Posts Tagged ‘campus ministry’

After Being Protested by Westboro Baptist Church

No Comments | Share On Facebook| After Being Protested by Westboro Baptist Church Share/Save/Bookmark Mar 12, 2013

This insightful reflection is from Katie Carpenter, co-president of the Unitarian Universalist campus ministry group at Vassar College. It is cross-posted from Blue Boat, the blog of the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Office of Youth & Young Adult Ministries. 

The Westboro Baptist Church protested Vassar College on February 28th, for supporting LGBTQ rights. In response, Vassar’s current and alumni community came together amazingly to denounce Westboro Baptist’s views, in part by raising over $100,000 for The Trevor Project, which provides crisis support and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ youth. Seeing people rise to meet the challenge made me incredibly proud of my community, and what it strives to stand for.

But what made me prouder was to hear Vassar alum Joseph Tolton, the National Minister of Social Justice from the Fellowship of Affirming Ministries in New York, speak about not just his love for the school but his desire to see it always improving. In the discourse over this event, I’ve heard students challenge the school and point out that homophobia, racism, sexism, cissexism, and other inequalities do exist here; they exist everywhere.

It was a strange experience, to be sure, seeing the Westboro Baptist Church members. There were four of them, and they looked just like you see in pictures; offensive posters, American flags on their clothing, the whole bit. But after you get over the initial surprise that they actually exist, it was easy to not take them very seriously. It’s easy – maybe too easy – to look at Westboro Baptist and feel safe because they’re extreme, and we can distance ourselves from their opinions.

It’s easier to confront hate when it’s in the form of four angry, irrational people on the other side of a police barricade, and you have over 500 people standing with you. It’s not so easy to look inward at your community and demand better. Denouncing the Westboro Baptist Church is easy, but it’s only the beginning of creating real change. Continuing down that path requires facing our own biases and assumptions. We may not agree with hate groups, but we do all have a responsibility for a world in which they can exist. Seeing many Vassar students try to take ownership of that fact gave me an enormous sense of love and appreciation for my community, despite its faults, and I think that’s a sturdy foundation to build from.

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Multigenerational Resources for the Thirty Days of Love

1 Comment | Share On Facebook| Multigenerational Resources for the Thirty Days of Love Share/Save/Bookmark Jan 17, 2013

We envision the Thirty Days of Love as an event that can bring people of all ages together on a spiritual journey for social justice. This year, we’ve had some amazing help creating resources that will allow multigenerational participation in the Thirty Days of Love, from a re-envisioning of our daily actions for a family audience to lesson plans for high school youth, young adult, and campus ministry groups.

You can also follow along on the Blue Boat Blog for daily Thirty Days of Love reflections from the UUA Youth & Young Adult Ministries Office staff.

Resources

Have you created or re-purposed other Standing on the Side of Love materials for a multigenerational audience? Send us an email at love@uua.org and let us know. We’d love to share them with others!

Special thanks to Kayla Parker of the UUA Youth & Young Adult Ministries Office, Alicia LeBlanc of the UUA Resource Development Office, and Kathy E. Smith, Director of Religious Education at the Community UU Church of Plano, Texas, for creating these phenomenal resources.

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Take Love to the Polls

1 Comment | Share On Facebook| Take Love to the Polls Share/Save/Bookmark Aug 30, 2012

We all know how much is at stake in the upcoming election at the national, state, and local levels. Regressive policies and corporate control oppress people on the margins and disenfranchise the vulnerable among us. Nevertheless, you can use your voice to lift up the issues that affect our communities.

The outcome of an election is determined by who speaks up and who turns out. Join the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, Standing on the Side of Love, the Unitarian Universalist Association, and the UU State Advocacy Networks for the “Take Love to the Polls: Elections 2012 Webinar” to learn about what is at stake this season and how you, as a person of conscience and faith, can work with your congregation, community partners, and other allies to help level the political playing field this election season!

