RELIGIOUS NEWS STEPS UP POST ElECTION

Above is a city-scape of Philadelphia at sunrise. This AI generated image can also be considered a symbolic reference. In short, the millions of reams of church history (for example) archived at the august Presbyterian History Society (PHS) in Philadelphia is eclipsed every 24 hours. Each morning their is a renewed day, a journalistic sunrise, a rebirth of news in the City of Brotherly Love.

Part of the archive of church history at PHS is the historical record of the Religious News Service. This specialized news outlet reports, in a nonpartisan fashion, on daily stories that relate to faith-connected news in the US and the world.

While PHS encompasses RNS historical record, RNS continues to cover and to rebirth the religious news of the day. One example of this renewal can be found at a single URL related to a news story highlighting religious news in a difficult and potentially authoritarian era: https://religionnews.com/2024/11/06/faith-groups-resolve-to-protect-migrants-refugees-after-trump-win/

A NEW TENT FOR THE NIGHTS

The generosity of Mark L. (donor of sleeping gear) is  greater than most. He has blessed us with a very nice easy setup tent . It’s a Coleman and props up in 60 seconds. We carry it everywhere with us because we have been living in West Sacramento for almost 2 months. It’s not the safest city to leave such a nice tent. So I walk around 4 miles a day to a place to pitch the tent. It’s 29 pounds and long but it’s home. We camp with it by the boat dock over on 5th St. . S and I get compliments on the tent all the time. We plan on using it for until we get a home. We can’t wait to tell Mark thank you because it’s a gift from God.

From: a homeless couple new to town.

UNHAPPY PUPPY

A temporarily unhoused couple stuck in West Sacramento have had trouble finding acceptance for their friendly service dog. After their car broke down on their way to Oregon for a job, the couple was relying emotionally on their well-behaved puppy,

However, as they were walking to an appointment, the small family needed to sit down for a brief respite. The owner of the restaurant, however, refused to offer service, Refusing to allow the couple or the dog to remain for even a brief period in his establishment, the family felt intimidated and harassed.

Both adults in this struggling family are interested in writing about problems they face in dealing with people who don’t fully realize the supportive role and nature of their service animal. Stay tune to oopenskymarketdotcom.wordpress.com to learn more about the travails and victories of this resourceful family unit.

SHOWER OF RENEWAL

Mercy Holistic Ministry is now collaborating with Westminster Presbyterian Church to provide opportunities for low income or unsheltered individuals access a shower.

One major hope is that shower clients are recognized for their amazing efforts to establish better social connections with other individuals or groups. Showering, consideration in attire and other opportunities can be seen as steps toward a healthy coping pathway toward better services, jobs or beneficial relationship with others in agencies or respite centers.

Toward this end, Open Sky Matthew 25 Blog is preparing to offer new, free and enjoyable shower items (from combs to fancy soaps) to a few new participants in Mercy Holistic MInistry’s new Wednesday morning program at 13th and L Street in downtown Sacramento.

A key goal of this “gifting program” is to inspire conversation between the respite volunteers at Westminster and the upward bound clients they serve. Along with providing a simple shower gift, respite volunteers can do more in learning more about the lives of the indigent and homeless they serve. Words, a shower and a gesture of encouragement is sometimes alll it takes on the individualized road back toward one’s personal dreams and security.

MISSING BACKPACKS

In the wake of homeless encampments, pedestrians are confronted with the occasional personal items left in haste by campers who have been needlessly harried and arrested.

Yesterday I came across a backpack and two sports hats on the sidewalk in front of the Office Depot store on 65th St. and Folsom Avenuue.

In my mind, there was little doubt that the items were left by a homeless person who had been cruelly separated from (perhaps) all they owned in the world. The backpack was partially unzipped. Although stuffed with contents, a few plastic bags and clothing items were pushing out from the opening of the backpack. The sports cap seemed brand new.

Without touching the abandoned gear, I enetered the Home Depot and told the clerk and manager about the personal items directly in front of their store. The clerk was very sympathetic. She thanked me for my concern.

