CESE’s Spring for Life Campaign is in its 21st year. Its aim is to extend collaboration with church bases, providing biblical and theological studies inspired by the social demands the organization is involved in.
In 2021, the campaign will address the pathway of truth as a Christian principle that produces peace and justice and denounces the harm that a culture that produces and disseminates “Fake News” (a more sophisticated way of saying “lies”) has caused in our society, most particularly in our faith communities. With this in mind, the year’s theme is: Seeking the truth: a commitment of faith. “An honest witness tells the truth, but a false witness tells lies.” Proverbs 12:17.
To commemorate the launch date, at 7pm on 22 September, CESE will run a virtual seminar on its YouTube channel. Magali Cunha will participate in the seminar. Magali is a journalist with a doctorate in Communication Sciences, Coordinator of the Group of Research, Communication and Religion at the Brazilian Society for Interdisciplinary Studies in Communication (Sociedade Brasileira de Estudos Interdisciplinares da Comunicação: INTERCOM), member of the International Society for Media, Religion and Culture and the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) and General Editor of the Bereia Collective (Coletivo Bereia) the first journalist collective to check religious fake news in Brazil.
Other participants include people from ecumenical and grassroots organizations who will describe how lies have affected their lives. Mediation will come from Sônia Gomes Mota, CESE’s Executive Director and Pastor of the United Presbyterian Church (Igreja Presbiteriana Unida: IPU) and Bianca Daébs, CESE Advisor for Ecumenism and Inter-religious Dialogue and Pastor of the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil (Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil: IEAB). CESE will launch a publication at the event containing biblical and theological reflections on the campaign’s theme.
FAKE NEWS KILLS / SEEKING THE TRUTH: A COMMITMENT OF FAITH
Campaign History
Dating back to 2000, every year the Spring for Life Campaign addresses a new theme. CESE provides biblical and theological aids for the churches to consider in their meetings, encounters, biblical studies and Sunday schools. The campaign seeks to associate the themes of justice, peace and the integrity of creation with other themes of interest to society. In its first edition, it addressed the theme “Let us sow justice together”. In 2002 it reflected on the need to “Sow solidarity and peace,” in 2003 it returned to one of the shortages that most afflicts the country and called for “Bread and peace”. In 2004, it sought to encourage Brazilian youth to engage in the construction of a fair, democratic and inclusive society with the theme “Youth and peace.” And in 2005 it urged society to dream of a “City of peace.”
The following years it embraced these reflections: “Women and men building cities of peace” (2006); “Rights and Justice for Peace” (2007); “Rights and justice: an action for children” (2008); “Rights and Justice” (2009); “Environmental Justice” (2010); “Rights and environmental justice: caring for our common home” (2011); “Environmental justice from a rights perspective” (2012); “Human rights, development and justice” (2013); “The good you do many people share” (2014); “I respect religious diversity, and you?” (2015); “The right to life for youth” (2016); “The cry of the peoples and the wounded land: no mining here!” (2017); “Blessed are the lives that defend rights, justice and peace” (2018); “The waters of resistance – ‘… for I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink” (Matthew 25:35b)” (2019). In 2020, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, it addressed the theme “The famines of the people and the sharing of the kingdom of God in pandemic times – ‘For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat’ (Matthew 25:35a)”.