One fateful day about six years ago, an obscure county election supervisor in Palm Beach, Florida gave her final approval to print the ballots for the elections that fall. No user testing of the ballot was done, but what would it matter? That one county ballot was only a tiny part of the nationwide election system, and most national elections don’t hinge on one local ballot design.
But this one did. The ballot in question was the infamous "butterfly ballot", on which the second presidential candidate’s name was aligned with the third hole down the middle of the page. The quirky, confusing way this ballot was designed cost Democratic candidate Al Gore several thousand votes in Florida, making it possible for Republican candidate George Bush to become President. The course of history from that day on was changed as a result, affecting the lives and fortunes of millions of people around the world. (You could also say that the incident gave a new meaning to the concept of the "butterfly effect" in scientific chaos theory.)
Just suppose that ballot had been user-tested and more carefully designed. What would be different? How many of those who have died in Iraq might still be alive today, for example? There is no way to know exactly how the world would be different, for better or for worse, but we would undoubtedly live in a different world today.
I bring up this example not in order to dredge up painful memories for some of you or to blame the fate of the world on some poor election supervisor in Florida. The 2000 election hinged on many other factors as well, any one of which might have altered its outcome. My point is just to remind us that small changes can sometimes have a big effect. We all play a part in the wider world around us, and we should never assume that what we do doesn’t make a difference. From the conversion of Constantine to the refusal of Rosa Parks to move to the back of the bus, history is full of examples where one person or one moment has changed the course of the world, for ill or for good. Even when the effects are on a smaller scale, each of us matters enormously to the lives we touch each day. The well-being of our families, our congregations, and the wider society in which we live all depend upon each of us doing our part.
No place illustrates the value of doing our part better than right here at JUC. Nearly everyone here volunteers in some way at some time to help this community become a better place. And JUC does its part in the work of social justice to transform the world outside our walls as well as any congregation I have seen. There is always room to improve, of course, but I feel very fortunate to be here surrounded by so many people who care passionately about the world we live in, and who show it with their actions. Just this past Thursday, five members of our staff delivered two and a half thousand dollars from the Easter collection to the Jeffco Action Center, where we toured the facility and learned some things about the challenges of addressing poverty right here in Jefferson County. And that wasn’t the whole Easter collection, either. This congregation’s generosity provided almost $1,700 to the Interfaith Hospitality Network (or IHN) as well. And that’s on top of the seventy or so volunteers who work with IHN to host homeless families here at the church for a week every three months.
IHN is also just one of several task forces at JUC working on different aspects of social responsibility from local to global concerns. After the service today, there will be a social justice fair out on the patio where you can meet the proposed task forces for the upcoming fiscal year and learn more about what they do. At the congregational meeting in two weeks, the congregation will be asked to endorse these task forces for the next year. There are also forms in your order of service today that you can drop in the collection plate or take to any of the tables on the patio to indicate your interest in getting information or volunteering with any of the task forces. The task force process is a little different this year from last year, and not all of us are equally familiar with all the social responsibility programs at JUC, so I’d like to give a little more background and help paint a fuller picture of what doing our part for social responsibility looks like at JUC.
Just as the design of the butterfly ballot affected the outcome of that election, the design of a system can affect how well it works. Part of why JUC has been so successful in mobilizing so many volunteers, for example, has been the structure of the Foundations of Fellowship program and the fact that the church created positions to use the talents of people like Annie Hedberg and Dea Brayden to encourage volunteering. In JUC’s social justice work, our primary structure was designed by Dick Gilbert, a former interim minister here and author of "The Prophetic Imperative," the source of our reading today. His model is sometimes called the Rochester model because he used it for many years in Rochester, NY. It is designed to build on the iniative of members who have a passion for social justice, while avoiding fragmentation through a coordinating council. He emphasizes doing a range of different kinds of justice work, from hands-on service to discourse on moral and social issues to legislative and community action. I have only been here part-time for the past two years, after this model was adopted at JUC, so I can’t take credit for its design, but I have been glad to get to be a part of it.
At JUC, our coordinating group is the Social Responsibility Council (or SRC), which is made up of representatives from each task force along with five volunteer officers who do not represent any one task force. Our chair this year is Dee Ray, who lit the chalice this morning. The task forces are approved by the congregation each year, authorizing their work and allowing them to received budgeted funds. The SRC allocates the funds that are available to the task forces, and can shift funds within the SRC budget if needs change during the year. This is part of why the vote to approve task forces does not include a dollar amount for each one.
