First Parish Sermon Archive

“RELIGION IS A CALL TO JUSTICE”

 

The First Parish in Wayland, Massachusetts

The Rev. Ken Sawyer and Ariel Jacobson

April 18, 2010

 

KEN SAWYER

 

          I have two quotes to share, one from me, and one from Glen Beck, the provocative conservative television personality.  You may not know who that is, but many people do, and none of them think of Glen and me as a likely pair. I have to hope.

          First me. Last Sunday, in speaking of the Green Sanctuary program in which we as a congregation have achieved candidate status, I noted that the stated goal of the program, throughout the UUA, is to make reverence, gratitude, and care for the living Earth central to everyone’s life. I said I would squeeze love and justice into the center, too, and maybe truth and beauty.

          I think that is what religion is all about, those things. Or I could say, religion is all about one thing, love: of the earth, of other people, of beauty and truth, of peace, and of justice.

          Mr. Beck has a different take on religion. He said, on the air, and I quote, “I beg you, look for the words ’social justice’ or ‘economic justice’ on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!”
          Later, Beck held up cards, one with a hammer and sickle and other with a swastika. “Communists are on the left, and the Nazis are on the right. That’s what people say. But they both subscribe to one philosophy, and they flew one banner. . . . But on each banner, read the words, here in America: ’social justice.”

          Many Christians and Jews, not to mention Muslims, UUs and others, were stunned, since justice, it has always been assumed, is a central part of all their religions. In an interview, the Christian author Jim Wallis pointed out that when Jesus began his ministry, the first words out of his mouth were: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed.” (Luke 4:18 NIV). And he was echoing the words of the book of Isaiah (61:1-2) from Hebrew as well as Christian scripture.

          Some of you heard my sermon this winter on “The Poor,” in which I noted that the list of times that the poor are referred to in Hebrew scripture and the Christian Bible goes on for over ten pages. Over and over one reads of the need to overcome oppression, care for the needy, and create a just society.

          I will concede, Beck is clever. He said in the midst of the flurry of commentary that followed his remarks that when Jesus said if someone asks for a shirt, give it to him, Jesus did not say, give that shirt to the government so it can give the man a pair of pants.

          And there are politically conservative ways of accomplishing social justice, just as I, politically liberal though I am, have to concede that not every politically liberal solution to social injustice works out perfectly.

          But to believe that achieving social justice, creating a just society, is not a right and necessary religious goal … well, it’s not our UU way, that’s for sure. “Justice” shows up twice in the seven principles affirmed in the UUA By-Laws, in which our congregations covenant to affirm and promote, among other things, “Justice, equity, and compassion in human relations” – that is the second principle, and the sixth speaks of “The goal of a world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.”

          In the little UU Pocket Guide, my colleague Judith Meyer begins the chapter on “Our Action for Social Justice” this way: “One does not need to probe too deeply into the life of a Unitarian Universalist congregation to discover evidence of how committed Unitarian Universalists are to social justice. These commitments run deep.”

          And I can add, they always have, in both traditions, Unitarian and Universalist. And they sure do still, in a variety of ways: In how we think and act as individuals, in our various programs within the church and within the larger community, in stands taken nationally, and in the work of groups we sponsor, like … the Service Committee.

          In its vision statement, “UUSC envisions a world free from oppression and injustice, where all can realize their full human rights.” They have been working, on our behalf, toward that goal, in various ways, for almost seventy years.

          As Lois Doerr noted in her chalice lighting, the UU Service Committee is descended from Service Committees in both religions, when there were Us and Us but no UUs yet, in the early 1940s, to assist refugees and others in need in Europe, including arranging for immigration to the United States.

          The Service Committee is still active internationally, and in the United States as well, defending civil liberties, advancing the Fair Wage Movement, promoting Fair Trade – which we participate in with our purchases of coffee and chocolate – among many others, all of which you can learn more about at uusc.org.

