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Welcome to the Truth and Action Roundup, your reliable weekly source for information, inspiration, and opportunities for action during the second Trump administration.  Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to continue receiving it.

Election Section: As we prepare for the midterm elections, we want to share some of the work being done to protect fair and free elections.

• Starting with this Sojourners story on how faith leaders are preparing for the midterms.  

• For those looking to get involved directly, we’re co-hosting trainings in Dallas on October 10th and in the Charlotte area on October 14th and 15th.  

• There will also be a national No Kings call on October 14th and 29th focused on early voting and knowing your rights. People can sign up to attend here. 

This week, a series of disturbing stories about rape and sexual assault has come to light on college campuses and in society. At Louisiana State University, new details emerged about how the Title IX investigation into the rape of Kendall Francis by a football player was handled. The player stayed enrolled and on the team. At Cornell, more information came out about a case where a woman was drugged and raped at a fraternity house, but no one was charged. Also this week, Bernadette Greene-Placentia, a candidate in Arizona, reported that she was raped while working on her campaign this summer.

The way police and university officials at LSU and Cornell handled these cases shows ongoing failures to address sexual violence nationwide. Greene-Placentia's hesitation to report her sexual assault points to a culture of shame that these failures create. In response to the Cornell case, some public figures like Megyn Kelly and Michael Tracey have tried to identify and harass the victim by insulting her personal appearance and suggesting that she is not telling the truth.

This kind of reprehensible behavior is encouraged by a President who was found personally liable for the sexual assault of E. Jean Carroll. The patriarchy and sexism at the core of Christian nationalism now show up in openly misogynistic ways in our politics. As Christians, we must reject this culture of dehumanization and confront the increasing acceptance of violent hatred for women.

–– Rev. Moya Harris and Chad Stanton, Sojourners

P.S. We are continuing to build an intentional community of people looking to live out their faith in our Sojourners Faith and Practice Forum on Mighty Networks. Please consider joining us.

In the News

Here’s a look at what happened this week:

1. The Trump administration’s deportation regime continued its cruel work.

   • A ProPublica investigation found that ICE has detained at least 506 U.S. citizens since the start of the second Trump administration. This number includes 70 children and teens, and at least 63 Americans detained while recording.

   • ICE has been detaining West African women in New York and plans to send them to countries where they have no ties. This practice is called third-country deportation. Many of these women have lived in New York City for decades.

   • ICE officers may soon get gloves that deliver painful electric shocks to people they target. The Department of Homeland Security announced Monday that it plans to spend up to $20 million by March on thousands of these devices.

   • Martín Alonso Soto Hernandez, a Peruvian asylum seeker who helped organize a hunger and labor strike at Delaney Hall in New Jersey, has been released from ICE custody and reunited with his family. His case is still ongoing, and he is now forced to wear an ankle monitor.

2. The November midterm elections are quickly approaching, and important stories about them are unfolding across the country.

   • On Monday, Trump said he would stop using taxpayer money for a pro-Trump ad campaign and that his super PAC would pay for the ads going forward. The administration had previously claimed the ads, one of which was a direct copy of a 2024 campaign ad, were “public service announcements.”

   • ICE’s criminal investigation unit has been looking into voter registration groups and may be using undercover agents to “disrupt” them, according to internal government documents. The documents also say that ICE is using more than 48 million voter records, obtained from a 2020 election denier, to target alleged noncitizen voters.

3. The world remains turbulent, with major happenings in Africa, Europe, West Asia, and Latin America.

   • Ebola has now spread to Kenya. The Kenyan government says that the virus was found in a man who arrived from the Democratic Republic of Congo. He died in a private hospital in Nairobi on Monday. It is not clear how he passed health checks at the Nairobi airport.

   • Young people in France, Spain, and Belgium have led protests about education and housing costs, highlighting a growing problem in Western Europe. Many young people now lack the basic economic security their parents had. In France, the protests have led to over 5,000 arrests and the temporary closure of up to 500 secondary schools on Monday.

   • The White House is defending Trump’s recent comments on Iran, where he said, “They can take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles, let them take out San Diego.” The White House explained that Trump meant these cities would have been at risk if Iran had not been stopped from acquiring a nuclear weapon. California politicians called the comments “deranged and dangerous” and said they could “encourage attacks on American lives.”

   • The U.S. military has moved several “hunter-killer” MQ-9 Reaper drones from Africa to Colombia and Ecuador to use them in strikes against drug cartels. Human rights advocates warn that these attacks could endanger civilians, and experts say that killing cartel members does little to stem the flow of drugs.

Take Action

• SojoAction is currently calling on Attorneys General to commit to protecting free and fair elections.

• On October 19th the Kettering Foundation will host “This Day Live: The Next Realignment.”

What We’re Reading

• ‘Three Years After Oct. 7, Are There Any Words Left?”| “The endless beauty and strength of my people give me the heart to envision a better future, not as a dream, but a collective responsibility to uphold.” (by Josiah R. Daniels)

• “Tennessee's Botched Executions Offer No Justice. No Execution Does” | “Love does not have room for the death penalty.” (by Stacy Rector)

• “Train Up a Green Lantern in the Way He Should Go” | “The concept of passing the torch isn’t particularly pleasant.” (by Tyler Huckabee)

Deep Breaths

Deep Breaths:

“There may not be as much humanity in the world as I would like to see, but there is some. There’s more than one would think. In any case, if you break faith with what you know, that’s a betrayal of many, many, many people. I may know six people, but that’s enough. Love has never been a popular movement, and no one’s ever wanted really to be free. The world is held together, really held together, by the love and passion of a very few people.” -James Baldwin, 1970, Meeting the Man: James Baldwin in Paris.

When things are uncertain, I have the habit of imagining the worst possible outcome. I tell myself this is actually for the best and call it "preparation for the worst." I should just call it what it really is—fatalism dressed up as worry and fear. I can’t be the only one who thinks like this, right?

Lately, I have been thinking about living in this state of being and what it robs me of. And the answer is: so much. I have so much hope for what this world can be; how people can live in community with one another, the earth, and everything in it. I stubbornly refuse to believe such things are impossible. It might take us generations to get there, but we will, and love will win. There is no other outcome.

When I slide into catastrophe mode, I give up autonomy and responsibility to others, letting them dictate my circumstances and keep leading us down this destructive path. I don’t believe I am powerless. I know for certain that I am not, and neither are you. I am part of a community that looks out for its neighbors, builds gardens, delivers groceries to those too scared to leave their homes, and fights back against despair, one kindness at a time.

Look around you. How is your community showing up for one another? What acts of kindness are holding back despair? How can you be a part of it? This is how the world is meant to be. This is how the world is held together.

— Cortnie Brooks, Education and Engagement Program Manager

The Truth and Action Roundup is compiled by Sojourners staff:

President: Rev. Adam Russell Taylor
Senior Research Associate: J.K. Granberg-Michaelson
Digital Content and Community Specialist: Kassandra Tapia
Chief Program and Impact Officer: Bryan Epps
Political Director: Chad V. Stanton
Senior Program Director: Rev. Moya Harris
Education and Engagement Program Manager: Cortnie Brooks Mobilizing & Policy Fellow: Alyssa Parker