We are a family of five. However, the heart of our family was given less than sixty days to leave the country. How can we live without our heart?

At some point in our lives, we will all need care. This need is growing; the U.S. elder population will double over the next two decades and our system is unprepared for this elder boom. In-home care work is one of the most affordable and desired long-term care solutions available yet this work is often unheralded and severely undervalued. Many families struggle to access and afford the highly skilled care they so desperately need. The situation is untenable. The stakes are high. We need a new way forward. Start by joining others around the nation who will be watching CARE. Want to join the CARE National Watch Party Initiative? Sign up to join or host a party: https://action.groundswell-mvmt.org/calendars/care-documentary-watch-party

The School for Conversion (SFC), a Durham-based religious education center committed to “making surprising friendships possible,” has joined together with the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, and a coalition of religious and community-based partners to make a public announcement of why we have offered sanctuary to Pastor José Chicas. Chicas fled his native El Salvador during its civil war in the 1980’s, seeking asylum in the United States. In the 1990s, before Chicas and his wife experienced a spiritual conversion, he struggled with alcoholism. During that time, he was charged with and pled guilty to driving under the influence and domestic abuse. But 20 years ago, Chicas reconciled with his wife, received a call to preach, and has served his family and community in North Carolina for two decades. Under the new aggressive immigration enforcement policies of the Trump administration, Chicas has been targeted as a “criminal” by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which ordered him to leave his family and congregation last Tuesday without any hope of ever returning. “My congregation is calling, asking me, “‘When can you come back? We miss you,’” said Jose Chicas, who pastors Iglesia Evangelica in Raleigh, NC. “I met Pastor Jose through his son, Ezekiel, who shared about how his father was to be deported the day before he was scheduled to graduate from a Wake County Elementary school,” said Rev. Barber. “The Jesus I follow had to immigrate to Egypt when he was a child, where neither he nor his parents had papers. When he grew up, that same Jesus said to his followers, ‘I was a stranger and you welcomed me.’ As a disciple of that brown-skinned Palestinian Jew, I don’t have any option but to embrace Jose and his family.” Please join Rev. Barber, myself and other community partners in asking that ICE grant Pastor José relief by signing and sharing this petition.

If there ever was a time to stand up in support of sanctuary, it is now. Each congregation that stands up could be the difference that decides someone’s future. The more of us that stand up, the more likely we’ll be able to get the government to think twice before tearing our families apart. The Sanctuary Movement provides a moral and prophetic platform for immigrant leaders to tell their stories and change the hearts of minds of the broader public. Anti-immigrant hate has no response to the power of faith and moral communities standing together with immigrants. In the sanctuary movement, your denomination or spiritual background doesn't matter as long as you're committed to standing with immigrant leaders. The movement is multi-faith and open to all people of faith and moral courage who feel the call to act on their convictions. There are so many congregations already involved that have yet to be officially counted. To get there and to show the power of the Sanctuary Movement, we want to get beyond 1000 congregations. Sign here to say your congregation supports sanctuary and encourage other congregations you know to do the same. What is a Sanctuary Congregation? A Sanctuary Congregation is one that chooses to take prophetic action and protect people through various actions that range from housing immigrants in immediate danger of deportation to providing legal assistance, accompaniment to court, organizing alongside us, and much more. If you’re already doing some of this work, then you are a Sanctuary Congregation! Sanctuary is also expanding to be in solidarity with all vulnerable populations in the Trump era at every level—including people of color, LGBTQ communities, Muslims and anyone who is facing discrimination from the current political crisis. Now is not the time to hesitate. Sign here to stand up and be counted for Sanctuary.

Two years ago, millions of us rose up in a movement to protect the open Internet, and we won. The open Internet is a space where all of us -- no matter the content of our beliefs, color of our skin, size of our wallets -- have an equal voice. We will not let President Trump's appointee overturn net neutrality protections. In this critical time, we need net neutrality now more than ever to fight and defend the future of our democracy. Our marches, vigils, petitions, and calls to action depend on organizing on an open Internet. So we vow to continue to champion faith and moral voices in the fight to protect the open Internet as a moral imperative. We, as people of many faiths and backgrounds, ask lawmakers to do the right thing as a moral imperative.

