Category Archives: Front Page

2024 State of the Union BINGO Card

2024 State of the Union Bingo

March 7, 2024

Based on NETWORK’s Build Anew policy agenda, and our advocacy for a multiracial, multi-faith, inclusive democracy–where everyone, in every community thrives–we’ve created a 2024 State of the Union BINGO Card. Please use it during President Biden’s third State of the Union Address to Congress on Thursday, March 7, 2024.

Download your BINGO card in color or download your BINGO card in black and white.

Make sure you have your BINGO card ready when you watch the State of the Union Address live to track how President Biden’s speech addresses important policy areas for our country.

NETWORK hopes to see President Biden address the work needed to dismantle systemic racism, cultivate inclusive communities, root our economy in solidarity, and transform our politics with policies that will let all of us thrive–no exceptions!

Click Here to download and print your SOTU Bingo card.

Lent Week Four: Show Mercy Through Your Politics

Lent Week Four: Show Mercy Through Your Politics

NETWORK Staff
March 6, 2024

Scripture: Fourth Sunday of Lent

Reflection: Lent week four readings focus on God’s mercy, even in the face of so much gone awry in the world due to human wickedness. Today, that wickedness shows up most fully in our society in racism, poverty, and all forms of oppression, exclusion, and alienation.

As we enter the fourth week of Lent, we turn to our deep need to both accept God’s mercy and extend mercy to others. To show mercy to others (and to oneself!) means joining in God’s merciful, broad, and inclusive invitation to work together for the common good, and to transform our structures of racial, economic, and social injustice.

We can only do this together. In this week’s Gospel, Jesus says, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” This Lent, let us condemn injustice, not each other.

With mercy, we can interrupt the cycles of violence and exclusion that characterize our politics and many of our social systems. With mercy, we can renew our politics, and our world. With mercy, we can build the Beloved Community, and create a society in which every person—with no exceptions—has what they need to thrive.

How will you add mercy to your Lenten practice? What does it mean to you to show mercy in your politics?

in this week’s first reading, we hear the lament of the Israelites in Babylon–which is much like the laments of the justice-seekers of our time. They warn us again and again about what white Christian nationalism will do — and is already doing — to tear apart the fabric of democracy in this country. We are warned, for example, by Fr. Bryan Massingale, Dr. Robbie P. Jones, and other experts in NETWORK’s White Supremacy and American Christianity series. Will we ignore their warnings, like the people in this Sunday’s first reading? Or, will we engage in the 2024 election as a critical opportunity to root our politics in mercy, and begin to transform the wickedness of racism, Christian nationalism, and more?

Lenten Prayer

Prayer by Seattle-based spiritual writer Cameron Bellm:

Tune our ears to hear your messengers of mercy, O God,
The ones who call us to lead with loving kindness,
The ones who encourage us to lay down the arms of vengeance,
To embrace not retaliation but reconciliation.
Guide our hearts to be ever watchful for the lost sheep.
Turn our eyes to seek the forgotten and the mistreated,
Not resting until we bring them home.
Bless our hands to build better structures,
A nation that nurtures, a society that is safe for all.
Transform us with your rich mercy, O God,
Until it is the only language we can speak.

Amen.

Take Action — Register for White Supremacy and American Christianity: Moving Towards Beloved Community

Register here!

Online event
Saturday, April 6
Noon Eastern / 9:00 AM Pacific
If you are unable to attend live, please register to receive a link to the recording.

What could it look like to overcome the wickedness of racism and Christian nationalism, and build a society rooted in the mercy we explored in today’s reflection? This is exactly the topic of the fourth installation of our White Supremacy and American Christianity series, happening on April 6.

So far in NETWORK’s White Supremacy and American Christianity series, we have explored the roots of white supremacy and its connection to Christianity in the United States. We took a deep dive into how it continues to manifest in our churches, our society, and our politics. We also looked at how this consistent ethic of hate poses an existential threat to democracy.

Now, in White Supremacy and American Christianity: Moving Towards Beloved Community, we will look to the future and explore how we can move beyond white Christian nationalism in the U.S. and promote a vibrant, multi-faith, multi-racial democracy where every person can thrive, without exception.

We will dialogue once more with Fr. Bryan Massingale, the James and Nancy Buckman Chair in Applied Christian Ethics at Fordham University; Dr. Robert P. Jones, President and Founder of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI); and Joan F. Neal, Deputy Executive Director and Chief Equity Officer at NETWORK. We will hear what it means — especially in this election year — to build a better tomorrow by eradicating the structures and attitudes of racism that perpetuate harm in our society. We will also meet young adults who are actively building the beloved community, who will share with us how their faith guides their work and how they are engaging in the 2024 Election.

Register now for the event, and join us in building a Beloved Community!

The Ripple of One Person’s Vote

The Ripple of One Person’s Vote

Contribute to the Love That Saves the World

Sr. Erin Zubal, OSU
March 5, 2024

Sr. Erin Zubal, OSU, NETWORK Chief of Staff

Waiting in line outside a school gymnasium in the early morning hours. Feeling the chill of November in the air. Greeting the poll workers. Making selections on an electronic menu screen. The experience of voting is many things, but not many people would probably think of it as helping us grow holiness. But listening closely to Pope Francis, it’s clear that this election year offers yet another opportunity for many people to journey closer to the God who loves and saves the world.

