It’s been a busy year for justice-making and the work continues.
We are excited to announce a $4k Matching Grant Challenge. The Unitarian Universalist Funding Program will match all contributions to MUUSJN up to a total of $4,000. Your support will go twice as far in creating positive change!
Donate Today. Click here or scan the QR Code, then click the Donate button to pay via PayPal or credit or debit card.
Spread the word: Help us reach our match goal by sharing this challenge with fellow members of your faith community and justice loving family, colleagues and friends. Post on your social media to rally your network.
Thank you for being a driving force in the fight for justice.
Together we can do great things!
Whether you and your congregation are new to the process of becoming welcoming or if you have been inclusive for many years, this day-long conference is for you. Whether you barely tune in to the news or are a news junky, this conference will give you what you need to be informed on current concerns that have a direct impact on the congregations we serve. This is the conversation you’ve been waiting for!
“Pursuing Inclusive Justice: Crisis of the Moment, Impact for the Movement” is an opportunity to connect with other progressive religious leaders throughout the state to build strategy and network on issues that threaten to divide congregations and strip fundamental rights from targeted communities. Inclusive Justice of Michigan is a coalition of welcoming congregations dedicated to improving inclusion to LGBTQ individuals and families. Michigan Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Network (MUUSJN) is a statewide network of UU congregations and allies who work together to create a more just and caring world.
This will be a hybrid conference – both in person and online. Our Keynote Presenter will be Rabbi Alana Chaya Alpert (she/her) of Congregation T’chiyah and the Founding Director of Detroit Jews for Justice. We will offer workshops on the “Best Practices of Inclusion” and “Pursing Sacred Activism.” Continental breakfast and lunch will be provided. Registration is free for those attending online and $10 per person for our in-person guests (with scholarships available).
Abortion rights were added to the Michigan Constitution last fall.
Now legislators need to protect these rights in 2023
The Michigan Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Network (MUUSJN) and its Interfaith Reproductive Justice Coalition, along with a broad range of organizations such as the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, NARAL and Inclusive Justice, offered their support for the Michigan Reproductive Health Act (RHA) when the Michigan Health Policy Committee met last week on September 21, 2023. The Health Policy Committee gave notice today that it will meet tomorrow morning and the Reproductive Health Act is on their agenda.
So I’m asking for your immediate help of making two phone calls:
to the Committee Clerk and to your State Representative (see above).
(Just leave a message if no one answers the phone.)
Our Coalition believes strongly that all women should be treated with respect and dignity. Their freedom to choose an abortion should not be limited by their income or by policies that reduce access to health care. Here are examples how the RHA will take down barriers to women’s choice that still exist even though abortion rights were added to the Michigan Constitution:
For more information on the Reproductive Health Act, click HERE.
Passage in the House Health Policy Committee is a first step in adopting legislation to assure that Michigan women and their families can exercise their right to accessible, affordable abortions regardless of their income or where they live.
Michigan Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Network (MUUSJN) has been advocating for an increase in the minimum wage in Michigan for several years as part of a MI Time to Care coalition in partnership with the Restaurant Opportunities Center of Michigan and the Economic Justice Alliance of Michigan (EJAM).
Now we need your help!
Collectively, we have been fighting in courts to restore a raise in the minimum wage to about $12/hour and to eliminate the subminimum wage that’s now only $3.84 per hour plus tips. UU’s and other advocates helped collect enough signatures to get this proposal on the ballot in 2018.
However, this proposal was gutted by an “adopt and amend” dirty trick tactic during a lame duck session of the legislature. This case is going to the Michigan Supreme Court this fall.
By sharing real worker’s stories through news media and other media outlets, the MI Time to Care Coalition can increase the urgency of raising the minimum wage. For more information on the campaign to get the minimum wage raised by the Michigan Supreme Court ) click HERE.
BACKGROUND
On Saturday, August 26th, a young man in his 20’s deliberately shot three Black people at a dollar store in Jacksonville, Florida. This young man, according to declarations he sent to his father and swastikas on his AR-15 rifle, indicated that he identified as Nazi who hated Black people. This disgusting racial hatred and the willingness to use violence is a sign there’s a sickness in our society. It deeply violates our religious values of love and respect for the dignity of all people. There are things we can do to address this sickness
Assault weapons are considered to be the weapons of choice of those who wish kill large numbers of people in a short amount of time. As of this August, there were over 470 mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
In Michigan, there has been progress in adopting gun violence prevention laws that some other states would envy: expanding background checks; requiring safe storage of guns; and red flag laws that restrict people who are a danger to themselves and others from having a gun. However, a ban on assault weapons, that has the potential to keep dangerous guns out of the hands of dangerous people. It’s a reform that should be adopted in Michigan and at the national level.
