Are you passionate about Social Justice? The Social Justice Team explores intersection of faith and climate justice, fighting homelessness, faith and mental health, helping those with HIV, addressing food insecurity, the injustice of the criminal justice system, and other issues. If you have questions, please contact Gail Merrill at pgtmerrill@aol.com.
On Monday, January 20th from 9am to Noon, starting in Great Hall we’ll have our annual MLK Day of Service. RSVP using this link. Activities will include: making cards, writing letters to elected officials, making blessing bags, crayon sharpening, updating liturgy boxes, organizing winter shelter donations and clothing for refugee families. There will also be an external project at My Sister's Closet. We hope to see you there!
Visit the Take Action Center to learn more about our legislative priorities and reach out to your member of Congress. Topics include: COVID vaccine and testing equity, the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act, climate justice, a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, ending gun violence, and reducing military spending.
Learn more about the history of United Methodists and their involvement in matters of justice. This article from the UMC’s Board of Church & Society highlights the unique influence of the United Methodist Building in Washington D.C.
3878 West 3rd Street
(812) 369-4449
112 A. College Avenue
(812) 318-3945
(812) 597 0445
Bloomington Beauty Supplies and Salon
805 S. Rogers Street
(812) 361-7929
908 N. Walnut Street
(812) 332-0444
Jeff Clark Painting, LLC
(812) 327-3977
Sheer Elegance Draperies, Blinds, and More
(812) 331-9190
Griffin Realty
735 S. College Ave.
(812) 323-7232
C&T Clean Team, LLC
(812) 219-8843
(812) 671-2200
209 S. Rogers Street
(812) 674-1136
American Civil Liberties Union
Queer Theology’s Weekly Bible Podcast gives you an LGBTQ perspective on a different Bible passage.
Coaching conversations helping LGBTQIA+ people who identify as Christians make peace with their faith and sexuality.
The Trevor Project is the largest suicide prevention and crisis support organization providing 24-7 life saving programs designed to meet the unique needs of all LGBTQIA+ youth. The project provides advocacy, peer support, research, and public education and awareness services.
Their website is a great resource for LGBTQIA+ education, both for allies and for those who identify as members of the community. Learn about sexual orientation, gender identity, mental health, and so much more. If you feel called to support the life-saving work that The Trevor Project is doing for LGBTQIA+ youth, click the link below.
Transgender, at its most basic level, is a word that applies to someone who doesn’t fit within society’s standards of how a woman or a man is supposed to look or act.
This person may transition into expressing their gender differently, e.g. living as a man instead of a woman, or may feel like they don’t fit within society’s standards of how women and men are supposed to look and act (gender non-conforming).
Transgender is a relatively new word, but it’s not a new concept. Gender non-conforming people have existed in many time periods and cultures.
Some transgender people have surgeries, or take hormones, to bring their body into alignment with their gender identity. But, many do not and that doesn’t mean they’re not transgender. A transgender identity is not dependent upon medical procedures.
Wait to see how someone self-identifies (or ask, respectfully) before assuming!
Gender identity is our internal, individual experience of gender. It is directly linked to our sense of self and the sense of being male, female, both or neither.
Pronouns are pivotal to an individual’s gender identity and how they relate to the world and others. If you assume someone’s pronouns, they could feel invalidated. That’s why we encourage you to ask, don’t assume!
Asking people about their pronouns sets a tone of respect and helps to create an affirming environment! Here are a few ways you can be more inclusive and affirming when it comes to pronouns:
Share your pronouns when introducing yourself. For example: “My name is Patrick and I use they/them pronouns.”
Include your pronouns in your email signature, on name tags at events, in your zoom name, and on your social media bio.
When addressing groups of people or people whose pronouns have not been shared with you, use gender neutral language such as “elle” instead of “el” or “ella,” “siblings,” “students,” “all” or “folks” rather than “brothers and sisters,” “guys,” “sir,” etc…
A woman whose enduring physical, romantic, and/or emotional attraction is to other women. Some lesbians may prefer to identify as gay or as gay women.
The adjective used to describe people whose enduring physical, romantic, and/or emotional attractions are to people of the same sex. Sometimes lesbian is the preferred term for women.
