Hello Tennessee Interfaith Power & Light Friends:

We don’t need to tell you how important the upcoming election is.  In this post, you will find:

1. Information that might be useful as you plan how you will vote and how to track your ballot if you are voting by mail.   
2. Information on how to volunteer with the national Environmental Voter Project, a non-partisan organization working hard to increase turnout of pro-environment voters.

Okay, once again, this election is incredibly important.  So, most of all, be sure to vote.  And second, if you have the time, get involved with some effort to get out a strong pro-environment vote.  EVP is a good option for that. If you have questions about the EVP effort, contact Rev. Slentz at pslentz53@gmail.com.

In defense of this good Earth, Betsy Garber, TIPL President

First, planning your vote and tracking your ballot if you vote by mail.  

The most important source for voting information is the Tennessee Secretary of State’s Voter Information web page.

On that page, you will find information about ways we can vote in Tennessee:

Absentee Voting By-Mail  Remember that you:

• —  have to meet certain requirements to be able to vote absentee by mail (see website for who is eligible);
• — you must request a ballot from your County Election Commission (the deadline is Oct. 27, but that is way too late given the way mail is running now, go ahead and make the request now);
• — when you get your ballot, follow the instructions carefully and be sure to sign where instructed.
• — your ballot must be mailed back to your County Election Commission through the U.S. Postal Service (can’t be hand delivered and no drop-off boxes), and it must be received by your county election office by election day, November 3.  It is not enough for it to just be postmarked by November 3. 
• —  one $0.55 stamp or first class “forever” stamp is all that is needed to mail in your ballot.

Early Voting – In Person

Locations and times for early in person voting will vary from county to county.  So, to find out specifics for your county, go to the County Elections Commissions Map and click on your county.  Go to this site to find your Voter Registration Information and Polling Place.

Election Day Voting – In Person

Of course, the third option is to vote in person on election day, November 3.  If you have questions about where you vote, again contact your county’s election commission or go to this site: Voter Registration Information and Polling Place.  Be sure to take an Acceptable ID.  

Also, unlike early voting, YOU MUST GO TO THE POLLING SITE YOU ARE ASSIGNED TO (BASED ON YOUR HOME ADDRESS).  Again, go to Voter Registration and Polling Place to be sure where you are to vote on Election Day.

Tracking your absentee by-mail ballot  

If you are eligible to do so and have voted or will vote by mail, you can make sure your ballot has been received by your county election commission by going to Voter Registration Information and Polling Place.

Second, how to volunteer to get out a strong pro-environment vote through The Environmental Voter Project

Believe it or not, environmentalists vote at lower than average rates.  To increase the voting rate for people who care about the Earth, the non-partisan Environmental Voter Project (EVP) has identified pro-environment registered voters (through a variety of means) in 12 key states.  They are using volunteers to call those voters to encourage them to vote and provide them with information about how to vote in their locale.

TIPL-Nashville Chairperson, Rev. Paul Slentz, has done some phone banking with them and can report that the training is good and that it’s really pretty easy (even for somebody as tech-phobic as Paul).  All the equipment you need is a computer and a phone. (Note from Paul:  “I left a fair number of voice mails, had some wrong numbers, and some no answers.  But the ones I did talk to were friendly and appreciated the information I could provide them.  I was calling people in Nevada and it was more fun than I thought it would be!)

You don’t provide any private information to the people you call.  You just use your first name and identify yourself as a volunteer for EVP.  The number that shows up on caller ID is that of EVP.

To sign up to volunteer, go to EVP’s Get Involved web page.  To check out volunteer training times (a good way to figure out if this is something you’d like to do), go to EVP’s Events and Trainings web page.

October Climate Academy: John Lewis, the Beloved Community and Energy Justice

Sunday, October 11th | 3PM CST / 4 PM EST

For Tennessee Interfaith Power & Light’s October Climate Academy, we invite you to a reflection on the life, principles, and practices of John Lewis and how they inform a faith-based approach to nonviolence, community formation, and energy justice. Lewis’s formative years were in the Nashville sit-in movement. This tradition continues on in Nashville. We will continue this reflection by examining two more recent nonviolent campaigns: a four-month long sit-in on health care at the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville, and a vigorous campaign for energy justice in Chicago.