In his 2018 letter on the call to holiness, Gaudate Et Exsultate (“Rejoice and Be Glad”), Pope Francis waded into explicitly political waters when he cautioned against limiting one’s political concern and advocacy to just one or two issues, as so many Catholics tend to do in the U.S. “Equally sacred,” he affirmed, are the lives of people in poverty and all who are rejected and discarded by society. “We cannot uphold an ideal of holiness that would ignore injustice in the world,” he wrote.

That same year, the Vatican’s doctrine office also published a document on “certain aspects of Christian salvation.” This document rejects “individualistic and merely interior visions of salvation” as being against the “economy through which God willed to save the human person.” People must journey beyond themselves, out into the world, to participate in the grace of the salvation story that culminates when “each person will be judged on the concreteness of his or her love.” (Placuit Deo #13)

This, too, is political.

See NETWORK’s 2024 Equally Sacred Checklist to support you in educating yourself as a faithful voter on the issues and concerns that are “equally sacred.”

Voting is concrete. It is an act. It is a choice. It’s an imperfect choice because voters are often not faced with specific policy proposals but with individual office-seekers who may be better on particular issues than others and whose performance, once elected, can be unpredictable. Will they advocate for people on the margins? Are they able to be bought by wealthy corporate interests? Do they take the weight of responsibility of their office seriously? The answers to these questions can and do produce wildly different outcomes.

But what remains is this: In the act of voting, a person creates a small ripple in the social fabric, a ripple that may end up part of a more significant current or movement that impacts the lives of millions of other people– for good or ill.

Using one’s vote for ill often means voting as a means of lashing out against people or groups of people whom voters have been told to fear, such as migrants and other people struggling to survive on the peripheries of society.

Voting may take only an instant, but the harm inflicted by bad immigration policy compounds over the years. It is felt in the lives of families and children who might never recover from the devastation they experience.

Even more could be said about the pain intentionally inflicted on Black and Brown communities by the stoking of Christian nationalist and white supremacist narratives. What does it mean for this country that so many neighbors voted this way?

But the opposite is also possible. A person can use their vote to build up rather than tear down, show welcome rather than hostility, and contribute to love rather than hate. And in an election year that looks to be decided by a small number of people in a few states and localities, the choice of one person to choose solidarity, to make their vote an act of love, is as consequential as it’s ever been. It might just play a part in saving the world.

This story was published in the Quarter 1 2024 issue of Connection.

Lessons for Democracy in 2024

Advocates Agree That Voting Remains a Powerful Tool and Act of Engagement

Don Clemmer
March 1, 2024

One of the reasons politics seemed so broken in 2023 might have been because so many people separated the exercise of power from service:

A faction of the U.S. House of Representatives kept trying — and failing — to make the very functioning of the government contingent on deep cuts to human needs programs.
A former president on the campaign trail promised that a return to power would mean annihilation of his opponents.
And at the state level, restrictive voting laws continued to threaten the participation of all people in a system that shapes their lives.

It all raises the question of the overall health of democracy in the U.S. and its prospects for weathering the 2024 elections — in the presidential race, Senate, House, and state-level contests. Advocates, academics, and leaders in the areas of faith and politics agree — and shared with NETWORK’s Just Politics podcast last year — that current threats to democracy require vigilance and action. Action includes rooting out Christian nationalism, opposing voter suppression, forging broader political alliances to work common problems, and showing up to vote.

The Place of Faith in Politics

Dr. Rachel Kleinfeld

“This is much bigger than just elections,” says Dr. Rachel Kleinfeld, senior fellow in Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program, who notes that the world has witnessed a global decline in democracy for the past 17 years. In consolidated democracies like the U.S. and Brazil, this has occurred because people elect populist, authoritarian leaders. “Just beating those leaders doesn’t mean that democracy is restored.”

Celina Stewart

“The threat has always persisted. The tools that are used each election cycle sometimes change, or sometimes they just get scaled in some way or another,” says Celina Stewart, chief counsel and senior director of advocacy and litigation for the League of Women Voters, of the particular threat of voter suppression. “Voting rights is really about empowering people to engage in their community, to have a voice in selecting the person or the group of people who will represent their interests.”

“When we start suppressing votes, and we start suppressing knowledge, we’re heading down a very dark road,” says Sr. Anita Baird, DHM, a member of NETWORK’s board. “As a church, we have failed to speak out on many of these issues.”

Sr. Anita Baird, DHM

As the threat of Christian nationalism has grown more visible in U.S. politics in recent years, NETWORK has vocally denounced the movement, as have other religious groups. The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty (BJC) is one of them.

“Christian nationalism takes that Gospel of love and perverts it into this false idol of power,” says Amanda Tyler, BJC’s executive director. She says it’s incumbent on Christians to call out where public assertions of Christian identity stray from the teachings of Jesus.

She adds, “When we look around at all the injustice in the world today, we desperately need, I think, that authentic Christian witness to try to call us to live in a more just and equitable place.”

Rep. Jim Clyburn

Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, assistant leader of the House Democratic Caucus, has a similar response to colleagues who separate their Christian identity from concrete service.

“I ask them: Show me what you mean. Don’t tell me what you mean. Show me,” he says, citing from James 2:16 that one cannot say “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed” and do nothing to help someone. “You have to feed them. You have to clothe them. Because faith without works is dead.”

In the face of chaos spurred by Christian nationalism in the body he has served for over 30 years, Clyburn says he has begun reaching out to members of different factions within his own party, recognizing that they “need to demonstrate some leadership in the very near future to make sure this country doesn’t to go over the edge.”

