January News & Views
January 18, 2024
IN THIS ISSUE
Top Stories
— TAF Leaders Prioritize Election Work
— Ellen Bernstein at General Meeting
Organizing News
Third Act Central News
News from our Partners & Friends
Did You Know?
Resources
Upcoming Events
TOP STORIES
TAF Leaders Prioritize 2024 Election Work
By Jane Ellen Nickell
Third Act Communications and Membership Chair
Members of the TAF Coordinating Committee held a virtual retreat on Jan. 7 in order to prioritize and plan for the year ahead. Knowing how critical 2024 elections will be for both democracy and climate, we plan to focus on how people of faith can be more visible and involved in the election process. A subgroup of our leaders will be planning meetings and workshops to take place over the coming months, designed to equip individuals and communities of faith for becoming more engaged in the election process.
Given how much anxiety we may experience in the coming year, we also discussed the importance of feeling connected to other people who are involved in this work, so another subgroup will focus on building a sense of community among our membership. We will continue our virtual Meet and Greet sessions, designating some for new members and others for folks who joined a while ago but want to get more connected. We also hope to offer some contemplative and other pastoral opportunities online.
Look for details to come by email and in future issues of this newsletter. If you have ideas or would like to be involved in either of these efforts, please email us at thirdactfaith@gmail.com.
TAF General Meeting
Environmentalist Rabbi Ellen Bernstein to Speak Jan. 30
Plan on spending an evening with Third Act Faith on Tuesday, Jan. 30, when environmentalist and author Rabbi Ellen Bernstein introduces us to the Song of Songs as only she can, reading from and talking about her latest book with environmentalist and Hebrew Bible scholar, the Rev. Dr. Trisha Tull.
Rabbi Bernstein’s book, “Toward A Holy Ecology: Reading the Song of Songs in the Age of Climate Crisis,” will be released next month, so it is a special treat for us to have her as our guest for this month’s General Meeting, beginning on the 30th at 8 p.m. EST (5 p.m. PST). Register in advance at this link.
A former member of Third Act Faith’s leadership team, Ellen founded Shomrei Adamah, Keepers of the Earth, the nation’s first Jewish environmental organization in 1988. Her writings and liturgies unite her dual callings as rabbi/teacher and environmentalist/climate advocate. (For starters, check out her books “The Splendor of Creation” and “The Promise of the Land: a Passover Haggadah.”)
Rabbi Jill Hammer (“The Jewish Book of Days: A Companion for All Seasons”) says,
“The lushness of Ellen Bernstein’s eco-sensitive commentary on the Song of Songs is worthy of the original, which says a great deal about the ingenuity and power of her work. This uplifting and enlivening book is a wondrous gift to all who love the Earth, inviting us to find solace in the Bible's most erotic and egalitarian text.”
Another preview says the book moves beyond “traditional interpretations” of the Song of Songs “as a love story between the people and the creatures of the land,” adding that “its deep ecological wisdom offers solace and a vision for living on earth in these troubled times.”
This General Meeting will follow the familiar format of previous gatherings — but with a twist. Following the interview, we will break into small groups to discuss questions Ellen and Trisha pose, then return for further discussion with them as a large group.
For more information on Ellen, Shomrei Adamah and her other writings, visit www.ellenbernstein.org.
ORGANIZING NEWS
Changes for our TAF newsletters
By Jane Ellen Nickell
Third Act Communications and Membership Chair
Third Acts of Faith Editor Mary Jane Cherry, who created this newsletter more than a year ago, has decided that it’s time to step down. Regular readers will not be surprised to learn that she spends untold hours each month gathering information, writing and editing stories, and doing the layout in Substack. Her passion for issues related to climate and democracy, her experience as an Episcopal deacon, her background in journalism, and her meticulous attention to detail are evident in each issue. Having put some of her own writing projects on hold, she will step away from editing the newsletter, although she will continue to serve on the TAF Coordinating Committee and as one of our liaisons for the Third Act campaign on elections and democracy.
I know you join the Third Act Faith leadership team in our deep gratitude for Mary Jane’s work to establish this newsletter as a key component of our working group’s growth in recent months. In addition to producing the monthly “News & Views” issue, she has recruited and edited longer-form essays from our members for a “Going Deep” issue most months. Please note that during this transition, we may not be producing the “Going Deep” issue as often.
