top color spacer bar
The St. Lawrence District of the Unitarian Universalist Association  
photo of forest at dawn  
color spacer bar

link to SLD Home Pagelink to information about who we arelink to how you can contact uslink to the district calendar and eventslink to district governancelink to district site index from A to Z
<empty>
 

Navigation bar to Services & Resources

Our Congregations

UUA National Office

Search Our Site:

powered by FreeFind

News & Updates headerSocial Justice Initiatives
     & Resources

"The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice."   Theodore Parker

 

Agenda for Change: The St. Lawrence District Social Justice Monthly Newsletter

See the Agenda for Change Archives for older newsletters

 

Social Justice Resources for UU Congregations

1.  See the Agenda for Change monthly newsletter (above) for timely information on issues and events of interest.

2.  Social Justice coordinator the Rev. Dick Gilbert can present workshops/sermons at your congregation (or your cluster of congregations) on a variety of topics. See our page on Services Offered by the SLD Social Justice Council.

3.  Other key Social Justice connections:

    Interfaith Impact of New York State

    UUA Social Justice homepage

    UU Social Justice organizations

 

FAITH WORKS: A UU PERSPECTIVE

In the words of the early 19th century theologian Hosea Ballou:

"There is one inevitable criterion of judgment touching religious faith in doctrinal matters, can you reduce it to practice? If not, have none of it."

Spirituality and action for justice are a seamless garment. Action flows organically from a spirituality of thanksgiving for being. It is a natural consequence of who we are and the nature of our religious convictions.  Faith and action are part of the same motion.

While ours is a non-creedal faith, we are united in the belief that we create life meanings in the very struggle for justice in the community. We seek to become a "spiritual center with a civic circumference” in the words of UU prophet James Luther Adams.  The holy for us emerges from engagement in the search for Beloved Community.

Ultimately we are joined by a mystical oneness that has informed all the prophets of humanity — an interdependent web of being in which “thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself because thy neighbor is thyself.” (David Rhys Williams)

How Faith Works in the St. Lawrence District

The Social Justice Council (SJC) of the St. Lawrence Unitarian Universalist District (SLUUD) was authorized by the 2005 District Assembly to support the work of justice-making within and among Unitarian Universalist congregations in the district.  Its mission is to make the collective voice of Unitarian Universalists heard in the wider world.

The purposes of SJC are:

>  To connect our congregations and their representatives.  Websites and list serves will be created to share information, events and actions.  Issue-oriented groups will be facilitated. 

>  To serve our congregations and their representatives by providing them with information and education.  This will be done through an annual social justice conference, denominational training events and worship services. 

>  To grow our congregations both spiritually and socially to insure our collective voice is heard more loudly and clearly on issues of importance. 

SJC is composed of seven members and a part-time Social Justice Coordinator to facilitate the work of the districts and the congregations.  The Council provides consultative services, posts to the SLUUD website, publishes the “Agenda for Change” newsletter approximately monthly, connects UU’s to social justice resources and sponsors an annual social justice conference, “Be the Change You Want to See in the World” October 20, 2007, at May Memorial Unitarian Universalist Society of Syracuse. 

SJC is a member of and works closely with Interfaith Impact of New York State (IINYS), www.interfaithimpactnys.org a progressive coalition of Protestants, Reform Jews, Unitarian Universalists and others who share our vision of progressive religion in the public square.  SJC works with other UU social justice programs, including the Unitarian Universalist Association, Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) and other affiliated groups.

Specifically, it is the goal of the SJC to create a Social Justice Network (SJN) among the district congregations.  SJC will coordinate communications among congregations and individuals.  It is hoped that there will be a social justice program in every congregation in the district.  SJC stands ready to consult with individual congregations and clusters to hone organizational skills.

There is a renewed focus on advocacy in the district.  The District Executive, Tom Chulak, will be empowered to speak on behalf of the St. Lawrence District.  The Council will be guided by the official social witness statements of the Unitarian Universalist Association.  While many of our congregations have programs in social service and education, it is hoped that there will be increased emphasis on social witness, advocacy and community organizing.  The foci of social justice work will be at the local, state and national levels. 

