ELCA Advocacy

2016 ADVOCACY PRIORITIES: Now that lawmakers have planned their legislative agenda for 2016, ELCA Advocacy is excited to share our policy priorities for this fast-paced election year. We continue to strive for public policies that embody the biblical values of peacemaking, hospitality to our neighbors, care for creation, and concern for our brothers and sisters facing poverty and struggling with hunger and disease. In this election year, Members of Congress will want to pass legislation quickly and early to return to their districts in the summer to campaign with tangible policy results. Check out an overview our 2016 Advocacy priorities.

#ELCAvotes: We are called to conversation and prayer around our role as U.S. residents and as people of faith in ensuring our election systems promote dignity and respect for all. We are called to act by speaking out as advocates and engaging in local efforts to guarantee the right to vote to all citizens.

ELCA Votes is an initiative created in collaboration with ELCA Racial Justice Ministry, ELCA Young Adult Ministry, Lutheran Advocacy offices, and synods throughout the country. This is an initiative to:

• Expand the role of the church in encouraging faithful and non-partisan voter participation;
• Provide a framework for all Lutherans to understand and speak out about the intersection between voting and elections, and racial and economic justice;
• Provide young adults the tools to understand and speak about what it means to be a young person of faith who is civically engaged; and
• Engage with and equip ethnic specific communities to talk about voting rights and race, and their connection with elections today.

Sign up to join this effort! Find out how you can get involved and share what you are already doing locally!

DHS RAIDS: In January, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) began operations to track and deport Central American families that arrived in the U.S. after Jan. 1, 2014. As a church with faith partners that work directly with deported children and families in El Salvador and Honduras, we know that deportation does not deter children and families from leaving their communities. We join Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) in our concern for ensuring access to justice in the U.S. for these families who must navigate a complex legal system, often without necessary support. Read more on the ELCA Advocacy Blog.

JUSTICE FOR FLINT, MICH.: Many residents in Flint, Michigan are unable to access safe water to drink, do their laundry, wash their dishes, or bathe. Lutheran congregations, volunteers, and local leaders are now working in Flint to help provide clean water for those in need. As ELCA World Hunger prepares to fund relief efforts, federal funding is critical to replace Flint’s toxic water pipes. Urge members of Congress to provide this funding through clicking here and find out more about Lutheran engagement at the Southeast Michigan Synod page.

IMPACT OF INTERNATIONAL PATENT ARRANGEMENTS: In July 2012 the Global Commission on HIV and the Law published the report “Risks, Rights and Health,” which outlines, among many issues, the gap in medical treatment as a result of bilateral and multilateral trade agreements. Evaluating the effects of the increased power of pharmaceutical patent holders, this report notes that by the end of 2010, 77 percent of medically eligible children in low- and middle-income countries were not receiving antiretroviral therapy for HIV and AIDS.

On Thursday, Jan. 14, Christine Mangale and Nicholas Jaech of the Lutheran Office for World Community (LOWC) participated in an international webinar regarding the timeline and goals of the High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines, a group appointed by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in November 2015. Within the realm of health technologies, this panel is addressing the current policy incoherence among the rights of inventors, trade laws, public health and human rights law. There is also an Expert Advisory Group, comprised of U.N. agencies and organizations, the public and private sector, and civil society. In March 2016, two global dialogues will be hosted (London, March 9-10; Johannesburg March 16-17) to provide key stakeholders the opportunity to provide their thoughts, ideas and inputs to the panel. There will be an official report to the U.N. secretary-general on global access to medicines, estimated by June so it is available for meeting on HIV and AIDS later that month.

THE HUMAN RIGHTS UP-FRONT INITATIVE: On Wednesday, Jan. 27, LOWC attended a briefing by the U.N. deputy secretary-general on the Human Rights Up Front Initiative. Launched in 2013, the initiative hopes to guarantee early and effective action on behalf of the U.N. system to prevent or respond to “large-scale violations of human rights or international humanitarian law.” The deputy secretary-general called for a “cultural change” of the United Nations to make sure that the staff understand effective prevention tactics – as well as an “operational change” – shared information between development, humanitarian and human rights agencies and organizations. The deputy secretary-general also called for further engagement with member states, encouraging them to adopt aspects of the initiative into their own national and foreign policies. While most member states that spoke during the briefing outlined their support for the initiative, some members had reservations about what they described as an encroachment of U.N. initiatives into national policies, especially concerning human rights.

FOLLOW-UP AND REVIEW OF SUSTAINBLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS: On Thursday, Jan. 21, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon released a report on the global follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Most importantly, this report highlights ways to “fully use the potential” of the next meeting of the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, scheduled for July 11-20. This report suggests four parts to the forum: a review of the progress in achieving the SDG, including voluntary national reviews by member states; a specific review of Goal 17, as well as other global partnership agreements, thematic reviews and emerging issues. The report also outlines two potential frameworks for SDG evaluation at all forums on sustainable development convened over the next 15 years. The first is a comprehensive review of all 17 goals to be completed within one year. The second option allows for a comprehensive review but also an in-depth review of each goal, covering all 17 goals within a four-year timespan. According to both options, however, Goal 17 will be evaluated each year.

CARE FOR CREATION: LOPP-CA co-sponsored the Green California Summit briefing and reception, the latter attended by a bipartisan list of 18 legislators. The briefing included remarks from diverse legislators from disadvantaged communities, and there was a focus on the plastic bag ban referendum that has qualified for the November ballot. Grounded in the ELCA social statement on “Caring for Creation,”  LOPP-CA is part of the effort to retain the ban and a uniform state policy, facing what may be as much as a $50 million campaign to nip this trend in the bud.

SENTENCING REFORM: Gov. Jerry Brown released his criminal justice sentencing reform initiative campaign for the November ballot, which was in the works for months. LOPP-CA has been part of a parallel legislative strategy development with an interfaith group convened by the California Catholic Conference, following Brown’s meeting with Catholic bishops a year ago. “Hearing the Cries,” the ELCA social statement on criminal justice, gives impetus to work to change costly policies that can cause further harm and reinforce institutional racism, rather than serve public safety and heal the wounds of criminal acts.

RACIAL JUSTICE: LOPP-CA Director Mark Carlson was among a small group of Lutherans scattered among the 25,000 who participated in the annual MLK Walk in Sacramento. While Mark was chatting with a Sacramento Bee reporter, Pastor Todd Wallace of Good Shepherd, Sacramento, came up to greet Mark. Mark introduced the reporter to Todd and encouraged Todd to walk with them, and he was quoted in the next day’s paper on the remarkable interracial community-building among local pastors and congregations.

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