Pulse Issue 15

A COLLABORATION OF ADVENTIST ACTIVISTS

JUNE 2025 ISSUE 15

THE RIGHT TO PRACTICE A FAITH NOT GLOOMY ACTIVISTS GEORGE FLOYD SQUARE– FIVE YEARS AFTER DEFENDING A HEALTHY CONSTITUTION POWER IN CREATIVE PROTEST

Action Creates Hope

CONTENTS 3 THE PULSE

18 THE PULSE

6 REVIEW

21

7 INSPIRE

22

8 SPECIAL MUSIC

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12 INSPIRATION COLLECTIVE

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13 FEATURE

27 GO TO HEALTH

defending a healthy constitution

the power of creative protest

permission slip /\ path of enlightenment

the right to practice a faith

social justice podcast /\ just liberty

george floyd square—five years after

16 REVIEW imagine life

transferring wealth upward

JUSTSMILE

not gloomy activists

WHO WE ARE

sponsors and designer, plus

INTERACT

he lies, they lie

STAY IN THE KNOW jlc social media with recent additions

refugees mark 50 years of welcome

30 GRATITUDE

for your generous giving

Pulse / JustLove Collective / June 2025 / Issue 15

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The Pulse

DEFENDING A HEALTHY CONSTITUTION Today NPR and three Colorado public radio stations sued the Trump administration over Trump’s executive order that seeks to impound congressionally appropriated funds for NPR and PBS. The executive order said the public media stations do not present “a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens.” NPR’s David Folkenflik reported White House spokesperson Harrison Fields’s statement today that public media supports “a particular party on the taxpayers’ dime,” and that Trump and his allies have called it “left-wing propaganda.”

The lawsuit calls Trump’s executive order and attempt to withhold funding Congress has already approved “textbook retaliation.” “[W]e are not choosing to do this out of politics,” NPR chief executive officer Katherine Maher told NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly. “We are choosing to do this as a matter of necessity and principle. All of our rights that we enjoy in this democracy flow from the First Amendment: freedom of speech, association, freedom of the press. When we see those rights infringed upon, we have an obligation to challenge them.”

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis today denied the administration’s motion for a 30-day

The Pulse

extension of the deadline for it to answer the complaint in the lawsuit over the rendition of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man sent to El Salvador through what the administration said was “administrative error.”

“We are choosing to do this as a matter of necessity and principle.”

Despite five hearings on the case, the administration’s lawyers didn’t indicate they needed any more time, but today—the day their answer was due—they suddenly asked for 30 more days. Xinis wrote that they “expended no effort in demonstrating good cause. They vaguely complain, in two sentences, to expending ‘significant resources’ engaging in expedited discovery. But these self-described burdens are of their own making. The Court ordered expedited discovery because of [the administration’s] refusal to follow the orders of this court as affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the United States Supreme Court.”

Trump is well-known for using procedural delays to stop the courts from administering justice, and it is notable that administration

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lawyers have generally not been arguing that they will win cases on the merits. Instead, they are making procedural arguments.

Meanwhile, stringing things out means making time for situations to change on the ground, reducing the effect of court decisions.

Brian Barrett of Wired reported today that while Musk claims to have stepped back from the Department of Government Efficiency, his lieutenants are still spread throughout the government, mining Americans’ data. Meanwhile, Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought will push to make DOGE cuts to government permanent in a dramatic reworking of the nation’s social contract. “Removing DOGE at this point would be like trying to remove a drop of food coloring from a glass of water,” Barrett writes.

Familiar script Political scientist Bonica notes that there is a script for rising authoritarians. When the courts rule against the leader, the leader and his loyalists attack judges as biased and dangerous, just as Trump and his cronies have been doing.

The leader also works to delegitimize the judicial system, and that, too, we are seeing as Trump reverses the concepts of not guilty and guilty. On the one hand, the administration is fighting to get rid of the constitutional right of all persons to due process, rendering people who have not been charged with crimes to prisons in third countries. On the other, Trump and his loyalists at the Department of Justice are pardoning individuals who have been convicted of crimes.

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supporter whom a jury convicted of conspiracy, mail and wire fraud, and seven counts of bribery.

Jared Gans of The Hill explained that Jenkins accepted more than $70,000 in bribes to appoint auxiliary deputy sheriffs, “giving them badges and credentials despite them not being trained or vetted and not offering services to the sheriff’s office.” Jenkins had announced he would “deputize thousands of our law-abiding citizens to protect their constitutional right to own firearms,” if the legislature passed “further unnecessary gun restrictions.” Jenkins was sentenced to ten years in prison.

“Removing DOGE at this point would be like trying to remove a drop of food coloring from a glass of water.”

Although Jenkins was found guilty by a jury of his peers, just as the U.S. justice system calls for, Trump insisted that Jenkins and his wife and their family “have been dragged through HELL by a Corrupt and Weaponized Biden D[epartment] O[f] J[ustice].” Jenkins, Trump wrote on social media, “is a wonderful person, who was persecuted by the Radical Left ‘monsters,’ and ‘left for dead.’ This is why I, as President of the United States, see fit to end his unfair sentence, and grant Sheriff Jenkins a FULL and Unconditional Pardon. He will NOT be going to jail tomorrow, but instead will have a wonderful and productive life.”

Today Trump gave a presidential pardon to

The authoritarian leader works to delegitimize the judicial system.