Richard S. Gilbert, Social Justice Coordinator rsgilbert@uuma.org
Phone:  585-244-7403

 

  St. Lawrence District
  Social Justice Council

• Social Justice Coordinator:
Rev. Dick Gilbert
70 Harper St.,
Rochester, NY 14607
(585) 244-7403
rsgilbert@uuma.org

 

• Social Justice
Committee Chair:
Harsey Leonard
(315) 446-6795
harsey.leonard@verizon.net
 

• S J Council brochure for
2010-11 (PDF format)
 

• District UU Service Committee News (PDF format)
 

  Editorial

• Tax Facts and Just Taxes - April 2012
  

      We have just observed the Jewish and Christian holy times of Passover and Easter. They should remind us of the justice dimension of public policy, which is strikingly absent from our current debate on the economy: The prophet Amos railed against those who "sold the needy for a pair of shoes"; Jesus said, "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven." He even befriended a hated tax collector.

      Compare this philosophy to that underlying Congressman Pauls Ryan's reverse Robin Hood budget which grants more tax cuts to the rich by cutting programs for the poor. Ryan has confessed admiration for the philosophy of the late Ayn Rand, whose Atlas Shrugged protagonist John Galt said, "I swear -by my life and my love of it - that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine." Rand once said: "Capitalism and altruism are incompatible. They are philosophical opposites; they cannot co-exist in the same man, or in the same society." Adam Smith's "invisible hand" is sometimes shaped like the fist of capitalism's "creative destruction." Our vaunted free market ethic is the "devil take the hindmost." Our no-holds-barred, "winner-take-all" society becomes increasingly fractured in the yawning gap between rich and middle class, and middle class and poor. Yet Ryan is called "courageous" by some for this proposal.

      What astonishes me is the whining I hear about our tax burden as Americans. We are one of the most lightly taxed of the industrial democracies, 18th out of 31. As a share of the nation's economy we pay the lowest federal taxes since the 1950's. Marginal tax rates for the wealthiest have plummeted from 90% in the 1950's under a Republican president to 35% now on earned income, but down to 15% for capital gains. The tax rate paid by all Americans since the beginning of the Recession in 2007 has fallen 26%; one-third of the often-vilified stimulus package went for tax cuts. Many of the very wealthy and a number of profitable corporations exploit loopholes and pay nothing. Yet we have developed a "victimhood" mentality, fed by politicians who have never seen a tax cut they didn't like or a tax hike they didn't hate. Tax cutting has become a veritable religion. Tax cuts are virtuous; tax increases are sinful. I think of the tombstone inscription, "Born a man; died a taxpayer."

      When you count only the federal income tax, the wealthy pay a lion's share of the taxes, which makes sense because they have most of the money. But when you take state and local, property, sales, FICA, and other mostly regressive taxes into account, people pay approximately proportionate to their incomes. The share of total taxes paid by the richest one percent (21.6%) is almost identical to that group's share of total income (21 percent). The share of total taxes paid by the poorest fifth of Americans (2.1%) is only slightly less than this group's share of total income (3.4 percent). The total effective tax rate for the richest one percent (29 percent) is only about four percentage points higher than the total effective tax rate for the middle fifth of taxpayers (25.2 percent). We have overall, then, close to a de facto flat tax. We need a progressive fair tax policy based on ability to pay.

      These are tax facts we ought to contemplate as we pay our taxes this election season. And there are just taxes we ought to support. We have a stark choice before us: a “winner take all” policy which further splinters our already fractured society -and a policy based on altruism and community responsibility in which we understand our obligation to the common good. Poet T. S. Eliot puts it well: "What is the meaning of this city? What will be your answer? We all dwell together to make money from each other? or This is a community?"

Dick Gilbert

 
 

The St. Lawrence District of the Unitarian Universalist Association
St. Lawrence District, PO Box 1045, Buffalo, NY 14240-1045 • Telephone: (716) 882-0430 • Toll Free Fax: (866) 881-4234

This page is maintained according to the Web publishing guidelines of the St. Lawrence District of the Unitarian Universalist Association. Copyright C 2007. All rights reserved.

Send comments of questions about this website to the Webmaster.