“Maria, originally from Mexico, has made the U.S. her home for almost 20 years and is a resident of south Aurora near Denver, Colorado. She was detained at her check in on Wednesday morning, April 14th. Maria has her own small cleaning business and is the mother of 4 children- the eldest is a DACA recipient, the 3 youngest are citizens. Her fifteen year old daughter has special needs and Maria advocates for her at school and is her main caregiver. After the local field office denied Maria's new stay application in March, Maria hoped that Immigration agents would allow her to attend her daughter's IEP meeting at school April 18th and time to arrange better care for her. Instead Immigration detained her because of President Trump's new policies that prioritize the deportation of all immigrants who are undocumented. Her lawyer has applied to have the stay denial reviewed. In 2001, Maria was issued an expedited removal order near the border after traveling home to visit her ill mother. She returned to the US shortly thereafter to be with her family. In 2012, she was detained for driving without a license and as a result spent 6 months in ICE detention. She and was eventually granted a stay of removal, which has been renewed each year until now. Maria wants to remain in Colorado because this is her home where she can continue to take care of her children and grow her business.”

David is one of millions of hard-working people whose lives are being ripped apart by a cruel and widening dragnet that has been criminalizing, detaining and deporting people. David came to the United States in the mid 1980s and obtained a work permit. David has worked as a landscaper for many years. Since 2013, he has checked in regularly with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), never missing an appointment, and was allowed to stay and keep his work permit. Thanks to his hard work, David and his wife Leticia watched their four children become thriving adults. All four of his children have benefited from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program that has provided relief from deportation and, granted work permits. He and Leticia have been married for 32 years and are parishioners of Little Flower Catholic Church in Reno. In the Trump era David’s traffic citation meant that ICE revoked his work permit and targeted him for deportation. David's last check-in with ICE was scheduled on April 5th, David, his family and legal counsel feared that officials would take him into custody and prepare him for deportation. David’s deportation could bring fatal consequences. David’s only contacts in Mexico are in his home state of Aguascalientes, a state where violence is pervasive—especially against U.S. returnees who are assumed to have wealth. One of David's friends was brutally attacked, tortured, and killed after returning from the United States. The implications for David’s medical care could be dire. His children have grown up in the U.S. and have almost no knowledge of Mexico—his youngest was only 1 when he arrived. Deportation could also be a death sentence. David and three of his children suffer from Marfan Syndrome, a genetic disorder that weakens the heart. The treatments they receive in the U.S. are inaccessible in many parts of Mexico, particularly for those who do not have financial ability to pay for medical care. David's many friends in Reno, as well as his supporters in Reno's interfaith community, are campaigning to protect him from unconscionable and unwarranted persecution. David decided to take Sanctuary at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Northern Nevada. He will remain in Sanctuary until he has assurances from Immigration and Customs Enforcement that by appearing at their office he will not be deported and separated from all he knows. For all these reasons, we are asking the Gen. John Kelly, Secretary of DHS, Thomas D. Homan, Director of ICE, and the ICE Salt Lake City Field Office to grant David a stay of removal from deportation, to keep David with his family, allow him to work and ensure he doesn’t meet potential fatal consequences upon deportation.

We, people of faith and moral conscience, reclaim Valentine's Day as a Day of Revolutionary Love, Day of Rising. We resist all executive orders and policies that put people in harm’s way. We commit to fight for social justice through the ethic of love -- love for others, our opponents, and ourselves. On Valentine's Day, we will rise up across the U.S. and around the world in music, poetry, dance and action to declare that #RevolutionaryLove is the call of our times.