Paul Walczak, a former nursing home executive who pleaded guilty to tax crimes in 2024. The pardon arrived after Walczak’s mother donated at least $1 million to Trump. The pardon spares Walczak from 18 months in prison and $4.4 million in restitution. Also today, Trump

On Monday [May 26], Trump issued a presidential pardon to former Culpeper County, Virginia, sheriff Scott Jenkins, a longtime Trump

announced plans to pardon reality TV stars Julie and Todd Chrisley, who were sentenced to 7 and 12 years in prison for conspiracy to defraud

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banks of $36 million and tax evasion. Their daughter spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention.

Bonica notes that delegitimizing the judicial system creates a permission structure for threats against judges. That, too, we are seeing.

Bonica goes on to illustrate how this pattern of authoritarian attacks on the judiciary looks the same across nations. In 2009, following a ruling that he was not immune from prosecution for fraud, tax evasion, and bribery, Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi railed about “communist prosecutors and communist judges.” In 2016, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Türkiye rejected the authority of his country’s highest court and purged more than 4,000 judges. Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe pushed judges to stop protests, and the judiciary collapsed. In the Philippines in 2018, Rodrigo Duterte called the chief justice defending judicial independence an “enemy,”

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and she was removed. In Brazil in 2021, Jair Bolsonaro threatened violence against the judges who were investigating him for corruption.

But, Bonica notes, something different happened in Israel in 2023. When Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition tried to destroy judicial independence, people from all parts of society took to the streets. A broad, nonpartisan group came together to defend democracy and resist authoritarianism.

“Every authoritarian who successfully destroyed judicial independence did so because civil society failed to unite in time,” Bonica writes. “The key difference? Whether people mobilized.”

—Heather Cox Richardson is a historian who writes the daily “Letters from an American.”

This excerpt is from her post on May 27, 2025.

Internationally, Elon Musk’s destruction of the United States Agency for International Development, slashing about 80% of its grants, is killing about 103 people an hour, most of them children. The total so far is about 300,000 people, according to Boston University infectious disease mathematical modeller Dr. Brooke Nichols. Ryan Cooper of The American Prospect reported today that about 1,500 babies a day are born HIV-positive because Musk’s cuts stopped their mothers’ medication.

—Heather Cox Richardson post on May 30, 2025

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Review

THE POWER OF CREATIVE PROTEST Pray the Devil Back to Hell (72 min.)

- 2008 Documentary Rotten Tomatoes 100% positive Director Gini Riticker

It happened in recent memory, yet relatively few people are aware of this astounding protest movement. In 2003, a coalition of courageous women stopped a brutal 14-year string of civil wars in Liberia that had decimated thousands of their neighbors and families. The First Liberian Civil War (1989-1997) killed an estimated 200,000 people. The Second Liberian Civil War (1999-2003) killed more than 50,000 and displaced millions.

Pray the Devil Back to Hell documents how a coalition of Christian and Muslim women persevere through nonviolent tactics to achieve peaceful resolution. The conditions of the civil war are dire. Along with feral men, young, marauding boys are handed rapid-fire guns and told to kill as many as they can. They slaughter without thought and without mercy. Year after year, atrocities mount, leaving behind communities that are blood-drenched and grieving.

Determined Muslim and Christian women unite to demand: “Enough!” Dressed in white to symbolize their unity and devotion, thousands of women stage silent, spiritual protests that eventually include a sex strike. Their men—the warring husbands—will get no sex from these women until the fighting stops and peace talks continue.

Though it’s not mentioned in the film, this approach mirrors an ancient Greek comedy written in 411 BC by Aristophanes, entitled Lysistrata (literally “army disbander”). The protagonist, a woman named Lysistrata,

persuades women to find a solution to the Peloponnesian War—which lasted 30 years— between the Greek city-states of Athens and Sparta. The women in the play initiate a sex strike to end the war.

Women stage silent, spiritual protests that eventually include a sex strike.

In Liberia, the peace talks falter, so after blocking the warring leaders inside a building, the women threaten to remove their clothing unless the men resume the talks. When a few men attempt to flee via windows, the men are hauled back inside. The protest is successful and leads to the first modern elected female head of state in Africa. Soon, other African countries elect women to political positions.

Pray the Devil Back to Hell was previously available on Amazon Prime and streaming but now appears difficult to access except through DVD. If you can see it, it’s a wonderful slice of history and a marvelous film, celebrating the capacity of ordinary people to effect meaningful change.

—Chris Blake

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InSpire

Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place. –Zora Neale Hurston

ENTERPRISE It is not the business of the poet to save men’s souls, but to make them worth saving.

—James Elroy Flecker

SOWING DOUBT

A bruised ego leads to more doubt than a dearth of evidence.

—H. Ward Hill

MAXIMUM RESPECT No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends.

—Jesus, in John 15:15

IN RETROSPECT We realize the importance of our voices only when they are silenced.

—Malala Yousafzai

EXPERIENCE IT At the service tonight, the sermon topic will be, “What is hell?” Come early and listen to our choir practice.

—Church bulletin announcement

PERMISSION SLIP

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

—Eleanor Roosevelt

PATH OF ENLIGHTENMENT I’m going to college. I don’t care if it ruins my career.

I’d rather be smart than a movie star.

—Natalie Portman

Special Music

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MAGA CHRISTIANS HAVE A RIGHT TO PRACTICE THEIR FAITH — BUT SO DO I

One of the more alarming aspects of the Trump administration is the way it seeks to instrumentalize Christianity — both as a weapon against its political opponents and to reward its political supporters.

