Both faith-based organizations and workers are being directly impacted by financial challenges related to the ongoing public health crisis. In this moment, we have heard anecdotally from many faith-based organizational leaders that they continue to have questions and challenges regarding how to navigate government support programs that could benefit them and their workers. Through recently enacted legislation and new guidance, the United States Congress and the U.S. Department of Labor have made changes to the unemployment insurance system that affect individuals across the country, including in the sacred sector. For congregations and faith-based nonprofits who face decisions about laying off employees who serve as frontline ambassadors for the organization’s work, these provisions that offer both enhanced unemployment options for workers and work-share options for employers can offer some hope that these invaluable individuals and their families will be sustained financially through this pandemic and beyond.
For many Americans, communities of faith are the stabilizing force for good in times of crisis. But in this unusual crisis, the familiar practice of coming together for support has been made nearly impossible. As such, faith-based organizations and congregations that are often closest to those in need – like under-resourced individuals and families, especially in communities of color – are themselves struggling to survive, let alone serve the community.
In a special event hosted by Independent Sector, a national membership organization that works to strengthen civil society, participants in CPJ’s Sacred Sector initiative shared urgent frontline stories from their work, representing a range of diverse faith-based institutions, and consider the connection between service and citizenship for advancing justice for their communities in the context of COVID-19.
Presenters included Sacred Sector Community participant Pastor Harold Dugger of First Baptist Church of Capitol Heights, Sacred Sector Fellow Dr. Denise Strothers of Healing Communities, Islam and Religious Freedom Action Team Director Ismail Royer with the Religious Freedom Institute, and Sacred Sector Director Chelsea Langston Bombino, who served as moderator for the conversation.
In this second article of a two-part series, Dr. Gus Reyes shares how Hispanic congregations and ministries can draw on their faith-based values to shape their actions toward a hopeful civic engagement. In this article, Dr. Reyes takes up this theological notion of la familia as a unifying theme in the common faith walks of Hispanic congregations, and apply the idea of family to how our Hispanic faith communities are living into their spiritual commitments around civic engagement during the dual challenges of a global pandemic and heightening tensions around the pursuit of racial justice. Dr. Reyes states that it can be challenging for Hispanic congregations to engage civically: “Hispanic faith leaders see they have a role to play in shepherding their co-religionists’ understanding of the importance of speaking and acting thoughtfully in the public square. And yet, it is not easy to show Hispanic Christians one definitive way to carry out the Lamb’s image in this nuanced moment. For some, civic engagement may look like finding one or two issues at the local government level that they can meaningfully engage in with a public official. For others, it may mean encouraging voter registration, exploring serving as a volunteer commissioner at the municipal or county level, or simply starting with praying for our public leaders.”
For many Americans, communities of faith are the stabilizing force for good in times of crisis. But in this unusual crisis, the familiar practice of coming together for support has been made nearly impossible. As such, faith-based organizations and congregations that are often closest to those in need – like under-resourced individuals and families, especially in communities of color – are themselves struggling to survive, let alone serve the community.
In a special event hosted by Independent Sector, a national membership organization that works to strengthen civil society, participants in CPJ’s Sacred Sector initiative shared urgent frontline stories from their work, representing a range of diverse faith-based institutions, and consider the connection between service and citizenship for advancing justice for their communities in the context of COVID-19.
Presenters included Sacred Sector Community participant Pastor Harold Dugger of First Baptist Church of Capitol Heights, Sacred Sector Fellow Dr. Denise Strothers of Healing Communities, Islam and Religious Freedom Action Team Director Ismail Royer with the Religious Freedom Institute, and Sacred Sector Director Chelsea Langston Bombino, who served as moderator for the conversation.
