Faith in Action

Faith in Action encompases First Universalist's social justice initiatives and programming.

Our Core Values

We affirm seven principles, including four that most directly bear on social justice:

  • The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
  • Justice, equity, and compassion in human relations;
  • The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all; and
  • Respect for the interdependent web of all existence.

These principles and our living tradition of shared ministry call us as individuals and as a church body to actively promote justice in the world, in our work, and in our personal lives.

5 Approaches to Social Justice

We approach social justice through the framework highlighted in “The Prophetic Imperative” by Unitarian Universalist Minister Richard S. Gilbert.  Our goal is to have efforts that represent each of the different approaches.

  • Social Service: The focus is on a need, often immediate and involving few people. 
    Examples: Homeless shelter, Food bank, Emergency Services.
  • Education: The focus is in changing what people know or do.  Sometimes it deepens our understanding of social problems, sometimes its focused on educating people to do things in  different ways. 
    Examples: Forums, Cultural events.   
  • Witnessing and Advocacy:  Make the problem or issue public by word or deed. 
    Examples: Propose laws on behalf of the ill, “Guardian ad litum” for children.  
  • Mobilizing: Generate interest and impact by getting people to show up.  In mobilizing it’s the number that counts. Mobilizing is considered a social change approach. To be most effective, mobilizing is used as part of an organizing plan. 
    Examples: Protests, Marches, Rallies.
  • Organizing: The people who have the problem lead the action to solve it. Leadership development is key – if you’re not constantly developing leaders you are not organizing. Organizing is social change because the focus is on asking “Why” to ascertain the root causes of the problem.  Examples:  Jobs for Janitors campaign run by janitors, Immigration reform shaped by the immigrants.  

Here is an example of the differences:  

Suppose you encountered a situation in which there were a large number of homeless people in your community.

  • If you went out and started convincing neighborhood religious institutions to put cots in their basements for the homeless, that would be service.
  • If you started a study about the causes of homelessness and how it was dealt with in other   cities and then distributed the information, that would be education.
  • If you went down to City Hall to lobby to get the city to open shelters that would be advocacy.
  • If you marched downtown to protest the lack of   shelters that would be mobilizing.
  • If you started talking to homeless people and brought them together to decide on the solutions they wanted and to pressure the city on those   solutions it would be organizing.