A person who has the capacity to form enduring physical, romantic, and/or emotional attractions to those of the same gender or to those of another gender. People may experience this attraction in differing ways and degrees over their lifetime. Bisexual people need not have had specific sexual experiences to be bisexual; in fact, they need not have had any sexual experience at all to identify as bisexual.
An umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or gender expression differs from what is typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth. People under the transgender umbrella may describe themselves using one or more of a wide variety of terms— including transgender. Many transgender people are prescribed hormones by their doctors to bring their bodies into alignment with their gender identity. Some undergo surgery as well. But not all transgender people can or will take those steps, and a transgender identity is not dependent upon physical appearance or medical procedures.
An adjective used by some people whose sexual orientation is not exclusively heterosexual. Typically, for those who identify as queer, the terms lesbian, gay, and bisexual are perceived to be too limiting and/or fraught with cultural connotations they feel don’t apply to them. Some people may use queer, or genderqueer, to describe their gender identity and/or gender expression. Once considered a pejorative term, queer has been reclaimed by some LGBTQ people to describe themselves; however, it is not a universally accepted term even within the LGBTQ community.
Sometimes, when the Q is seen at the end of LGBT, it can also mean questioning. This term describes someone who is questioning their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Individual actions won’t be enough to stop the environmental crises, but your actions can be a catalyst for change. When God called Moses to rescue God’s people, God reminded this very unlikely candidate for leadership that he was standing on “holy ground” (Exodus 3:1-12). Like Moses, you may feel overwhelmed and inadequate, but God assured him—and you—“I will be with you.” Where is God calling you?
Invest in the future—not the past. Choose what you can: solar and wind, energy-efficient appliances, hybrid or electric vehicles, voting for electric public transit, quality and long-lasting fashion made of natural textiles, insurance companies and banks that do not support fossil fuels, lawmakers who work for the environment and justice.
As a Christian charged to “Love our neighbors,” you can understand and speak up for environmental justice, which means that everyone—regardless of race, color, national origin, or income—has the right to the same environmental protections and benefits, as well as the right to meaningful involvement in the policies that shape their communities. Do the research, hold law and policy makers accountable, and tell the stories of injustice.
Put your money to work for justice. When you buy organic, you guarantee more farmers can grow healthy, safe food. When you buy fair trade, you provide living wages and fight poverty. When you buy from a business owned by women or people of color, you help build an inclusive economy. When you bank with a community bank or credit union, you are investing locally, and you are likely not funding fossil fuel projects.
Businesses have a greater impact toward a more sustainable future than individuals. But each of us can have an impact on businesses. When you need to make a purchase, shop for the company not just the product. Support businesses that practice sustainability with their products and production. Purchase from ones that care and give back. When you shop online, read the “About” tab and look also for B Corp certification or 1% for the Planet designations on the site.
Whatever you do to care for God’s creation and for justice is important and needed. It’s also necessary to change big systems at all levels—local, state, and federal. You don’t need to wait for action at the national level. Go local. Over 100 cities have committed to a timetable that moves them to 100% renewable energy; others have banned single-use plastics. Find out what your local opportunities are.
Support the creation justice efforts of others. Use your money to help fund organizations that care for the environment and for communities that are vulnerable. They can gather resources and amass power that creates greater impact than individuals can. Those who have the power to address climate change are more likely to respond when they perceive the demand for action has grown. Use your time to join the efforts of others: Write, call, organize, sign petitions, encourage others to be more vocal, use your social media, vote.
Write to law and policy makers. In your letter state why this environmental issue is important to you—and to others. Tell your story; speak up for justice. Indicate you are a constituent and a person of faith. Policy makers pay more attention to letters from individuals, and they need a broader religious perspective than they often assume.
Scientists have sounded the alarm about global warming for more than four decades. As predicted, the effects are increasing. But the time for being able to slow, stop, or reverse the trend is rapidly decreasing. Talk about the climate crises. Tell your family, friends, and church members about what you are learning and doing. You are a trusted resource for them. Your example and your encouragement are key to spreading wider the circle of caring for God’s planet and people.
During voting season vet your candidates for their commitments to address climate-change related issues—especially justice for those most adversely affected. Thoughtfully and prayerfully examine the issues and candidates with measures of right/wrong, helpful/harmful, truth/error, and what builds community and the common good. Then vote and encourage others to do so.
