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The Vote is Sacred Tour: Philadelphia
Happy Election Day! We’ve traveled more than 1,600 miles on The Vote is Sacred Tour and arrived at our final destination: Philadelphia. From the minute we arrived in Omaha, Nebraska, 9 days ago, we’ve felt a powerful energy resonating across diverse religious communities.
We wrapped up the tour with a block party in Philadelphia in partnership with Episcopal Community Services. We had face painting, food, and music at the corner of 60th st and Girard Ave to make one final push to get out the vote.
In addition to the tour stops, we’ve had the opportunity to share important messages from the road. Our president and CEO Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush recorded a message about the need to vote for reproductive freedom as an expression of religious freedom. And we got some help from Academy Award-winning actress Laura Dern. She shared our message about reproductive freedom with her more than 1 million Instagram followers.
Texas Faith Communities Fight Against Mandated Ten Commandment Displays
Texans of all faiths are uniting in filing a lawsuit against Senate Bill No. 10 (S.B. 10), which requires Texas public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments. The bill specifically mandates the display must be at least sixteen by twenty inches, hung in a "conspicuous space,” and follow a specific phrasing most commonly aligned with Protestant beliefs.
Faith leaders have an important role in fighting hate speech
Recently, the Sure Foundation Baptist Church (SFBC) in Indianapolis held a sermon in which the preacher called for the government to institute the death penalty for the LGBTQ+ community. Despite heavy criticism from the Indianapolis community for its hateful remark, the church has refused to back down, instead celebrating the exposure that the incident has brought.
