Ecumenical Advocacy Days

This annual conference/training opportunity offered by the National Council of Churches, EAD will be March 19 -21 in Washington, D.C. Many attendees will stay over to visit their senators and representatives on Monday, speaking together to political power with other people of faith. This year, attendees will have the opportunity also join people of faith and others in a march on the Mall Sunday afternoon to support Just and Humane Immigration Reform. Come raise your voice for the voiceless in our society!

The goal of EAD, through worship, theological reflection and opportunities for learning and witness, is to strengthen the Christian voice and to mobilize for advocacy on a variety of U.S. domestic and international policy issues. The event includes workshops on a variety of issues, but will focus this year on “A Place to Call Home: Immigrants, Refugees, and Displaced Peoples.”

Register for the event and find additional information on the Web site.  Young adults can also ask for scholarship there.   http://advocacydays.org/

Young adults - Laura Lee, a young adult at Calvary Baptist Church, is working on the Young Adult planning committee. If you are interested in learning more about young adults at EAD, contact her at CalvaryDCYAG@gmail.com .

If you are interested in attending, but cannot afford the hotel rates listed on the Web site, please contact the Peace & Justice Committee and we will try to find local housing for you. peaceandjustice@allianceofbaptists.org

Interfaith Committee on Nuclear Disarmament and Faithful Security

The Interfaith Committee on Nuclear Disarmament and Faithful Security are both working hard to get clergy and people of faith to work as advocates for a world free of nuclear weapons. Within the next few months, the administration must finish and win Senate approval of the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, secure international support for measures to strengthen the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty at the May review conference, and begin to persuade undecided Senate Republicans that the time has come to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. 

START has been a cornerstone of nuclear disarmament efforts between the United States and Russia. Since 1991, when the treaty took effect, it has reduced both countries' nuclear arsenals by between 30 – 40 percent and helped end a U.S.-Russian arms race. START expired Dec. 5.  President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev are nearing completion of a new nuclear weapons reduction treaty. Read this article by Daryl Kimball of the Arms Control Association to find out why the U.S. Senate should ratify the treaty.  http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2009_12/focus

Another important step is for the U.S. Senate to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The United States has observed a nuclear testing moratorium for nearly two decades. During the decade since the Senate rejected the CTBT, the United States has observed the treaty’s basic tenets while foregoing the benefits of ratification—access of expanded verification and on-site inspections.

The Friends Committee on National Legislation has many good resources on their Web site including this flyer on the CTBT. http://www.fcnl.org/pdfs/nuclear/TestBanTreaty.pdf  In addition, this link includes more education information about CTBT and how you can advocate for a world free of nuclear weapons.   http://www.fcnl.org/nuclear/

These next two steps on the road to reduc­ing and ultimately eliminating nuclear weapons — a new START with Russia and ratification of CTBT — require ratification by a two-thirds vote of the Senate or support by 67 votes. Opponents of these changes only need 34 votes to defeat either of these treaties. Persuading 67 senators to sup­port ratification of these treaties will require a major effort from people like you around the country.   

The challenge is before you: educate yourself, urge your senators to support these two important treaties, and spread the word in your churches and to your neighbors, family and friends. If the people of the world demand peace, the leaders of the world will have to follow!

Travel Ban on Cuba

Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-MN), Congressman Jerry Moran (R-KS), and 32 of their House colleagues introduced new legislation recently that would put the United States and Cuba firmly on a path toward engagement by (finally) restoring U.S. citizens' right to travel to Cuba and facilitating needed U.S. agricultural sales to the island that were initially approved by Congress in 2000. Our friends at Latin America Working Group working on ending the travel ban to Cuba (http://www.lawg.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=23&Itemid=52) have asked us to get Alliance members to call or write your congressmen and congresswomen and ask them to co-sponsor HR 4645, the bipartisan Peterson-Moran bill on opening travel and enhancing agricultural sales to Cuba. Reach members' offices through the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

Thank you for all your good work for justice!