Advocacy Hour returns Feb. 25 with focus on authoritarianism

LOUISVILLE — After a brief hiatus, the Presbyterian Advocacy Hour returns Wednesday with Columbia Theological Seminary scholar Dr. Wlliam Yoo as one of the featured guests. 

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The noon (Eastern Time) Feb. 25 episode is titled “Courage in the Face of Authoritarianism: Historical Roots and Modern Responses" and will be moderated by the Rev. Dr. Alonzo Johnson, coordinator of the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People.

An e-blast from the Washington-based Presbyterian Office of Public Witness explains the reason for selecting the topic, which comes amid a time of great division and sadness over U.S. immigration policy and its consequences. 

“What we are witnessing in the United States right now is chilling: the normalization of cruelty, the targeting of vulnerable communities, and the steady weakening of democratic safeguards that are meant to protect people from state abuse,” according to OPW. “As immigrant communities face ICE raids and dissent is increasingly treated as a threat, many Presbyterians are feeling grief, fear, and urgency, and asking what faithful courage looks like now.”

The episode will offer “historical perspective, theological grounding, and practical next steps for faithful public witness,” according to OPW. “Together, we will explore how tactics of control and repression have long been used within the United States and abroad, and how they continue to shape life here through militarized policing, expanded surveillance, and efforts to silence dissent. We will also reflect on what disciplined nonviolence and protest can look like in this moment, rooted in community, solidarity, and moral clarity.”

Attendees will hear from activists and organizers who will discuss faith-based organizing — sharing what it looks like on the ground — and ways communities can build resilience in times of crisis, according to OPW.

Featured speakers will include:

• The Rev. Jimmie Hawkins, advocacy director for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
• Brett Heinz, global policy coordinator for economic and climate justice for the American Friends Service Committee. 
• The Rev. Anna Kendig Flores of the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area. She is the presbytery's anti-racism institutional assessment coordinator and interim co-executive presbyter.
• Yoo, associate professor of American Religious and Cultural History at Columbia Seminary.

To register for the Advocacy Hour or get more information, go here.