Inaction Is Not an Option

“We need democracy to deliver more for people who have been left out,” says Kleinfeld. And in bridging that connection, she sees Catholics as having a special role. “Almost every other religious group is on one side of the aisle or the other. It’s really quite stunning. Catholics are the only group that are pretty evenly divided in Republicans and Democrats.”

Sr. Eilis McCulloh, HM, Joan F. Neal, and Colin Martinez Longmore interviewed a range of democracy advocates and experts for Season 3 of the Just Politics podcast, produced in collaboration between NETWORK and U.S. Catholic magazine.
To hear more from the conversations encapsulated in this article, visit uscatholic.org/justpolitics
or networklobby.org/just-politics-podcast/

Kleinfeld advises, “What you need to start doing is both talking to people on the other side but then working with people on the other side on things you find you agree on. And this is really important, because finding those instances of agreement requires some deep conversation. It also requires constructive engagement with the system. … It can show people that the government can work. It can show people the humanity of the other side. And ideally it eventually moves into more political change.”

Rep. Clyburn says that fixing its own faults is something that makes America great.

“COVID-19 exposed some faults in our system that needed to be repaired,” he notes. And that inspired him to bring together Members of Congress from rural districts to get access to broadband included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The result was a $65 billion investment to make high-speed internet available to all people in the U.S.

Baird agrees that promoting policy that affords people what they need to participate more fully in society amounts to “strengthening the foundation of our democracy,” which gives future generations a better chance to realize the dream Dr. King talked about.

“We’re called to be in the political marketplace and to speak truth to power and to do it within the context of the Gospel and the social teachings,” she says. One failing Baird laments is how the racial divide in the U.S. makes it much harder for people to find solidarity with one another.

“If I’m white and poor in America, I don’t see what I have in common with poor people of color in America,” she notes. “But you have more in common with poor people of color than you have with the wealthy — that you have nothing in common except the color of your skin!”

Baird recalls that, when Dr. King called for a poor people’s campaign, that’s when people got upset. “When he started talking about bringing people together from every different background,” she says, “that became a threat to the power structure.”

Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts speaks outside the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 6 as she and Senator Peter Welch of Vermont introduced the Inclusive Democracy Act. The bill seeks to end felony disenfranchisement, a measure that disproportionately keeps Black and Brown people in the U.S. from voting.

Stewart of the League of Women Voters affirms the value of getting engaged: “So often in my interactions with people, they don’t always recognize how important their perspective is. They think everyone may feel that way, they don’t know the value that it brings. And every voice, collectively, has so much power.” Baird says that — especially as a Black woman — she struggles with people who say they are so demoralized by U.S. politics that they aren’t going to.

“Things do change. It may not change as quickly as we want or in the exact way that we want,” she says, but, “people died for the simple right to vote.”

Stewart asserts that who we elect matters: “Those are now people who make decisions on behalf of your family, on behalf of your life, your access, your ability to move and have potential services around the country,” she says. “And so it’s a really big deal, not only election day, but the impact of who’s elected.”

Kleinfeld says some people are resistant to holding onto a system that seems to be broken, but she cautions, “There’s not been a better system for peacefully changing power, peacefully choosing leaders who represent you. And that’s a lot to throw out.”

“Perhaps we have to go through this to realize how fragile democracy is, but what a gift it is,” says Baird. “I think we have to understand the power of the vote, the power of people coming together.”

This story was published in the Quarter 1 2024 issue of Connection.

This Black History Month NETWORK calls for democracy protection in the U.S.

Min. Christian Watkins, NETWORK’s Government Relations Advocate, reflects on voting and democracy during Black History Month 2024. His inspiration came in part from an original blog posted in 2022 posted by Joan F. Neal, NETWORK’s Deputy Executive Director & Chief Equity Officer, Voting is a Sacred Right

This Black History Month, NETWORK calls for democracy protection in the U.S.

Min. Christian Watkins, Government Relations Advocate
February 27, 2024

Black History Month is a time for our country to celebrate the legacy of African American accomplishments, our successes amid struggles, and influences on U.S. politics, economy, and culture. Yet, in times like these, there are so many who want to deny Black history and thwart any further progress–especially participating in democracy through voting. The Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529 (2013) effectively gutted the heart of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by declaring the preclearance requirement unconstitutional. Since then, there has been alarming erosion, challenge, and suppression of voting rights in state legislatures and federal circuit courts. This Shelby decision opened the floodgates for states to enact restrictive voting laws that disproportionately impact minoritized and marginalized communities. Some states have implemented voter ID laws, purged voter rolls, closed polling places, restricted early voting, and enacted other measures that intentionally create unnecessary barriers for eligible citizens, particularly Black and Latinx people, the elderly, and people with health impairments, to exercise their sacred right to vote. This Black History Month NETWORK once again calls for democracy protection in the U.S.

The Brennan Center for Justice reports in their “Voting Laws Roundup: 2023 in Review” that between January 1 and December 31, 2023, at least 14 states enacted 17 restrictive voting laws, all of which will be in effect for the 2024 general election . Voters in these states now face additional hurdles to reach the ballot box. Most of the restrictions limit mail voting, such as requiring additional information on a mail ballot application, shortening the window to request a mail ballot, or banning drop boxes. At least 6 states enacted election interference laws , with at least 6 laws in effect for the 2024 elections . These laws open the door to partisan interference in elections, or they threaten the people and processes that make elections work. In many cases, these efforts are justified as measures to combat baseless claims of widespread voter fraud and a stolen 2020 election. Many of them create criminal penalties for election workers for minor mistakes such as not allowing a poll watcher to stand close enough to voters. And as of December 31, 2023, 25 states had a bill to be acted on in 2024 that will make it harder to vote.

