9.15.26 Action Center Weekly Update

Written By Side With Love

Welcome to the Action Center Weekly Update. Each week, we’ll share:

  • A brief analysis of critical issues in this political moment

  • Immediate actions you can take

  • Resources to deepen knowledge and strengthen our collective work to side with love

Nothing is inevitable. Justice movements are built by ordinary people who come together to defeat oppression and nurture a loving world. You are not alone. We have power. Together, we can create a just and thriving future.

Movements are strongest when we act together. Organize with your teams and networks, and take these actions in community. For practical tools, see our Organizing School and Trainings & Webinars.

Democracy

Core Principle: Democracy is not a destination but a practice rooted in interdependence and the worth and dignity of all. While authoritarianism consolidates power, we are the majority—and we must organize to build a truly multiracial democracy.

The Update:
Today is National Voter Registration Day! This is a powerful day because it reminds us that the future is what we make together. Registering voters is a faithful act, declaring that the world we seek is one where everyone belongs and thrives. May we celebrate this day by checking our registration and inviting our neighbors to ensure that we and they are registered.

In more celebratory news, the US Supreme Court ruled to block last-minute mail-voting changes. These changes would have made it more difficult for eligible voters to have their ballots counted and would have been a dangerous step toward nationalizing elections. These victories are not the end of the battle for freedom and democracy — they are an invitation. What will you do with the opportunities before us?

Together, we are building a democracy where everyone belongs, everyone has a voice, and everyone has the opportunity to help shape our shared future. This requires all of us to do our part and take faithful action to mobilize voters, vote our values, and defend our elections.

Take Action:

Bodily Autonomy

Core Principle: Every body is sacred. We affirm that trans people are divine, abortion is a blessing, and no one is disposable. Attacks on identity are designed to divide us—solidarity is our moral and strategic mandate.

The Update:
At the peak of National Birth Center Week, a statewide coalition of midwives, faith leaders, mothers, and policy advocates will gather Saturday, September 19, at Premiere Lux Cine for a film screening and expert panel to discuss solutions to the maternal health crisis sweeping the South. 

The screening comes as Alabama continues to face one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the nation, with Black mothers in the state dying at roughly three times the rate of White mothers, and as rural hospital labor and delivery units continue to close. In addition to the screening and panel, organizers will preview the upcoming release of the Powering Health Justice Blueprint, a community-driven playbook that highlights birth justice as one of the most urgent areas to address to heal our health system, and the solutions that will improve birth outcomes nationwide.

Alabama's maternal health crisis is solvable, and the people closest to the solutions are Black midwives, birth workers, and the communities they serve. This weekend, Alabama women are coming together to be a part of the movement that will change policies, hearts, and minds and create safe birthing spaces for all people. 

Take Action:

  • If you’re local, RSVP to attend the Allowed to Birth screening and panel on Saturday, September 19, at Premiere Lux Cine in Birmingham

  • Host your own screening  and bring Allowed to Birth to your congregation

Resources:

Decriminalization & Immigration

Core Principle: Criminalization and dehumanization deny the dignity of our communities. Safety cannot come at the expense of others. As people of faith, we proclaim a future of care, abundance, and mutuality—not domination.

Take Action: (2–3 partner actions)

  • A clarion call has emerged from the Haitian community: Unshackle Springfield, Unshackle Our Communities. On Saturday, September 19, leaders in Springfield are calling for a national day of solidarity and action. Across the country, we will lift up the struggle for freedom and dignity in Springfield and call for an end to death, detention, and deportation in all of our communities. Please consider hosting a local Unshackle action wherever you live. No matter where you live or the size of your community, we need you to join us!

  • Faith in New Jersey is currently trying to get the department of labor to sign off on Martin Soto’s  U-visa. He is  one of the leaders of the hunger strikes at Delaney Hall. The Attorney General has already denied it but gave no explanation. Faith leaders: Please sign onto the letter 

Resources:

  • Read: “Organizing for Freedom in the Wake of Post-9/11 State Violence” by Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM based in NYC). They created a timeline that delves into some of how DRUM members, organizers, and volunteers organized in the context of immigrants becoming the fastest growing percentage of the prison population at the beginning of the century--a statistic that was only exacerbated by the repressive immigration policies of the post 9/11 period. Some political context for the timeline is offered in this section. You're encouraged to explore the timeline and reflect on the media offered. You will encounter testimonies from detainees inside jails and detention centers, flyers encouraging community members to turn out to actions and KYR workshops, and photos that make this history feel even closer to our present moment. For a briefer read, check out  DRUM leader Fahd Ahmed’s reflection 

  • Learn: 

Our first session is Tuesday, Sept. 15th, with folks who are living our theology through their prophetic witness against American concentration camps.   Register today to get the link for this session and all the upcoming programs.