Perhaps President Donald Trump’s most prominent example of this in his second term is through his February executive order on “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias,” which created a task force that held its inaugural meeting last month. The task force’s initial meeting catalogued incidents from the Biden administration that supposedly constituted federal anti-Christian bias. After the meeting, Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins sent a department-wide email asking employees to “submit any instance of anti-Christian discrimination” within the VA, citing “any retaliatory actions taken in response to religious holiday observances” and “any observations of mistreatment for not participating in events or activities inconsistent with Christian views” as examples.

Specific Biden-era examples cited in the executive order and the task force’s meeting range from the specific to the symbolic. For example, Trump’s executive order accuses the Biden administration of “targeting peaceful Christians” by charging some anti-abortion protestors for violating the 1994 federal law that

prohibits “violent, threatening, damaging, and obstructive conduct intended to injure, intimidate, or interfere with the right to seek, obtain, or provide reproductive health services.”

The executive order also faults Biden for observing the Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31, 2024 — a date that happened to coincide with Easter Sunday. Of course, Transgender Day of Visibility has been observed on March 31 every year since 2009, up to and including all four years of Biden’s presidency. But that does not seem to figure into the Trump administration’s critique.

Let’s point out the hypocrisy of setting up a task force around anti-Christian bias while being silent about bias against Jewish and Muslim Americans.

Liberty University’s provost, Scott Hicks, spoke at the task force’s kickoff meeting, citing his school’s $14 million fine for sexual assaultrelated campus safety violations as evidence of disparate treatment. Hicks didn’t contest the actual safety violations. He simply argued that the high fines were evidence of anti-Christian bias.

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I agree that our Constitution requires that our government not show privilege to any religious organization or group. Past administrations, both Republican and Democratic, have created multifaith advisory councils to strengthen the partnership between the federal government and faith-based organizations that can better serve communities and advance the common good.

This is a worthwhile goal that is altogether different than the misguided focus of Trump’s task force.

Christianity must stop being abused as an ideological instrument for power.

Discrepancies Trump’s supposed zeal for protecting Christians’ freedom of religion seems limited to supporting the political preferences of his voters.

When Rev. William Barber II and others prayed in the Capitol Rotunda a few weeks ago to protest planned cuts in the federal budget that would disproportionately harm people experiencing poverty and hunger, Capitol Police arrested them for “crowding, obstructing, and incommoding,” as demonstrations in congressional buildings are prohibited by law. The fact that their protest was motivated by sincere Christian faith conviction did not protect them.

I find it unlikely that Trump will be in any hurry to pardon Rev. Barber the way he pardoned those prosecuted for blockading abortion clinics.

Likewise, Trump is unlikely to extend these privileges to Christian organizations such as Church World Service and World Relief, who have worked with the government for decades to resettle refugees, motivated by the belief that the Bible commands us to “welcome the stranger.” Those organizations and others have had their refugee resettlement grants abruptly terminated, requiring them to lay off staff and stop much of their work.

Now, in criticizing the hypocrisy and cruelty

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of the current administration, it’s important to avoid falling into some of the same patterns we’re pointing out. I’m not saying Trump’s actions constitute anti-Christian bias, per se. Perhaps some of them were, on paper, defensible. But if the Trump administration were consistently applying its stated criteria for what constitutes anti-Christian bias, examples like these might reasonably apply. The discrepancy gives the game away, revealing an administration whose true commitment is to reward its supporters and punish its opponents.

In this case, the administration is rewarding and prioritizing Christians whose main characteristic is not a clear set of theological beliefs, but partisan beliefs favored by the administration. This is enabled and compounded by a posture of victimization that has become a core feature of the right-wing Christian movement, a view that is almost impossible to reconcile with the reality that white Christians are firmly in the majority and often enjoy a privileged American position.

I find it unlikely that Trump will be in any hurry to pardon Rev. Barber.

Even worse, recent research from social scientists suggests that White Christian claims about anti-Christian bias in the United States are likely to be associated with the idea of anti-White bias. The study’s authors conclude that their research suggests that “expressing concern for anti-Christian bias can be interpreted as signaling allegiance to White people … rallying around antiChristian bias can serve as a ‘dog whistle’ signaling support for people concerned about changes in America’s racial makeup, as well.”

It is also essential to point out the hypocrisy of setting up a task force around anti-Christian bias while being silent about religious communities who have faced growing and alarming degrees of real bias and violence, namely Jewish and Muslim Americans.

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I joined a diverse cross section of Christian leaders in denouncing this hypocrisy in a sign on letter that reads: We reject the proposition that there is widespread persecution of Christians in the United States. … Marshalling the resources of the federal government for a nonexistent threat is a gross misuse of taxpayer resources, especially when there has been a rise in not just bias but hate-based violence against Jewish, Muslim, and other religious communities. We fear that the ‘antiChristian Bias Task Force’ will be weaponized to privilege one tradition within Christianity over others, ironically creating anti-Christian bias even as it claims to combat it. We are also aware of how claims of “anti-Christian bias” are shown to provide cover for White supremacy.

The First Amendment’s free exercise clause protects citizens’ right to practice their religion as they please. But this right has limitations.

Courts have established that religious practice cannot violate “public morals” or a “compelling” government interest. For example, in 1944, the Supreme Court “held that a state could force the inoculation of children whose parents would not allow such action for religious reasons … the state had an overriding interest in protecting public health and safety.”