[Read more…]

“It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated.
We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality; tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
We are made to live together because of the interrelated structure of reality.”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Christmas Eve sermon, 1967 at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta

Members of Tennessee Interfaith Power and Light believe that these beautiful words, spoken 53 years ago by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., simply and eloquently portray the truth about our community of life on Earth.  We believe the social and Earth sciences that teach us about the critical importance of maintaining diversity… of plants, animals, and people. We understand that diversity of beliefs, cultures, traditions, and histories strengthen and enrich us as we live together on this beautiful, miraculous planet.

Living peaceably together requires that we act boldly and swiftly to stop the destruction of Earth. Global warming will not affect us all equally; rather, it will bring particular hardships to minority communities. Living peaceably together requires that we act boldly and swiftly to equalize access to healthcare and education and jobs and housing. For too long Black people, indigenous people, and other people of color have been systematically held down.

We acknowledge and condemn the centuries of abhorrent, demoralizing, and often murderous activities that have been levied upon people of color.  As people of faith, we vow to act upon our principles of faith on behalf of our brothers and sisters. Therefore, we resolve to:

• speak truth to power about the persistent discrimination against minority people;
• engage in peaceful civil action to show solidarity with others who also support minority equality and rights;
• participate in community activities that are intended to bring people together regardless of race;
• consciously support minority-owned businesses;
• actively welcome people of color to join our organization and our activities;
• educate ourselves about systemic racism and white privilege;
• vote our belief that Black Lives Matter.

Saturday, July 18 – 10 am EDT  (9 am CDT)

Join Tennessee Interfaith Power and Light for our July Climate Academy!

Climate and CoViD: 20 Lessons for Responding to Crisis

Join TIPL for a presentation on 20 valuable lessons learned about crisis and climate change during the current pandemic.
Saturday, July 18th | 9am CDT/10am EDT

Register Here

We are in the midst of addressing and navigating a terrible pandemic. We also face the long-term crisis of climate change. Through careful reflection we can learn some valuable lessons that will help our nation respond to both of these crises in an effective manner. Hear from Dan Joranko, Matthew Groves, and Michael Black, who will be presenting 20 valuable lessons we have learned from the current pandemic.

We’ll be meeting virtually over Zoom. Once you register, you’ll receive a confirmation email with email about how to contact us. We’ll send an email closer to the gathering date with Zoom information and information about how to download, if you need it!

Register Here

Intersections in Economics, Ecology and Religion

Webinar: June 3, 2020 7:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Liberating People and the Planet Session #2

The Commons and Consumption in a Global Perspective

Register to join us for the next webinar on June 3, 7:00 PM (CDT)  “The Commons and Consumption in a Global Perspective,” 

featuring Terra Schwerin Rowe and George Zachariah, with Joerg Rieger moderating, where they will address Economics and Ecology in a Global Perspective.

Description

Liberating People and the Planet is a webinar series hosted by the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. The program’s work focuses on the intersection of Religion, Economics, and Ecology.

In this webinar, we explore the relationship between the fight for the commons and capitalism’s shaping of consumption. What resonances are there between democratic struggles for the commons and theological inquiries that imagine new kinds of consumption that differ from the extractive and exploitative model of humans and of nature? Religion, it turns out, can play a crucial role expanding our economic and ecological imaginations of the commons and consumption.

George Zachariah serves the Trinity Methodist Theological College, Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand as lecturer in Theological Studies, and will engage in conversation with Terra Schwerin Rowe, who is Assistant Professor in the University of North Texas Philosophy and Religion Department. The discussion will be moderated by Joerg Rieger, Distinguished Professor of Theology, Cal Turner Chancellor’s Chair in Wesleyan Studies, and Director of the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice.