Advocacy
Action Alerts
Fix Our Forests Act (FOFA)
The Fix Our Forests Act (FOFA) (S.1462) has already passed in the House. It also passed the Senate Agriculture Committee with a strong bipartisan vote (18-5), but still hasn’t come up for a vote in the full Senate. Our forests currently offset 12% of U.S. climate pollution. When they burn, not only does this diminish their potential to reduce climate pollution, the smoky air creates serious health problems breathed by a large swath of the country. This past summer Canadian fires polluted the skies of 18 states across the Midwest and Northeast and the Western states faced unhealthy air quality from the fires in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada.
The bill aims to make preservation of our forests a priority by moving efficiently and quickly by reducing redundant consultations with overlapping agencies and weak litigation. The bill has bipartisan support from a majority of environmental organizations like The Nature Conservancy, Environmental Defense Fund, National Audubon Society, and The Federation of American Scientists.
The Sierra Club is not supporting this bill because they feel it weakens citizens’ voices, the Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act. For further discussion please see their document and the Citizens Climate lobby refutation of their concerns.
https://www.sierraclub.org/loma-prieta/opposition-hr-8790
CCL document that addresses Sierra Club concerns
ACTION: Write your Senators to support the FOFA using the Citizens Climate Lobby Tool.
Links for more information
https://citizensclimatelobby.org/get-loud-take-action/fix-our-forests-act/
https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/1462/cosponsors
https://www.rcrcnet.org/general/fix-our-forests-act-advances-out-of-senate-agriculture-committee/ Describes the positions of Senators voting for and against.
Vote in Support of God’s Creation
The US General Midterm Elections are coming up on November 3, 2026. So, if you’re a US Citizen, your most impactful action in October might be to vote with God’s creation in mind. Voting in the United States is a privilege and a responsibility, an important part of caring for the “garden” God has placed in our charge.
ACTION: The UMCJM Working Group urges you to first check that you’re registered to vote, even if you were registered in 2024. Eligible voters in some states have been removed from the rolls. To check, navigate to your state’s board of elections, listed at State Election Board and Voting Information Links .
At that same site, you can probably also see who is running for office in your state & congressional district.
Other sources of that information are:
ballotpedia.org
theballotbrief.com
Perhaps most convenient of all, at Vote411.org you can obtain a copy of your ballot!
Then, we encourage you, as a Christian and a United Methodist, to evaluate how well those candidates’ voting records cohere with the UMC 2024 Social Principles, Chapter 1 on “Community of All Creation.” You can check those records listed at
- US Congress: LCV National Environmental Scorecard
- State legislators: Search the internet for
- “environmental scorecards assembly (state name)” &
- “environmental scorecards senate (state name)”
- While candidates for US President are not on ballots this year, you can see the Trump Administration’s significant environmental actions by navigating to Tracking regulatory changes in the second Trump administration | Brookings , and in “category,” choosing “environment.” This review will better equip you to vote for or against members of Congress who have supported, opposed or taken no stance on the Administration’s actions.
Our personal lifestyle choices—recycling, replacing car miles with bicycle miles, eating more plants and less meat, etc.—are important. Even so, voting responsibly is another key part of caring for God’s creation, since governmental policy decisions have profound and lasting impacts on the planet’s health.
Volunteer with the Environmental Voter Project
The Environmental Voter Project, a non-partisan organization has been reaching out to voters for over 9 years to turn infrequent voters into those who vote in every election. EVP says,
Nothing motivates a politician more than the prospect of winning or losing an election, so if we want true environmental and climate leadership, we must flood the electorate and make it impossible for politicians to run for office without leading on the environment.
Their model consists of
- Identifying registered-to-vote environmentalists by name and street address who are infrequent voters
- Contacting voters by call, text, and mail with voting information at each election, local, state, federal to create a “sticky” habit of voting
ACTION:
Sign up with the EVP, to phone identified voters who support the environment, but vote infrequently. There are daily opportunities to call with the EVP up until the mid-term election. EVP starts each session with slides explaining their voter engagement model, and the evidence they have collected showing this is effective in building the electorate into a reliable voice for the environment that all legislators will have to listen to in order to be elected. They walk callers through the calling process with a clear script and answers to common questions. Each session is 70 minutes, but you set your pace and how long you call. The 10 minute debrief is a chance to share your experience with other callers.
Links for more information
Get Involved | Environmental Voter Project
This link has all the calling, postcarding, and canvassing opportunities around the country.
The main website is https://www.environmentalvoter.org/
To connect with another opportunity to do postcarding, navigate to https://electionearth.org/action-challenge/ a project of EcoAmerica.
Guiding Principles for Public Policy Advocacy
The following principles were written to provide guidance for the Coordinating Team of the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement in deciding what creation justice public policies to support or oppose. It was approved by the Coordinating Team in August of 2021.
