Yesenia Rodriguez Blog #2 June 26, 2022 - Silenzio Bruno!

 This past Wednesday, we had our third Devotion and read Chapter 15 of We Cry Justice by Liz Theoharis. The chapter is called “We are not Tractors” and focuses on the economic justice that Christians should uphold as followers of Jesus Christ. It emphasizes that we are not tractors, we are human beings, who deserve fair wages, quality housing and working conditions, and most importantly, we deserve dignity. It talked about how Jesus was a peasant. He did not just help the poor as many people paint him to be. Jesus was the poor. Christians must not forget that. 

Here are some basic principles I pulled from that chapter: 

1. Wealth and power should not be exploited. 

2. Poverty is not inevitable. (Especially in one of the richest countries on Earth)

3. Low wages are not the will of God. (No one deserves to be poor)

The chapter called for us to enact social transformation! We must be crying out for our community. We must DEMAND our lawmakers fight poverty, not the poor with their legislation. So how do we even start crying out? We must be talking without neighbors and community members about this. I think I should get more involved and really start speaking with especially my local politicians, not just the federal ones like my senator and congressmen. So here is a link to find your local officials and get in contact with them so you may fight as well: https://live.cicerodata.com/ 

This brings me to what happened on Friday with the Supreme Court decision. On July 24th, 2022, the Supreme Court decided to overturn Roe v. Wade, overturning a 50-year precedent on people’s constitutional right to have an abortion. This will many people, especially young women, and poor women. I wished before people even thought about taking away the right to an abortion, they would fight for more funding for education, for universal healthcare, for free daycare, for more maternal and paternal leave, free breakfast and lunch for all students, free afterschool and summer programs, more sex-ed education, more access to contraceptives, and do something about all of these school shootings. If we want to support children, there are much better ways to support them than to force people to birth them and refuse to give them basic health and reproductive care. 

We talked about the United Methodist Social Principles on Friday as well. Looking at the 2020 revised Social Principles of the Church, the Church does not condone abortion as a form of birth control but recognizes when the life of the mother is in danger, no other medical treatments are feasible, or when severe abnormalities threaten the viability of the fetus, abortion may be the best option. (Revised Social Principles, 2020, page 29). They also recognize that “access to reproductive health services is too often limited by economic factors…Such a lack of agency perpetuates cycles of poverty by restricting the ability of women to participate in the workforce and by increasing the strain on scarce family resources.” Because of this, UMC does support policies and programs “that extend reproductive health services to women in economically challenged areas.” Although I do not fully agree with all the social principles lined out by the United Methodist Church, it does reflect most of them and I am glad as a Church we talk about as Christians, we must be advocates of the poor and vulnerable and we must be political. 

Thursday we also had a bonding night by watching a movie. We watched Luca from Pixar (and I cried several times.) Throughout the movie, Luca and his friend Alberto kept saying “Silenzio Bruno!” in an attempt to silence the voice in their head that told them to be afraid or shy away from doing cool things, whether it’s biking down a hill onto a ramp to the ocean, or simply being vulnerable with your best friend. It’s my new little motto now. Before it was “Just Keep Swimming,” but “Silenzio Bruno!” is so empowering. I said that to myself before I went to a new church that had an adult youth group on Friday. I’m glad I went and I’m looking forward to meeting more people like me there in future meetings. I hope to bring this motto into my advocacy as well when the situation feels tough and low.

:)