LOPP-CA 2026 Ballot Proposition Recommendations
Each election year our Policy Council meets to study the propositions that will be on the California Ballot. Using the ELCA Social Statements and Messages, we discern recommendations consistent with these statements. The current proposition recommendations are found in this document link, 2026 LOPP Ballot Recommendations. We all agree that rational minds may differ and each person should vote their conscience.
Lutheran Lobby Day 2026
Thank you to everyone who attended Lutheran Lobby Day on Wednesday, May 20th, 2026! It was a great success!
COP30: Faith, Gender, and Climate
Navigating the complicated terrain of theocracy at the UN climate conference By Regina Banks This post was originally posted in the Austin Chronicle on November 23, 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZSDl2t3rL4 The Gender Action Plan (GAP) is a key component of the Enhanced Lima Work Programme on Gender (LWPG), which aims to integrate gender equality into all aspects of climate policy and action. The GAP provides clear guidance for countries to implement gender-responsive climate policies and actions – policies that recognize that climate impacts are not gender-neutral and that women, girls, and gender-expansive people are disproportionately affected. The LWPG was established in 2014…
COP30: It’s All Fun and Games Until There’s Text in Print
The climate negotiations get complicated By Regina Banks This post was originally published with the Austin Chronicle on November 20, 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9k5-zDHH18 Before COP30 even began – and throughout most of the first week – the halls of Belém echoed with the familiar chorus of pre-negotiated talking points. Parties, from national delegations to civil society observers, dutifully recited the lines they arrived with: “We support the UNFCCC process.” “We must act in a way that every decision contributes to life on Earth.” “We must ensure climate, gender, and migration justice, and justice between generations.” “Our commitment is to chart the pathways…
Even the Water
giving thanks for that which sustains life By Regina Banks This post was first featured in fellow State Public Policy Office Texas Impact’s newsletter. I’ve been thinking a lot about water lately. I’m in Belém, Brazil for COP30, the UN’s annual climate summit, where the world has gathered in the Amazon rainforest to push for climate adaptation, renewed Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and plans to unlock $1.3 trillion in climate finance. Being that Belém is in the Amazonian region, it rains nearly every day. Sometimes inside the venue! Water drips through the temporary structures, runs down makeshift walls, and settles…
COP30 Final Reflection
What do we do when climate advocacy can end up feeling like joining in an unending hymn, not of praise for God, but of lamentation? How do we proceed in building economies of care for creation instead of extraction and environmental destruction? With the president of the United States signing us out of our responsibility to the world by dropping out of the Paris Agreement, how are we to move forward as people of faith? These are the questions left on my mind now that I virtually attended the 30th Conference of Parties (COP). Scripture states that the earth belongs…
COP 30: Week 2 Reflections
“We are not asking for favors. We are demanding our rights.” A youth on a panel from the Young Leaders in Energy and Sustainability shared this to those participating in person and online, such as myself. This sentiment rang true across the second week of COP 30 sessions I watched. Choices were made during the conference not only on agenda items but also on the kinds of economies that are being created and supported throughout the world. This year’s conference had several nicknames: the COP of truth, the COP of implementation, and the Indigenous COP, along with a focus on…
COP 30: First Week Reflection
When we act together and do things not merely for our own state, local, or national economic interest, but for the good of all of us, we are united in Christ and others in working to reduce human suffering due to climate change. Martin Luther King, Jr. also highlighted our responsibility to each other: “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” If we determine our climate action based on our current national leadership, our current national actions are not life-giving to others around the…