Faith Leaders Advise White House on Human Trafficking Efforts

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Faith-Based Advisory Council, Human trafficking, Katharine Jefferts Schori, Leith Anderson, Lynne Hybels, Mikhail Bell, National Association of Evangelicals, Trafficking Victims Protection Act

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Mikhail Bell (@Bellsworld)

On April 10, the 14-member Faith-Based Advisory Council , of which Katharine Jefferts Schori, Leith Anderson and Lynne Hybels are members, announced the completion of a 36-page report, nearly one year after its first meeting on the issue.

The document, entitled “Building Partnerships to Eradicate Modern-Day Slavery,” recommends that:

1. The Obama Administration lead the effort to elevate and bring to scale the fight against modern-day slavery at home and abroad
2. The Obama Administration lead the effort to eliminate slave labor in the purchase and consumption of goods and services
3. The federal government elevate anti-trafficking work at the agency level
4. The White House convene a National Summit to raise awareness and inspire action to combat modern-day slavery
5. The Obama Administration develop and announce a National Call to Action for civil society to increase and align efforts to eradicate modern-day slavery
6. The Obama Administration produce a toolkit on how religious and community-based organizations can learn more about and take steps to join the fight against trafficking
7. The Obama Administration work with the Ad Council to create a public awareness campaign on how to spot and report signs of trafficking
8. The Obama Administration designate the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) Hotline as the primary national human trafficking hotline promoted to the public
9. U.S. Embassies and USAID Missions work with civil society leaders to develop comprehensive strategies to combat human trafficking and
10. The Corporation for National and Community Service create a pilot partnership to place national service members in Mayors’ and Governors’ offices to help map and coordinate local responses to human trafficking.

Melissa Rogers, who directs the White House Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, wrote that the White House “gladly and gratefully received” the comprehensive document.  Rogers further explained on the White House blog:

“Now that the Administration has received the Advisory Council’s report, its job is to review these recommendations carefully and to respond… Many who now live in the shadows are counting on us to see them and to make changes that will help them to reclaim and restore their lives. This report will be an invaluable resource for us as we continue to work to achieve those aims.”

Cause for Concern?

Even as the Faith-Based Advisory Council contributed to the United State’s anti-trafficking strategy, a specter of dismissal lurked. Leading up to the third annual Easter Prayer Breakfast in April, the council’s future was uncertain. On April 5, Christian Post reported, President Obama issued an executive order that extends their work through 2015. Then, unless the president intervenes again, the group will be disbanded.

In March Congress reauthorized the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), which languished in its halls after expiring in 2011. The bill was previously reauthorized in 2003, 2005, and 2008. After a year and a half of negotiations, America’s federal anti-trafficking legislations cleared both houses as part of the Violence against Woman Act. The latest TVPA, as Concerned Women for America’s Janice Shaw Crouse and Brenda Zurita write, contains controversial provisions.

Read the Faith-Based Advisory Council’s full report here.

Editors note: Janice Shaw Crouse is Chair of the Board of Directors at the Institute on Religion and Democracy.

Episcopal Bishop: Reflect “Divine Glory in Fully Alive-ness” on Climate Activism

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Anders Werjyd, ELCA, Environment, Episcopal, Episcopal Church, Global Warming, Institute on Religion and Democracy, Jeff Walton, Julio Murray, Katharine Jefferts Schori, Lutheran, Marc Andrus, Mariann Budde, Mary Minette, Richard Cizik, Shannon Johnston, Willis Jenkins

Church of Sweden Archbishop Anders Werjyd and Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori present their signed climate change statement at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. on May 1. (Photo: Mariann Budde/Episcopal Diocese of Washington)

By Jeff Walton (@JeffreyHWalton)

The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church encouraged a church climate change gathering to stand firm “in the face of those who would destroy God’s reflection in creation.”

Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori’s words came as Swedish Lutherans and American Episcopalians entered into an agreement on climate change in which the two churches committed to “serve as the hands of God in working to heal the brokenness of our hurting world.”

Release of the joint statement signed by Jefferts Schori and Church of Sweden Archbishop Anders Werjyd came during the event on “Sustaining hope in the face of climate change” held May 1-2 at St. John’s Episcopal Church Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C. The full statement can be viewed here.

