Philosophy/Approach
I believe with passion that faith is a verb and that how we make our faith real is to take it into the streets as well as into the halls of our state legislatures, our county courthouses and other places where we negotiate our common destiny.
Our justice-making efforts need to address both the need for alleviating the suffering caused by inadequate public policies while also working on the systemic aspects of those policies. For example, at both congregations I have served, we have introduced a rotating homeless shelter into the annual mix. These shelters provide important immediate relief for the homeless while we also work to change the attitudes and laws and lack of public resources which keep people homeless.
As one with degrees in journalism and public policy, I have an eye for news-making and also the ability to discern how best we can use our limited resources in effective justice-making. At both TJMC-UU and MDUUC, we adopted a social justice council system as well as policies on public witness which allowed greater effectiveness in this critical area.
An emerging area which I am eager to explore is how to serve the desire of families to have multigenerational opportunities for justice making. With limited time and very demanding schedules, contemporary families are looking for ways to learn and work together as families. At MDUUC, we have begun to identify leadership for this important new way of addressing social justice.
