LAMN SPEAKS UP! 
OUR MISSION: to educate people on social issues and encourage them to view these issues in light of Holy Scripture, the Lutheran Confessions, the Ecumenical Creeds, and the published Social Statements of the ELCA.

Lutheran Advocacy

Ministry of Nevada
Speaking Out on Contemporary Social Issues from a Lutheran Perspective

"And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"  Micah 6:8
 

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ADVOCATE'S LATEST LEGISLATIVE UPDATE!

LAMN's new Legislative Advocate, Mike Patterson, has filed his latest Legislative Matrix summary for this year's session. Right now, eight strongly supported Assembly and Senate bills need your support. Click the "Legislative Matrix" button above for a rundown of supported bills and links to each bill's text, then contact your representatives via phone or e-mail to voice your support for their passage!

 
Follow Us On:
Speaking Truth to Power
Through Congregational
Organizing

A few years ago the ELCA began talking about "Congregation - Based Organizing."  In most of the ELCA, it's still not known.   In Northern Nevada, ecumenical Faith-Based Organizing, is now taking shape under the name ACTIONN.  Southern Nevada has had the "Community Convention for the Common Good." 

 

We Lutherans tend to be “get-it-done” kinds of people, and some of us have wondered what this faith-based organizing stuff is about.  The question often asked is, "when are we going to actually DO something?"  I recently read an article written by a Lutheran pastor that explains the concept in a way that makes sense.  He wrote that faith based-organizing is people and leadership oriented, as opposed to project-oriented.  It is designed to release power in individuals, families, congregations, and communities.  He makes a distinction between the release of power in people who recognize their abilities and step up to leadership, and "empowerment," which he describes as granting bits of powerfulness by holders of power to non-holders of power.  The pastor goes on to comment, "One of the most dramatic and effective actions of [a faith based organization] is to in fact hold other holders of power accountable to their public commitments."

 

This sounds a lot like Advocacy.  People learn that they have power to speak out, that collective action amplifies their message; and as a group, they have clout to hold accountable the power-holders to whom they speak. 

 

Lutheran Advocacy Ministry in Nevada (LAMN) is shifting to a model that relies on the people in the pews (and coffee shops and classrooms and workplaces) to use electronic media to discover their common concerns, make informed decisions, and then communicate their concerns and informed decisions to their state legislators.  Wouldn't it be wonderful if prior to the next legislative session we all got organized to let our Senators and Assemblymen know the policy outcomes we expect?  The person serving as the LAMN/RAIN Advocate could then go in person to hearings to give voice to these concerns and convincingly state that there is political support for humane government. 

 

LAMN is learning to function within the resources available to it; and those who have supported advocacy ministry in Nevada hope that through electronic media, a “grass roots” style of advocacy can be developed that will build on the successful work that has been done in the Nevada Legislature over the past several years.

 

Financial support is still needed for basics, such as office operations, and support for our website and other communications.  Second Mile Giving benefits LAMN during August. 

lamn@lutheranadvocacynv.org.  Let’s use our ability to speak truth to power through the collective action made possible by the tools of social media available to us.   

 

By Sheila Freed, Past Treasurer and Member, LAMN Statewide Policy Council
CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATOR TODAY!
For an interactive map to locate your Nevada Assemblypersons and Senators. Find your district.
Then e-mail them your views on current bills that LAMN supports!

And visit the Nevada Attorney General's
For Important Information on
Human Trafficking!

IT'S EASIER THAN EVER TO BE AN ADVOCATE!


By Sheila Freed


The Nevada Legislature's 2013 session is now underway.  Here we go again, many will say:  More bickering, more gridlock, more money spent on things that don't matter, too little on things that do matter.  We in the faith advocacy community hope to set a more positive example by recognizing that if we don't speak up, those outcomes are guaranteed.  If we do speak up, we probably won't change the world, but we can surely have an impact.  That's why Lutheran Advocacy Ministry in Nevada has the slogan

 

LAMN SPEAKS UP!

 

We hope to bring every single person into the conversation with us, and we want you to know about a cool new tool to do that.  As you may know, the Nevada Legislature has an excellent website, www.leg.state.nv.us.  The site just gets better all the time, and for this session, there is a feature that enables you to tell your legislator how you feel about a bill with just a few mouse clicks.  Sort of like those online petitions we all get, but this goes right to the policy-makers.  Go to the legislative home page, then look on the right side.  Toward the bottom, there's a button to "share your opinion on Legislative Bills."  Just enter a bill number or name, choose "for" or "against," identify yourself so they'll know what district you're in, and "submit."  You can add comments if you like.  What could be easier?

 

The hardest part will be to know what bills to express opinions on.  The LAMN and RAIN websites, www.lutheranadvocacynv.org, www.rainnv.org, are a good place to start, and of course print and broadcast media will have information.  But there's also another cool new feature of the Legislative website.  A couple of buttons above "share your opinion" is "subject index."  As bills are introduced, you can find them here by topic.  For example, LAMN and RAIN are very interested in laws relating to human trafficking, especially as it relates to exploitation of minors for prostitution.  You can look in the subject index under "Human Trafficking" or "Sex Trafficking" and get to Assembly Bill 67, which is the Attorney General's proposed legislation on this topic.  A click on the bill number will get you to the text of the bill, plus information about committee hearings, amendments, and more detail than you probably care about.  Then you can go back to "share your opinion" and do so with real insight. 

 

The State of Nevada, (known for being backward in many areas) has, with their website, really made it easy to be an informed citizen and to participate.  That's why it's not just for political junkies anymore.  And here's a bonus:  You can find out what your neighbors are thinking!  On the "share your opinion" page, there are selections for "View Comments" and "Reports."  The "View Comments" allows you to read what others have written.  (Let's hope for some reasoned dialog.)  The "Reports" section enables you to see all the "for" and "against" data sorted by bill number, by city, by zip code, by senate or assembly district, and my personal favorite, "Top 50 by Popularity."  So even if you just want to know what's trendy, this is the place to go.

 

 LAMN hopes everyone turns into a bit of a political junkie, because the welfare of our society, our life together in community, depends on good people speaking out about what's right.  As Christians, we are called to do this.  There's always a lot of excitement and hope at the start of a Legislative Session.  We hope everyone will jump in and share it.  

 
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PART OF RELIGIOUS ALLIANCE IN NEVADA