The event featured panel discussions on international and local church responses to climate change, as well as a morning of lobbying Congressional and Administration officials on climate policy. The May 2 panels were heard by several Episcopal and Lutheran officials, including Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson, Episcopal Bishop of Washington Mariann Budde, Bishop of Virginia Shannon Johnston, Bishop of Maryland Eugene Sutton, Bishop of California Marc Andrus, Anglican Bishop of Panama Julio Murray and New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good President Richard Cizik, among others.

In a noonday homily at St. John’s, Jefferts Schori recalled St. Athanasius and his opposition to the heresy of Arianism, which espoused a human Jesus fully distinct from God the Father.

“If Jesus were not fully God and fully human it would deny any possibility that beings who inhabit flesh and blood human bodies could have a real relationship with God, whom we call the Holy One,” Jefferts Schori intoned. “It is not only God in human flesh who images the Holy One. All parts of God’s creation must reflect their maker in some way.”

In reference to “the riotous diversity of the flowers of the field,” the creatures of the sea and the sparrows, Jefferts Schori noted that God intends that each should flourish.

“When Jesus says that ‘you will be hated because of what you teach’, well, watch out if you advocate for justice for all the world’s people and all the other parts of creation,” The Episcopal Church official warned. “But don’t be afraid to speak out and tell what you know, for your soul will find life in doing that.”

Quoting Saint Irenaeus, Jefferts Schori remarked “the glory of God is a human being fully alive.”

“Fully alive human beings know themselves made in the image of God. Created as brother to the sun and sister to the moon, friend to the deer and ant and sparrow as well as to the enfolding blanket of atmosphere and ocean we are one family, related through the one who created us to reflect the divine glory in fully alive-ness,” Jefferts Schori declared. “There is no room in that for misusing our brothers and sisters, human or otherwise. There is abundant hope for all given the image we reflect and the ever-creative one in whom we live and move and have our being.”

The Episcopal Church official declared that Athanasius “stood firm in the face of those who would deny God’s presence in human flesh — we must do the same in the face of those who would destroy God’s reflection in creation.”

The midday homily was followed later the same afternoon by a panel on international response to climate change with Murray, scientist Kevin Noone, Professor of Social Ethics Willis Jenkins of Yale Divinity School and Mary Minette, Director of Environmental Education and Advocacy for the ECLA’s Washington Office.

During the panel, Murray advised the church audience to “give the information” that people need to know, rather than answering “wrong questions” reporters may ask. This, he laughed, was risky as “they won’t give the microphone back to you.”

Minette also expressed dissatisfaction with media coverage of climate issues, asserting that reporters cover the issue as an argument, “give voice to dissenters” and elevate a position that she felt was not on equal footing with climate activists.

Asked about mainline Protestant response to climate matters, Minette observed that there was “little interest” in the media among what mainline denominations espoused about the climate, with greater interest directed towards Evangelical Christian responses.

Katharine Jefferts Schori’s Cosmic Earth Day

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Dean Gary R. Hall, Environment, Episcopal, Episcopal Church, Gary Hall, Global Warming, gun control, Gun Violence, Institute on Religion and Democracy, Jeff Walton, Katharine Jefferts Schori, Washington National Cathedral

Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori spoke recently at a Washington National Cathedral service themed around Earth Day. (Photo: The Living Church)

By Jeff Walton (@JeffreyHWalton)

Salvation is a cosmic act about all creation “not simply a few human beings,” according to the Episcopal Church’s top bishop. Speaking April 21 at the Washington National Cathedral, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori gave an Earth Day sermon on becoming “effective shepherds and pasture tenders for the whole creation” but seemed to downplay mankind’s preeminent position in creation, placing humanity on equal footing with microbes.

The Presiding Bishop’s sermon illustrated the interconnectedness of all life with an examination of how humans coexist with bacteria.

“Microbes are part of us, in a very real sense our intimate neighbors or members, and the task is to learn how to manage the system for better health as a whole and in all its parts,” Jefferts Schori proposed.

