In the face of unprecedented attacks on election officials and attempts to subvert the electoral process, including calls for five Wisconsin Election Commission (WEC) members to resign, Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice presented testimony at a WEC meeting on December 13.  Our testimony said, in part:

“...the current hyper-partisan atmosphere around voting rights is deeply disturbing. Reports of election workers facing harassment and even death threats are abhorrent. If we agree on nothing else, let’s all agree that our election officials are heroes and the work the Wisconsin Election Commission does to ensure free and fair elections is sacred and praiseworthy.”

Read the full text here. 

Our work to further racial equity in our schools and communities continues!  

As we are moving into local elections around the state, including school board elections, please join us on January 4, 2022 at 6:30 for our monthly Taking a Faithful Stance for Racial Equity meeting.

At that meeting, Dr. Peter Bakken, Justice and Witness Coordinator from Wisconsin Council of Churches, and Rabbi Bonnie Margulis, Executive Director of Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice, will lead a training in non-profit (including faith communities) do's and don'ts in an election year. Learn about the many activities your congregation can engage in to help get out the vote, and the few activities that are prohibited.

If you have not yet taken our Pledge for Racial Equity, please do so here and join this growing movement!
 
If you haven't already, please register here for the meeting!  January 4 at 6:30 p.m.  And bring a friend!

Also, be sure to check out the videos and other resources from our #TeachTheTruthWisconsin events that took place around the state in October.
 
Peace and blessings from the cosponsors
of Taking a Faithful Stand for Equity
 
This initiative is co-sponsored by Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice, the Wisconsin Council of Churches, WISDOM, and MICAH.


PS - If there's something going on in your area and you'd like to alert us, to seek out others to mobilize with you, or otherwise engage the network, use this form.  Your form entry will launch a message to us and we can start exploring next steps, including seeing who else is active in our network in your area. 

Martin Luther King III, Arndrea Waters King, and Yolanda Renee King and over 80 organizations have launched Deliver For Voting Rights. To honor the MLK legacy and meet the urgent moment to save our democracy, Deliver For Voting Rights will mark Martin Luther King, Jr. Day by calling on President Biden and the Senate to urgently pass federal voting rights legislation, including the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, and ensure the Jim Crow filibuster doesn’t stand in the way. 

Organizations are invited to add their power to the effort by becoming a partner and amplifying it online with this toolkit (featuring a video based on Dr. King’s “How Long? Not Long” call and a MoveOn Petition) 

WI Interfaith Leaders for Fair Maps - sign-on letter
 

On November 30, the Wisconsin State Supreme Court decided to take a 'least change' approach to deciding the state's legislative districts for the next ten years.  The Court also decided that they would not take partisan gerrymandering into account when deciding what map to adopt. This decision will result in enshrining hyper-partisan gerrymandering in our maps for at least the next ten years, disenfranchising thousands of voters.

On December 15, interested parties submitted new maps, adhering to the 'least change' criterion.  On January 18, the Court will begin to hear arguments in the case.

Please help raise the faith voice and call for an end to partisan gerrymandering. Democracy depends on voters choosing their representatives, rather than the other way around.  Otherwise, our elected officials have no reason to listen to our concerns or address the very real needs in our state.

To join your voice with other faith leaders across the state, please sign on to this letter, sponsored by Represent.Us.
 

President Biden's Build Back Better legislation originally included a pathway to citizenship for at least a portion of our undocumented friends and neighbors.  That promise has been drastically cut back. But we will continue to push for just and compassionate legislation that brings 11 million people out of the shadows and into full participation in the life of our country.

On Dec. 13, Voces de la Frontera-Madison held a press conference near the capitol, to call upon our elected officials to do the right thing and pass a pathway to citizenship.  WFVJ Executive Director Rabbi Bonnie Margulis spoke at the press conference.

Watch the video here, and join us in calling on Senators Baldwin and Johnson to restore the pathway to citizenship to the Build Back Better bill.

Clergy and faith leaders from different faith communities came together on November 7, 2021, to offer prayers of mourning and comfort in the face of this pandemic.  

Sponsored by Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice; First Baptist Church, Circle Sanctuary, Beth Israel Center, participants included:

- Rabbi Betsy Forester, Rabbi, Beth Israel Center
- Rev. Selena Fox, Senior Minister, Circle Sanctuary
- Minister Gregory Lewis, President, Souls to the Polls/Pastors United
- Subbu Ravi, AHA Shiva Vishnu Temple
- Dr. Ibrahim Saeed, Board Member, Islamic Society of Madison
- Rev. Tim Schaefer, Pastor, First Baptist Church of Madison
- Katrina Welborn, Director of Music & Worship Arts, First Baptist Church of Madison
- Simran Sandhu, Sikh Society of Wisconsin
- Evangelist Loretta Sias, SS Morris AME Community Church

Transgender Day of Remembrance Interfaith Service and Vigil Nov. 20, 2021, co-sponsored by First Baptist Church and Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice. We gathered together as people of many faiths and no faith, to mourn and remember our transgender siblings who lost their lives to violence or suicide in the last year.