          But we are in luck, for today we have the good fortune to have Ariel Jacobson right here. She was here once before, but today she has a larger role, bringing us up to date on the work and philosophy of the UU Service Committee, for which she works, and describing two of the programs she is associated with as the Senior Associate for Economic Justice.

 

ARIEL JACOBSON

 

I want to thank Reverend Ken Sawyer, Bobby Robinson, your local representative to UUSC, and Larry Shafer, UUSC’s regional volunteer coordinator, for inviting me to join you today to share a little about UUSC’s program I work on.

 

It is one of several programs that carry forward our founders’ legacy. There is an Environmental Justice program that defends the human right to water; a Civil Liberties program that promotes individual liberties from abuse by government power; and a Rights in Humanitarian Crises program that responds strategically to natural and man-made disasters.

 

I work on the program to advance Economic Justice. I will be here after the service to answer any questions you have about it or the UUSC, and how you can get more involved.

 

In all our programs, our mission to promote human rights and social justice around the world is guided by the Unitarian Universalist principles, as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Both these two guiding frameworks emphasize the inherent worth and dignity of every person everywhere. But, as you know, it is not enough for the Universal Declaration to declare, or the Seven Principles to affirm.

 

As the New Testament passage from the Epistle of James that states, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”[i] The lesson we can draw from the passage is that faith suggests not only a belief in principles of justice, equity, compassion, truth, and liberty, but also, a desire to bring those principles alive in the world by putting them into action.

Archbishop Oscar Romero, a courageous champion of the poor in El Salvador, often spoke of works of justice and peace, reminding us to live simply and justly, in solidarity with the marginalized; to hear and speak truth; and to practice peace and non-violence. There are two quotations of his regarding these “works of justice” that I want to highlight.

 

The first one says, “Ensure fair distribution, subsidiarity, economic opportunity, justice, and food security for everyone everywhere.”

UUSC’s Economic Justice partners — in channeling their efforts toward protecting the right to earn a living wage and strengthening the right to organize for better working conditions — are carrying out this work of justice.

 

The other work of justice that I’d like to highlight states, “Make injustice visible – witness, remember, teach, proclaim, tell. Light candles, do not curse the darkness.”

 

Making injustice visible is also part of UUSC’s charge, not only as we work in partnership with grassroots organizations around the world to spark movements for fulfilling human rights, but also as we work together with you, our members, on education and advocacy aimed at long-term, systemic change.

 

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With these works of justice in mind, I’d like to share a couple examples of UUSC program partners who are putting faith into action for economic justice, groups that we work with, monitor, and help sponsor thanks to the contributions of our UUSC members.

 

First, let’s meet the Rock Women Group in Nairobi, Kenya. The Rock Women are teachers who live and work in different schools throughout the poorest areas of Nairobi. When I met the group, I witnessed them running one of the most innovative programs aimed at stopping child labor and trafficking through education and job-skills training. But in fact, they did not originally come together with the goal of working for human rights.

They began as a prayer group that women from different religions – Protestant and Catholic, Africanist and Muslim – could join to share their experiences as teachers, and to find collective strength. But in sharing their prayers, the women began to realize that they were experiencing many of the same things in their daily lives as teachers. They were witnessing youth who, because of poverty, would drop out of school to find ways to help support their families. They saw children being deceived by strangers into accepting assistance with the hope of securing employment. Instead, these children were being trafficked to Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa, and beyond.

 

Together, as women of faith, the Rock Women Group resolved that it was unjust that children were missing school because they could not afford uniforms. It was unjust that youth were being exploited for cheap labor because their families could not afford to put bread on the table.

So the Rock Women Group decided to “light a candle rather than cursing the darkness.” They decided they needed to address the structural issues of poverty that were keeping children and their families from realizing their basic human rights.

Today, the Rock Women run programs for youth at-risk, and for members of their households, providing training in income-generating activities that lead to safe, sustainable employment. They also educate children and their families about the conditions that lead to exploitation through child labor.