“This work is about consciousness of our connection to the whole, and tender care of the other parts of that whole,” Jefferts Schori intoned. “It is simply another form of loving our neighbor as ourselves, for the neighbor is actually part of each one of us.”

During the processional hymn “God the sculptor of the mountains” congregants sang of “God the potter of the land: you are womb of all creation.”

The service recalls two of Jefferts Schori’s previous sermons. As Presiding Bishop-elect in 2006, Jefferts Schori stated “Our mother Jesus gives birth to a new creation — and you and I are His children.” At Episcopal General Convention in 2009 the Presiding Bishop denounced “the great Western heresy: that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God.”

Addressing Violence

Jefferts Schori sat down with Cathedral Dean Gary Hall the same morning for an hour-long discussion in which she responded to church controversies, environmental stewardship and openly speculated about women’s ordination in Eastern Orthodoxy.

Asked by Hall to respond at the end of a week of difficult news, the Presiding Bishop reported that the church could assist in building a network of relationships “that provide balance and encourage resilience in the face of challenge.”

“Violence is a response to challenge, loneliness, loss, lack of meaning in life,” Jefferts Schori said. “I think that is a creative place for us to be engaged.”

Jefferts Schori also called Christians to consider their use of language in responding to violence, but was not just referring to intemperate words.

“Is the language we use intrinsically violent, or does it lead towards peace?” the Episcopal Church official asked.

“Think of all the martial hymns we have in the church,” Hall added.

On the Environment

Asked how her background in oceanography informed her understanding of humanity’s interconnectedness with the planet, the Presiding Bishop replied that oceanographers are trained to think systemically and “You can’t study anything in isolation.”

Affirming that the Gospel changed the relationship between human beings and God, Jefferts Schori added “it changed something about the relationship between all of creation and God.”

“We tend to focus very parochially on our own interests” Jefferts Schori observed, asserting it is part of the “eternal human challenge to widen our perspective over who is part of this community.”

On climate change, Jefferts Schori encouraged individuals to make daily decisions about the use of fuel, food, and water to “grow a consciousness” in addressing a “disconnect between daily life and the reality of climate change.”

Recalling his time as Rector of an Episcopal parish in Malibu, California, Hall cited beach erosion as evidence of a changing climate, pegging it to what he asserted were rising sea levels.

Asked about the church’s role in evangelism, Jefferts Schori praised bishops’ gun control advocacy and the Cathedral “being bold and forward in proclaiming what your vision of a healthy society looks like, what the kingdom of God needs to look like in this place.”

The Presiding Bishop also pointed to “movement outside the walls of the church” and “engagement where people spend their lives.”

“We are leaning how to do that, because it’s been so long since we have,” Jefferts Schori revealed.

Addressing Church Controversies

Asked to respond to a statistic that the Episcopal Church is significantly more white than the U.S. population, Jefferts Schori replied that there are places in the Episcopal Church that have been more intentional about embracing diversity but “we’ve got a long way to go.”

Asked to respond to claims that the Episcopal Church is declining due to its embrace of social issues such as same-sex marriage, Jefferts Schori did not contest the claim, instead noting that all mainline traditions are facing numerical decline over the past 30-40 years. The growth of conservative denominations was not mentioned.

“The reality is that any time you take a clear position on something, some people decide that they don’t want anything to do with it,” Jefferts Schori determined. “At the same time, a clear position is also an invitation to those who do want something to do with it.”

Asked about how to match the national church’s emphasis on climate change at the congregational level, Jefferts Schori suggested “you have to be intentional” and that local clergy were concerned about getting burned “preaching about something that is supposedly controversial”.

“I think it is a basic challenge to our understanding of sin,” Jefferts Schori claimed. “We are being self-centered in the way we live on this Earth and it is impacting other people. Sin has consequences. We are dumping our garbage in places that make it more difficult for other people to live.”

The forum concluded with a question about the Presiding Bishop’s legacy and the role of women in the church, Jefferts Schori noted that Mary Magdalene, the first to proclaim the resurrection, is still called by the Eastern Orthodox Church “Apostle to the Apostles”.

