Tag: Robert Morton

Saving the nation begins “inside of us”

Pastor Robert Morton reminds a Chico audience that hope is necessary
By Yucheng Tang | Posted January 20, 2025

photo by Yucheng Tang
Keynote speaker Pastor Robert Morton

Pastor Robert Morton told an audience of hundreds that “saving” the country requires “seeing value in your neighborhood” during a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., celebration held Jan. 19 at St John’s Episcopal Church in Chico.

“I’m not entirely sure how America is going to be saved,” Morton said. “But if she is, it begins in here, it begins inside of us, it begins not simply by us marching, not by us protesting, not by us arguing or fighting or being keyboard warriors in the comments section. But it begins by you seeing value in your neighborhood.”

Morton said social change work “means that we sometimes start small.” read more

Activists turn from personal pain to community healing

Marginalized and minority communities see uptick in threats, harassment
By Natalie Hanson | Posted June 12, 2023

photo by Leslie Layton
In the last several months, Bethel AME Church has been the target of “cryptic messages.”

At a time when hate-fueled speech, crime and violence are threatening marginalized communities nationwide, it often falls on grassroots community movements to create change and promote healing from injustice, experts say.

Chico has tragically faced numerous incidents of hate against people who have historically faced discrimination. The city’s oldest Black church, Bethel African Methodist Episcopalian Church (AME), has reported repeated vandalism since 2020. Art by indigenous organizers has been vandalized. Unhoused people face ongoing verbal harassment and death threats. Anti-Semetic flyers have been delivered to homes across the city several times this year. Stonewall Alliance Chico says it is aware of growing fears of harassment, particularly among LGBTQ youth who face calls for public schools to repeal codes protecting their privacy to avoid discrimination. read more