Conference addresses the obstacles to advocacy

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ATLANTA – “Sometimes advocacy or social justice just turns people off,” Ivy Lopedito said March 7 at a panel on advocacy put together by Seminarians for Peace at the Columbia Theological Seminary. Lopedito acknowledged how triggering certain words could be due to the divisiveness currently plaguing our nation and advised people to return to the humanizing practice of telling our stories as an initial step to overcome obstacles one faces in the public square.

Other panelists agreed with Lopedito that practices to build community were essential to treat the current state of divide and despair in our nation. “The cure to despair is community,” said the Rev. Matthew Johnson, the Atlanta field office director of Faith and Public Life Action. The Rev. Dr. Alonzo Johnson, manager of the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People (SDOP), saw apathy as the biggest obstacle to social justice in our time. Johnson believes the church exists to address apathy along with other obstacles people face when taking action for the common good. “The church is God’s community organizing” said Johnson. (This coming Sunday, March 16, is designated as a special emphasis day to lift up the work of the SDOP with new resources available on its site).

The panel of denominational, national and local advocacy partners was the last breakout session of the two-day event, Call to Justice: Advocacy Training Days, hosted by Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia.

Other sessions included topics such as advocacy as spiritual practice, the Christian foundations of public witness, environmental justice, affordable housing, immigration and systemic poverty.

The power of stories to counter dehumanizing narratives was a starting place recommended by Catherine Gordon in a breakout group she led with the Rev. Christina Cosby on advocacy for immigrants and refugees. “How do we change that narrative?” asked Gordon, who described how “the dehumanization of migrants that we saw during the election set up a situation where these dehumanizing actions can happen.”

As staff in the Washington, D.C., Office of Public Witness of the Interim Unified Agency of the PC(USA), Gordon and Cosby covered the complexities of concerns they are following on the public policy side related to the status of immigrants and refugees under the new presidential administration. The Office of Public Witness is part of the Interfaith Immigration Coalition working on asylum, immigration and refugee issues. Cosby and Gordon are particularly following changes in budgetary priorities in the fiscal year appropriation cycle and how proposals to increase funding to detention centers, immigration enforcement and border security while decreasing funding to humanitarian needs programs like SNAP and Medicaid or cuts to USAID are affecting immigrants and potentially reintroducing resistant strains of global viruses.

In this moment, “the U.S. is particularly poised to say that we're going to take programs from vulnerable, marginalized, poor people and use that funding to hurt other marginalized, vulnerable people,” said Cosby.

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Cosby also addressed the moves to strip certain designated populations of different countries of Temporary Protected Status, which allows people who have migrated under duress of violent conflict, climate change or economic and racial disparities to live and work in the U.S. for a period of 6–12 months. Such reductions in Temporary Protected Status “are disproportionately affecting Black, brown and Arab-skinned people,” said Cosby.

Cosby’s work is set by the overall policy direction determined by the General Assembly of the PC(USA). The Office of Public Witness responds to General Assembly policies through their work with Congress, the administration and administrative offices, which includes supporting immigrants, refugees and other vulnerable populations. Many of these populations and the issues that affect them have been caught in the crossfire of the more than 80 executive orders passed in the first 50 days of the new administration.

“Chaos is a strategy,” said Cosby, who described how “something new is coming from the administration, the White House executive orders and administrative rules on Friday nights.” Cosby described how the process starts over again the following week, making it difficult for nonprofit advocacy groups to convene and strategize before the next order hits. It’s a strategy Cosby recognizes from the first Trump administration, particularly with the Muslim Travel Ban. The timing and frequency of orders leave many people caught in the limbo between the orders and their execution. “Be mindful that people are caught in the middle. Right when a new executive order or a new bill is passed, it's not yet determined how that should or shouldn’t be implemented or read or translated into local communities, like people currently at the border, at work, at the airport or perhaps just on a layover.”

“As a faith community, it’s really important to be mindful of those middle moments,” advised Cosby. “How can you and your community, your family, wherever you find yourself in this story and in this situation, be prepared to support and be present for those in the middle?”

Despite the tumult, Gordon assured the group that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and its interfaith partners do have a respected voice in the nation’s capital due to our connections with impacted communities across the world. “Sometimes we think that the church isn't listened to,” said Gordon, “but especially in terms of international issues, because we have partners all over the world and because we are in contact with the most impacted, officials at the State Department respect the voices that we're conveying,” said Gordon, emphasizing that “the church and the faith community have respect and a good reputation in D.C.”

Gordon encouraged seminaries and leaders to attend the online Advocacy Hours hosted by the Office of Public Witness on the fourth Wednesday of the month. The next one, to be held March 26, will cover immigration and will feature Amanda Craft, manager for Immigration Advocacy of the Interim Unified Agency.