On the eve of Election Day, The Vote is Sacred Tour visited Harrisburg. A camera crew from the local ABC News affiliate was waiting at Beth El Temple for us when the bus arrived. We met up with Rabbi Carl Choper of Interfaith Alliance of Pennsylvania and visited the capitol building and other sites around the city. We finished our visit to Harrisburg with a press conference in partnership with Power to the Hill, which engages voters and promotes active citizenship in the Allison Hill neighborhood. The reporter from the ABC affiliate delivered a live report from the site of the press conference.
You can watch the in-depth report here:
We departed Harrisburg for Philadelphia after the press conference and were able to watch the report on the television on the bus! Here’s a photo of that exciting moment!
Faith, Freedom, and Reproductive Rights
At the heart of our democracy is the belief that individuals should be free to make decisions guided by their own conscience, values, and beliefs, especially when it comes to their health care. The growing efforts to restrict access to reproductive health care under the guise of religious or political authority is deeply concerning and recent legal challenges across the country threaten not only access to care but also the foundational principle that no single religious tradition should determine public policy for everyone.
Do No Harm: Resisting the Misuse of Religious Exemptions
When does the right to religious freedom become a justification for harm? This question is at the heart of the misuse of religious exemption laws. These laws – protections granted under the First Amendment and utilized for centuries by individuals of all faiths – have been exploited by Christian Nationalists to undermine other fundamental rights, including equality and non-discrimination.