The President has directed our government to construct a wall on our southern border, punish sanctuary cities, facilitate the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and construct a pipeline despite the protests of indigenous people. He has made statements to roll back voting rights and police brutality protections. Most recently, he closed our borders to refugees for 120 days and has banned all immigrants from select Muslim-majority countries for a period of time -- a de facto Muslim ban. Altogether, these policies target people for who they are, not anything they have done. The danger of this presidency is no longer hypothetical -- it is happening now. In his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Dr. King wrote that all nonviolent campaigns have four steps: collecting evidence of injustice, negotiation, self-purification, and direct action. The President's executive orders confirm evidence of injustice. Faith leaders have continued to ask for a meeting with no response. Many of us have fasted, prayed, or meditated in self-purification. (You can take this 6-hour meditation with Repairers of the Breach on how to prepare for moral resistance: http://www.breachrepairers.org/moralresistance). We are now ready. People of faith and moral conscience around the nation are preparing for direct actions to protest the laws and policies of this administration. We pledge to support nonviolent civil disobedience as a form of #MoralResistance. We will learn about the moral framework for civil disobedience and choose a role for ourselves, whether as protesters, medics, legal observers, witnesses, or care providers. We will train in civil disobedience as practiced and perfected by thousands before us. And we will show up in the time, place, and manner we are needed. Nonviolent civil disobedience is grounded in the ethic of love – for others, opponents, and ourselves. When people use civil disobedience to protest not just a single policy but widespread injustice, then this act of love becomes revolutionary. It can change a community, a culture, even a country. #RevolutionaryLove is the call of our times. We pledge to answer the call together.

Pursuing a more perfect union is serious work for any human being. We want to pray for you because we know this is an especially difficult task today. In the prophetic tradition, we want to exhort and challenge you because you cannot do this work alone. Our sacred text honored by Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike declares we must do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly before God. America’s Constitution begins “We the people…” because it points toward a form of government that requires a broad and engaged coalition of citizens in order to thrive. We want to pray and point towards these essential goals. Mr. Trump, we hope it is your desire to be successful. Success is measured by how we welcome the stranger, care for the sick, care for the poor, and care for the hungry in practice and in policy. In order to be successful in the eyesight of God, leaders must repent when they are wrong, and they must be committed to promote that which is rooted in justice and good will. As clergy dedicated to the care of souls, we know you can neither succeed in a way that pleases God nor fulfill the duties of your office unless you repent. All of us, even persons who hold powerful positions, are called to repent when we violate the deep principles of love, justice, and mercy towards all, especially the least of these. Since your election, our communities have been fractured by harassment and intimidation. People of color and religious minorities are afraid. Poor working people who you appealed to in your campaign are disappointed that you have attacked their union leaders while appointing Wall Street elites who use them to your Cabinet. We are deeply concerned by the policy vision that your Cabinet selections suggest. After inviting Steve Bannon’s white nationalism into the Oval Office, you nominated Jeff Sessions to head the Justice Department—a man who did not receive Senate approval for a federal judgeship in 1986 because of his long history of racial discrimination in Alabama. If he maintains his past positions on civil rights and voting rights, he could overturn and undermine years of victories and protections secured and signed in the blood of the martyrs. Equally insulting to African-Americans is your nomination of Ben Carson, a black man with no experience in government or housing, to head HUD. But race can never be separated from class in America. We are equally concerned about Andy Puzder’s resistance to the movement for a living wage, which impacts over 60 million Americans and 54% of all African-Americans. We are concerned about Tom Price’s expressed commitment to repeal the ACA and take away healthcare from people with preexisting conditions, veterans, and nearly 30 million Americans. We are troubled that you have chosen several people to lead federal agencies that they have publicly attacked in the past. Both this nation and the rest of the world desperately need your heart to grow into a source of courage, so you might work with all people of goodwill to uphold the most sacred moral principles of our faith and constitutional values, which are: 1. Protecting and expanding voting rights and ending voter suppression and unconstitutional gerrymandering. We must also pursue women’s rights, immigrant rights, LGBTQ rights, labor rights, religious freedom rights, all with a commitment to the fundamental principle of equal protection under the law. 2. Pro-labor, anti-poverty, anti-racist policies that build up economic democracy through employment, living wages, the alleviation of disparate unemployment, a just transition away from fossil fuels, labor rights, affordable housing, direct cash transfers and other support for all families struggling to get by, and fair policies for immigrants; and by critiquing policies around warmongering that undermine our moral standing and ability to address domestic issues; 3. Equality in education by ensuring every child receives a high quality, well-funded, constitutionally diverse public education, as well as access to community colleges and universities and by securing equitable funding for minority colleges and universities; 4. Healthcare for all by expanding Medicaid in every state, ensuring access to Medicare and Social Security, moving decisively towards a universal, transparent, and equitable healthcare system, and by providing environmental protection and protecting women’s health; 5. Fairness in the criminal justice system by addressing the continuing inequalities in the system for black, brown and poor white people and fighting the proliferation of guns; We do not believe that these are left or right issues. They are right or wrong issues. And while we know no human being is perfect, we wish to speak with you about these moral issues because far too much is at stake for you to succumb to your worst demons while in public office. Our faith calls us to love all people but this love can never refuse to tell the truth and stand against hate, systemic racism, and economic inequality. We cannot simply congratulate you on your victory and say, “Peace, peace” when there is no peace. We are bound by our vows to tell the truth in love and stand together for justice, love and truth. As this tumultuous year draws to a close, we will hold a National Watch Night service on December 31st at the historic Metropolitan AME Church in Washington, DC. We will gather to remember the enslaved people who came together to celebrate the possibility of a more perfect union of the eve of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Like them, we will also enlist free women and men to fight for freedom and justice for all people in 2017 and beyond.

