational and judicatory support and the drop in individual support since COVID has severely restricted our ability to be as effective as we would like to be. Libby and I are both looking to pass the torch on to a younger group of activists with the energy and passion to rise to the current challenge. To accomplish this, we need your help and support.

Below are a few ways you can support our work and I am attaching a short summary you can use when talking to others in your church, community, and regional/denominational leadership. Can you help us raise the first $75,000 we need to get this work launched and secure a fund development professional to sustain this work for the long haul? Please do not hesitate to be in touch with us if you have questions, ideas, or resources to share.

How Can You Help?

• Make a generous contribution to support our work 
• You can donate online at calchurches.org or churchimpact.org or by mail here.
• Share and help us identify the best resources and models for successful justice work from your region, congregation, denomination, etc.
• Help us identify funding sources and fund development professionals we can pursue to support this work.
• Advocate for us with the leadership of your conference, region, synod, diocese, or area for urgent one-time funding and ongoing support

With gratitude for your activism and support,

The Rev Dr Rick Schlosser, Executive Director                                    

Elizabeth (Libby) Sholes, Public Policy Advocate