Where Homeless Sleep?

In early summer, Starbucks on Sunrise Avenue and Hwy 50 started locking up their trash dumpsters.

Homeless persons had been found sleeping between the cans of trash on the other side of the parking lot. Jacob, a fit and amiable person who hangs around the McDonalds near the Starbucks explained that the trash area was a place that he might have chosen to use at night.

“Where’s the most terrible place you ever had to sleep?” I asked him.

“One night I slept under an aqueduct” , Jacob replied without smiling or grimacing.

The young woman who unlocks the big, dark gates says that it definitely was the presence of campers that encouraged the coffee stand to lock up the trash receptacles. “Luckily, my family never had to be homeless,” she added. Nevertheless, she was pretty sure that the recent presence of campers around the Starbucks where she works was because of the current removals of homeless camp sites. “I’m from Placerville,” she explained. “I have seen displacement of homeless people happening there.”

LOVE THY NEIGHBOR BETTER?

The Sacramento Bee’s writer Ariane Lange reported May 30, 2024 that the city of Sacramento was a “high injury network” of surface streets.

Sacramento, according to a national study, is “one of the most dangerous places for people on foot.”

A Sunday parishoner recently mused if there was a way that the Presbyterian church could “love thy neighbor better” by advocating for slower downtown speed limits.

In the photo, a resident from the church’s neighboring senior residence navigates the sidewalk with the help of a walker.

While a painted cross walk leads toward Capitol Park across a busy street, there is no electronic stopping system. Vehicles on the highway move at over 40 mph. At this speed the average risk that an impacted pedestrian would die, if hit, is 50%.

The Crop Walk Returns In-Person

Susan Just from Bethany Presbyterian walked with Bill Laws from Westminster Presbyterian this last Sunday.

Susan, who volunteers with the food bank at her church (ssipfoodcloset.org), is motivated to serve those in need. During the short trek, Susan expressed ideas about the importance of supporting those with food insecurity. Her work in this area is extensive. Some of her recent experience includes work with the Mercy Peddlers, a social program that assists the most needy individuals.

STOP SCHOOL SPONSORED VIOLENCE

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Prone or aggression on a flat surface is OK in Martial Arts. However, prone restraints or the subduing of unruly chi[dren by pushing them to the ground is not legal. In almost all the States in the US, school districts and legislatures have outlawed prone restraints.

Recently, Senator Dave Cortese representing State Senate District 15 has successfully promoted his Senate Bill 483 titled End Violent Practices in Schools.

To learn more about this bill (expected to get full approval later in 2024 before moving to the Governor’s office for signature) go to sd15.senate.ca.gov.

BITS OF THEOLOGY A LA McAFEE BROWN

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In his book Making Peace In The Global Village the professor and pastor Robert McAfee Brown comes to the conclusion that social structures from churches to government agencies (even those filled with mostly good people) “can be instruments of evil.” [pg. 16, 1980, The Westminster Press.]

In a pre-Watergate world this notion as a theological perspective was much more uncommon than it might be in this new century. In 1970, in fact, Secretary George Romney was able to visit the United Presbyterian General Assembly. At that Chicago GA, he was able to persuade the conveners that President Nixon was likely to halt the devastating US bombing of Viet Nam by 1972. Despite some journalism revealing that Nixon was engaged in a secret war in Laos and a mountain of “dirty tricks” the GA under Moderator Bill Laws shepherded a resolution calling for the ending of bombing by 1972. (1970, Presbyterian Life).

Instead of the more complex and sometimes cynical view of government, the GA floor at that time accepted the general view that the Viet Nam war was a decades worth of governmental fumbling and statistical errors. Of course, Brown’s book was yet to be published. However, the Presbyterian delegates who voted for this soft stand on the ongoing war might have listened to the draft protesters who were staging some of their largest public protests in that same 1970 year. As it turned out, by 1975 the U.S. had dropped 7.5 million tons of bombs on Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, the largest aerial bombardment in history.