Wednesday, December 11, 2024

Truth and Action Roundup 12.11.24

Welcome to the Truth and Action Roundup, a reliable source of information, inspiration, and action for the post-election period. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to continue receiving it.

Today is Wednesday, Dec. 11, 40 days before Inauguration Day. In today’s Truth and Action Roundup, we look at a recent legal setback for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients hoping to receive health coverage through the Affordable Care Act, give you the latest on the situation in Syria, and cover President Joe Biden’s announcement of a new national monument to mark the shameful legacy of Native American boarding schools. We also provide opportunities for action on voting rights and the federal death penalty. As always, we offer spiritual resources for the road ahead, which focus on the theme of peace during this second week of Advent.

— Rev. Adam Taylor and Rev. Moya Harris, Sojourners

In the News

Here’s what we know at the time of writing:

1) A federal judge has blocked a Biden administration rule that would have given roughly 90,000 DACA recipients in Texas access to health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. Texas, along with 18 other states, had sued the federal government to prevent implementation of recent guidance from the Department of Health and Human Services, while immigration advocacy groups argued that the rule would help alleviate high uninsured rates and other barriers contributing to health disparities among DACA recipients.

2) The situation in Syria, following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime over the weekend, continues to evolve, with various internal groups and foreign nations vying for control. Israel has been particularly active, conducting at least 350 air strikes on Syrian territory since Sunday and moving ground forces within sight of Damascus. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu characterized these strikes as efforts to prevent “strategic military assets left by the Syrian military...[from] falling into the hands of jihadists.” Israel’s deployment of ground forces into and beyond the buffer zone separating Syria from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights — movement that Israeli leaders have characterized as temporary — is its first ground incursion into that area in 50 years and comes in the context of continued U.S. backing for Israel’s actions in the Middle East. Netanyahu claimed Monday that Israel is “changing the face of the Middle East.”

3) On Monday, Biden announced the creation of a new national monument to acknowledge the horrific legacy of the more than 400 boarding schools where American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children were sent to “sever ties between children and their tribal families, their language and culture.” The monument will be located at the site where the Carlisle Indian Industrial School ran from 1879 to 1918 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Overall, more than 970 children died and countless others were traumatized in the federal Indian boarding school system, a legacy for which Biden offered the first official apology on behalf of the U.S. government in October.

A red, white, and blue collage of a donkey, elephant, courthouse, capitol building, along with the preamble of the U.S. Constitution

Take Action

Protect the freedom to vote! Write to your members of Congress and tell them to vote against two harmful bills, the ACE Act and the SAVE Act, which would further damage the sacred freedom to vote. Both bills would create unnecessary hurdles to voting and voter registration. We believe it dishonors the image of God when an eligible voter is prevented from exercising their freedom to vote — and that the freedom to vote is foundational to every other freedom we enjoy.
Tell Biden to commute the federal death row! We strongly believe that the death penalty is fundamentally unjust and that the system under which it is administered in our country is broken. President-elect Donald Trump set a record for federal executions the last time he was in office. Biden needs to act now to save the lives of the 40 people currently on federal death row.

Deep Breaths

Advent readings for today: Psalm 126; Isaiah 35:3-7; Luke 7:18-30

Remember to turn down the noise and take the time to breathe. The anxiety surrounding the coming changes can be overwhelming. Breathe, remembering the God of the Universe is still in control. Won’t you pray with me?

My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though
I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. — Thomas Merton

Here’s an intentional worship playlist curated to soothe the soul and to worship our God.

— Rev. Moya Harris, Director of Racial Justice, Sojourners

P.S. You can access previous Truth and Action Roundup playlists here.

The Truth and Action Roundup is compiled by Sojourners staff:
President: Rev. Adam Russell Taylor
Director of Racial Justice: Rev. Moya Harris
Senior Research Associate: J.K. Granberg-Michaelson
Senior Adviser and Director to the President’s Office: Elizabeth Denlinger Reaves
Director of Campaigns and Mobilizing: Sandy Ovalle Martínez
Director of Congregational Outreach & Education: Rev. Andrea Saccoccio
Digital Communications Associate: Lexi Schnaser
Senior Director of Marketing: Sandra Sims