Local and Global Justice...

Last Sunday was Justice Sunday for UU congregations around the country. I collaborated with the chair of our Social Action Committee (in Chester, VT) to offer a service that focused on Local and Global actions we can take. The Local action came in the form of offering people the opportunity to purchase Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs to reduce their energy bill and to "green" their homes. A member of the congregation agreed to purchase light bulbs for the 14 lights that illuminate our sanctuary. We can be more environmentally conscious, more green on a local level; right here in our sanctuaries, in our houses. We can buy bulbs that will allow us to decrease our energy use now. Education, worship, community connections and physical changes, all important steps we can take together. Every step we take matters.

Our Global Action was to unite with congregations around the country to highlight and take action toward reducing the violence and devastation in Darfur. As Unitarian Universalists today, ministry has become interwoven with social action and truly living into our principles. I was with a local minister last week and he shared that three years ago, ending the violence in Darfur was the one issue that the fifteen clergy there could agree on. It went beyond differences in theology and belief. They sent a letter to their local newspaper signed by clergy from all denominations and traditions. This was three years ago. We need those letters now. The killing hasn’t stopped in Darfur; it has increased in the past year.

This is a report from the organization, Human Rights Watch. (http://www.hrw.org/) “Since early 2003, Sudanese government forces and ethnic militia called “Janjaweed” have engaged in an armed conflict with rebel groups called the Sudanese Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). As part of its operations against the rebels, government forces have waged a systematic campaign of “ethnic cleansing” against the civilian population who are members of the same ethnic groups as the rebels. Sudanese government forces and the Janjaweed militias burned and destroyed hundreds of villages, killed and caused the deaths of at least 200,000 people, and raped and assaulted thousands of women and girls. As of January 2007, approximately two million displaced people live in camps in Darfur and at least 232,000 people have fled to neighboring Chad, where they live in refugee camps."

I realize that this information is sobering and terrible to hear but we are being asked as people of faith, people who are committed to social justice, to equality, to furthering peace in areas of violence, to do something. We are being asked to write letters to our legislators, to the current administration so that the situation in Darfur is not forgotten. We need to educate ourselves and others about the situation that has meant 200,000 deaths and millions of displaced people so that the violence can end. We need to ask ourselves why we aren’t reading about Darfur in our newspapers, why aren’t we hearing more about this situation, this place in the world?

But there is hope in this story. The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (http://www.uusc.org/) is part of the Save Darfur Coalition, an alliance of 167 faith-based, advocacy, and humanitarian organizations pressing for a stronger, international peacekeeping force to stop the genocide that already has claimed more than 200,000 lives and displaced 2.5 million people. The Million Voices for Darfur campaign delivered 1 million postcards to President Bush last May as a common voice in saying, the violence in Darfur must end. Together we are making a difference. President of the UUSC, Charlie Clements: “When a million people from across the country can speak with one voice on this issue, it sends a powerful message. But we must acknowledge that much more work needs to be done to reach our ultimate goal of ending the genocide in Darfur and bringing peace to the region.”

Justice means that we need to keep the chalice of hope lit, even if it is a small chalice and we are but a few voices. We are not alone. There are thousands of Unitarian Universalists learning about the devastation and violence in Darfur and taking action. We are holding this pain together. And we are going to take action together. We are individuals committed to having less violence and more justice in the world, as people who know that a letter to the editor, to our representatives does matter. It is difficult to be working on all fronts at the same time and keeping the global world and our local one in our minds and hearts but there isn’t a choice. We have to live into our commitment to being religious liberals. It is the realization that we have no choice but to promote justice.
Action Steps We can take:
Go to the UU Service Committee web site link
http://www.uusc.org/news/alert020607.html
there are ways to call your representatives and encourage divestment, push for a UN peacekeeping force and increase awareness.

When I was in college, some of us knew that we needed to work to push the university to divest from South Africa because we knew that the system of apartheid had to end. We new that even though we were a group of white college students in New Hampshire, far from the towns and roads and struggles of African peoples, and people of color across the planet, we had to at least make the effort. Just our university divesting wasn’t going to stop the system of apartheid. But if enough universities and corporations divested, then it would make a difference. The government would have to respond. And they did. There is a call for companies to divest from Sudan in order to pressure the government, in order to shine a global light on the situation. Millions of people died in the concentration camps during World War II. 800,000 people died during the crisis in Rwanda. 200,000 people have died in Darfur. We know the words that need to be said and the actions that need to be taken. Justice Sunday is a way for UU congregations to come together and be united around a common issue of concern. It is a reminder that we are not alone in this step by step process of changing the world. It is hard to do these actions ourselves and feel like they will really make a difference, really save any lives. They are bound to. One more step, we will take one more step. One more prayer, we will say one more prayer, one more song, we will sing one more song until every song is heard by everyone we will sing one more song. The light is shining in the darkness and will not be overcome. May it be ever so.