Pluralism and freedom To go back to some of the examples above, the courts have upheld laws that say that people should be allowed to procure reproductive health services without being physically blocked by protestors, even if the protestors are motivated by their faith. And religious protestors who are compelled to bring their witness to the Capitol Rotunda equally know that the government can arrest them for doing so. The fundamental ethical premise is that my freedoms end where they actively infringe on someone else’s rights.

The Bible does not teach that we need not fear running afoul of earthly laws as we seek to follow Jesus — quite the opposite! In 2 Timothy, Paul tells us that “everyone who wants to live a

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godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (3:12). Jesus himself tells us, “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:10).

This is not an argument justifying the persecution of Christians. Instead, it is to clarify that Christians who look to the government to shield their religious practice or privilege them above other faiths are pursuing an ideological agenda, not a biblically grounded one.

“We reject the proposition that there is widespread persecution of Christians in the United States.”

The anti-Christian bias task force opens a danger reminiscent of Christians under the rule of Emperor Constantine, who made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire after he converted, effectively coopting and hijacking the Christian movement. Whenever faith becomes synonymous with empire it loses its prophetic zeal and faithfulness. The state should never oversee the separation of the sheep from the goats, otherwise it engages in idolatry. Why would we trust the government to ascertain who constitutes a true or real Christian, particularly given the vast differences in belief, tradition, and interpretation across the Christian faith? The current administration seemingly equates Christians with the faith of Rev. Paula White and Rev. Robert Jeffress. But where does that then leave the authentic faith of Bishop Mariann Budde and Bishop William Barber?

The good news is recent public polling shows an overwhelming majority of Christians, including two out of every three White evangelicals, do not support “the establishment of a federal task force that focuses exclusively on discrimination against Christians rather than discrimination against all religions.” While this data is encouraging, it also speaks to the need for those of us in the often quiet majority to become much louder about our concerns and commitment to both religious

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pluralism and freedom.

Together, we must champion a government that protects the rights of all people to practice their faith freely, and that includes the right not to subscribe to any faith at all. I may strongly disagree with the beliefs of many conservative Christians who support Trump, but I will defend their right to exercise their faith just like everyone else, as long as they don’t unduly infringe on the rights of others. We should especially object to the ways that the Trump administration is using the pretense of defending religious freedom to consolidate its power and reward its supporters while punishing its enemies.

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Christianity must stop being abused as an ideological instrument for power. Instead, we must serve as salt and light, protecting religious liberty for all and building a more just and inclusive democracy that works for everyone, whatever their faith may be.

Number of companies that accounted for half of global carbon-dioxide emissions: 36 Percentage of millennial and Gen Z investors who viewed environmentally motivated investing as extremely important in 2022: 36 In 2024: 11 Portion of Republicans who say that Americans should have the right to protest: 3/4 Who say that Americans should have the right to protest Israel’s war on Gaza: 2/5

—Harper’s Index, June 2025

—Adam Russell Taylor is president of Sojourners and author of A More Perfect Union: A New Vision for Building the Beloved Community. This article is condensed from the Sojourners online post of May 15, 2005.

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INSPIRATION COLLECTIVE Podcasts we just love

A House on Fire: This Adventist Peace Fellowship podcast series is based on the excellent book on race and racism

Red Letter Christian Podcast: Christian commentary on the way of Jesus in the world today

Adventist Voices: Weekly podcast and companion to Spectrum designed to foster community through conversation

Adventist Pilgrimage: A lively monthly podcast focusing on the academic side of Adventist history

The Social Jesus Podcast talks about the intersection of Jesus, faith, and social justice today

Just Liberty: A fresh, balanced take on religious liberty—where justice and liberty meet

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Feature

GEORGE FLOYD SQUARE —FIVE YEARS AFTER We’re sitting at a large table at the coffee shop Bichota, next to a picture window. Across the street, we can see the memorial site where pilgrims come from all over the world to pay their respects and leave their tributes— mementos, notes, and handmade art—at the exact spot where Floyd lay pinned to the pavement for nine minutes and 29 seconds while the officer choked the life out of him as bystanders watched in horror. Five years later, the communal trauma is still palpable in the area that’s now called George Floyd Memorial Square.

But there are also signs of resistance everywhere, artifacts that tell a story of people coming together after violence to lament and to protest, a community rebuilding itself through art, activism, and mutual aid.

Nowhere is that resistance more apparent than among the group of neighbors who have gathered in the gas station lot at 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. each day for the past five years. They meet to organize, debrief, strategize, and share stories.

When it’s cold they build a fire; when it’s very cold they might move into Bichota. At every meeting, someone takes a picture and posts it on social media, as if to say, Look: we’re still here.

We will be here until justice has been achieved.

Their goal is to rebuild a neighborhood and take down White supremacy.

George Floyd Memorial Square consists of

the four square blocks surrounding the memorial site. A large wooden sculpture of the Black power fist stands in the middle of each of the four intersections leading into the Square. They were modeled after a larger fist that stands in the central intersection, cast in iron by sculptor Jordan Powell-Karis and installed by activists during the night. The memorial area, on the pavement outside the front door of what was Cup Foods in 2020—it’s since been renamed Unity Foods—is cordoned off by ropes and concrete barricades. In the summer, planters filled with flowers form a border around the memorial. Over the winter, they’re stored in a greenhouse just north of the memorial site.

There’s a fire arts studio next to the store that donates electricity to the greenhouse.

The community is rebuilding itself through art, activism, and mutual aid.

