Dear Friends,

One year ago, in June 2020, I entered Torture Awareness Month with a heavy heart. We were mourning the killing of George Floyd and the systemic racism that led to his murder and that has fueled the deaths of so many others. We were living in the shadow of the rising daily death toll of COVID-19 and economic collapse. I was concerned for our democracy, fearing that a Trump Administration hell-bent on trampling human rights at home and abroad might win another four years in power.

This June feels different. Never before have I felt so strongly that the work and mission of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture is in the right place at the right time. With your generous financial support through our $30,000 matching challenge, we can help get the nation back to the business of ending torture this year.

The Biden-Harris campaign pledge to end solitary in almost all circumstances gives us a real chance that this new Administration will take action to limit prolonged solitary confinement in the federal Bureau of Prisons and in immigrant detention. Congress can act to include provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act that would remove the barriers to closing Guantanamo prison – without the threat of a Presidential veto. Members of Congress are waking up to the fact that armed drones, especially when under the control of the CIA, are little more than instruments of endless war and destruction.

I often tell our private foundation funders, whose annual grants are crucial to supporting our programs, that the most important annual income number I look at each year is what we receive from our loyal base of friends and supporters like yourself.

From now to the end of June, your donation to NRCAT will be matched by a few generous NRCAT donors. Each dollar you give is doubled towards our $30,000 goal. If the spirit moves you, I invite you to consider becoming one of our all-important monthly donors who give us the stability we need to plan for the future. And most of all, keep taking action. Together, we can end torture, forever.

With hope,

Rev. Ron Stief
Executive Director