UUs and Social Justice: Treating Causes as well as Symptoms

This talk was facilitated by Richard Wolf. Both Richard (on line) and Linda Dove (in person) participated as HUU delegates in the 2015 UUA General Assembly in Portland, Oregon and the service reflected their experience this year.

by Linda A. Dove August 30, 2015

At the UUA General Assembly this summer I was struck with how many good causes UUs are promoting, from food and shelter to immigrant and human rights. The mood of the entire GA was jubilant because the Supreme Court pronounced on same-sex marriage and Obamacare while we were there. The latest shows us celebrating because these are reforms that UUs have been campaigning for over many years. I think Richard as our GA on-line delegate was also caught up by the mood?

The theme of was paramount this year and so that’s my theme today. I was encouraged by what congregations are doing and especially by the leadership of the many millennials at GA.

But I needed a framework to understand how we UUs are approaching social justice. So I dug around to explore its roots. Now, I would need a tenured professorship to dig down to all the roots for you. But don’t worry. I won’t take that long. I’ll just expose a few of the tap roots.

Give me one word or so that comes to mind for you when Social Justice is mentioned?

Compassion, Charity and Good Works

I’ll just highlight three of the ideas that historically fed into today’s social justice: and. Excuse my simplifications because the clock ticks on.

• As we all know, has been a part of what forms the bright side of humanity since ancient times. And it’s a virtue still prominent in the traditions of all religions. It evokes the idea of people who are empathetic, kind, generous, even altruistic.

• What we do for Caritas in ancient Greek, originally meant to This morphed into being a benevolent giver to the poor and needy. I didn’t know, though, that our DANA efforts originated in India through Hindu and Buddhist ideas of .

• A person who does shares a similar attitude. But this idea has Judeo-Christian roots. In feudal society, it was the duty of the privileged classes to exercise towards peasants and the poor. In the Reformation centuries, the question was whether God’s grace or our own good works ”or perhaps both ”get us to heaven. Today, good works can spring out of individual ethical motivation, whether we’re religious or secular, atheist or agnostic, deist or humanist.

All three related ideas, anddescribe what we do to enhance the well-being of others. But we’re still tribal; we still take care of our family first ”blood is thick and sticky. After that, we help our own communities, and then our fellow-citizens. Today, though, pressures us to serve the wellbeing of This springs partly from compassion and charitable benevolence but also self-interest, because we all go down with the boat, if we don’t help out.

The Roots of Contemporary Social Justice in Democracies

Aristotle said that social justice was the mark of a civilized Greek-city-state. He said we are no longer barbarians when all citizens fulfill their given and receive what they are from society.

In the 1600s, Thomas Hobbes advanced this ancient idea by advocating a between government and citizens.

Then in the 1800s, Jeremy Bentham argued that a democracy should aim for “the greatest happiness of the greatest number. Revolutionary idea at the time!

And in the last century, John Rawls agreed that governments have duties towards citizens and citizens have responsibilities and rights within the laws, and added, . Full-blown democracy at last!

In all this, three ideas are important: trust between citizens and government; freedom of expression and action by citizens; and duties of government and citizens within the rule of law.

I was surprised, though, to learn that the term wasn’t even used in the English language until the 1840s. This was when the dawn of the industrial age was turning peasants into wage-slaves, debtors, and paupers. The underclass was threatening to rise up against the rich elites in their mansions and corporate offices. And private and religious charities, including UUs, could no longer meet the immediate, basic needs of the huddled masses. It was not until near the end of the 1800s, that policy makers started to pay attention to the causes of gross poverty.

Some examples of attempts to reform American institutions:-

In the melting-pot of America 200 years ago, what few schools there were fitted children for their station in life. But visionary reformers like Thomas Mann, a Unitarian convert, helped build a new institution, a public school system for all with the aim of creating an integrated and literate American nation that would allow even the poorest an equal opportunity to rise economically and to participate fully as citizens in the US democracy.

And today, notice in the debates, how the discussion focuses on not only on punishing those who break the law but on the social, economic and cultural factors that induce minority youths to get on the wrong side of the law and what factors induce law enforcement to discriminate against African-Americans and other minorities. We’re debating underlying causes of injustice embedded in our institutions and cultures, not just symptoms, like the horrific killings.

Similarly, the French NGO, advises on how to set up robust universal health systems in all developing countries at the same time as it addresses immediate health crises such as Ebola in West Africa.

And, at home, I personally admire the . This NGO is particularly strong in carrying out its mission of long-term institutional reforms in both government and private sector to address climate change.