Across the street, at the former gas station, what was once a Speedway sign now says People’s Way. The parking lot hosts the activists’ gathering space, the People’s Closet filled with free clothing, a community lending library,

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informational boards, and a marquee sign proclaiming “people over property.”

The boarded-up building is painted with a mural honoring neighbors who died too soon.

Large plywood boards leaning against the building display the 24 demands compiled by local residents in 2020 and presented to the city.

Each of these elements embodies a story.

The fist sculptures mark a neighborhood that was quickly beset by so many mourners and protesters that they had to put up barricades.

For a year, only local vehicle traffic was allowed through. No tourists, no transit, no police. And there were no riots, fires, or arrests. Volunteer guards monitored the barricades day and night to keep the neighborhood safe. Other neighbors volunteered to tend the spaces where mourners left gifts. They watered the flowers and swept the sidewalks. When a handmade sign got soggy from the snow, the caretakers would gently remove it and send it off-site for preservation by volunteers.

“This is where our life together began,” she says, pointing to the People’s Way.

The People’s Way tells of free meals, antistate fairs, musical celebrations, rallies, homegoing services, and shared resources. It tells the story of a volunteer ambulance service with the phone number 612-M*A*S*H* (Minneapolis All Shall Heal) and of a medical tent that became a bus that became a shed that became a clinic. It tells of an autonomous protest zone that for a whole year—until the city forcibly removed the barricades—showed the nation what it looks like when community members commit to taking care of one another.

He went by “Perry” It’s 21 degrees above zero, and I’m in the square for a second day. I’m at Bichota to meet Angela Harrelson, George Floyd’s aunt. When she

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arrives and I stand to greet her, we both notice more than a dozen people gathered around a cake at the large table. Before we sit down, Harrelson introduces me to Raycurt Lemuel, who is holding a violin. He’s the cofounder of Brass Solidarity, an ensemble that plays at the People’s Way every Monday no matter the weather. He explains to us that the group he is with is holding a wedding reception for two activists. They’d gotten married less than two hours earlier, during the morning meeting. Now the brides are on their way back from filing the legal papers.

He was a gentle man who loved his family and lost his job because of COVID.

Harrelson and I sit down to talk about her nephew. He went by Perry, his middle name, and I ask if I may call him that even though I never met him. “Of course you should call him Perry,” she says, smiling and reaching across the table to grasp my hand. “That’s who he was. George was his father.” She tells me that when Perry was a child, he would come watch her cheerleading practices. He had dreams of becoming a professional athlete. He loved his mother. He never had a close relationship with his dad, who was a professional musician. Like his dad, Perry struggled with addiction as an adult. Harrelson is a mental health nurse, so she knows a lot about what addiction can do to a person. But even amid that struggle, she says, Perry was always kindhearted. He took his wheelchair-bound aunt to church and helped elderly people up and down the stairs. He had a gentle spirit.

I get the sense that Harrelson is a bit of a local celebrity. The activists milling around all call her Miss Angela or Aunt Angela and treat her with reverence. A young woman wearing a bright yellow hat bounces over to the table, hugs Harrelson, and sits next to me. She introduces herself as “Jenny with the Freckles” and says she runs the People’s Closet. She tells us she

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brought the veil for the wedding, no easy task with just an hour’s notice. Another activist comes over and hands us a phone displaying a picture of the brides—Ashe and C, both of them glowing.

Ray plays wedding music on his violin. The brides arrive, and a few minutes later Ashe comes over to offer us cake. It’s a marble cake, its thick white frosting liberally dotted with rainbow-colored sprinkles. I ask why they chose this place to get married. “This is where our life together began,” she says, pointing to the People’s Way.

“Of course you should call him Perry,” she says, smiling.

Harrelson and I walk across the street to the memorial. She shows me the exact spot where Perry was pinned to the ground, and we each pay our respects in silence. There are thousands of items that people brought—notes, drawings, candles, stuffed animals, a Bible—all covered with a thin layer of snow. Harrelson lives in a different part of Minneapolis, but she comes to the memorial most weekends so she can talk to visitors and take photographs of the artifacts they leave behind. She posts these pictures on Facebook, creating something like a virtual memorial space for those who are unable to visit the square in person.

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A larger story In her book Lift Your Voice, Harrelson writes that even in Perry’s last moments, he saw the humanity of the officer whose knee was on his neck; that’s why Perry kept pleading with him.

She tells me that there are body cam videos from the time just before the fatal nine minutes and 21 seconds. In one of them, Perry is handcuffed and pleading, “Why are you doing this to a man of God?” That’s important to her, that he identified himself as a man of God just before he died. He used to read his Bible every day, she tells me. Proverbs was his favorite book. His best friend now has his Bible and his shoes.

No tourists, no transit, no police. And there were no riots, fires, or arrests.

George Floyd is a symbol, an icon, a movement, a mirror that shows us our failures. His name represents all of the unnamed victims of police brutality. His story stands in for a larger story about the values this country is built on. But he was also a person—he was Perry. It’s Perry whose face was pressed into the pavement by a police officer’s knee while two others held him down. He was a gentle man who loved his family and lost his job because of COVID and made rap videos and took elderly relatives to church and struggled with drugs and read his Bible every day. . . .

Back at the square, I asked Harrelson what she thought Perry would say if he could see the movement for justice that has formed there. “He was always saying, ‘ride on,’” she replied. “I think that comes from growing up in poverty. Even as a kid, when we had no running water and he had to use an outhouse, he took it all in stride.” She paused and chuckled. If Perry could see us now, she said, he’d probably tell us, “Ride on, ride on.”