We are also grateful that over the summer Mary Jane brought in Mary Johnson, who has served as co-editor and will now take on the role of lead editor. Mary, an Episcopalian living in Louisville, is retired from a career as a reporter and editor, and now does freelance editing for a number of online publications.
We are looking for folks to help us continue producing a high quality newsletter, so if you have interest and experience in this area, please email us at thirdactfaith@gmail.com.
THIRD ACT CENTRAL NEWS
#StopLNG Sit-in protests are on for Feb. 6-8
In early February—a dozen years after a quite similar protest helped nationalize the Keystone pipeline fight—protesters will gather for (very civil) civil disobedience outside the Department of Energy, hoping to persuade Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and her crew that the time has come to pause the permitting of new LNG export terminals. — Bill McKibben.
The #StopLNG Sit-in we announced last month is a go for Feb. 6-8 — unless, as Bill says, “we win before then!”
If you haven’t already, sign the petition today at the official #StopLNG Sit-in website. The petition asks the Department of Energy to pause licensing new terminals for exporting liquified natural gas.
And plan to go to DC if possible. Sign up with Third Act in advance to tell organizers what day(s) you’ll participate and whether you are willing to risk arrest. You’ll receive an email regarding your participation. Protesters will need to receive online training, and those who decide to risk arrest need to attend a session in D.C. the night before their day of participation.
Click here and scroll down to read the Frequently Asked Questions about participating in this protest.
A number of activist groups are involved in the protest. And risking arrest is not the only way to fully participate, nor is traveling to D.C. Organizers are aware that not everyone can travel to Washington, so check the Third Act website — or check in with Third Act’s local or state working groups to see if a solidarity action is being planned closer to your home.
Our participation is important. The fossil fuel industry is reportedly planning to build more than 20 LNG gas export facilities in the Gulf of Mexico, and, as Bill McKibben notes in his blog, “if the industry gets everything they’ve asked for, U.S. LNG exports will produce more greenhouse gas emissions than…Europe. All of it.”
So be sure to sign that petition today so we can celebrate a “win” in February and stop new LNG exports.
NEWS FROM OUR PARTNERS & FRIENDS
‘Preaching Climate Justice in Lent’ Feb. 20 on Zoom
The Rev. Dr. Jim Antal and the Rev. Dr. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas are offering a 75-minute virtual workshop on “Preaching Climate Justice in Lent.” The webinar will be held Tuesday, Feb. 20, beginning at 10 a.m. EST (7 a.m. PST). They will suggest ways our Lenten texts provide an opportunity to shape sermons that offer hope to our congregations, engage their imagination, and inspire them to take action for climate justice. The Zoom workshop is free, but you must register in advance.
Both speakers are longtime climate justice activists and members of Third Act Faith. Jim is the special advisor on climate justice to the United Church of Christ’s general minister and president. His book, “Climate Church, Climate World,” has been read by hundreds of congregations and is now in a new, updated edition. Margaret is missioner for creation care for the Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts and the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ, and is creation care advisor for the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. A selection from her co-edited book, “Rooted and Rising: Voices of Courage in a Time of Climate Crisis,” was recently featured in Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations.
DID YOU KNOW?
We have ways to persuade lapsed environmental voters
Did you know that older people continue to vote more than any other age group? And that we’re “second only to those between the ages of 18 and 34 in naming climate and the environment” as our “highest political priorities?” That’s according to a study released this past November by the Boston-based Environmental Voter Project.
In some states, these registered “gray green” voters could add up to a block with potential to swing elections, says Inside Climate News.
Except, as The Guardian writes, a “large pool” of environmental voters “don't actually vote.”
Did you know it’s estimated that over 8 million environmentalists did not vote in the last presidential election? And “over 13 million skipped the 2022 midterms?” That information is from the EVP, too.
The EVP is “a nonpartisan nonprofit focused on a simple, high-leverage solution to this problem: [to] identify [these] inactive environmentalists and transform them into consistent voters.” It claims that it has increased turnout of targeted voters by as much as 4.5%. “With behavioral science-informed messaging, we call, canvass, mail, and send digital ads to millions of low-propensity environmental voters each year with just one goal: turning them into better voters,” they say on their website. “Since 2015, we have contacted 9.5 million non-voting and seldom-voting environmentalists and helped convert almost 1.5 million of them into ‘super voters’ who now consistently vote their values in every federal, state, and local election.”
