As the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act turns one year old this week, marking the anniversary of passing this landmark legislation which makes quality health care affordable for millions of un- and under-insured American families, and ends the insurance industry’s most abusive practices. As part of this effort, Faithful America and PICO teamed up to run radio ads on Christian stations in four cities. The ads feature the stories of local people in each city who have already been helped by the health care law:
Denver
Orlando
New Orleans
Kansas City
We’ll also be blogging all this week on how the law works and the ways it’s already helping different groups of Americans.
FPL, along with many faith groups, played in indispensable role in passing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. As we continue the effort to implement the law and defend it from ideologically motivated repeal efforts, it’s nice to pause for a moment and celebrate our success one year ago.
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Faithful America put together a collection of Glenn Beck clips that really drives home his animosity towards people of faith who take their traditions’ calls for social justice and the common good seriously.
Visit their website to check out the video and sign the petition to ask advertisers and radio stations to drop Fox.
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While Wisconsin governor Scott Walker made headlines nationwide this month by denying teachers and nurses the right to negotiate for fair benefits and working conditions, other political opportunists in state capitols across the country were busy launching similar attacks on workers’ rights. In Ohio, the Republican-led state senate passed a proposal to strip public employees such as police officers, firefighters and teachers of their collective bargaining rights.
On top of that, Gov. John Kasich released his budget proposal yesterday, announcing billions of dollars of cuts in critical education and health care programs while selling off state infrastructure to special interests.
In response, Faithful America is mobilizing its members in Ohio to speak out on this budget’s moral deficit and demand that Governor Kasich re-examine his economic priorities.
Sign the petition here.
Gov. Kasich,
As people of faith and Ohioans, we feel compelled to speak out about your recent budget proposal and the impact it will have on our state.
A budget that makes drastic cuts to Ohio families, schools and health programs right when people are struggling the most might help the bookkeepers’ bottom line, but it opens a massive moral deficit we just can’t afford.
We urge you to rethink your budget proposal and work with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to find a, fairer solution for all Ohio’s citizens.
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This weekend’s “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” is fast approaching and FPL’s sister organization Faithful America has been ramping up its campaign “faux-protesting” (fake-protesting) Stephen Colbert’s fear-mongering.
Faithful America’s “Driven by Faith, Not by Fear” campaign actually goes back to the beginning of the summer. It was intended as a push back against the extremist language of pundits and groups like the Tea Party. Most prominently, Faithful America members sponsored radio ads calling on Glenn Beck to stop abusing Scripture for his divisive ends.
When comedian Stephen Colbert announced his “March to Keep Fear Alive,” Faithful America decided that matching the tone and launching a faux-protest would be a great way to draw some more attention to the campaign.
Right now they are launching a petition to put Colbert “on notice,” sending him a “Driven by Faith” bumper sticker for every 100 signatures.
They’ll also be at the rally on Saturday with “People of Faith for Sanity” signs, so keep a look out for them if you’re going.
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Since Faithful America unveiled its new radio ad last week challenging Glenn Beck’s claims about social justice, Beck has ramped up his attacks. As Media Matters notes, Beck responded to the ad by alleging that issues important to 100,000 Faithful America members had nothing to do with religion, but in fact were the products of “fascism” and “evil.”
While dismissing health care reform, immigration reform and ending war and torture, he directed particular attention to Faithful America’s commitment to addressing climate change. Beck complained:”If your pastor or priest or whoever is talking about social justice and it is, ‘God is telling you that the government needs to solve global warming’, run for your life.”
Beck may not want to believe climate change is a religious issue, but there’s a reason people of faith across the spectrum– from evangelical leaders and the conservative Christian Coalition to the Pope, numerous mainline protestant churches, and Jewish groups– have called for action on this issue. Not only is our current energy infrastructure unsustainable, but it disproportionately harms the poor. As climate change continues to worsen, access to clean water and food supplies deteriorate, and extreme changes in weather uproot entire communities–hitting developing countries the hardest. Our faiths call us to care for both creation and those in need, both of which will be devastated if we fail to act.
Beck’s attempt to appoint himself arbiter of what is or is not a religious issue may make for good radio, but by ignoring the broad religious concern for the issues he’s dismissing, Beck reveals his true ignorance.
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