—Elizabeth Palmer, condensed from the May 2025 issue of Christian Century.

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ReView

IMAGINE LIFE When my kids grow up, I hope that their best memories of childhood summers will be of sitting on the front step with me in the evenings, screens strictly forbidden, staring at the tops of the trees, and waiting for the bats to start dancing in the air. It’s easy to tell the difference between a bird and a bat; birds swoop gracefully from one branch to another and have a clear A to B mission. Bats go from A to Q to T to O to H to X to J and, eventually, to M. Their outline looking exactly like the Batman logo doesn’t hurt, either. Watching the bats is when we have some of our best conversations. We stare intently at the near-sky, review our days to each other, interrupting each other only to say, “There’s a bat!” “Another bat!” “Oooh, a close one!” “Hello, you cute little sky hamster!”

Every chapter reads like a conversation with a friend.

For example: “The Sabbath day is a weekly celebration not only of Creation but of liberation.”

“Apathy is not a Christian virtue.”

“You are more important than you may think . . . you and your story matter.”

“God is not buffaloed, beguiled, or bamboozled.”

“Union makes better lovers.”

“Give the mall to Jesus.”

“Beliefs must change to stay alive.

Otherwise they appear as lively as molasses in the freezer.”

All profits from this book benefit our JustLove Collective.

DISCLAIMER: Do not underline your ahas or rememberables if you check Chris’s book from

Chris Blake’s latest book, Imagine Life, reminds me of watching the bats on a warm summer night. Every chapter reads like a conversation with a friend, and suddenly, “Oooh, there’s one!” as I underline yet another nugget of wisdom or Blake-ism that I want to tuck away for keeps. “Woah, did you see that one?”

the library. Buy your own copy of Imagine Life, as all profits from this book benefit our JustLove Collective. I recommend buying one copy for underlining, another for shelf candy, and three more to keep in your handbag to give as gifts.

This book is also available as an audiobook, read by the author.

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Imagine Life is organized into ten broad sections that do not necessarily need to be read in order. Between the covers are stories, passages of superb poetry, reviews of films you will add to your watchlist, articles, and even a couple sermons. Readers who attended the 2024 JustLove Summit will find familiar highlights from the event. Blueprints for your own Peace Week are in the Imagine Peace section, and I recommend observing Peace Week, whether you are employed by an Adventist school or not.

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Whether your summer travels take you across the country or all the way to your home’s front step, bring along a copy of Imagine Life.

Pick it up, read, ponder, look up at the sky (“There’s one!”), and imagine what God wants you to do next.

—Marcia Nordmeyer

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The Pulse

THE LARGEST UPWARD TRANSFER OF WEALTH IN AMERICAN HISTORY House Republicans worked through the night to advance a massive piece of legislation that might, if enacted, carry out the largest upward transfer of wealth in American history.

That is not a side effect of the legislation, but its central purpose. The “big, beautiful bill” would pair huge cuts to food assistance and health insurance for low-income Americans with even larger tax cuts for affluent ones.

Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, warned that the bill’s passage, by a 215–214 margin, would mark the moment the Republicans ensured the loss of their majority in the midterm elections. That may be so. But the Republicans have not pursued this bill for political reasons. They are employing a majority that they suspect is temporary to enact deep changes to the social compact.

The minority party always complains that the majority is “jamming through” major legislation, however deliberate the process may be. (During the year-long debate over the Affordable Care Act, Republicans farcically bemoaned the “rushed” process that consumed months of public hearings.) In this case, however, the indictment is undeniable. The

House cemented the bill’s majority support with a series of last-minute changes whose effects have not been digested. The Congressional Budget Office has not even had time to calculate how many millions of Americans would lose health insurance, nor by how many trillions of dollars the deficit would increase.

They must smash up the old order as quickly as possible before the country recognizes what is happening.

The heedlessness of the process is an indication of its underlying fanaticism. The members of the Republican majority are behaving not like traditional conservatives but like revolutionaries who, having seized power, believe they must smash up the old order as quickly as possible before the country recognizes what is happening.

House Republicans are fully aware of the

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political and economic risks of this endeavor.

Cutting taxes for the affluent is unpopular, and cutting Medicaid is even more so. That is why, instead of proudly proclaiming what the bill will accomplish, they are pretending it will do neither. House Republicans spent months warning of the political dangers of cutting Medicaid, a program that many of their own constituents rely on. The party’s response is to fall back on wordplay, pretending that their scheme of imposing complex work requirements, which are designed to cull eligible recipients who cannot navigate the paperwork burden, will not throw people off the program— when that is precisely the effect they are counting on to produce the necessary savings.

More fallout The less predictable dangers of their plan are macroeconomic. The bill spikes the deficit, largely because it devotes more money to lining the pockets of lawyers and CEOs than it saves by immiserating fast-food employees and rideshare drivers. Massive deficit spending is not always bad, and in some circumstances (emergencies, or recessions) it can be smart and responsible. In the middle of an economic expansion, with a large structural deficit already built into the budget, it is deeply irresponsible.

What they believe is that the government takes too much from the rich, and gives too much to the poor.

In recent years, deficit spending has been a political free ride. With interest rates high and rising, the situation has changed. Higher deficits oblige Washington to borrow more money, which can force it to pay investors higher interest rates to take on its debt, which in turn increases the deficit even more, as interest payments (now approaching $1 trillion a year) swell. The market could absorb a new equilibrium with a higher deficit, but that resolution is hardly assured. The

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compounding effect of higher debt leading to higher interest rates leading to higher debt can spin out of control.

