This Faith In the Valley Justice Interview Series is a conversation with Faith In the Valley organizer Marcel Woodruff. We explore abolitionism as a tool to create a more just society and to provide clarification on what is meant by the term.
Despite Governor Newsom’s proclamation at the beginning of shelter-in-place that he had enacted a statewide “eviction moratorium”, this did little more than pass the buck to cities and counties to protect vulnerable renters, and very few jurisdictions did. On Sept. 1, millions of Californians will be facing evictions if elected leaders do not take swift and bold action now.
Andy Levine, deputy director of Faith in the Valley, said he was troubled by Hall’s claim that movement to re-imagine funding for the police is causing an uptick in violent crime. “That is just unprofessional,” Levine said. “The truth is the reason why violence occurs in our community is because we have funded so heavily the police departments in our city and our country at the expense of other, more pro-active things, in our community.”
McFarland residents — many of whom work in the region's agricultural fields — "were not provided with a fair and transparent process in the vote for this detention center, and were shut out by those who are supposed to represent them," Pastor Trena Turner, executive director of Faith in the Valley, said in a statement. "We are hopeful that this temporary hold is a step towards progress, and that the resiliency of the community and legal partners will result in a permanent example of justice for the Central Valley, the state and the rest of the country."
Faith in the Valley affirms the nationwide protest where people of faith, as well as people of good will, lift our voices for the declaration of the dawn of a new day. While many denounce the protest because of the element of property vandalism, we call on these critics to refocus their attention from any looting being done by economically dispossessed persons and towards a system that loots and robs Black and minoritized persons every day across the country.
In this conversation, Dr. Roberto Mata draws upon his work from the Book of Revelation to provide Christian pastors with hermeneutical tools to challenge the dominant power of the United States.
This public health and humanitarian crisis calls for bold and moral leadership from Congress to remedy the deep and systemic racial inequities in our country. To save lives and limit the damage to our society and economy, our response to this crisis must be both universal, providing protection, care, and support to everyone, and targeted, focusing resources on people and communities most at-risk. To date, the federal response has exacerbated rather than alleviated racial inequality, putting all of our health and wellbeing at-risk.
In this interview, Bishop Turner describes the social inequalities that face his parishioners in Stockton, California. He highlights how these inequalities form a way of life that COVID-19 has exacerbated.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno represents about one million Catholics and, hopefully, inspires others, including folks who reside in the town of McFarland. Often it is those very same folks who inspire us and I am immensely proud of the parishioners at St Elizabeth’s Catholic Church in McFarland who, along with many others, put their faith into practice and stood up for themselves, their neighbors, their community and this country by...
Check out our new video, produced in collaboration with Communities for a New California Education Fund, which features Faith in the Valley leaders talking about the importance of making sure everyone is counted in the 2020 Census.
Families are waiting. Your gift today will help provide transportation and other emergency support so people released from immigration detention can safely reunite with their loved ones. Every dollar will be doubled until we reach our goal.