The group is now mobilizing volunteers in advance of 2024 elections to urge lapsed voters to vote this time. EVP’s site lists specific times and locations for these activities, and one might be right near you! Watch this YouTube webinar explaining the process and why it works. And then sign up here to call or canvass near you.
“When it comes to addressing the crisis of democracy as well as the climate emergency, what we need to do is reach the human heart,” the Rev. Dr. Jim Antal wrote in his recent essay for TAF’s Going Deep. EVP’s targeted work gives us an opportunity to do just that, and TAF members also have a variety of get-out-the-vote activities organized by Third Act. The “right to vote is being suppressed and eroded in many states,” Third Act’s “Safeguarding Our Democracy” campaign reminds us, offering other actions we can take to get others to vote. “We are building voter enthusiasm now” to “win the Presidency in 2024,” including popular and easy-to-do-from-home postcard writing — an “effective way to increase voter turnout and win in tight races,” says Third Act. And another way to “reach the human heart.”
Find out more here.
RESOURCES
Two stories of resistance
“Preaching in Hitler’s Shadow: Sermons of Resistance in the Third Reich” by Dean G. Stroud (Eerdmans, 2013). This collection of sermons by a handful of Christian ministers (including Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Rudolf Bultmann) is illuminating, showing how they bravely opposed Hitler from their pulpits. Placing these sermons in the context of life in the Third Reich, Stroud examines how the Fuhrer and Nazis co-opted Christian language to undermine Christian beliefs and values for their nationalistic and diabolical ends. Their parallels with current political rhetoric are, to say the least, unsettling.
“Nonviolent Soldier of Islam: Badshah Khan, A Man to Match His Mountains” by Eknath Easwaran (Nigili Press, Third Printing, 2009). No one would have predicted that a devout Muslim, Abdul Ghaffār Khān, son of a wealthy farmer, would become one of Gandhi’s most dedicated and consequential followers. Badshah Khan (“the khan’s khan” as he was known by his people), came from the mountainous Frontier region of India (now in Pakistan and Afghanistan), where the Pathan tribesmen were historically known and feared for their brutality and tradition of blood revenge. Yet, going against tradition, Badshah did the unthinkable: he raised the first army of trained, professional nonviolent soldiers. Khan’s story, says his biographer, explodes the myth that “nonviolence works only for those who are already peaceful” and speaks of “a deeper truth” that our “explosive, tottering world stands much in need.”
Studies of civil resistance
“Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs to Know” by Eric Chenoweth (Oxford, 2021). This sweeping overview of civil resistance movements around the world looks at how they work, why they’re often effective, why they sometimes fail, how violence and repression affect them, and their long-term impact.
“The Politics of Nonviolent Action” (3 vols.) by Gene Sharp (Porter Sargent, 1973). A classic political science text. Vol. 1 addresses the theory of power that implicitly or explicitly underlies nonviolent action; Vol. 2, analyzes the methods of nonviolent action; and Vol. 3, examines the dynamics of nonviolent action.
Training resources in nonviolence
Third Act has been offering three-hour Zoom sessions to prepare us for engaging in nonviolent action at the StopLNG Sit-In on Feb. 6-8.
You can still register for these two remaining sessions:
Jan. 25: Building Your Skills for Taking Action: “LNG Nonviolent Action in D.C.," 6 p.m. EST (3 p.m. PST). Register here.
Feb. 1: Practical Preparation for D.C. Action, 6 p.m. EST (3 p.m. PST). Register here.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Jan. 22: Welcome to Third Act: Let’s Get Started (Zoom), 7:30 p.m. EST (4:30 p.m. PST). Register here.
Jan. 30: TAF General Meeting with Rabbi Ellen Bernstein (Zoom), 8 p.m. EST (5 p.m. PST). Register here.
Feb. 5: Welcome to Third Act: Let’s Get Started (Zoom), 7:30 p.m. EST (4:30 p.m. PST). Register here.
Feb. 6-8: Stop LNG Sit-In, Washington D.C. Check the Sit-In website for details.
Send Us Your Photos and Stories
Third Acts of Faith is published the third week of each month. Please send us your news (up to 300 words) and photos by the 7th day of each month, and help keep our members updated on what you and your faith communities are doing to safeguard our democracy and beloved Earth. Send the submission to thirdactfaith@gmail.com