During the year-long debate over the Affordable Care Act, Republicans farcically bemoaned the “rushed” process.

House Republicans have made clear they are aware of both the political and the economic dangers of their plan, because in the recent past, they have repeatedly warned about both. Their willingness to take them on is a measure of their profound commitment.

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And while the content of their beliefs can be questioned, the seriousness of their purpose cannot. Congressional Republicans are willing to endanger their hold on power to enact policy changes they believe in. And what they believe— what has been the party’s core moral foundation for decades—is that the government takes too much from the rich, and gives too much to the poor.

—Jonathan Chait, The Atlantic, May 22, 2025

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicts that 8.6 million low-income Americans will lose their health insurance, other analysis says up to 15 million. And 3.2 million would lose their food aid, again with others saying even more. That is as direct as it gets to violating the teachings of Jesus who, in the 25th chapter of Matthew’s gospel, specifically teaches his followers to care for the sick and feed the hungry and that how we treat these and others he called “the least of these” is how we literally treat him.

And for what? This historic bill directly opposes the teachings of Jesus– to give more money to the rich through massive tax cuts, paid for, not by shared sacrifice, but by the sacrifice of the poor. To call this a complete reversal of the values of Jesus, is not to engage in political rhetoric but to just state the facts.

—Harper’s Index, June 2025

—Jim Wallis, “God’s Politics,” May 29, 2025

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JustSmile

NOT GLOOMY ACTIVISTS Those summoned to do justice are to affirm the giftedness of life even as they protest and seek to overturn the tragic, destructive, and often horrific dimensions of injustice. Art, music, children, flower gardens, parties, romantic love, fishing, sports, sunrises–the world is intended to be a veritable playground. Who needs or wants dour activist gloom?

—Dennis A. Jacobsen

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WHO WE ARE Pulse is the monthly digital magazine of JustLove Collective.

This month’s issue is edited by Chris Blake and sponsored by Karah and Tre Thompson. (Thank you.)

Designed by Jeffers Media.

Unless indicated otherwise all Bible references are from the New Revised Standard Version.

CHRIS BLAKE Is professor emeritus at Union Adventist University where he taught English and communication courses, including Conflict and Peacemaking along with Critiquing Film. He has also served as editor of Insight magazine, author of many books and articles, and pastor of two small churches.

STEPHEN CHAVEZ Is a writer and editor, retired after a career in pastoral ministry and as an assistant editor of Adventist Review.

MARCIA NORDMEYER Is a circulation/reference associate at Union Adventist University's library in Lincoln, Nebraska.

She is happily married to Jeremy. Their two children are encouraged to read banned books.

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InterAct

HE LIES, THEY LIE

The truth is so foreign to this administration it has to have its own passport.

“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.” With those words, vice presidential candidate J. D. Vance admitted that reports of Haitian immigrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, was false, a lie invented to stoke contempt for non-white residents; a lie repeated by candidate Donald Trump during his campaign debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.

The current presidential administration is notorious for its outrageous lies, statements easily factchecked. Aside from the pathological nature of these public statements is the implication that lies—if repeated often enough—gain traction with a public that already distrusts the news media, thanks to being branded by the president as “fake news” and the “enemy of the people.” They also demonstrate a lack of respect for citizens who look to their leaders for responsible leadership.

Match the following false statements with the people who spoke them in a public attempt to mislead and deceive their audience.

1. _____ “They can’t even speak English. They don’t even know what country they’re in, practically.”

2. _____ “Waste, fraud, and abuse run rampant in this agency and American taxpayers should not have to fund it.”

3. _____ [Trump] “recognizes a lot of families during this campaign came to him and told him tragic stories of losing loved ones because of illegal immigrants that came in that were rapists or murderers or terrorists that are dangerous to this country. And he is focused on making their communities more safe.”

4. _____ “Americans want you to be president because of your agenda. And the courts are ruling that you have the authority to determine how the money of this country will be spent. That’s what the American citizens wanted and that’s what they’re getting.”

5. _____ “The right of ‘due process’ is to protect citizens from their government, not to protect foreign trespassers from removal. Due process guarantees the rights of a criminal defendant facing prosecution, not an illegal alien facing deportation.”

6. _____ “Covid-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”

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7. _____ “USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die.”

8. _____ “Our great new CFO went through the ’24 and ’25 budgets of the Kennedy Center [for the Performing Arts] and found $26 million in phantom revenue, fake revenue. It’s criminal. We’re going to refer this to the U.S. attorney’s office.”

9. _____ “This bill [the 2026 Federal Budget] does not add to the deficit. In fact, according to the Council of Economic Advisers, this bill will save $1.6 trillion, and the president absolutely understands and hears the concerns of fiscal conservatives and of Americans who want to get our fiscal house in order.”

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11. _____ “I stand by the fact I think we did the right thing here. We removed a public safety threat, a national security threat, a violent gang member from the United States.”

12. _____ “In the case of El Salvador, absolutely, absolutely, we deported gang members, gang members, including the one you had a margarita with. And that guy [Kilmar Abrego Garcia] is a human trafficker, and that guy is a gang banger.”

13. _____ [The] “Women, Peace, and Security” program at the Defense Department was “a UNITED NATIONS program pushed by feminists and left-wing activists. Politicians fawn over it; troops HATE it.”

