Volunteer Before You are Drafted

One of the principle missions of Hope for Peace & Justice is to equip progressive people of faith. We do that in a variety of ways. For example, Lynn Walters, our Director of Programming, offered a class based on Jim Wallis’s new book, The Great Awakening, on Wednesday nights at CoH. It was a great time of education, inspiration and training.

Like many of you, I grew up going to Sunday School and church. This week my mother was talking about her Sunday School class. My father still teaches a class now and then. I wanted to ask them if, after attending Sunday School for 70 years, it wasn’t time to graduate. That is factious, of course. They go mostly for the community, and I admire that they are still learning about their faith. However, if H4PJ’s mission is equipping progressive people of faith it is fair to ask, equipping them for what?

The answer, of course, is that we hope to equip people to be activists in the cause of peace and justice. But just what does that mean? More specifically, what does that mean to, and for, you? Let me offer you my definition of activism.

I know that, like me, your life is full to the brim. With work and church and family, there is hardly any time left to clean the house or wash the laundry. We feel guilty because we don’t write thank you notes or call our aging relatives like we should. Most of us volunteer, but are embarrassed by how little real time we are able to give to the various worthy causes. While most of us aren’t as generous with our money as we could be, it seems easier to give money than to give time.

So, let me offer some simple suggestions for how to be an activist in our frantically busy world:

1. Take five minutes at the beginning or end of your lunch hour to do something for justice. Send an email, write a letter, make a call, talk to a co-worker. Incrementally, we will move our country closer to peace and justice. If we wait to do something major it won’t happen. We will take our country back one inch at a time.
2. Read two nonfiction books a year, or take a class, or attend a training. You don’t have to do it all, but if you do not deliberately do SOMETHING to educate yourself about issues then you will end up doing NOTHING.
3. Give some money. To be honest, H4PJ desperately needs a few more donors. It is impossible to exaggerate how much good we could do if everyone would just commit one percent of their income to peace and justice. You don’t have to give to us; there are lots of other worthy organizations. But do give SOMETHING; otherwise, someone else has to pick up the entire tab for taking back YOUR country.
4. Take a chance and “come out” as a progressive person. You can do it to the stranger sitting next to you on the plane, or a co-worker, or a friend. You don’t have to argue with them; in fact; you should refuse to argue with them. It would be much better if you just told your story about how it feels to be someone who disagrees with Fox News, or your right-wing senator, or the television preachers. Talk about how painful it is to be treated as a stranger in your own homeland, and what it is like when people say things and just assume EVERYONE feels like they do.
5. Vote.

There are lots of other ways to be an activist. What I’m trying to say is that you don’t have to do everything, but you do need to do SOMETHING. Comedian Flip Wilson used to say, “I'm a Jehovah's Bystander. We’re like the Witnesses, only we don't wanna get involved.” Do something and give something, or, by doing/giving nothing, you become a bystander complicit in the wars and lost liberties that have been the legacy of most of this young century.

Blessings,

Michael Piazza
President, Hope for Peace & Justice

The Great Awakening
Join Hope for Peace & Justice in a book study of The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith and Politics in a Post-Religious Right America by Jim Wallis of Sojourners. Wallis has helped change how Americans talk about politics and faith. In this newest book, Wallis offers insights about important issues such as racism, terrorism and poverty. More than a discussion of issues, Wallis offers a way for people of faith to advocate for social changes in the same way as previous generations of faith led the social justice movements that lead to the abolition of slavery, advocacy of women's rights and civil rights for those most marginalized. (Wednesday nights, May 14-June 18 from 6:15-7 p.m. at the Cathedral of Hope)

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"Tithe to Justice" response

Rev. Piazza received the following email this week in response to our suggestion that we all give 10 percent of our economic stimulus checks to Hope for Peace & Justice:

Dear Rev. Piazza,

Please send George W. Bush a thank you note. Because of him, I am able to make an additional donation to Hope for Peace & Justice. Today, $600 was deposited in my bank account. I want a portion of this “economic stimulus” money to stimulate the work of H4PJ, work that the last eight years, unfortunately, has made all the more necessary.

David

If you would like to support the work of Hope for Peace & Justice
by donating some (or all!) of your economic stimulus check,
or by making another donation, please click here.

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