Climate Justice

Core Principle: A just and loving world is also a flourishing one. A fossil-free future is possible, where clean energy is a human right and all beings thrive. To get there, we must create new systems, norms, and practices.

The Update:
What do we do in the face of such profound climate devastation? 

As I ask that question, I immediately envision August’s Nepal-Tibet flash floods, where waves destroyed communities and beloveds tried to outrun the water. This devastation was caused by glacial and permafrost melt. As of September 12th, on the Nepal side of the floods, 1,344 beloveds are dead and have become ancestors. Only 96 people have had their bodies returned to their loved ones. 4,886 beloveds are still missing. 13,013 people have been rescued. Recovery efforts are ongoing. According to officials in Tibet, 16 beloveds are dead and have become ancestors. 546 beloveds are still missing. The Red Cross says that at least 93,000 beloveds are ‘in great need’ following these flash floods. These counts only include human life; an uncountable amount of beyond-human life has been destroyed. 

This devastation sits heavy on our hearts. For those who are directly impacted, for those who are still searching for their loved ones: we grieve and pray alongside you. 

If it was not clear before, it is abundantly clear now: our world is in profound polycrisis. In 2024, our world exceeded the 1.5°C threshold for the entire year for the first time. What does 1.5°C even mean? In the case of the Himalayas, that is the difference between a frozen glacier and a flash flood that kills thousands. 

As reported by Common Dreams on September 2nd, 

The world has officially moved past the point where preventing a temperature rise above 1.5°C will be possible, scientists said in a United Nations report released Wednesday, which made clear that communities can expect sea levels to continue rising, heatwaves to intensify, and hurricanes, wildfires, and flooding to become more frequent and dangerous—all climate impacts that experts have long warned about as policymakers have failed to rapidly draw down greenhouse gas emissions.

But the authors of the report, published by the UN Environment Program (UNEP) and titled “Limiting Overshoot,” emphasized that the inevitable temperature rise must not be viewed as a point of no return, and that steps can and must be taken to ensure the overshoot of the 1.5°C goal is only temporary.

What do we do with such devastation?

I recall Europe’s heatwave this summer, where “At least 35,000 excess deaths [were] recorded in Europe’s back-to-back heatwaves; [the] true figure [is] likely to be much higher as it only covers about half of [the] continent and does not include August totals.”

I turn to the still-ongoing wildfires in The United States. I turn to the too-many days and too-many places in these past few months where it was unsafe to breathe air. I am reminded of the fact that for far too many communities, unsafe air is a daily reality.   

What do we do with such devastation?

We grieve. We pray. We act. We continue to mitigate further impact. We do what communities across millennia have done: we take care of each other. We expand the bounds of who is worthy of care. We hospice the systems destroying life. We build new systems that equitably care for every being. We root in accountable relationships. We step into bravery. We lean into the integrity and faithfulness required to truly live into the demands of a liberating love. 

Over the past few weeks, I have been paying close attention to the Grandmother tree sit in the Arizona-Mexico borderlands. This is the first binational tree sit to halt border wall construction. Land Defenders are occupying a 200 year old cottonwood tree, a critical wildlife corridor, to defend it from the encroachment of the double-layered U.S. border wall. Our state is destroying life and our people are bravely defending it. 

We are on the precipice of a new world. As climate disaster escalates, our love and commitment to life must be all the stronger. 

Take Action: 

  • The deadline for the Rescission of the Roadless Rule is September 21, 2026. Go beyond signing petitions: write a comment. 625,000 comments were submitted last time the Roadless Rule was threatened. Submit your comment today, or write more comments if you have already submitted one. More resources to understand the proposed rescission and access talking points can also be found here.  

Resources:

This year, the book is called Radically Reframing Climate Change: The Guide to Saving Ourselves by Will Hackman. He argues that the main problem isn’t scientific or fact-based, but rather political, emotional, and ideological. He identifies three leading barriers to solving climate change: polarization, paralysis, and inadequate messaging. Framing the climate crisis as a humanity crisis, Hackman encourages readers to convert their anxiety and anger into action. Learn more. Register.

 Together, we practice the world we long for. Together, we win.

Side With Love
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9.1.26 Action Center Update