President Joe Biden has repeatedly urged Congress to pass a ban on assault weapons. An assault weapons ban has been adopted in 10 states: Delaware, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Washington and Washington DC. Assault Weapons Ban bills were introduced in both the U.S. House and the Senate in 2023. You are urged to contact Michigan Senators Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow to advocate for passage of S. 25. Along with 41 other senators, they are co-sponsors of this legislation.
Individuals would be allowed to sell existing assault weapons but only after the completion of a Brady Background Check.
The August 8th Michigan primary elections will decide who will serve as a clerk or become a city council member or whether your local school will get funding. Here’s what you can do to learn whether elections are being held in your community and what’s on the ballot:
If you have more questions, you may contact MUUSJN consultant Nomi Joyrich at nomijoyrich@gmail.com
YOU ARE INVITED TO SHARE THIS INFORMATION WITH A FRIEND OR RELATIVE!
Dear Friend,
Last year, MUUSJN, Jews For A Secular Democracy and many other organizations helped Michigan enshrine reproductive rights in the Michigan constitution. Kate Lannamann, a member of MUUSJN’s Interfaith Reproductive Justice Coalition, has been enthusiastic about the work we’re doing in Michigan. She’s President of a Florida Interfaith Coalition for Reproductive Health and Justice AND she’s Board Chair of Southwest and Central Planned Parenthood. Lannamann said, “Florida is following Michigan’s lead by organizing their own reproductive justice ballot proposal.” Let’s lend them a hand!
Like Michigan, Florida’s ballot initiative would enshrine abortion rights in their state constitution. Spearheaded by FPF (Floridians Protecting Freedom), the ballot proposal is titled, “Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion.”
Here’s a summary of this proposal: “No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider.”
It’s bad enough that Florida already has a 15-week limit on legal abortion; if court challenges fail, an even more extreme 6-week ban may take effect.
The Floridians Protecting Freedom campaign needs to get over 900,000 signatures to place this on the ballot. Let’s help Florida secure the same protections that we enjoy in Michigan!
On June 6th the Michigan Senate heard testimony on SB 38 and SB 39, bills to ban the practice of Conversion Therapy. Senator Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal Oak) sponsored these bills.
Advocates testified that Michigan should end this cruel practices of trying to persuade a young person to change their sexual orientation or gender identity. According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, there is no evidence that this practice is effective but there is evidence that it is harmful. The American Journal of Public Health in 2020 found that youth subjected to Conversion Therapy were more than twice a likely to report having attempted suicide in the last year. The Trevor Project, an advocacy group seeking to prevent suicide among LGBTQ+ youth, reported that 14% of Michigan of LGBTQ+ youth in Michigan had been subjected to or threatened with Conversion Therapy.
Rep. Jason Hoskins (D-Southfield), Michigan’s first African American elected to the Michigan legislature, introduced identical bills in the Michigan House. Hoskins said that Conversion Therapy allows “discrimination to flourish” and send a message that “you need to be fixed”.
ACTIONS:
Call your Michigan State Senator. Click HERE to get the phone for your state Senator.
TALKING POINTS:
According to Federal Reserve Secretary Janet Yellen, the U.S. would need to reach an agreement on lifting the debt ceiling by June 1st or else the U.S. would default on its debt. Exploiting this routine vote to pay the bills, the House last week passed a FY 2024 budget that cuts domestic spending for human needs and community concerns by 22%. The proposal would also limit future spending to only 1% a year for 10 years. The budget assumes no cuts in Pentagon spending. President Biden’s FY 2024 budget proposes reducing the deficit by nearly $3 trillion by requiringg wealthy and big corporations to pay their fair share.
Here are examples of what the impact of 22 percent cuts in the federal budget would be based on analysis of Shalanda Young, Director of the Office of Management and budget:
These cuts are unacceptable! For information on what President Biden recently said about next steps toward addressing this budget impass, click HERE
Tell our Senators to reject these proposals for cuts, caps and eligibility changes in domestic and community spending. Urge them to support Biden’s proposal to require higher income people pay their fair share.
Michigan UU Social Justice Network (MUUSJN) is co-sponsoring this special program hosted by Jews for a Secular Democracy and several other groups.
Separation of church and state has always been an important issue. Sadly, women, LGBTQ+ people and people from many different races and cultures have been denied their dignity and their rights in the name of religion.
MUUSJN, Inclusive Justice and Jews for a Secular Democracy filed an amicus brief last fall that said that one religion should not force their beliefs and practices on other people. For more discussion on separation of church and state in Michigan, sign up to be present in person or on- line next Saturday April 29th at 7 p.m.