Article: Environmental Justice and the Effects of Pollution
Book: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
10 Tips to Act Sustainably in Your Home
Join the Citizens’ Climate Lobby of South Central Indiana
EPIPHANY
God of Light, you are made manifest in so many ways, yet we refuse to see you. We close our eyes to your presence in those we deem less than, worse than, lower than us. We turn away from your presence in those who trouble us, frighten us, confuse us. We want to welcome your presence in everyone, as long as they are just like us. What a limited world we choose to live in, God of a multicolored, multicultured, multifaceted creation.
Open our eyes, that is our Epiphany prayer, to your light as it comes to us in all of creation. Help us stop covering it up, damaging it, snuffing it out. Help us be signposts to the working of the Spirit all around us. Let us see you, and let others see you in us. In the name of the light shining forth. Amen.
Derek C Weber, December 2024
Race does not biologically exist, yet how we identify with race is so powerful, it influences our experiences and shapes our lives. In a society that privileges white people and whiteness, racist ideas are considered normal throughout our media, culture, social systems, and institutions. Historically, racist views justified the unfair treatment and oppression of people of color (including enslavement, segregation, internment, etc.). We can be led to believe that racism is only about individual mindsets and actions, yet racist policies also contribute to our polarization. While individual choices are damaging, racist ideas in policy have a wide-spread impact by threatening the equity of our systems and the fairness of our institutions. To create an equal society, we must commit to making unbiased choices and being antiracist in all aspects of our lives.
This is a resource to help anyone who’s considering allyship to better understand the pros and cons of what being an ally entails. Allies understand their role in collaboration with people whose lives are affected daily by systemic oppression.
Don’t take the responsibility of being an ally lightly.
Events of the past few years have turned a challenging spotlight on White people, and Whiteness, in the United States. Just what is going on with white people? Police shootings of unarmed African Americans. Acts of domestic terrorism by white supremacists. The renewed embrace of raw, undisguised white-identity politics. Unending racial inequity in schools, housing, criminal justice, and hiring. Some of this feels new, but in truth it’s an old story.
Why? Where did the notion of “whiteness” come from? What does it mean? What is whiteness for?
Scene on Radio host and producer John Biewen took a deep dive into these questions, along with an array of leading scholars and regular guest Dr. Chenjerai Kumanyika, in this fourteen-part documentary series, released between February and August 2017.
Small Great Things is about prejudice and power; it is about that which divides and unites us. This novel is written by number one best-selling author Jodi Picoult, with the biggest of themes: birth, death, and responsibility.
When a newborn baby dies after a routine hospital procedure, there is no doubt about who will be held responsible: the nurse who had been banned from looking after him by his father. What the nurse, her lawyer and the father of the child cannot know is how this death will irrevocably change all of their lives, in ways both expected and not.
Robert Jones begins by reviewing the history of race in America through selected stories that describe the slave system, the terror used to maintain separation of the races, and the role of religion in defining a racial culture. Using recent research from the Public Religion Research Institute, Jones describes studies that look for places where white supremacists gather and finds them in evangelical and mainline white Christian churches. His book also contains the story of two next-door-neighbor churches, one White and the other Black, and follows their journey toward improved mutual understanding and common purpose.
Wilkerson describes how the segregation by race in America resembles the caste system used to segregate the social structure of India. The system is governed by rules that prohibit leaving a caste into which one is born and social interactions between members of different castes. Lower castes are routinely disadvantaged. The important message of this book is the delineation of the rules of the caste system for the American racial structure. An important insight is the concept that the system is in harmony with nature (given by God) and sacrosanct.
From the end of the Civil War to the middle of the 20th century, the races in America were socially separated with Blacks at the bottom by a system, called “Jim Crow,” of state laws and regulations governing where people lived, shopped, worked, and traveled. This system was outlawed in 1964 by the Civil Rights Act that forbade discrimination based on race, gender, religion, or national origin. Within a relatively short time, the justice system took over the task of keeping Black people separate from Whites by criminalizing even minor infractions, creating an incarcerated population of well over two million people. The book explains how this “new Jim Crow” worked through race-biased policing, prejudicial handling of bail and sentencing, and imposing restrictions on people with a criminal record.
