The Sedona Unitarian Universalist Fellowship believes in \u201cjustice, equity and compassion in human relations.\u201d\u00a0 They want everyone to have the resources needed to live a decent life.\u00a0 They smile approvingly at author Anne Lamott\u2019s admonition, \u201cNobody gets into heaven without a reference letter from the poor.\u201d<\/p>\n
To this point, a UU minister tells about a judge who presided over a trial in Ohio during the 1930s depression.\u00a0 The defendant was a man charged with stealing groceries.\u00a0 He pleaded guilty and offered no excuses, except that he had a family, but no money and no job.<\/p>\n
The judge sighed and said, \u201cI\u2019m very sorry to hear that.\u00a0 But you broke a law, for which I am obliged to fine you ten dollars.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0Then he took out his wallet, pulled out a bill, gave it to the poor man, and said \u201cHere\u2019s the money to pay your fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Next, the judge picked up his hat, handed it to the bailiff, and said, \u201cI\u2019m also fining everyone in this courtroom fifty cents each, or as much of that amount as they have with them, for living in a town where a father has to steal groceries for his family to eat.\u201d\u00a0 He added, \u201cBailiff, please collect the fines in the hat and give them all to the defendant.\u201d<\/p>\n
That judge knew that sometimes a person\u2019s material needs are the spiritual needs of everyone. We\u2019re responsible not merely for ourselves, but also for the weakest and most exploited members of our community–for, \u201cto whom much is given; much will be required.\u201d<\/p>\n
When we help those suffering from a lack of sustenance, we are being the kind of humans we were put on earth to be.\u00a0 A relevant South American prayer goes, \u201cFor those who are hungry, please give them bread, and for those who have bread, please give them a hunger for justice.\u201d\u00a0 In either case, we are interdependent, beings, joined at the heart and the hip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Sedona Unitarian Universalist Fellowship believes in \u201cjustice, equity and compassion in human relations.\u201d\u00a0 They want everyone to have the resources needed to live a decent life.\u00a0 They smile approvingly at author Anne Lamott\u2019s admonition, \u201cNobody gets into heaven without a reference letter from the poor.\u201d To this point, a UU minister tells about a … Continue reading Social Justice [#59]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6838"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8846,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6838\/revisions\/8846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}