October 2020 Newsletter
Issue #44
The Economic Effects of
Climate Change
According to a report released by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission last month, climate change is having an economic impact on the country. In a first-of-its-kind effort from an U.S. government entity, some of the points of the report include:

  • Climate change poses a major risk to the stability of the U.S. financial system and to its ability to sustain the American economy;

  • U.S. financial regulators must recognize that climate change poses serious emerging risks to the U.S. financial system, and they should move urgently and decisively to measure, understand, and address these risks;
 
  • Financial innovation is required not only to efficiently manage climate risk but also to facilitate the flow of capital to help accelerate the net-zero transition and increase economic opportunity.

To learn more about the report, click here.

For more on the Environment, click here.
Catholics & Politics in the U.S.
When it comes to specific policy issues, Catholics are often more aligned with their political party than with the teachings of their church. For example, 77% of Catholic Democrats support abortion in all/most cases, while 81% of Catholic Republicans support substantially expanding the wall along the U.S. border with Mexico.


International Cooperation
58% of Americans believe that the U.S. should take into account the interest of other countries even if it means making compromises with them.
81% of Americans say that countries around the world should act as part of a global community that works together to solve problems.


Religion and Police Violence
According to a recent survey, the number of people who say that recent police killings of unarmed Black men are "isolated incidents" and not evidence of systemic racism:
42% of all U.S. adults
53% of White mainline Protestants
56% of White Catholics
72% of White evangelical Protestants
33% of White unaffiliated

Resources
Contemplation and Political Action:
An Ignatian Guide to Civic Engagement
This free .pdf file available, from the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, reflects on our Gospel call to promote the common good in the public square. There are 12 chapters, including Pope Francis’ message: “A good Catholic meddles in politics” and each ends with questions for reflection and discussion. Read more.
For more Politics resources, click here.
The Psychology Traits That Shape Your
Political Beliefs
A TED talk that features social psychologist Dannagal G. Young, who breaks down the link between our psychology and politics, showing how personality types largely fall into people who prioritize openness and flexibility (liberals) and those who prefer order and certainty (conservatives). She shows why both sets of traits are crucial to any society -- and how our differences are being dangerously exploited to divide us. What if things weren't that way? Watch now.
For more Politics resources, click here.
2020: A Franciscan Moment
Three short videos from the Franciscan Action Network calling on Americans to be inspired by Franciscan values as they vote. The titles are: Care for Creation, Compassion at Our Border and Morality in Government. Watch now.
For more on Immigration, click here.
His Truth Is Marching On:
John Lewis and the Power of Hope
By Jon Meacham. A portrait of civil rights icon and longtime U.S. congressman John Lewis, linking his life to the quest for justice in America from the 1950s to the present. Read more.
For more Justice resources, click here.
The Disarming Case to Act Right Now on Climate Change
A TED Talk featuring Greta Thunberg, who explains why she walked out of school and organized a strike to raise awareness of global warming, protesting outside the Swedish parliament and grabbing the world's attention. She says that "The climate crisis has already been solved. We already have all the facts and solutions. All we have to do is to wake up and change." Watch now.
For more on the Environment, click here.
The Most Important Thing You Can Do to Fight Climate Change: Talk About It 
A TED Talk featuring climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, who suggests that the key to having a real discussion is to connect over shared values like family, community and religion -- and to prompt people to realize that they already care about a changing climate. Watch now.
For more on the Environment, click here.
Disruptive Witness:
Speaking Truth in a Distracted Age
By Alan Noble. Lays out individual, ecclesial, and cultural practices that disrupt society's deep-rooted assumptions and point beyond them to Jesus. Casts a vision for the evangelical imagination, calling away from abstraction and cliché to a more faithful embodiment of the gospel. Learn more. 
For more Public Witness resources, click here.
Sounds Like Hate
An audio documentary series from the Southern Poverty Law Center, about the dangers and peril of everyday people who engage in extremism, and ways to disengage them from a life of hatred. Learn more.
For more on Racism, click here.
Restorative Justice Community Hubs
A Chicago based collective guided by a community led restorative justice approach to reducing violence and mass incarceration that is directly informed by the latest science on childhood trauma. Their proactive approach promotes direct accountability for harm through conflict resolution and healing as an outcome rather than punishment and incarceration. Creates safe and healthy community spaces where disconnected and court involved youth and adults experience belonging, opportunity and positive transformation through these 5 pillar principles: radical hospitality, accompaniment, building relationships, relentless engagement and a learning community. Learn more.
For more Justice resources, click here.
Global Economic Inequality
A resource from Our World in Data, offers charts on population by income level, global inequality in living conditions, child mortality and incomes, the history of global economic inequality etc.
For more on Economic Justice, click here.
Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow: An Organizing Guide
By Daniel Hunter. Expanding on the call to action in Michelle Alexander's acclaimed best-seller, The New Jim Crow, provides tools to help understand how to make meaningful, effective change. Offers information on roles in movement-building and how to pick and build campaigns that contribute towards a bigger mass movement against the largest penal system in the world. Includes examples from other movements and time-tested organizing techniques. Read more.
For more Community Organizing resources,
State Felon Voting Laws
A resource from ProCon that provides information on state felon voting laws, including types of felonies, numbers of people affected, comparisons with other countries etc. Learn more.
For more Voting Rights, click here.
Materiality as Resistance:
Five Elements for Moral Action in the
Real World
By Walter Brueggemann. Defines materiality as the use of the material aspects of the Christian faith, as opposed to materialism, which places possessions and physical comfort over spiritual values. Lays out how Christians may reengage materiality for the common good. Seeks to answer the questions: How does materiality inform faith when it comes to food, money, the body, time, and place? How does it force action? Likewise, how is the church obligated to use its time, money, abundance of food, observance of the Sabbath, and stewardship of the world?
For more Public Witness resources, click here.
Mass Shootings in America Since Sandy Hook
A resource from Vox, featuring maps, graphs and calendars that show mass shootings in the U.S. since the mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. Learn more.
For more on Gun Violence, click here.
Sanlaap North America
Rescues, shelters and empowers human trafficking victims. Learn more.
For more on Human Trafficking, click here.
Visit Our Website
The Social Justice Resource Center
Since we launched our website in 2017, we've had over 100,000 visitors! The vast majority were from these 5 countries:
The U.S. - 79,000
Canada - 7,000
Australia - 6,000
The United Kingdom - 4,000
The Philippines - 2,000

