Economic Justice
“We tend to treat changes in the economy as if they were like the weather—natural phenomena governed by forces beyond our control. Nothing could be further from the truth. We have chosen to live in a society with high unemployment and with income distribution that is becoming medieval. A tiny percentage of Americans owns most of the wealth. Meanwhile millions of willing and able people are without work. This did not just happen. We created this situation.”
—UUA President Rev. Peter Morales statement ‘Unemployment as a Spiritual Issue’
Faith Advocates for Jobs
Interfaith Worker Justice, a coalition partner of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), is organizing with the faith community to address the most damaging social crisis of our lifetimes: the crisis of unemployment. While there are some signs of a return to profitability for certain sectors of business, workers continue to face unemployment and underemployment at levels not seen since the Great Depression.
Faith Advocates for Jobs is a major new interfaith campaign initiated by Interfaith Worker Justice to address the severe suffering being endured by millions of unemployed workers. The campaign is organizing a nationwide network of congregations committed to supporting the unemployed and their families both spiritually and materially.
Will yours be one of those congregations? Learn more and sign up for a congregational toolkit, worship resources, timely information and more.
Read about First Unitarian Church of Portland, OR participation in the campaign.
Unitarian Universalists and Economic Justice
As people of faith who believe in the inherent worth of every person, Unitarian Universalists (UUs) strive for justice, equity and compassion in our relationships, and work for systemic change in our advocacy. Unitarian Universalists, following the prophetic leadership of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., recognize that racial and economic justice are inextricably linked. Dr. King said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Most people remember the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom as the occasion where King gave his famous 'I Have a Dream' address. A key demand of the march was for a national minimum wage act that would give all Americans a decent standard of living. Certainly, Dr. King did not dream that the value of the minimum wage would be lower today than it was in 1963.
Today African-Americans and Latinos are suffering disastrously high unemployment rates in this current economic crisis. See Economic Policy Institute (EPI) October 2011 reports.
Interfaith Organizing
Many UU congregations are successfully pursuing their economic justice ministries through engagement in:
- Congregation-Based Community Organizing (CBCO)
- Socially Responsible Investing (SRI)
- Interfaith Worker Justice
UUA Policy
See Working for a Just Economic Community, 1997 General Resolution as well as other UUA statements on economic justice.
Related Issues
For more information contact socialjustice@uua.org.
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Last updated on Friday, March 30, 2012.
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