Raiding Plantations, Disabling Education, Dismantling Dams of Colonization
KTF Weekly Newsletter
Hi everybody,
We’ve got highlights this week on a surprising story from Black history, Republicans trying to reincarcerate freed federal prisoners, the failures of “special” education, some inspiring indigenous environmental advocacy, the armed conflict in the DRC, and a really deep dive into the world of today’s White Christian nationalism.
Also, stay tuned tomorrow for a special announcement on how you can help us out with some end-of-year charitable giving. Alright, let’s get into it!
Sy’s recommendations:
I recently read a thread on Mastodon by historian D. Elizabeth Glassco about the first armed military operation led by a woman in American history. It was a one-of-a-kind raid on southern plantations during the Civil War, leveraging a network of spies to free as many enslaved people as possible under cover of darkness, devastating the local Confederate war effort. The mostly-Black soldiers freed over 700 people in a single night, with only one casualty. And the woman at the helm? Harriet Tubman. Read the thread for the details of how she deployed her experience from the Underground Railroad to coordinate this incredible covert operation. And let her consistent boldness and insistence on working for the freedom of everyone—long after she was free herself—give you hope.
President Biden has thankfully stated he will veto a Republican attempt to send about 3,000 prisoners put on house arrest during the pandemic back to prison. He cited the fact that over 13,000 federal prisoners were released due to COVID-19, and less than 1% have new convictions. Even those very few convictions were nearly all low-level. The proponents of reincarceration say that continued release is a betrayal of the government’s duty to keep the public safe. But the facts and statistics belie concerns about safety. Pray that reality wins out in this fight, and that at least some policy makers would learn the real lesson here: we have countless people in prison for no defensible reason, which is a travesty for those disproportionately Black, brown, and indigenous individuals, their families, and their communities.
It has been nearly 50 years since the first federal law guaranteeing disabled students a “free, appropriate public education,” moving disabled children out of the shadows of neglectful and institutional settings nationwide. But when I spent a few months as a law school intern at an education advocacy organization, I found a system that still routinely denied students the most basic accommodations with maddening and interminable processes for challenging those denials. A new series of investigative articles from Mother Jones reports on a wide range of gut-wrenching problems in our systems for educating disabled students from New York City to Hawaii, as well as some possible paths forward. As we discussed on our episode on disability justice with Dr. Amy Kenny, the civil rights of disabled people cannot be an optional extra—a favor authorities grant us when they are feeling generous. Pray for the children and families involved in these stories, and think about giving to organizations in your area fighting for disabled students this December.
Jonathan’s recommendations:
Al Jazeera reported this week that the advocacy of the Yurok Tribe is leading to the demolition of four dams partially responsible for decimating the Salmon population in California’s Klamath River. The dams were built between 1918 and 1962 to irrigate settler crops and create hydroelectric power with no regard for their effect on the environment or tribal ways of life. The article breaks down how these dams ravaged local ecosystems and tells personal stories of the indigenous people left grieving and fighting back. Prayerfully the dismantling of these obstructions will lead to a cultural revival for the Yurok people, the return of strong salmon populations, and a reversal of the racism and colonization that destroyed the shalom which existed prior to invasion.
While there is a genocide occurring in Palestine, more mass violence is unfolding in the DRC due to the world’s insatiable appetite for the country’s cobalt, a metal used in producing the batteries in our phones and laptops. Rebel groups, backed by fighters from other African countries aligned with Western powers seeking cheap cobalt, have displaced or killed millions over the decades in the DRC. Accusations of mass killings and sexual predation abound. Cobalt helps us create electronics that reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, something we undoubtedly need. But it can’t come at the expense of more exploitation of Black people and their land. Lord have mercy.
Tim Alberta, staff writer at the Atlantic, in his new book, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism, reports in depth on the key figures currently spreading the gospel of White Christian nationalism in America. You can read an excerpt on some of these figures and the worldview promoted at the American Restoration Tour. You’ll learn about discredited historian David Barton and the false prophecy of Pastor Bill Bolin that legitimize and baptize a Christian takeover of every institution in society. We need to lean into the hard realities of what our Christian neighbors are caught up in, and work lovingly for their liberation. May this article inform your prayers and evangelism to those who call themselves followers of Jesus.
Thanks for reading, and see you next week!
Jonathan and Sy