The impact of these actions will be devastating in the upcoming elections, as they effectively disenfranchise countless eligible voters and undermine the fundamental principles of democracy. The erosion of voting rights perpetuates systemic inequality and threatens the core of American democracy. Public trust in the electoral process and the legitimacy of duly elected representatives will continue to degrade. Without robust protections for voting rights, the voices of marginalized communities are silenced, and their ability to participate meaningfully in the democratic process is hindered.

During this year’s 38th Annual MLK, Jr. Commemorative Worship Service in Atlanta, Georgia, Reverend Sen. Raphael Warnock said, “[we have come to] a moment where there are forces at work in our country desperately trying to tear us apart. And they’re trying to tear us apart because people with no vision traffic in division. They do not know how to lead us, so they are trying to divide us for their own short-term political purposes. We’ve seen this before; we’re not going for it.” History reflects the long struggles for Black men and all women’s voting rights, poll taxes levied against African American voters, elimination of rights for the incarcerated, and the list goes on. These efforts meant to divide us, yet we are still in the fight of restoring and strengthening voting rights. Now is the time to be bold.. Reinhold Neibuhr, the American reformed theologian and ethicist, said that our “capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but [our] inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.” Now is the time for robust federal legislation. Now is the time to safeguard and strengthen U.S. voting rights by passage of critical voting rights legislation, specifically the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act.

Rev. Warnock believes that “the vote is a kind of prayer for the world we desire for ourselves and our children, and our prayers are stronger when we pray together. So, we must pray together. We must stand together.” We must stand together and call for the passage of the critical reformative federal voting rights legislation. The passage of voting rights legislation is essential to preserve the sacred right to vote for all eligible citizens and to uphold the principles of fairness, equality, and justice upon which the United States was founded. The right to vote is the cornerstone of democracy, and it is imperative that every eligible citizen has unfettered access to the ballot box.

Inaction on federal voting rights legislation would signal a dangerous complacency in the face of a direct assault on the democratic values that define the United States. The consequences of continued disenfranchisement are dire, with far-reaching implications for the legitimacy of American elections and the ability of citizens to hold their government accountable. The time to act is now, and Congress must rise to the challenge of protecting and preserving the sacred right to vote for all eligible citizens.

The passage of federal voting rights legislation is not a partisan issue; it is a matter of upholding the fundamental principles of democracy and safeguarding the rights of all citizens. By enacting comprehensive voting rights laws like the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the Freedom to Vote Act, Congress can reaffirm its Black History Month commitment that lifts every voice like a song that can heard at the ballot box to be valued and counted. The protection of voting rights is essential to the preservation of a fair, inclusive, and representative democracy. It is imperative that federal voting rights legislation is enacted to address the widespread disenfranchisement that has continues to plague communities of history-makers who undergird United States’ culture and society.

Yet, while the 118th Congress seems incapable of acting decisively to restore and strengthen the protections of the Voting Rights Act, President Biden’s Administration must do all they can to ensure that all Americans can exercise their right to vote free from discriminatory barriers. In December of 2023, under the leadership of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights (LCCHR), NETWORK Lobby along with 100 other diverse organizations and leaders sent this letter to President Biden and Federal Agencies, emphasizing the urgency of the Administration’s departments and agencies to fully implement President Biden’s 2021 Executive Order Promoting Access to Voting. The LCCHR also has published this 2023 federal agency progress report that outlines how in fact the Administration can better accomplish this task of protecting voting rights to strengthen our nation’s Democracy.

The Government Relations team continues to work behind the scenes in coalition with other advocacy organizations, Congressional offices, and Administration staff to make progress. We also are also hopeful that nurturing relationships will ensure future passage of democracy and voter protection legislation in the 119^th Congress.

[1] Voting Laws Roundup: 2023 in Review | Brennan Center for Justice

Resources

AR H.B. 1411, FL S.B. 7050, ID H.B. 124, ID H.B. 340, IN H.B. 1334, KS S.B. 106, MS H.B. 1310, MS S.B. 2358, NC S.B. 747, ND H.B. 1431, NE L.B. 514, NM S.B. 180, SD H.B. 1165, TX S.B. 924, UT S.B. 17, WY H.B. 279, WY S.F. 153. Legislation is categorized as restrictive if it contains one or more provisions that would make it harder for eligible Americans to register, stay on the voter rolls, or vote as compared to existing state law.
MS S.B. 2358 has been partially blocked by a federal court as it applies to voters with disabilities, but the state has appealed. Portions of FL S.B. 7050 were temporarily blocked by a federal court, but some restrictive provisions remain in effect. The state has appealed.
AR H.B. 1411, AR S.B. 272, FL S.B. 4-B, GA S.B. 222, NC S.B. 749, SD H.B. 1165, TX S.B. 1933. Legislation is categorized as interference if it either threatens the people and processes that make elections work or increases opportunities for partisan interference in election results or administration.
NC S.B. 749 has been temporarily blocked by a state court, but the state has appealed.

