You believe in God for your soul. Believe in him about your property. Believe in God about your sick wife or your dying child. Believe in God about your losses and bad debts and declining business. - Charles Spurgeon
Hundreds of thousands of homeowners in the United Kingdom will receive vouchers of up to £5,000 for energy-saving home improvements, with the poorest getting up to £10,000. Chancellor Rishi Sunak is due to set out a £2bn grant scheme in England for projects such as insulation as part of a wider £3bn plan to cut emissions. The Treasury said the grants could help to support more than 100,000 jobs. Business leaders have called for radical action to bolster the economy, which is still reeling from the impact of coronavirus.
God, we pray for those who aren’t sure how to make ends meet after the economic impact of Coronavirus has become real. We pray that ideas like these would truly bring jobs, and would truly make a positive impact on the warming planet.
The controversial Dakota Access Pipeline has been ordered to suspend production by a US judge, amid concerns over its environmental impact. The order is a major win for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, which has led the fight against the pipeline. The ruling demands the pipeline is emptied within 30 days so another environmental review can take place. Separately, the Supreme Court blocked another controversial oil pipeline from continuing construction.
For those who have been protesting for their dignity, for the protection of the land, and for the honoring of long-violated treaties between Indigenous people and the U.S. government, we take a moment to “rejoice with those rejoice.” And we also pray for the future of this and other pipelines, the complicated ways that the economic impact of the oil industry is so far and wide. We pray, God, that those making decisions are wise. We pray that trust can be built. We pray that people’s dignity will be honored.
When the U.S. economy ground to a halt this spring, economists warned that an avalanche of evictions was looming. Because eviction bans and restrictions are rapidly expiring, nearly 28 million households are estimated to be at risk of being turned out onto the streets because of job losses tied to the pandemic. Even ordinances barring evictions have failed to protect vulnerable immigrants, who fear that complaining to the authorities about their landlord could lead to a consequence worse than homelessness: deportation. Landlords argue that they are unfairly being forced to absorb the brunt of the financial burden of pandemic job losses. “Something is wrong when a private industry is being asked to take on its back what is really a public housing emergency,” one landlord said.
God, for those whose immigration status forces them into silence and fear-fueled decisions, we offer our prayers. Open our eyes to see the ways that injustice compounds injustice, and human beings created in your image suffer. Help those of us who have means to do so -- resources, time, or a voice that we can safely raise -- to be good stewards of what we have. God, in this complicated economic mess, we pray that there would be hope for those who aren’t sure how to face the future.
Canada’s federal government will enter an agreement on Tuesday with the Assembly of First Nations to outline how it will fund an overhaul of the First Nations child welfare system — a detail that was left out of recent legislation. The Trudeau government passed Bill C-92 — officially known as An Act Respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis Children, Youth and Families — last year to reduce the number of youth in care, and allow communities to create their own child welfare systems to bring and keep their youth home. The groundbreaking legislation came into effect this year, but did not include any funding tied to the law. The new agreement is expected to start the long process of mapping out the funding model.
God, we pray for the details of this process -- the nitty-gritty fine print that can so often spell out the difference between oppression and freedom. We pray that this process would honor the dignity of First Nations people in Canada, and invest in protecting and upholding that dignity with real money. We pray that the ones who are most impacted would have a strong voice with a big impact on this critical next step.
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Eight years after the creation of DACA, hundreds of thousands of undocumented youth still do not have a long-term solution or pathway to citizenship. Urge the Senate to pass H.R. 6 to support permanent relief for Dreamers without compromising the safety and livelihood of their families or other immigrant communities. Take action today!
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