Calling upon the ancient traditions of our faiths, which recognized houses of worship as a refuge for the runaway slave, the conscientious objector, and the Central American refugee fleeing the civil wars of the 1980s, Sanctuary is once again growing among communities of faith that are standing in solidarity with immigrants and marginalized communities facing immoral and unjust deportation and discrimination policies. We find ourselves entering a new phase of U.S. history wherein the politics of fear has stoked an atmosphere of racism and xenophobia across the country. The new Administration has pledged to criminalize, detain and deport undocumented people at new levels that will tear families and communities apart. As people of faith and people of conscience, we will take civil initiative out of our moral obligation to embody principles of human rights and dignity, and resist any harmful and unjust policy proposals that further undermine due process and lead to racial profiling and discrimination. By signing this pledge, we are dedicating ourselves to educate and activate our congregations, to amplify and respond to the voices of immigrant leaders, and to speak out against the discrimination of any and all marginalized people. We are ready to open the doors of our sacred spaces and accompany those facing deportation and discrimination. We support those answering the call to provide sanctuary at schools, hospitals, college campuses, community centers and family homes. We will work with partner organizations to create sacred space of sanctuary wherever it is needed.

WE SAY ENOUGH! We are sick and tired of being sick and tired. As communities of faith and conscience, we have a moral obligation to call out evil in high places, to challenge the lies we are being fed, and to refocus our nation’s attention on the conditions that are leaving people and places locked up, locked out and left behind. Any hope for a new future demands that there be a reckoning -- a moment to unapologetically expose the ugly truths of our nation’s past and present. We declare that moment is now. WE ARE ENOUGH! We are the ones we have been waiting for. As determined spirits, fired by an unshakable faith in a bold, transformative vision for the future of our nation, we have the power to alter the course of history. We will not stop, nor will we be satisfied until every person in this country enjoys full access to the opportunity to thrive and live a life of dignity. WE DEMAND ENOUGH! We reject the fraudulent narrative of scarcity. We know there is more than enough for everyone to thrive. We stand in the sacred truth that sharing in the earth’s abundance ensures there will be plenty for all. We will no longer tolerate systemic racism, nor continue to accept the self-interested, unbridled greed and hoarding of wealth that creates conditions where millions of our people are forced to live without enough -- economically and socially. We insist on a better future for our nation. A future that doesn’t depend on chance, but on avenues of opportunity where our children attend quality schools, our communities are safe and our families are whole. A future where we can leave our homes without fear of death, detention or deportation. A future that guarantees good jobs with living wages. One with bold investments that strengthen our communities. We demand ENOUGH for all of our families to thrive. We Say ENOUGH! Join the refrain. Join the movement. Together we can define a new moral agenda for our next President and the future of our nation.