Lent Week 3: Find Freedom in the Equally Sacred

NETWORK Staff
February 28, 2024

Scripture: Third Sunday of Lent

Reflection: The beauty of God’s creation is that everything within it shares the sacredness of being created by God. This inherent dignity binds all of us, and everything, together. And in the Incarnation, God fully descends into the entirety of human experience and all of our problems. Everything is touched and transformed. This is why the law, delivered in the first reading, is multi-issue, touching on numerous facets of life under the umbrellas of love of God and love of neighbor.

What does it mean when someone takes only part of the law, or creation, or a political issue and sets it up over and above all the rest? At NETWORK, we would understand this as an injustice – literally not in “right relationship” with how we understand the rest of creation. We witness this distortion in the practice of single-issue voting. Some politicians seek to consolidate power by making us believe that there is one issue that is more important than all the rest, and that we can sacrifice the wellbeing of our families and neighbors — especially our economically and racially marginalized neighbors — for the sake of this one issue. Many U.S. Catholics have accepted this approach, playing right into the hands of politicians who pass policies that limit our ability to care for ourselves and our families and to live in peace and safety. We are called to dismantle this injustice, with the moral clarity of Jesus in the Gospel, and nonviolently overturn the tables that distort the role of faith in politics.

In his 2024 Lent message, Pope Francis proclaims that “through the desert, God leads us to freedom.” This hope-filled claim resonates deeply with us at NETWORK, because we know bad policy, policy that ignores solidarity, often robs us of our freedom to flourish in our daily lives. Pope Francis offers, “In Lent, we find new criteria of justice and a community with which we can press forward on a road not yet taken.”

We have seen the destructive choices that people of faith make when they believe the importance of all other issues can be dismissed. May we embrace the new criteria of all that is “equally sacred” in God’s creation.

Lenten Prayer

Prayer by NETWORK Advocates for Catholic Social Justice Board Chair Leslye Colvin:

Holy Triune God, you infinitely model for us what it is to dwell in right relationship.

We are in awe as we witness your unfolding in the mysteries and wonders before, beyond, and within us.
May this same awe compel us to faithfully pursue and establish right relationships in our society by participating in our local, state, and federal electoral systems.
May curiosity about the unknown lead us to explore, study, and ponder the vast range of issues facing our society, the world, and creation.
May we engage in dialogue to clarify and expand our understanding of those who have lived experiences different than our own.
May courage empower us to embrace the painful discomfort of our past, and how it impacts the lived experiences of our neighbors who dwell on the margins.
May we freely and intentionally apply the gifts of faith and reason to discern a path illumined by your compassion and mercy.
May we dare to humbly venture into the newly illumined areas of suffering with gratitude for what we see anew.
May we question quick and simple answers that neglect human suffering and our ability to faithfully form our conscience.
May we acknowledge the complexity we witness, and affirm that we cannot turn our back on it by focusing on a single issue.
May we move towards inclusion as nuance softens the hardline of dualism that simplifies reality and threatens community.
Model of Right Relationship, your servant, Francis told the people of the United States, “Each son or daughter of a given country has a mission, a personal and social responsibility.”

Help us to discern what is a personal responsibility, and what is a social responsibility. Amen.

Take Action

This week, familiarize yourself with the 2024 Equally Sacred Checklist, NETWORK’s primary resource for this year’s elections. Rooted in the teaching that Catholics have a responsibility to be multi-issue voters, the checklist illuminates these issues by focusing on six freedoms:

Freedom to be Healthy
Freedom to Care for Ourselves and Our Families
Freedom to Live on a Healthy Planet
Freedom From Harm
Freedom to Participate in a Vibrant Democracy
Freedom to Live in a Welcoming Country That Values Dignity and Human Rights

We also encourage you to share the 2024 checklist with anyone in your life who cares about justice and working to build up the common good through our politics. Can you share it with a family member? With five of your friends? Help spread the good news about voting for the freedoms that allow all of us to flourish, without exception.

Lent Week 2: Reject Violence, Embracing the Vision

NETWORK Staff
February 22, 2024

Scripture: Second Sunday of Lent

Reflection: In this week’s Readings, two important events take place on mountains. In Genesis, Abraham takes Isaac up, intending to sacrifice his son per God’s command, only for God to intervene and halt this violent act. In the Gospel, three disciples witness the miraculous vision of the Transfiguration. What do these episodes offer our politics today?

How many ways do we insist, through our policy, that people sacrifice their loved ones — by denying them food, affordable health care, access to clean water, or other necessities? How many ways have we come to accept violence in our communities — in gun deaths and in the threats of those who would harm people who don’t look like them to spread fear and an anti-democracy agenda?

Why do we refuse to prioritize a politics of plenty as something we all deserve? In the Gospel, the disciples are dazzled by the vision of the Transfiguration. We too can journey up the mountain and see a vision of our world transformed. It’s not that we lack the resources, or even a thirst for justice. We lack the equity and the structures needed to promote justice. We lack the political will for lasting, authentic change. But our world can be better, almost unimaginably so. This is the world to which God calls us.

We can have a world where all people, without exception, have access to the resources they need to flourish and have the life God dreams of for them. As the Psalmist says, “I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.” And as the Second Reading says, “if God is for us, who can be against us?”

Lenten Prayer

Prayer by Seattle-based spiritual writer Cameron Bellm:

Merciful and loving God, this Lent we seek your guidance and protection
The myth of scarcity tells us there’s not enough,
While cynicism gazes on dismissively,
Chiding us to be realistic in our demands.
But what if the realest thing we can imagine
Is a world transfigured by the goodness of God,
A world shaped by equity and justice,
A world we can, if we choose, build together?
Let us bask in the glow of that possibility
Until our hearts are full, our hands ready to work,
Until we can climb down from the mountain
With tools in hand, voices joined in song.