Meanwhile, the Rock Women Group supports youth to resume their studies in secondary school or in alternative undugu schools. Undugu means sisterhood/brotherhood. These are schools designed to address the needs of older youth who work to support their families but who need basic math, reading, and writing skills to take national exams that qualify them for higher-wage employment. Finally, the Rock Women team up with pro bono lawyers to influence local and national policies on the rights of child workers, and on education as a vehicle for preventing child labor. And they do all of this in addition to being full-time teachers.

 

The spirit is to our bodies, as action is to our faith.

 

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Another group that I work with as an Economic Justice partner is the Northwest Arkansas Workers’ Justice Center. Located literally down the road from the global headquarters of both Wal-Mart and Tyson Foods, the Workers’ Justice Center is the only community-based workers’ rights organization in Arkansas and three surrounding states.

The Center’s mission is to educate and organize low-wage workers to secure better pay and safe working conditions in the poultry-processing, construction, and restaurant industries, and to call on communities of faith to support these efforts.

Securing the rights of workers in Arkansas is a challenging endeavor. The state’s policy environment makes it easy for companies to fire people at-will, difficult for workers to join unions, and extremely common to be injured on the job. Over the last few years that I’ve traveled to Northwest Arkansas, I’ve been learning how the poultry industry is particularly ruthless. Our partners have explained how chicken-workers make the same cutting motion up to 10,000 to 40,000 times a shift, and with line speeds ever-increasing, one in five poultry workers experience on-the-job injuries and illnesses each year. A Department of Labor survey of poultry companies found that wage theft is rampant, with over 60 percent of plants violating basic wage and hour laws. The survey also confirmed that over half of poultry plants illegally force workers to pay for their own safety equipment by deducting the costs of required gear from workers’ paychecks.[ii]

That the majority of the workers served by the Northwest Arkansas Workers’ Justice Center are Latino immigrants, many of whom are undocumented, presents another challenge. In the communities that surround the Center, the sheriff’s departments participate in a national program that deputizes police officers to act as immigration officers to identify and detain undocumented immigrants. When unscrupulous subcontractors or restaurant owners don’t want to pay their workers, they merely threaten to call the police.

 

Rarely does the Workers’ Justice Center encounter a worker who has experienced only one abuse of their rights. Discrimination, harassment, workplace and domestic violence, sexism, racism, and poverty are all layered together, especially in the case of immigrant women workers. And on top of this, workers also face threats and intimidation from employers, diminishing their ability to defend their rights.

 

So, what is the Northwest Arkansas Workers’ Justice Center doing to make these injustices visible?

 

In coordination with OSHA, the Center is training workers on their occupational safety and health rights. Last year, the worker center successfully organized for the passage of state legislation to double the amount of unpaid wage claims that the Arkansas Department of Labor could investigate. This year, the Center is leading a coalition of local community organizations, churches, and labor groups in a campaign to pass an anti-wage theft ordinance in the city of Fayetteville that would institute greater penalties for employers who violate wage and hour laws.

 

By teaming up with local clergy to speak out against labor violations, by connecting workers to supportive allies in the faith community, and by outreaching to workers after church on Sunday where they feel most safeguarded against retaliation from their employers, the Center is drawing on the power of faith in action.

 

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At UUSC we like to say, “advancing human rights is the work of many joining hands.” The work of justice requires different communities to join in partnership, each contributing something unique. So we depend on members and supporters like you to join us on this journey.

 

With your help and solidarity, UUSC and our partners will continue to lead the way toward better lives for youth in Kenya, for immigrant workers in Northwest Arkansas, and for other communities facing human rights challenges around the globe.

 

To learn how you can get more involved, please visit our website uusc.org, and stay in close touch with Larry and Bobby, who are your direct links to UUSC.

 

May we continue to join hands to make injustice visible, to witness, remember, teach, and proclaim, and to bring light to spaces of darkness