See also these two resources from General Board of Church and Society
“Affirmation of Faith” (United Methodist Creation Justice Movement)
“As disciples of Jesus Christ seeking the transformation of the world through the resurrecting power of the Holy Spirit, we are called to the healing of the earth and its many creatures and biosystems, of which human beings are a part, as we strive in hope for the earthly fulfillment of God’s reign of righteousness and justice. With the scriptures, we believe that “the earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it” (Psalm 24:1). The New Testament witnesses to the reconciling ministry of Christ in whom “all things” in heaven and on earth are held together in peace (Colossians 1:15-20). God’s own Spirit, the source of life, groans through the whole of creation in eager longing for redemption (Romans 8:22). We affirm, therefore, that the vocation given by God to humans to “till and keep” the garden of creation (Genesis 2:15) is a call not to “dominion” (Genesis 1:28) understood as domination but to a reverent earthkeeping lived out in loving stewardship of the good earth in anticipation of the coming new creation of “all things” (Revelation 21:5). As heirs of John Wesley, we embrace anew the call to holy living – the loving of God, neighbor, and all creatures – in the whole of life. We acknowledge the interconnectedness of ecological well-being with social justice for all, heeding both the warnings from the scientific community regarding the environmental calamities we face and the cries of the poor and oppressed for political, economic, and cultural equity. Amidst the ecological crises of climate disruption, biodiversity loss, and more, we know that those of us already burdened by poverty, racism, colonial violence, and related forms of social injustice are already suffering the worst effects. We believe, therefore, that the going on to Christian perfection today must include an ever deepening and expanding growth in holiness expressed through concrete acts of personal, congregational, denominational, and public transformation for the sake of the world God so loves.”
In light of the foregoing scriptural/theological foundation, it is clear that love of neighbor (including just treatment of the most vulnerable) and care for all of creation are inextricably linked. The following principles for evaluating public policy flow from that basic recognition. The official stances of the United Methodist Church expressed in the 2016 Social Principles, the proposed Revised Social Principles (for next General Conference), and the 2016 Book of Resolutions were sources in their formulation. They are divided into categories for ease of reference, but are all interrelated and complementary.
Public policy principles of care for the whole community of creation:
Policies should:
- Affirm the goodness, intrinsic worth, and interrelatedness of all of creation by prioritizing “the protection of all forms of life and natural ecosystems, while supporting human beings to live in a healthy balance with the earth.” (Proposed Revised Social Principles)
- Encourage changes in personal behavior while recognizing that threats to creation are systemic and require a systemic response at all levels of domestic governing bodies and through international cooperation.
- Align with our Wesleyan tradition that affirms the place of reason in the life of faith by supporting the scientific community in its work of identifying the causes of harm to creation and helping shape solutions to undo that harm.
Public policy principles of creation justice for the most vulnerable of our human brothers and sisters:
As ones who have been and continue to be harmed most by the degradation of creation, communities of color, indigenous peoples, and low-wealth communities (environmental justice communities) must not be harmed by but should instead benefit from and have a central role in shaping creation care/justice policies. Such policies should:
- Address past environmental harm and mitigate against future harm to these communities.
- Acknowledge the role that racism has played in environmental injustice and affirm protection from environmental harm as both a civil and a human right.
- Look to the wisdom of indigenous peoples who have a culture of profound respect for the natural world and uphold their rights under treaties and laws to protect their land, air, and water.
- End “sacrifice zones” defined as communities (often low-wealth and/or of color) chronically exposed to lethally-high levels of pollution.
- Provide opportunities for environmental justice communities to participate fully in and benefit from the emerging global clean energy economy through job training and other economic development strategies.
- Provide redress to communities that are located near or are economically dependent on the extraction, refinement, production, or combustion of fossil fuels, aiding them with cleanup from legacy pollution related to that industry (including fossil fuel waste) and with transition to a clean energy economy.
- Support poorer nations and indigenous people globally with financial, technical, and other assistance to repair environmental harm.
Public policy principles related to combating climate change and its impacts:
Recognizing that climate change is one of the most urgent threats to creation as a whole, with disproportionate and worsening impacts on communities of color, indigenous peoples, low-wealth communities, and countries around the world least responsible for the climate crisis, and confessing that the United States and other wealthy nations have historically been and continue to be a major emitters of greenhouse gases, these are additional principles related specifically to climate policy. Policies should:
- Support the rapid reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and enhance carbon sequestration to keep global temperature rise to no more than 1.5C.
- Mitigate the harms of climate change to environmental justice communities and seek solutions that do not negatively impact those already disproportionately harmed communities.
- Provide aid to particularly vulnerable communities with adaptation to climate change that has already occurred or is now unavoidable.
Notes regarding application of these principles
- Depending upon the focus and scope of the policy being assessed, not all policies will need to fulfill all of these principles. It is, however, critically important that policies advocated for are in harmony with both the letter and the spirit of these principles where they apply.
- Knowing that we live in an imperfect world and that the UMCJM will very rarely, if ever, be the author of specific public policies, judgements will have to be prayerfully made on a case-by-case basis about when to support policies that align with most but not all of these principles.
UMCJ Faith Advocacy Webinar Series
Partners in Creation Justice Advocacy*
Interfaith or Christian Interdenominational Groups
The Evangelical Environmental Network
Interfaith Power and Light (Many states have IPL chapters.)
*This list is just a sampling of U.S. organizations. Most Christian denominations and major world religions have Earth care organizations.
Resources
October 2026 Newsletter
Learn and vote. As United Methodists, we are called to protect God’s creation. That means embracing sustainable practices ourselves and leading by example among our peers, in our communities and throughout society. In this October issue, you’ll discover ways to build...
Climate Wayfinding: An Evening with Dr. Katharine K. Wilkinson
Katharine Wilkinson (Climate Wayfinding, All We Can Save, Project Drawdown) sits down for a "fireside chat"-style webinar on Tuesday, Nov 17, 2026, 7:30-8:30pm ET with Rev. Jenny Phillips and Deaconess Sophia Agtarap from the PNW conference. Register HereWhen maps...
Climate, Peacemaking, and Joy, with Ann Jacob
Rev. Ann Jacob, a member of the World Council of Churches Central Committee, is part of the Eastern Pennsylvania Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. She served as a pastor in the Pacific Northwest Conference, and is now attending law school. She joined...