10. _____ “We’ve got to start to protect ourselves, and we’ve got to stop having all the countries of the world ripping us off. We have a $1.2 trillion trade deficit, and the rest of the world has a surplus with us. They’re earning our money. They’re taking our money, and Donald Trump has seen this, and he’s going to stop it.”

A. Pam Bondi, U.S. Attorney General B. Richard Grenell, acting president of Kennedy Center C. Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense D. Tom Homan, Border Czar E. Robert F. Kennedy, Secretary of Health and Human Services F. Kari Lake, special advisor for the U.S. Agency of Global Media G. Karoline Leavitt, White House Press Secretary H. Howard Lutnick, Secretary of Commerce I. Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff J. Elon Musk, Director of the Department of Government Efficiency K. Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security L. Marco Rubio, U.S. Secretary of State M. Donald Trump, President

KEY: 1-M 2-F 3-A 4-K 5-I 6-E 7-J 8-B 9-G 10-H 11-D 12- L 13-C —Stephen Chavez

Pulse / JustLove Collective / June 2025 / Issue 15

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Discover JustLove Notes—a twice-monthly Substack offering illuminating the vibrant intersection of faith, justice, and love. Each issue features curated book recommendations, evocative music, and thought-provoking articles designed to inspire your spirit and empower meaningful change. Join us on this journey of discovery and transformation.

JLC BOOK CIRCLE Join us for a quarterly, live book circle hosted by the JustLove Collective, to explore transformative ideas. Our inaugural session read Troubling the Water by Ben McBride, where we unpacked themes of justice, faith, and renewal. Each session invites us to reimagine faith as a force for social transformation.

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Go to Health

VIETNAMESE REFUGEES MARK 50 YEARS Loma Linda University and Medical Center welcomed 410 Vietnamese refugees to campus on May 2, 1975, the end of a long journey for a group of health workers evacuated from Saigon Adventist Hospital and others from their positions as Adventist pastors and church leadership in South Vietnam. Fifty years later, dozens of members from that group gathered at the Loma Linda Chinese Adventist Church to recall the circumstances surrounding this pivotal moment in their lives, and to say a public thank you to Loma Linda University Health and the community that welcomed them with open arms.

Richard Hart, MD, DrPH, president of Loma Linda University Health, represented the university, medical center, and community during the May 3 ceremony, accepting a plaque from the group that recognized the ways the Loma Linda community did more than respond to a crisis, but embraced the 410 refugees with grace and kindness.

Fifty years ago, Ralph Watts, Jr., at the time the president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s Southeast Asia Union and chair of the Saigon Adventist Hospital board, recognized the

lives of these Vietnam citizens would be at risk after the North Vietnamese takeover of the city, and spearheaded negotiations with U.S. military officials for the group’s evacuation. Leaving Vietnam on military evacuation planes April 24 and 25, 1975, the 410-member group was first taken to Guam. While being processed there, U.S. immigration policy would not allow any Vietnamese refugee to leave the island without a sponsor. But none in the group had a sponsor to continue to the United States.

U.S. immigration policy would not allow any Vietnamese refugee to leave the island without a sponsor.

Watts sought help from David Hinshaw, MD, dean of the LLU School of Medicine and director of the Medical Center. Several phone calls later, Hinshaw confirmed that Loma Linda University would sponsor all 410 group members. Hinshaw went on to officially notify immigration officials

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in Guam of Loma Linda’s intent, and within days, the refugees flew from Guam to Camp Pendleton near San Diego, then by bus for the final leg of their journey to Loma Linda.

Welcome to refugees While the refugees were traveling, Loma Linda University and Medical Center, the community, and local businesses quickly prepared to welcome the group to their new country with open arms and open hearts. Rows of donated army cots filled the floor of the Gentry Gym, the gymnasium on campus at the time. Businesses and community members donated thousands of clothing items, toys, blankets, and other supplies. Doctors and other medical staff offered their time to provide needed physical examinations and other healthcare services.

While Gentry Gym served as the group’s home, Loma Linda University was partnering with the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists to identify locations that could offer resettlement options and opportunities to rebuild their lives. Some already had family living in the United States. Others were physicians, nurses, laboratory technicians and other skilled medical workers, pastors, teachers, and other office workers. Many of these professionals quickly found employment and other assistance from Adventist organizations across the country.

Student-age refugees received intense English language instruction at La Sierra University, then

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went on to become professionals in various business and healthcare-related fields.

Loma Linda University’s enthusiastic support opened opportunities for the refugee group that shaped entire families and generations to come.

As small groups found new homes across the country, they formed new Adventist congregations that ministered to other Vietnamese refugees in their areas.

They formed new Adventist congregations that ministered to other Vietnamese refugees in their areas.

Within two weeks the operations at Gentry Gym ended, but the legacy of these 410 lives continues to tell a story of God’s miraculous leading through moments of incredible difficulty.

Loma Linda University and the surrounding community stepped up without hesitation, providing a place of healing and hope to 410 Vietnamese nationals displaced to a new country. And 50 years later, those acts of generosity continue to be remembered.

—Larry Becker, for Loma Linda University Health

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Gratitude As we launch, we are particularly grateful for every contribution to JustLove Collective. Donations are tax-deductible. Though we are a global movement of volunteers, we do need to pay for expenses related to this magazine and to the Summit. For more information, please see our website at justlovecollective.org

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You belong. You are loved. You are not alone.

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