This book explores several systems in America that don’t deliver benefits to Americans because they were explicitly designed to disadvantage Black people. In the process, many others, usually poorer White people, also loose out. A famous example is a system of public swimming pools that closed rather than submit to integration, thus leaving people without access to this recreation. The book includes an appeal to abolish such systems for everyone’s benefit.
Taken together, Caste explains why people were willing to sacrifice the benefits described in The Sum of Us in order to protect the segregation of the races, a God-given system with high moral authority.
Did anything change for you in your perception of racism after reading or listening?
Thinking about current events and what you have read or listened to, as someone of faith, what are your thoughts on the concept of being anti-racist?
After reflecting on your thoughts about the concept of being anti-racist, do you see this as a challenge for you to practice being anti-racist?
In the past and in the present, a struggle for a Black person is and has been, that they can be the only person who recognizes when someone, a system, or a group is being racist. How can you as believers enhance your consciousness to not only see what you want to see but also recognize when racism is being displayed?
How can you as followers of Jesus show your awareness in practicing being anti-racist in Bloomington and wherever you may go?
219 E 4th Street
(812) 332-6396
Food packages available for pick-up Wednesdays 3:30-5:30pm.
2333 W Industrial Park Dr
(812) 334-8374
Agency food pick-up hours are Monday 9:30am-4:30pm, Tuesday & Wednesday 9:30-12:30, and Thursday 9:30-3. Friday food pickups by appointment.
1100 W. Allen Street
812-355-6843
MHC's current hours are Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays from 12-2pm and 4-6pm. Pre-packaged grocery boxes are available outside in the truck bay.
2111 Vernal Pike
(812) 336-4976
Food pantry orders can be scheduled for pick up on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays from 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
919 S. Rogers Street
812-332-1444
1007 N. Summitt Street
812-339-3491
Provides veterans affairs supportive housing, housing Choice Vouchers (HCV) rental assistance for homeless veterans. Combines rental assistance with case management and clinical services provided by the VA. The VA provides these services for participating Veterans at VA medical centers (VAMCs) and community-based outreach clinics.
2440 S Henderson Street
812-822-3748
Permanent housing and supportive services for individuals, couples, and families experiencing long-term homelessness due to a disability. The Crawford Homes program is part of a national campaign to eliminate homelessness for those who suffer with the greatest needs and struggles.
812-333-7404
Services: 24 hour Crisis hotline, Emergency Shelter for those fleeing violence at home and victims of human trafficking; Legal Advocacy-For victims of sexual assault, stalking, domestic violence, child abuse, harassment, financial coercion, or of other related crimes. Transition Housing to help low-income adults recovering from the impacts of domestic violence, to secure permanent, safe and affordable housing; achieve economic security; and develop their capacities for self-determination.
301 W. 2nd Street
812-334-9840
Emergency shelter for families of all genders, legal guardians with current physical custody/guardianship of all gender/aged children. Shelter services: case management, life skills training, advocacy, Strategies for Family Coping Resources, tutoring for homeless students, job coaching and mentoring programming for adults and children. Emergency services include drop in day shelter for parents with children and unaccompanied youth: food pantry, daily use items (such as toiletries), laundry, computer/phone access, job search assistance, guidance area resources, street outreach program, early childhood day care provided to at risk and homeless children at The Nest at New Hope (infant - kindergarten). LGBTQ homeless services.
812-339-9771
Transitional housing and supportive services to youth 16-20 years old who are experiencing homelessness that includes: Transitional Housing, Independent Living , Essential skills to achieve a successful transition into adulthood and become self-sufficient. Educational Assistance
Job Coaching, Financial Counseling, Health & Wellness, Health Care, and Recreational activities Alternatives & Awareness (AA)-Educates youth on the negative effects of drug use and gives them healthy alternatives.
215 S. Westplex Avenue
812-333-1905
Services/Programs: Emergency Services: Shelter to homeless and/or disadvantaged men, meals, hygiene, chapel services, case management, medical, dental, podiatric and vision services are also available; Residential Programs Long-term programs designed to address the specific issues that contribute to life instability and homelessness; Addiction Recovery.
