Q&A: Pr. Sarah Stadler on advocacy and upcoming ‘Advocacy 101’ classes
As a part of the Phoenix Fusion collaborative, you will be facilitating a series of Zoom classes beginning August 6 titled ‘Advocacy 101’. Is it for beginners only, just the basics? What topics will you address in the class?
Yes! Advocacy 101 will focus on the basics: how scripture and our Lutheran tradition call people of faith to advocate for justice, how bills become laws and how the public can be part of the process, best practices for communicating with legislators, and an introduction to LAMA.
What do you hope people who attend will gain?
I hope people will feel empowered and equipped to advocate for public policy that helps create a more just and loving world.
During your Pentecost Pause Facebook livestreams this summer, you have spoken of advocacy as a spiritual practice (Facebook), and you recently preached on advocacy as an important element of the Lutheran tradition (Youtube). How is advocacy a spiritual practice?
I see spiritual practices as ways we encounter God and grow our relationship with God. The God of Israel's deliverance from slavery, the God that sends a foreign widow to feed the prophet Elijah, the God that comes into the world through a humble young woman named Mary, the God who shows up as Jesus is a God of justice. When I advocate for justice, I encounter that God. By engaging with organizations that help the public understand legislation coming before state and federal governing bodies, advocacy can also serve as a daily, weekly, or monthly discipline whereby I deliberately set aside time to read, learn, and then take action on legislation coming before the appropriate body.
Some people believe that advocacy is political, that it sometimes can be polarizing, and therefore has no place in church. What do you think?
Advocacy is political in nature; that is, it tends to our public life. A Christian faith that doesn't tend to our public life is an irrelevant Christian faith. While advocacy is political, it need not be divisive, and it need not be partisan. As someone who does advocacy as a spiritual practice, I am seeking life, life abundant (John 10:10) for all humanity and all creation. I am not seeking the advancement of a particular agenda other than respecting and loving all humanity and all creation.
Sometimes it feels like there is so much trouble in the world, and so many issues needing advocacy, that it's difficult to know where to begin. What are the big issues needing advocacy by people of faith in Arizona? Do you have any advice for how to focus our energy?
I wish I knew! I wish I knew for sure what issues, when resolved, would lead to the resolution of many other issues. I wonder if addressing poverty first would help us address many other inequities in arenas like healthcare, criminal justice, drug policy, education, and even the environment. When we take a look at the disparities in these areas, we see access to quality health care, for instance, available most readily to more socio-economically privileged people. We see people living in poverty disproportionately participating in the criminal justice system. We see people living in poverty in neighborhoods with poor air and water quality. And of course, socio-economic injustice is often tied up with racial injustice.
What are the first two or three action items for individuals wanting to be involved in advocacy?
Go to www.elca.org/Our-Work/Publicly-Engaged-Church/Advocacy and sign up for their advocacy alerts. Watch this YouTube video from the ELCA YouTube channel. Read the ELCA social statement entitled The Church in Society: A Lutheran Perspective. Finally, read the short and accessible book What Every Church Member Should Know About Poverty by Bill Ehlig & Ruby K Payne.
Is there anything else you would like to share?
Theologian and activist Cornel West wrote, "Justice is what love looks like in public." For me, to engage in advocacy is to love my neighbor, the ones created in God's image, my sisters and brothers.