From the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (http://www.nrcat.org):
As you prepare your fall calendar of educational events and classes, NRCAT has you covered with a collection of ideas and materials to engage your faith community in efforts to end torture.
Take a look and let NRCAT staff know how we can help!
Shine a Light on Torture in U.S. Prisons and Jails:
Host a dramatic reading of “If the SHU Fits: Voices from Solitary Confinement” a play that powerfully weaves together excerpts of letters, blog entries, government reports, and speeches of family members and survivors of solitary, organized into a one-hour Reader’s Theatre Format.
Highlight Closing the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center:
Use NRCAT’s bulletin insert during a vigil or religious services calling for closing Guantanamo.
Host a NRCAT Film Screening: Screen one of NRCAT’s educational films and host a discussion using an accompanying study guide.
- Organize a screening of NRCAT’s documentary for faith communities about solitary confinement, Breaking Down The Box. Access to the full film, an interfaith viewing guide, four film excerpts, and a sample poster are available at www.nrcat.org/breakingdownthebox.
- Host a screening of Moral and Safe? War, Peace, Drone Warfare, and the Religious Community. Our friends at the Interfaith Network on Drone Warfare produced this 30 minute film designed to introduce faith groups to the topic of lethal drones. Download a study guide for facilitating discussion, and use NRCAT’s petition on lethal drones and fact sheet to begin carrying out advocacy on the issue.
Display a Banner or Poster: Help spread the message that Torture is Always Wrong. Contact Kristin Schol in the NRCAT office at 202-853-9012 for more information on a torture-themed banner you can proudly display in front of your congregation. Free to the first 7 callers!
Host a Book Club or a One-time Event to Study:
- Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy.
- Lisa Sharon Harper’s A Vision of Hope for a Broken World.
- Edited by George Hunsinger, Torture Is a Moral Issue: Christians, Jews, Muslims, and People of Conscience Speak Out.
- Ginger Gaines-Cirelli’s Sacred Resistance.
- Co-founders of Black Lives Matter, Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele’s When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir.
As you organize congregation-wide or social action committee actions and events this fall, be sure to share photos and updates on Twitter and Facebook. Follow us at @nrcattweets and www.facebook.com/nrcat.
Thank you for being a part of building a torture-free world!
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