Applications for creating or renewing a task force go to the SRC each spring, including plans for the year and an estimate of funds needed. Any group of five or more committed members can submit a task force application. So if you want to see something that isn’t happening here, form a group and go for it! The SRC reviews applications, decides to submit task forces to the congregation for approval, and submits an overall SRC budget request.
There will be six task forces up for approval at the congregational meeting in two weeks. Three of them are tied to specific partner organizations outside JUC. The IHN Task Force is chaired by Martha Sider, coordinating our partnership with the Interfaith Hospitality Network and our quarterly hosting of homeless families in the Mills Building. The UUSC Task Force, chaired by Jim Bole, coordinates our partership with the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, which addresses social justice and human rights issues in the U.S. and around the world. This task force sponsors educational events, Guest at Your Table, fair trade coffee sales and much more. The Family Tree Task Force, chaired by Judy Nicholaisen, organizes our Christmas gifts for needy families each year and other projects with the local Family Tree organization.
Three of the task forces are more broadly issue-based. The Peace, Liberty and Justice Task Force, chaired by Dick Krepel, is the new name of what was the JUUST Peace and Democracy Task Force. (This makes three different names in three years, by the way, and I’m just sure it will get abbreviated to the PLJ Task Force, so don’t worry if you’re confused. They still do good work.) This group coordinates a wide array of peace and social justice advocacy projects, petitions and letter-writing campaigns, visits to the legislature, educational forums, participation in rallies and other public events, and voter registration. The Bake Sale for Body Armor project they supported just this week raised $3,500 to protect our men and women in the war, including Gaye Lowe-Kaplan’s son Andy. This task force also will maintain our relationship with the Interfaith Alliance of Colorado [TIA-CO], which had been done through a separate task force this past year.
The Green Sanctuary Task Force works on a wide range of environmental projects and issues, from the recycling guide in your Order of Service this morning to an ambitious project helping us do our part to reduce carbon emissions. Thanks to the work of this task force, JUC is about to be officially recognized as a Green Sanctuary congregation. The congregation will be asked to vote to recognize this achievement in two weeks.
Our newest task force is the Gay Straight Alliance, chaired by Tom Roberts. It brings together efforts that have already been going on at JUC to build on our commitments as a Welcoming Congregation for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered persons. It will also continue educational efforts that have occurred through a group called InqUUeery, and work on outreach to the wider community, including participation in the Gay Pride weekend in June.
You can learn more about all of these task forces after the service out on the patio. These task forces are at the heart of JUC’s social responsibility commitment, but they are not the sum total of social justice work in this congregation. The SRC itself can conduct some projects, and it adopted an overarching theme for this past year of "Poverty: Doing Our Part." The SRC may continue this theme into next year or consider a shift in focus. An SRC-sponsored conference was held on this theme in March with Johanna Chao Rittenburg from the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee as the lead presenter. The SRC is looking at a social justice film series, and the SRC also approves smaller or shorter-term projects, some of which are quite significant efforts in their own right, such as the Heifer project run by our youth, the Knitting Project with Diana Marlowe-Newman, and the coat drive with David Douglass. Our support of Habitat for Humanity through Jeffco Partners, including the annual pumpkin patch, will probably continue as a project rather than a task force this year as that interfaith group reorganizes. (You can ask Judy Douglass for more information on that.)
The SRC is also proposing two resolutions for adoption at our congregational meeting this year, one supporting gay marriage or domestic partnership rights and one in support of raising the minimum wage in Colorado, something that 18 states have already done. These are in line with what Dick Gilbert calls "social witness." In both cases, there will be ballot initiatives on these issues this fall, and they tie in with denominational priorities and core commitments we have made at JUC as a Welcoming Congregation and through our theme of addressing poverty. I should point out that under the law, churches are not allowed to endorse or contribute to political parties or campaigns for office, but we can work within limits on legislation or ballot initiatives such as these.
Any congregational resolutions should have substantial majority support in the congregation, but they do not have to be unanimous, or else we would rarely take any positions of significance. There should always be respect for dissent and opportunities for differing voices to be heard. For these two resolutions, there will be discussion sessions this Wednesday evening and next Sunday after services end. You can also contact me with any questions or concerns.
