About the Campaign

UU activists from Standing on the Side of Love and the UU Service Committee demonstrate at the San Antonio ICE Center (TX)

Sanctuary

From Love Resists

As people of conscience, we declare our commitment to translate our values into action as we stand on the side of love with the most vulnerable among us. Find how you can act in solidarity by promoting sanctuary, safe spaces for people under threat. Ways to Expand Sanctuary Sanctuary Policies...

Expanding Sanctuary

The Love Resists Campaign is activating people of faith and conscience to resist the criminalization of our neighbors and communities, and create a safer, more just, welcoming, and sustainable world. The campaign offers a prophetic approach to responding to this political moment in the United States, helping to build the wider movement of resistance. That approach includes powerful principles to ground your justice work which, together, help us live up to who our values and principles call us to be - expand sanctuary, grow solidarity, raising your voice.

Campaign Principles

  1. Expand Sanctuary - Help to create safe spaces for people who are under threat through advocating for sanctuary policies, supporting sanctuary communities, and offering physical sanctuary.
  2. Grow Solidarity - Keep partnerships and relationships, especially those with communities who are under greatest threat, at the center of justice work by connecting with wider movement opportunities and events, such as the May 1 Day of Action. The campaign is also offering in-depth financial and technical support to key investment cities and communities.
  3. Raise Your Voice – It is time to be public in our values and principles, showing up as “the love people”, by signing the Declaration of Conscience and strengthening our faithful voices. We need radical truth telling to shift the public narrative towards justice and compassion.

To get involved in this campaign:

  • Get monthly email updates with unique training and connection opportunities, including monthly Conscience Calls and skill-based webinars.
  • Download sanctuary and solidarity tools and resources on this site.
  • Take action for sanctuary and solidarity in your community.

Campaign Values

  • Partnership - working directly with people who are most affected and most at risk of violence or harm.
  • Humility – taking the lead from those most affected and most at risk.
  • Transformation - aiming to be transformational and long-lasting, not simply reactive.
  • Spirit - grounding the actions we take in our faithful roots, taking stances that are spiritually- and ethically-based.
  • Intersectionality - connecting different struggles against injustice and oppression while recognizing their unique interplay.
  • Liberation - dismantling of white supremacy to contribute to our collective liberation.
  • Interdependence - honoring the sacred interdependence of all life.

How the campaign got started

In the wake of the 2016 election results and then President-elect Trump’s "law and order" agenda to deport millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States, Unitarian Universalists (UU) across the country began to come together and search for a way to respond.

Based on conversations with communities and partners across the country, and those most likely to face looming threats, the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) recognized that these extraordinary times demanded unprecedented coordination between these two national UU organizations. A joint campaign emerged that was united in purpose to protect both the values of our democracy and the humanity and rights of individuals and communities most at risk.

Love Resists was born out of this sense of urgency and need for vigilance. Soon, over 15,000 individuals across the country had signed the campaign’s Declaration of Conscience, pledging to stand on the side of love, protect the most vulnerable among us, and defend core values that are under attack, committing themselves to speak out and to act in support of basic human rights.

By engaging UU and other supportive leaders to raise their voices against racism, xenophobia, bigotry and injustice, Love Resists is helping people of faith and conscience following the lead of partners who are expanding the concept of “sanctuary” across the country, making our shared communities safer for all of us, in particular for those who are most at risk. The campaign activates people of faith and conscience and build a base of power to advance its mission of resisting the harm inflicted by criminalization to create safer, more just, welcoming, and sustainable communities.

Campaign Sponsors

Love Resists is powered by the following organizations and programs:

Unitarian Universalist Association

The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) is the central organization for the Unitarian Universalist Association religious movement. Its more than 1,000 independent member congregations commit to advancing the Seven Principles that include the worth of each person, the need for justice and compassion, and the right to choose one’s own beliefs. The UUA helps UU congregations thrive and promotes the values of Unitarian Universalism by connecting congregations and communities, developing and credentialing leaders, publishing books, magazines and curricula, offering trainings and events, and acting as a voice for justice in the world.

Unitarian Universalist Service Committee

Founded in 1940, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) advances human rights through grassroots collaboration. In more than a dozen countries throughout the world, UUSC fosters social justice and works toward a world free from oppression. UUSC’s innovative approaches and measurable impact — in promoting economic justice, bolstering environmental justice, and protecting rights at risk — are grounded in the belief that all people have inherent power, dignity, and rights.

Unitarian Universalist College of Social Justice

The UU College of Social Justice (UUCSJ) offers immersion learning journeys, justice training programs, summer internships, and direct volunteer opportunities with partner organizations in the U.S. and abroad. All programs are designed to help people cross boundaries, gain insight, and imagine new ways to make a difference in the world. The UUCSJ was created in 2012 as a collaboration between the UUA and the UUSC with the mission of inspiring and sustaining effective and spiritually grounded activism for justice.

Side with Love

Side with Love is an open-source campaign that harnesses love’s power to stop oppression. With the goal of creating beloved community, the campaign pursues social change through advocacy, public witness, and speaking out in solidarity with those whose lives are publicly demeaned. The campaign’s core issues of focus include, but are not limited to: LGBTQ equity, immigrant justice, racial justice and intersectional movement building. Side with Love is a program of the UUA.

Supporting Organizations

Unitarian Universalist Refugee and Immigration Services and Education

UU Refugee and Immigrant Services and Education (UURISE) is a non-profit organization incorporated in 2007 to empower immigrants and refugees in the U.S. by offering direct legal services, particularly to those who have few resources to obtain legal assistance. UURISE is founded on and grounded in Unitarian Universalist principles which include a passionate vision to affirm and promote “a respect for the inherent worth and dignity of every person.”

Coalition of Unitarian Universalist State Action Networks

The Coalition of Unitarian Universalists State Action Networks (CUUSAN) includes 22 local Networks led by UUs who believe that sustained, positive change is built through the work of organized activists with the courage to challenge and confront oppression. Networks seek to build our faith and give voice to Unitarian Universalist Principles in the public arena. Many Networks are currently engaged in expanding sanctuary work.