So, today, the concept of extends to all life, not just one’s own community. And, it goes than charity and good works because it , not only the symptoms. As Jesus taught, we’ve finally understand we have to teach people to fish, not just feed them fish. And we have to teach them fishing for the good of all humans and the planet.

#148: Let Freedom Span both East and West, verses 1, 3, 4.

UUs and Social Justice Today

Coming back to the GA. UU participants seem more focused than in the past on Areas UUs are addressing, to my knowledge, include energy, water, health care, education, incarceration, capital punishment, prison reform, trade policies, human trafficking, refugees ”you name it. UU efforts also seem more focused on the international scene than I recall at the 2011 GA. The UUA supports a large number of branches and partners in this ”an international office, an international Women’s Convocation, the Partner Church Council, the UU AIDS Coalition, and the UU-UN Office, among others. And the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee is a strong UUA affiliate. A number of us here belong to the UUSC.

A word of caution. The defines social justice in terms of the fair distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges.But this hides the complexity in addressing the causes of social injustices. Few Americans would say they don’t support Social Justice. No one advocates gross poverty or gross deprivation of human rights. But consensus stops right there. As a country we don’t see eye to eye on what we mean by a distribution of wealth and opportunities. We don’t agree on the social contract; that is, how we see the role of more privileged citizens in correcting injustices(paying more taxes, for instance); or whether the government should have the duty to provide safety nets for the very disadvantaged; or whether it should have a role in education, health promotion and job-creation. We even have divisions over the appropriate authority of the feds. and states in criminal justice..

My point, here, is that the best ways of reforming institutionally-embedded social injustices are far from clear. It would tempting for UUs to jump on the bandwagon of what seem like liberal solutions. I was pleased, therefore, to see that we are putting in a lot of time to research solutions that work in practice and not kicking up the dust impulsively with ideological knee-jerks.

With nearly 3, 500 UUs at the GA, it was impossible to take in everything. As one of your delegates, I chose to engage with three or four social justice efforts that were integral to the formal business agenda. (And I think Richard voted similarly?)

I voted on the protecting women’s rights to choose.This had been in the discussion stage for four years.

I also supported the three causes called . These are what UUs see as critical current issues that require urgent legislative, judicial and policy reforms to achieve social justice.

• One was ”much in the headlines, of course.

• The second was “ which seeks to ensure that global climate policies do not hurt the vulnerable, including Native American groups. (There will be several marches in DC on this in September).

• The third was part of the agenda, specifically stopping the deportation of mothers without legal resident papers whose children were born here and are legal US citizens.

Many congregations gave inspiring talks about their own social justice efforts and how they organize and operate their advocacy and reform campaigns. Examples.

• I was intrigued to learn that large churches employ trained community ministers, ordained or lay. These ministers don’t have congregational responsibility but they advocate for social justice in their local communities.

• It was exciting to hear from Ferguson, Mississippi. This is now a front-line UU community and it partners energetically on racial justice with the local .

• Lots of other congregations also team up with local interfaith or secular organizations so that they can make more of an impact in community than alone. We too in Harrisonburg, as a small, lay-led congregation, are starting to work with other local faith groups to make a bigger impact.

Finally, other UU social justice efforts that tackle causes, not just symptoms.

• The y movement is snowballing. It provides accreditation for churches as they turn green. And the initiative led by young adults focuses on institutional reforms (government and private) to promote environmental justice. It’s currently building local partnerships with vulnerable communities ”think pipelines and clean water where there’s oil and hacking, and the Chesapeake Bay where agroindustrial runoff pollutes. (By the way, did you know the UU church in Norfolk Va is regularly flooded these days because of rising sea levels?). David Korten, a cofounder of magazine, always gets to the deep roots of what needs reform. His book, inspired me way back in 2006. His 2015 update is . In his seminar on he called for deepening our theological and spiritual understanding to sustain our advocacy and work on climate issues.

• Last, but probably first in terms of causes. Thom Hartmann advocates under the UU resolution, A campaign to amend the constitution is obviously a major challenge but Hartmann argues that getting rich special interests and their money out of US politics is critical for social justice. Without this, he says, nothing in the public interest, nationally or internationally, will be fully embraced by our political leaders. This is a cross-party that UUs are actively engaged in to get reform. Thom emphasizes that UUs must not ignore or bypass politics.

My last words. I hope I’ve shown that achieving social justice through radical institutional makeovers is a much more complex challenge than good works or charity, but that UUs seem to be rising to the challenge. The GA experience inspired me to believe that there is a swell of people, UUs and others, who are committed to social justice across the world. I now pray for the optimism that our transcendentalist forefather, Theodore Parker, had. I end with his famous words.

Time for our community dialogue.