Now, even this is not all of what happens at JUC around social justice. We also have the Taguchi Social Action Fund, thanks to Jim and Til Taguchi, which makes special grants to advance social justice work at JUC. We have Social Action Sundays in the Religious Education program, Continuing Education programs on social justice themes, and a liaison between Religious Education and the SRC, currently Lora Eiswerth-Cox. There is a socially responsible investing group, and we have several special collections and fundraisers in response to needs outside our walls. Last year we gave away approximately $60,000 in total–almost $20,000 for Hurricane Katrina relief alone. And my own position as Minister of Social Responsibility is a demonstration of this congregation’s commitment to social justice.
Social justice themes also find their way into everything from worship and music to the endowment fund, denominational affairs and family support. As I see it, even pastoral care is closely akin to social responsibility. It’s all about caring for one another both within and outside our walls. Our emergency fund for members is really another form of social action. One of my own charges has been to facilitate the integration of social justice into the life of the community, not as some extra activity on the side, but as a core part of who we are and what we do.
That doesn’t mean all we do should be about social justice. Music and worship, spiritual growth and learning, religious education for adults and children, social gatherings and pastoral care are all important in their own right. But we would not truly be UU if social justice were completely missing from the picture.
Why is social responsibility so central to who we are? We don’t rely upon a heavenly realm for salvation or upon divine intervention to rescue our world. We are open to the mysteries of the universe, but we take responsibility for our lives and our world here and now. We cherish our planet and understand ourselves as part of the web of life. Our principles call us to compassion and justice, and when we respond, we find meaning and hope and spiritual growth in our lives. When we join together, we can make more of a difference, and our collective voice is needed in this world more than ever. Unitarian Universalism as a whole has a unique part to play as a champion for issues that deeply divide many other religious groups, or that they are afraid to touch, such as full human rights for persons of all sexual identities and orientations.
JUC also has an important role to play within Unitarian Universalism. As the largest congregation in this district, and one of the fastest-growing in the country, doing our part means accepting our leadership responsibilities. We should join where we fruitfully can with other UU congregations in our area and with other leading congregations in social justice in our movement such as in Portland, Oregon.
And here at JUC, what does it mean for each of us individually to do our part? Think what you care about and what skills you may have to share. Anything from arranging chairs to graphic design can make a difference–after all, what was the butterfly ballot disaster but a failure of practical detail and graphic design? Many of us do a great deal outside of this congregation, which should be recognized and celebrated as we are able. At the same time, we share responsibility for the health of this congregation, including its social justice work. We all have different life circumstances, and there is no one way of being involved that is required of any of us. It is perfectly legitimate to pull back or seek to meet other needs as our lives demand, and only you know what doing your part in social responsibility looks like. We do need to cut each other some slack, and you’ll hear more from Peter on that next week.
But the tools are here for getting involved, and I hope you’ll think about it if you haven’t already. The SRC and task force meetings are open, and my own door is open, too. You can find the SRC on the JUC web page under the Programs tab. The SRC and many of the task forces have e-mail lists, and you are welcome to sign up for them. Ask at the tables on the patio after the service. Or mark the form in your Order of Service and drop it in the collection plate. There are many specific volunteer opportunities, and you can always try to pull people together to start something new yourself. You can also give feedback and critiques, because there is always room to improve what we do and how we do it. And thank yous are always welcome to the people who give so much of their time and resources here for the sake of the world around us.
We can’t always predict what the outcomes of our efforts will be, but in the world as it is today, we can’t afford to just deny, complain, or sit back and watch. Small actions sometimes do make a big difference. Volunteering, speaking out and voting can all make a difference. I saw it just last month at my second job up in Summit County, where the past President of that congregation was just elected to the Silverthorne town council by a margin of exactly one vote. Yes, it really can happen.
I believe our country and our world face tipping points on many fronts. Our democracy and our civil rights are in danger, but we have not lost them yet. Our planet is in danger, but we have not yet destroyed its capacity to sustain life. The hope of peace and of greater economic justice in our world is in great danger, but all hope is not yet gone. Who knows what action or what person may help tip the balance? Maybe it will be you.
May it be so.
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