Amen.

Take Action

This week, we encourage you to take action by preparing to vote in the primaries! Please take a few minutes to…

Check your voter registration and/or register to vote
Check when your state’s primary election is: *** If your primary has already passed, please contact your family and friends in states where it has not and help them prepare to vote!***
Confirm where your polling place is and when it is open
Check what ID or other materials you need to bring to vote
Learn about voting early and/or voting with an absentee ballot
Make a plan to vote! Figure out: What day/time are you going to vote? Do you need to take off of work? Do you need to get a ride to the polls? Do you need to make a plan for childcare/family care while you’re voting?
Educate yourself about the candidates on your ballot and their positions on the issues that you care about!
Talk to your friends, family, neighbors, coworkers, etc. Make sure they are prepared to vote!

Legislative Review of 2023

One of the Most Dysfunctional, Unproductive Congresses of Modern Times

Laura Peralta-Schulte
February 19, 2024

Laura Peralta-Schulte is NETWORK’s Senior Director of Public Policy and Government Relations.

Following the 2022 midterm elections, 2023 brought “divided government” to Washington, DC as Republicans took control of the U.S. House of Representatives, while the Presidency and U.S. Senate remained under Democratic control.

Policymaking is always more difficult with a divided government because only compromise allows success. The federal system, by design, encourages deal-making and compromise, half-measures, and rare bipartisan achievements. The reactive nature of the federal system often frustrates those seeking revolutionary change.

The first session of the 118th Congress stands out as a year of abject legislative failure. It was a year of squandered opportunity, petty infighting, and deep frustration. The blame for this lack of progress lies directly at the feet of the House Republican Caucus and, by extension, former President Trump.

It is no secret the two major parties have competing visions on key policy issues. The key distinction between the parties is generally informed by what they believe to be the federal government’s proper role. These differences profoundly impact the lives of vulnerable people and the earth, our common home.

NETWORK’s Build Anew agenda requires an active federal government to address the social sins of the day: a broken, inhumane immigration and asylum system, shocking levels of wealth inequality and an ever-growing wage gap, increasing levels of child poverty, destruction of our planet, and more. NETWORK, in Washington and through the actions of our members back home, plays a critical role in bridging the divides to build support for core policy initiatives informed by Catholic Social teaching.

Why does this session stand out as being particularly troublesome? The design of the federal system remains the same; however, the norms of the system — civility and goodwill at minimum to a member’s party — have vanished. The problem did not start this year; institutional norms have slowly eroded, dating back to the speakership of Newt Gingrich and the government shutdowns of 1995 and 1996. The Trump administration accelerated this decay in Washington leading directly to the insurrection of January 6 and an attempted overthrow of the 2020 election.

The schism in the Republican party is most apparent in the House of Representatives and exists between two distinct factions: institutionalists, a quickly shrinking number of Members who respect traditional norms and recognize the need to compromise, and radicals, those who view compromise as capitulation and weakness and act with little regard for the institution or their fellow Republicans.

Tension between the two factions has been displayed in the House since the beginning of the term. This first became apparent during the nomination of Rep. Kevin McCarthy for Speaker of the House. A group of hardline House Republicans blocked McCarthy from securing the speakership to extract policy concessions to their radical agenda. McCarthy won the speakership after 15 humiliating votes. The nomination debate foreshadowed the tumult that was McCarthy’s short tenure as Speaker.

It is critical to note that Senate Republicans, led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, have largely rejected chaos, instead opting to collaborate with Senate Democrats to achieve mutual policy objectives. As 2023 came to a close, it was sadly apparent that a core issue that intersects both House and Senate Republicans’ agenda is a strong desire to end the U.S. asylum system and “build the wall.”

The radical nature of House Republican conservatives — in policy and political norms — is nothing less than shocking. Action on key policy initiatives stopped except for must-pass legislation — lifting the debt ceiling and passing two continuing resolutions to keep our government operational. Each bill moved forward only after House Republicans attempted to use the deadlines to alter core human needs programs for struggling families significantly. Then, after failing to develop a consensus among their caucus, the government was kept afloat due to the support of House Democrats under the leadership of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Cuts to poverty programs are being heralded by House conservatives as necessary austerity measures. The great irony is that the same House conservatives proposing to take food from babies are poised to spend billions of dollars for more tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations on top of the $2 trillion spent under President Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed in 2017.

Then-Speaker McCarthy lost his speakership due to passing a bipartisan continuing resolution with the support of Democrats in September. Compromise is the enemy of House conservatives, regardless of the chaos resulting from policy failure. Chaos is a key tactic and desired outcome.

It is worth noting that these radical members are working very closely with former President Trump in the lead-up to the 2024 election. Many are on record as election deniers and supporters of the insurrection. The former president urged these House Republicans to replace McCarthy in September. He rejected several candidates for Speaker to replace McCarthy, ultimately praising the nomination of ally Rep. Mike Johnson. It bears remembering that now-Speaker Johnson led the effort in the House to reverse Trump’s 2020 election loss.

The first session of a new Congress is typically a time when work gets done before the election cycle begins. Unlike previous congressional terms, the 2024 elections have been front and center in the House from day one. House legislative efforts have relentlessly attacked immigrants and U.S. asylum laws, voting rights, and the LGBTQ+ community.