“The Orthodox haven’t yet ordained women, although it would appear they are at least theologically more open to it than the Roman Catholic tradition. Women have been essential to the leadership of the church since the very beginning, even though the roles they have been permitted to fulfill have changed.”

Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Testifies for Gun Restrictions

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Anglican, Episcopal, gun control, Institute on Religion and Democracy, Jeff Walton, Katharine Jefferts Schori

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of the Episcopal Church submitted written testimony on February 12 to a Senate panel considering gun control measures. (Photo credit: David Jolkovski/Religion News Service)

By Jeff Walton (@JeffreyHWalton)

Today marks Shrove Tuesday, the day preceding Ash Wednesday when Anglicans, Lutherans and Catholics traditionally emptied their cupboards of eggs, milk and sugar before the ritual fasting of Lent. But while Episcopalians will be serving pancakes, Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is serving up written testimony to a U.S. Senate subcommittee urging Americans to empty their ammunition magazines.

In comments prepared for the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights hearing on “Proposals to reduce gun violence: protecting our communities while respecting the Second Amendment,” the Episcopal Church official decries “massacres in suburban schools and routine death on the streets of our cities.” “Curbs” on weaponry are suggested as limiting violence, but no correlation is made between the success or failure of existing gun control measures, increased gun ownership and a nationwide decrease in violent crime.

Three points are outlined by Jefferts Schori: first, examining the glorification and trivialization of violence and “how civility is lived out in our national affairs, particularly the rhetoric that diminishes and demonizes those who hold competing opinions.”

Second, Jefferts Schori asks lawmakers to address mental health, offering positive words about legislation sponsored by Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Roy Blunt (R-MO), the “Excellence in Mental Health Act” and to treat mental healthcare “as a budgetary priority.”

Finally, the Episcopal Church bishop bemoans an accessibility to guns by those prone to commit crimes, “and the danger posed by the increasingly lethal character of both the weaponry and ammunition available.”

Qualifying her comments by writing that “The Episcopal Church supports the constitutional right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms,” Jefferts Schori clarifies that “law-abiding gun owners are not responsible for the crimes we are discussing today and should not be the focus of our responses to those crimes.”

Jefferts Schori  reports that the church stands “for tighter curbs on weaponry designed primarily to enable more effective killing of other human beings, such as what are commonly referred to as military-style assault rifles.”

“I urge lawmakers to press for comprehensive and universal background checks for firearm ownership, regardless of where and how a gun is purchased; for bans on the availability to civilians of assault rifles and high-capacity magazines; and for policies designed to better regulate the manufacture of guns,” the Presiding Bishop testified.

While the Episcopal Church official referenced previous General Convention resolutions on gun violence, her lone scriptural reference is from Zechariah chapter 8 verses 4-6: “old men and women shall again sit in the streets…And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing.”

“As Christians, we believe that all God’s people should be able to live in peace,” Jefferts Schori explained.

The Presiding Bishops’ testimony follows a national call-in day on February 4, in which Jefferts Schori urged Episcopalians to contact their members of Congress and advocate for additional firearms restrictions.

The Overflow of the Heart

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Anglican, Canon Phil Ashey, Episcopal, Katharine Jefferts Schori, love

The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori, recently addressed a gathering in the rump Diocese of South Carolina. Angry that most of the original Diocese of South Carolina has quit the Episcopal Church because of its theological liberalism, Jefferts Schori sermonized the following:

…I tell you that story because it’s indicative of attitudes we’ve seen here and in many other places. Somebody decides he knows the law, and oversteps whatever authority he may have to dictate the fate of others who may in fact be obeying the law, and often a law for which this local tyrant is not the judge. It’s not too far from that kind of attitude to citizens’ militias deciding to patrol their towns or the Mexican border for unwelcome visitors. It’s not terribly far from the state of mind evidenced in school shootings, or in those who want to arm school children, or the terrorism that takes oil workers hostage. (Entire transcript here)

In this week’s Anglican Perspective, Canon Ashey discusses the nature of these intemperate remarks, comparing the leadership of the Diocese of South Carolina’s state of mind to that of a school-shooter or terrorist.

H/T: American Anglican Council