Moving Beyond the Defensive Game: A Conversation with Kyle Crider of the People’s Justice Council

Molly Johnson (MJ) spoke with Kyle Crider (KC) of People’s Justice Council about moving from a resilience to restoration approach in the face of climate change. 

MJ: Tell us about your organization and your goal? 
KC: The People’s Justice Council (PJC) is an interfaith organization based in Birmingham, AL. We operate at the nexus of climate, energy and justice. We are all about making sure that people and planet are not sacrificed on the altar of power and profits. We are also Alabama Interfaith Power & Light (AIPL). AIPL is a program of PJC and a chapter of National Interfaith Power & Light. So we wear two hats around our office, Rev.  Michael Malcom is the Executive Director of both organizations and I'm Program and Policy Director for both organizations.

MJ: Tell us about your “From Resilience to Restoration project? 
​KC: Restoration is now pretty much our biggest umbrella. In 2022, we were awarded a $300,000 grant from the National Academies to do the “From Resilience to Restoration” (FRTR) program. We were pleased that they loved our approach of reaching out to houses of faith in frontline communities, because as you know very well, these are already acting as resilient centers. But like the wise old coach says, we can't win if we play a purely defensive game. So, we want to shift the needle from resilience to restoration. To do so, we developed this “3 E” framework. 1. Ecological Restoration - we all know why that one that's vital. 2. Economic Elevation - in frontline communities, we're not talking about restoring the economy, we're talking about elevating the economy to a level it's never been. 3.  Ecumenical Restoration, which we use in a broader interfaith sense, not just Christian interdenominational in its traditional usage, because we work with houses of all faiths. We have a three tier framework - the top tier is the national resource, where we're sharing wonderful articles that have anything to do with resiliency and restoration. Then  we have the state hubs in the Gulf South where we’ve worked with partners from Texas to Florida. Finally, we have restoration plans at the Frontline community level, where our real emphasis is. I'm glad to say thanks to our wonderful partners, we work with dozens of communities across the south. And we have spent a lot of time traveling and documenting their wonderful stories.

From Resilience to Restoration trailer from Michael Malcom on Vimeo.

MJ: How does your work encourage “faithful resilience?”
KC: In terms of the ecumenical restoration, we all know that we got to combat the toxic theology that’s put us in this situation -  the sort of thinking that Jesus is coming tomorrow and it's all gonna burn so you know why should we care about endangered species or social justice or any of the things Jesus talked about? We have got to combat that toxic theology with love and with a positive restoration theology. Frontline communities are already doing this in a very practical way. They're already acting as resilient centers. I’ve said before, it's almost like the loaves and fishes miracle in the Bible, when we got the representatives of the frontline communities together and talking, we found that this person's needs over here are met by this person's resources over here. We weren’t there to help them, we were just amazed as these connections were made, just by getting the faithful together in the same room. There are some real wonderful stories coming out of all that. That's faithful resiliency. 

MJ: What inspired your action? 
KC: I think of the quotation about Archimedes lever: 

“Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it and I shall move the Earth”. Well, these houses of faith are a powerful lever to move the Bible belt, the Gulf South and the whole world.

MJ: What would be your hope for the future of this project?
KC: We have lots of hopes. Our first cohort wrapped up in August 2023 after an 18 month grant. We would love a second cohort. We want the first cohort to be the groundbreakers, not the end. So the next phase we want is to take FRTR to the whole South and beyond. One of the immediate needs that requires help from all of our wonderful partners, CJM included, is to match resources for these community needs. Because yes, we have had many Loaves and Fishes moments, but it's hard to find places in the south, anywhere close to where we're working that is not a Justice40 community. We desperately need to funnel federal funding and private grants into the communities. An upcoming project we have, inspired by a conversation with a private funder, is to set up a trip so that funders can visit frontline communities and meet folks in person. 
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MJ: What would you tell someone interested in pursuing a similar goal? What is something you would like the Creation Justice community to know? 
KC: The last thing I’ll say is that resilience work is vital. We're all doing resilience work. But when you're implying to a frontline community that “we're here to help you become more resilient”, it sounds like “we're here to help you roll with the punches.” We've got to stop pummeling our frontline communities. That's why as vital as resiliency is, it's not enough. You can’t win by playing a purely defensive game. So we want to shift that emphasis to restoration. In ecological restoration, that means native species, biodiversity, preserving the mangroves, planning on the coast,  or whatever. For economic elevation, it's things like worker-owned coops, keeping the dollars in the community where they belong, and keeping the dollar stores and community destroyers out. You can see lots of shining examples featured in the FRTR videos.