There are  25 Issues,
with over 2,000 Resources including:
Films, Publications, Websites,
Facts & Figures, Prayers, Quotes,
 Prayer
Loving God,
Help us to serve you by serving our human family. Give us the courage to build a just and sustainable society, to walk with the excluded and to safeguard the abundant world you have made. Bless us with strength and determination to take action. Fill our hearts with compassion and our minds with wisdom and vision. Empower our spirits with faith and truth. As we work together with others of good will, may you always be present in our assemblies and courts, our principles and laws, our policies and programs, and may we see you in all the people of our world, especially those living on the margins.
Amen
 Important Dates This Month
First Monday of October World Habitat Day
Second Monday of October Indigenous Peoples Day
2nd to Last Sunday of October World Mission Sunday
October 5th: World Teachers' Day
October 15th: World Rural Women's Day
October 16th: World Food Day
Individuals Honored This Month
October 2nd
Be the change you wish to see in the world.
October 4th
While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart.
October 5th
One is called to live nonviolently,
even if the change one works for seems impossible.
October 7th
If you want peace, you don't talk to your friends, you talk to your enemies.
October 11th

The solidarity which binds all people together as members of a common family makes it impossible for wealthy nations to look with indifference upon the hunger, misery and poverty of other nations whose citizens are unable to enjoy even elementary human rights. The nations of the world are becoming more and more dependent on one another and it will not be possible to preserve a lasting peace so long as glaring economic and social imbalances persist.
October 11th

Looking deeply requires courage.
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