Recent Articles
Civic Engagement
Voting: A Matter of Faith with Kim Mabry
In anticipation of Texas Impact’s Houston Faith Votes Kick-off Events on 8/20, 8/26, and 8/27 (register here), I am speaking with several faith leaders across Houston. Through these dialogues, faith leaders explore why voting is vital for their community, and why it’s...
DIGNIDAD (Dignity) Act of 2023: Bipartisan Immigration Reform Based on “Biblical Principles of Dignity and Redemption”
TLDR: Migrant asylum encampment conditions worsen in Northern Mexico as migrants are forced to wait for CBP One appointments among other "legal walls" that they are subjected to. On the other hand, there is a proposed Bipartisan Immigration Reform bill introduced by...
Call to Faith In Action: Team Brownsville Needs All Hands on Deck
Militarized Response to Humanitarian Crisis As I detailed in a previous post, Title 42 is nearing its end on May 11, 2023 and as a result many changes in processing of asylum seekers at the border are going to take place. In conjunction with the migration plan...
Climate Justice
Action through Connection: Finding Hope through Nature
Living in Texas has heightened one of my family’s hobbies in my life: birdwatching. Birdwatching used to be something we would do in my family when sitting down with my grandparents after church. We would chat and look at the chickadees and barn swallows grazing. Now...
UMC General Conference, Creation Care, and COP
As I write this the General Conference of the United Methodist Church is underway in Charlotte, North Carolina. General Conference is the gathering of United Methodist delegates and episcopal leadership from around the world. The gathering normally takes place every...
787 EcoFaith Dialogue, Listening and Action
This last summer was my first full summer in Texas, and as many of you know it was a doozy. While we were living about 80 days of torturous 100-degree weather and sunny-sided seasonal depression, I couldn’t help but listen to all the Texans around me telling me it had...
Economic Justice
100+ TX Chaplains to School Boards: Keep Chaplains Out of Public Schools
MEDIA CONTACTSManisha Sunil, West End Strategy Team / msunil@westendstrategy.com; 202-417-0171Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, BJC / guthrie@bjconline.org; 713-614-4946Joshua Houston, Texas Impact / josh@texasimpact.org; 979-487-1188 AUSTIN—More than 100 Texas chaplains...
Labor Day Litany
Litany for Texas Workers for Sunday, September 3, 2023 (Adapt for Your Faith Tradition) God, we ask your presence and blessing upon workers, this Labor Day and every day. God of care, empower us to move and rest in your restorative justice for all. God,...
What is a public school chaplain? Texas school children may soon find out.
What is a public school chaplain? Texas school children may soon find out. In 2023, the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 763, which gives public school districts the option to hire religiously affiliated chaplains. However, the bill provides no definition, job...
Human Rights
Rallying Behind Our Collective Grief
As we move through a busy summer, Vidas Robadas, Texas Impact’s gun violence prevention campaign, is reaching a year old. With that milestone in mind, I have been reflecting on how the program has changed. When we first started this project, it was described as an...
Hurricane Beryl Enters the US without a CPB One Appointment
Climate Migration and Hurricane Beryl From Africa to Canada, where it is now a “post-tropical cyclone”, there is no barrier, wall high enough, or restrictive immigration laws that could have contained the destruction and death that hurricane Beryl left in its...
Wondering About the Texas Abortion Ban?
Even with all the attention it's received, many Texans are confused about the Texas abortion ban. Polling earlier this year showed that more than 80 percent of Texas women have significant gaps in knowledge and misconceptions about abortion law in Texas. Texas Impact...