There have been calls for book bans and ending diversity initiatives, attacks on the Internal Revenue Service as they actively work to ensure wealthy taxpayers pay their taxes, and drastic cuts on all key anti-poverty programs, including WIC, SNAP, healthcare, Social Security, Title One school funding, housing vouchers, and so much more. House Republicans also started formal impeachment processes for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and President Biden.

The House Agriculture bill provides a great example of the harsh austerity measures radical House members are seeking. After successfully making it harder for older Americans to receive SNAP in the new debt ceiling law, key provisions of the Agriculture bill were nothing less than a frontal attack on communities living with high rates of poverty. The bill had cruel cuts in funding to prevent hunger and food insecurity, including hallowing out key programs for fresh fruits and vegetables for children.

Shockingly, the bill would eviscerate long-standing bipartisan support for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) at a time of great need. A lack of funding means waiting lists, poorer health outcomes, and other hardships for new families and their babies.

House conservatives are heralding cuts to poverty programs as necessary austerity measures. The great irony is that the same House conservatives proposing to take food from babies are poised to spend billions of dollars for more tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations on top of the $2 trillion spent under President Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed in 2017.

As the year ends, Congress, due to inaction in the House, has pushed all decisions on major legislation into 2024, making this the most non-productive, dysfunctional Congress in the modern era. The House of Representatives completely failed in their responsibility to the American people. As always, the high cost of inaction falls hardest on the most vulnerable.

This story was published in the Quarter 1 2024 issue of Connection.

Acknowledging Systemic Racism and Unpacking Whiteness

NETWORK honors Black History Month by revisiting a 2019 blog post where a former staff member discussed NETWORK’s commitment to becoming an antiracist, multicultural organization. One strategy involved hosting staff book discussions and sharing resources to learn about the systemic injustices in federal and local policies that have led to inequities like the racial wealth gap—which was crucial in informing our work to build our country anew

Unfortunately, in 2024, we see harmful challenges to teaching Black history in book bans, curricula censorship, and the intentional erasure of Black history. Despite these obstacles, there is hope. Adam Russell Taylor, Sojourners’ Executive Director, shared in his essay, Teaching My Black Sons They Are Loved, how he cultivated a tradition of sharing Black history with his sons while driving in the car. Mr. Taylor’s commitment to teach Black History is a powerful model for all people in our country who are responsible for the care of children–-whether they are Black, Brown, or white, so that we can better understand who we are as a nation. As he points out, “Teaching Black history is not just about strengthening our democracy or fixing injustices; it’s also about affirming and celebrating an essential part of our nation’s culture and identity.”

Acknowledging Systemic Racism and Unpacking Whiteness

Black History Month Update
February 14, 2024

Lindsay Hueston
February 21, 2019

In a commitment to moving towards being an anti-racist, multicultural organization, NETWORK staff is intentionally setting aside time in 2019 to read and discuss Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility. The book examines structures of race in the modern-day United States, and is an especially pertinent read during Black History Month. As a white woman, DiAngelo challenges systems of whiteness that have led to the racism that permeates our political and societal culture. Though it may manifest itself in different ways, racism is still alive and well today, and impacts countless policies and issues that NETWORK works on in order to mend the gaps in our society.

During Black History Month, NETWORK challenges you to examine the way you and the systems around you may unintentionally perpetuate racism. We are trying to be intentional about listening to the experiences of people who are directly impacted by systemic racial injustice, and we encourage you to do the same.

“If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”

– Lilla Watson, indigenous Australian activist

Some resources that may be helpful throughout this month, please comment below with any recommendations you have to add:

Books
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown
Citizen by Claudia Rankine
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
White Like Me by Tim Wise
Waking Up White by Debby Irving
Trouble I’ve Seen by Drew G.I. Hart
The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

Artist: Ernesto Yerena

Authors
Roxane Gay
Audre Lorde
Alice Walker
Toni Morrison
James Baldwin
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Maya Angelou

Videos
We Must Talk About Race to Fix Economic Inequality (YouTube video)
Talks to help you understand racism in America (TED talk playlist, videos on racial justice)
The Myth of the Welfare Queen (PBS video)

Articles
Everyday Respectability Politics
An Examen for White Allies: from the Ignatian Solidarity Network
What Black Lives Matter Can Teach Catholics About Racial Justice: from America Magazine

Lists
Reading List for Northam: recently-published article that has some great anti-racism resources
16 Books About Race That White People Should Read: further reading resources
(White) Girl Power aka The List: a list of anti-racist resources to white women to attain a deeper understanding of Black women’s lived experiences
Skimm Reads for Black History Month: recent popular books written by Black authors

Websites
People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond: holds programs, workshops, and resources for anti-racist education and organizing
Rachel Cargle: an activist and writer who educates others about anti-racism and intellectual discourse
Everyday Feminism: website has an entire section dedicated to the intersections of race and feminism

Podcasts
Code Switch (NPR)
Pod Save the People
Yo, Is This Racist?
Good Ancestor
Hoodrat to Headwrap
The Racist Sandwich Podcast
Ezra Klein: Political Power and the Racial Wealth Gap
A Conversation About Conversations About Race

TV/Film
13^th
Dear White People (TV, Film)
The Hate U Give
Black-ish
Moonlight
Pariah

Ash Wednesday 2024 Two Paths Out of the Desert

Lent Calls Us to Two Paths Out of the Desert

NETWORK Staff
February 14, 2024

Scripture: Ash Wednesday and First Sunday of Lent

Reflection: Lent is a familiar journey into the desert for countless Christians. The desert reflects a feeling of God’s absence from our world, a deathly dryness. In the U.S., we feel this in our politics as we look at the dysfunction of Congress that plays games with the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

But awareness of this current desert is good. As Pope Francis reminds us in his Lent message for this year:

“If our celebration of Lent is to be concrete, the first step is to desire to open our eyes to reality.”