In this first article of a two-part series, Dr. Gus Reyes shares how Hispanic congregations and ministries have been impacted by COVID-19. Dr. Reyes explores the distinct spiritual strengths of these organizations and how their faith calls them to seek out innovative, creative solutions in the face of a global pandemic. Dr. Reyes unpacks the ways in which our current public health crisis has posed unique challenges and opportunities for Hispanic faith communities. Hispanic congregations draw on their distinct Christian practices related to their conception of family to navigate how to flourish during COVID-19. Dr Reyes shares: “The motivation for this community-centered, service-oriented spirit in Hispanic congregations is our common understanding of family, or la familia. We know that Hispanic faith communities and leaders operate in a very familial and relational way."
On Friday, June 19th, the Small Business Administration (SBA) introduced a resource specifically created for small businesses and nonprofits to help them find lenders in the Payroll Protection Program (PPP). The SBA’s Lender Match tool was developed to address the ongoing needs of small businesses and nonprofits, which may have experienced barriers finding a lending institution. SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza stated: “The SBA is focused on assisting eligible borrowers in underserved and disadvantaged communities and connecting them with forgivable PPP loans, especially before the June 30, 2020, application deadline.” This tool is available online and serves as a pairing agent between nonprofits, including faith-based and community-based organizations, and financial lending institutions that may be better positioned to serve them, including: Certified Development Companies (CDCs), Minority Depository Institutions (MDIs), microlenders, and other entities. The new Lender Match tool is a significant step forward in addressing a challenge Sacred Sector staff have heard about, anecdotally through many faith-based leaders, especially those serving in rural and urban communities, and those led by and serving people of color.
In its recent Bostock v. Clayton County decision, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that the federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in employment also prohibits discrimination on the bases of sexual orientation and gender identity. The decision concerns only secular employers, however. The Court stressed that the religious staffing decisions of faith-based employers have constitutional and statutory protections, but it did not detail how those protections will continue to operate.
In this article, IRFA Founder and Senior Director Stanley Carlson-Thies says that it is now even more important that faith-based employers, for legal as well as mission reasons, clearly show how their religious staffing decisions are rooted in their respective organizations' religious mission and doctrine. And he calls upon Congress to pass the Fairness for All Act, which would provide greater clarity about how LGBT employment rights and the religious freedom of faith-based employers are simultaneously to be protected.
In this time when we are all struggling with so many issues related to the pandemic, some of the more “regular” issues (tasks that we typically address annually as part of the regular flow of business) also surface as unexpected challenges. We know that for many nonprofits, the spring is the time when important onboarding takes place for incoming board members. Can this occur in the midst of the pandemic with stay-at-home orders and no in-person meetings? It is an interesting question, to be sure.
Positive engagement in the public square is especially timely in this current moment of dual health and economic crises, as well as increased calls for racial justice. Sacred Sector believes that faith-based organizations (FBOs) and congregations should be empowered to speak and act in the public square based on their faith distinctives, while seeking to build relationships across religious and cultural differences that advance justice for all community members. By strengthening faith-based organizations to fully incarnate their sacred beliefs regarding how they both honor God and love their civic neighbors, policymakers will safeguard the sacred sector as a vital part of a resilient and flourishing society. This resource provides faith-based organizations and faith leaders principles and guidance to understand how positive engagement in the public square, across a diversity of actors, is necessary to advance public policies that promote human flourishing for all individuals and institutions in our pluralistic society.
The coronavirus pandemic has been especially challenging for child care providers. Child care providers faced lower enrollment with many families out of work or working from home, while at the same time navigating how to keep facilities sanitized while following public health guidance. Expanded child care hours were needed by some essential workers, and governments wanted to be sure that enough daycare programs remained open even if the child counts were low. Congress responded by authorizing, in the CARES Act, $3.5 billion in additional funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant Program, the federal-state program that funds childcare for low-income families. Unfortunately, in providing that needed extra funding, Congress chose a funding method—grants—that can exclude faith-based child care providers from equitable participation. Such exclusion is especially troubling during the ongoing pandemic, as the goal of the funding is to help child care centers remain open to serve the needs of workers and families. As discussed in this article, grant funding comes with religious freedom restrictions that prevent many faith-based providers from participating. During this unprecedented time, an all-hands-on-deck approach is needed to prevent the creation or worsening of child care deserts in places where such providers are most needed.