2910 East Morgan Evansville, IN  47711 (812) 474-1704

Last week we talked about things we were thankful for and reasons why we don’t say thank you. One suggestion I made was that in today’s culture we are often so removed from the people who do things for us that it is difficult to know who to thank.

For instance when the material for our clothes comes from the United States but it is put together in Peru or India – who are we to thank? What exactly are we to be thankful for and how can we express that thanks?

I think we are to be thankful for the accident of birth which landed us in the United States and not Afghanistan or Bosnia or the Congo. In other cultures there is a sense that one should give back to the community. It is also one of the gospel messages that more is required from those who have more. Historically, justice making was also important to humanists.

No matter what your faith stance the sense that one should be aware and thankful and that gratitude would incline one to be generous with others is an important belief.

So how can we express our thanks?

First of all – I think we can open our eyes to the effects on others of our way of life. It is understandable but not acceptable that in this day and age one could believe that our way of life does not impact others on this planet. Many of us have access to the internet, all of us can read.

For starters read – Barbara Ehrenrich’s book Nickel and Dimed. On (not) Getting By in America. And why that book? Because in this country and I think particularly in this community the number of working poor is increasing. We were raised to believe that if we worked hard we would be okay financially but in today’s economy this is not true. We must disabuse ourselves of that cherished belief. The Evansville job market provides increasing number of service jobs – Walmarts, Targets, and chain restaurants. Barbara’s book is her experience in working in these types of places.  

What else can you do?

You could try an immersion experience. I would like us to think about a church trip to Texas or N. Mexico for a border awareness experience and/or taking part in a UUSC work camp.  Or perhaps we could just visit with folks in Evansville who are among the working poor, or the S.American immigrants who are around and trying to work.    

 Second, we can take an active role in trying to improve the world around us. There are many ways you can take part. You could look into the UU organization UU’s for a Just Economic Community or invest your money in a socially responsible way. And most conveniently you can take part in two justice activities which are happening right here in this church.  

The first is CAJE.

CAJE is the acronym for congregations acting for justice and empowerment. It is a local organization which I helped to start 2 yrs ago. In two years we have written grants and raised enough money to hire an organizer and fund our startup costs, as well as promoted the group in the community and had 7 churches including ours join together.

Congregational based community organizing differs a bit from issue organizing with which you are most familiar. In issue organizing somebody comes up to you with an idea and asks you to endorse it or get involved.

In CBCO – the basic group is the congregation and the idea is that each congregation has a team like a phone tree. The team leaders have people they stay in contact with and their contacts stay in contact with others. When it functions well this provides a great foundation in a congregation for keeping in contact with folks and knowing what is going on and what folks are thinking. The point really is relationship building. And out of those relationships it is believed we can find out what problems need to be solved. And then all the other congregations who are part of the CBCO are doing the same thing – strengthening their congregations and also forming an organization of congregations which can come to each others aid and also can work together to help the community tackle problems that require a large number of people.

The organization has the mission of working for justice and by empowering people to identify justice issues, and training them in leadership how to work together to solve their problems.

Once things get up and running the organization has a yearly cycle – a listening phase to find out what to work on – a research phase to figure out how to tackle a problem and then an action day when a large number of people turn out to request/ demand that public officials take a particular action. Following the action the group does fund raising (by going to businesses to raise money) and then celebrates the action and fund raising with a party. Then it beings again, listening, research, action, fund raising, celebration.

Last summer we had our first listening phase.  Members of each congregation were trained and then made attempts to meet with other members of the congregation to get to know them and to find out what they thought were important problems in Evansville. Jan Steinmark, Kristen Simms, Nancy Higgs, Kate Sherrill and I were the listening team for this congregation.  It was interesting to me that most folks did not know what might be problematic.

When this process was done we brought congregations together to vote on what might be the most important things to work on. The gathered group voted to look into issues related to housing, healthcare and education.

Next groups formed to research each of these areas. Members from our congregation are working on Healthcare. Kristen Simms, John Schaeffer, and Ellie Boddie are all on that team. 

The Healthcare team is researching dental care for the indigent. Did you know that out of 200 dentists practicing in Evansville only 11 take Medicare? This group is now looking at what other programs have been tried before in Evansville and why they failed, to try and come up with another proposal.

The Education team has decided to work on the achievement gap which exists in Evansville in the various public schools. They are now looking into various methods and programs which work in other school systems to try and decide on what they might recommend.

The Housing group is looking into code enforcement. They started with a concern about houses and apt. being kept up and found out there are very few people in Evansville whose job it is to deal with this and very little funding. The staff can’t be proactive and can barely even deal with problems brought to there attention. Next the group looked at other cities of the same size as Evansville and also located in the Midwest to see what they are doing. Now they are deciding on a proposal and researching what it might cost and how it might be funded.

In February CAJE will hold an action. That means we will invite the people who can make decisions on education, code enforcement and healthcare to a meeting where we will present our recommendations and ask them to take action.

This is democracy in action. At that meeting we want to have 500 people who will come and fill the room so that the responsible people will realize that there are people who care about what they say and do.

On that night in February I would like to see all of you there and I would like you all to bring a friend, or a relative or a neighbor – someone who is not a member of this congregation with you. When the count is taken of how many people are there from the UU church – I want it to be substantial.

I am asking each of you to give one night of the year to stand up on someone else’s behalf.  So go home and pencil in BUSY on the Monday nights in Feb. that way you will have the date reserved for CAGE and 3 nights for yourselves. 

I am also requesting a second commitment from you. And that is the commitment to send an amnesty letter each month.

-  Amnesty Letters

If you missed my sermon on Amnesty International – here is the short form – Amnesty International is a group which works for human rights world wide. They are constantly monitoring human rights abuses and they make these public and ask that people respond by writing a letter to the person who can right the wrong. For example – someone disappears in Venezuela and there family is threatened when they try to look into it. Amnesty will provide the information about the situation and the address of the chief of police/ and the president or the ambassador to the country – whoever they determine can have an effect on the situation. Then you write a letter. And we have started a Freedom writers group here - one Sunday a month for one dollar you get a copy of a letter, an envelope and the international postage necessary to mail the letter. You sign the letter, address the envelope and I take them to the post office. It is not a very big request and for 10 minutes a month on your part perhaps a life will be saved.

          Like the Jews – I believe that everything we do matters

          Like the theists – I believe we are the hands of God

And Like the humanists – I believe we are functionally if not ultimately responsible.

For all these reasons I believe that justice making is an important part of religious life and I encourage you to think strongly about how you are living out your faith and what will be your next step.

My prayer this morning is for the willingness to find the next step and the courage to take it.

Amen and May it be so.