Lent is also a time of seeking a way out of the desert, and Pope Francis is clear in that what awaits us beyond the desert is freedom. But how do we get there?

This Lent, more than one prophet cries out in our desert. John the Baptist’s familiar call to “prepare the way” is joined by a 20th-century prophet, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who at the end of his life asked: “Where do we go from here: chaos or community?” As we survey our desert surroundings, “chaos” and “community” could be the signposts on two paths leading us past our current moment. But only one of them is the way of the living God — the way where everyone, without exception, can live in with dignity.

The path of chaos is promised by candidates who threaten to use the power of the government to punish their opponents and politicize every facet of life in this country. It appears in racial scapegoating meant to drive wedges between communities. It’s a vision in which the future belongs only to the rich and powerful, and everyone else is left to contend with the chaos of a world without the freedoms ensured by a flourishing democracy. May we reject this vision and take the path out of the desert that leads us to Beloved Community.

Lenten Prayer

Prayer by Joan F. Neal, NETWORK Deputy Executive Director and Chief Equity Officer

Merciful and loving God, this Lent we seek your guidance and protection
Help us, as we journey together this year toward the November election
Help us to choose: Community over chaos
Solidarity over division
Our neighbor over fear
Care over scarcity
The future over despair
Democracy over autocracy
We have glimpsed the Beloved Community. Give us strength and hope on the journey toward it.

Amen

Please scroll below for a daily prayer from Sr. Quincy Howard, OP

Take Action

This week, sign up for NETWORK’s upcoming webinar: “Choosing Community Over Chaos: Our Work in 2024”

Join Mary Novak, NETWORK’s Executive Director, along with members of our Government Relations and Grassroots Mobilization teams, for our first webinar of 2024. Together, we will review the chaotic and abysmal first session of the 118th Congress–as reflected in our 2023 Voting Record–and then turn our attention to our primary focus in 2024: the election.

During our time together, we will provide a comprehensive overview of NETWORK’s 2024 Equally Sacred Checklist, share our top messages for this election, and give you a “sneak-peak” at trainings we will offer in the spring.

2024 Lenten Daily Prayer

This Lent, commit to saying this daily prayer for our democracy by Sr. Quincy Howard, OP:

God of many names, you humble us by your power to change the course of history. You remind us of the fragility of things we take for granted.

We feel unmoored and adrift; help us to meet this moment as steadfast, courageous citizens. Plant gratitude, inspiration, and motivation in our hearts to preserve all the best aspects of democracy. For it is the best way we know to create a better, more just society.

Help our nation move through the challenges and tribulations of a broken politics and threatened democratic systems. As we prepare for the upcoming election, give our people a spirit of hopeful persistence to do our part, and a renewed faith in these hallowed endeavors. Please steer our leaders and our people toward a collective, higher purpose of a shared common good and a renewed appreciation of our interdependence.

Divine challenger, you are with us in adversity. Carry us through these dark times and help us persevere in the struggle to include the voices of all voters. Guide us to take action, communally and individually, on behalf of a true, fair, and just democracy.

Amen!

2024 State of the Union Bingo

March 7, 2024

Lent Week Four: Show Mercy Through Your Politics

NETWORK Staff March 6, 2024

Lenten Prayer

The Ripple of One Person’s Vote

Contribute to the Love That Saves the World

Sr. Erin Zubal, OSU March 5, 2024

This story was published in the Quarter 1 2024 issue of Connection.

Lessons for Democracy in 2024

Advocates Agree That Voting Remains a Powerful Tool and Act of Engagement

Don Clemmer March 1, 2024

The Place of Faith in Politics

Inaction Is Not an Option

This story was published in the Quarter 1 2024 issue of Connection.

This Black History Month, NETWORK calls for democracy protection in the U.S.

Lent Week 3: Find Freedom in the Equally Sacred

NETWORK Staff February 28, 2024

Lenten Prayer

Take Action

Lent Week 2: Reject Violence, Embracing the Vision

NETWORK Staff February 22, 2024

Lenten Prayer

Take Action

Legislative Review of 2023

One of the Most Dysfunctional, Unproductive Congresses of Modern Times

Laura Peralta-Schulte February 19, 2024

This story was published in the Quarter 1 2024 issue of Connection.

Acknowledging Systemic Racism and Unpacking Whiteness

Black History Month Update February 14, 2024

Lindsay Hueston February 21, 2019

Lent Calls Us to Two Paths Out of the Desert

NETWORK Staff February 14, 2024

Lenten Prayer

Take Action

2024 Lenten Daily Prayer

NETWORK Staff
March 6, 2024

Sr. Erin Zubal, OSU
March 5, 2024

Don Clemmer
March 1, 2024

NETWORK Staff
February 28, 2024

NETWORK Staff
February 22, 2024

Laura Peralta-Schulte
February 19, 2024

Black History Month Update
February 14, 2024

Lindsay Hueston
February 21, 2019

NETWORK Staff
February 14, 2024