The “Take Love to the Polls: Elections 2012 Webinar” will be held Wednesday, September 12 at 7pm ET. Space is limited—click here to reserve your spot today!

Religious groups play a prophetic role in public life by calling attention to oppression, demanding change, and holding leaders and institutions accountable for their actions and policies. For Unitarian Universalists, participation in the democratic process is specifically held up as an act of faith in the Fifth Principle. You can help register members of your community to vote, get out the vote, and stop voter suppression. Most importantly, you can partner with community groups, organizations on college campuses, and statewide networks to lift up the voices of those in our society who are historically under-represented and help empower those who are most affected by regressive policies. By helping people participate in the democratic process, we show them we care that their voices get heard.

Please join me in standing on the side of love this election season. Click here to register for the “Take Love to the Polls: Elections 2012 Webinar.”

Inspiring the words of Abraham Lincoln’s famous “Gettysburg Address,” Unitarian minister Theodore Parker said that democracy is “a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people.” Join us to learn how we can work together this election season to help make that a reality.

In solidarity,

kara_smith_headshot

Kara Smith
Associate for Grassroots Mobilization
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee

The message above went out on Thursday, August 30, 2012 to Standing on the Side of Love supporters. You can sign-up for these emails here.

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How can we help you promote justice on campus?

No Comments | Share On Facebook| How can we help you promote justice on campus? Share/Save/Bookmark Apr 11, 2012

The message below went out on Wednesday, April 11, 2012 to Standing on the Side of Love supporters that have expressed an interest in organizing on college campuses. You can sign-up for these emails here.

I am thrilled that you are joining us in exploring new ways to stand on the side of love at college campuses.

Our first step together was when you expressed interest in this movement by responding to a February email by my colleague, Meredith Lukow, on behalf of Standing on the Side of Love and the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministries of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA).

I–as Campus Ministry Associate at the UUA along with Meredith as Program Assistant at the Standing on the Side of Love campaign–have been working on our next steps by brainstorming tools we can provide you that will best equip you to confront issues of identity-based oppression.

We want the tools we create to fulfill your unique needs. Can you please answer a few, short questions to help us better understand your needs?

Please take a minute to fill out our questionnaire.

If you’re interested in starting a campus ministry group, please contact me and we can work together to make a game plan that is strategic and successful. If you’re hoping to use the Standing on the Side name for your public protests against injustice, you don’t need permission, but Meredith would love to make sure you have all of the campaign’s tools at your disposal, and also to hear your stories!

Thank you again for expressing your interest in joining us in standing on the side of love at college campuses. We hope to learn more about you and how we can assist you through this brief survey. We hope you’ll take a minute to fill it out.

We’ll gather your information, formulate a plan, and report back!

Yours in the struggle,

kayla_parker

Kayla Parker
Campus Ministry Associate
Unitarian Universalist Association

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Help Us Expand Our Campaign to College Campuses

1 Comment | Share On Facebook| Help Us Expand Our Campaign to College Campuses Share/Save/Bookmark Feb 08, 2012

The message below went out on Wednesday, February 8, 2012 to Standing on the Side of Love supporters. You can sign-up for these emails here.

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Standing on the Side of Love has become a more and more important part of my life over the past couple years. I have seen the power of our loving message in my campus community as a Unitarian Universalist student leader at American University. Now, I am thrilled to continue my involvement in the movement as a member of the SSL staff.

While you have been visioning within your community as part of the 30 Days of Love, we have also been thinking about our own story of us and now as a campaign. Through this process, we have heard from some campus leaders, engaged in dialogue, and realized the need for increased partnership with college groups. They are an important part of our religious movement, and their diverse and established campus communities make them a natural place for interfaith, anti-oppression advocacy to flourish. We can increase students’ capacity to create change by providing tools for introspection and action, which they can use to recognize and end oppressive practices on their own college campuses and in the world at-large.

With this vision, Standing on the Side of Love and the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministries are working together to engage college students in our work for justice. Whether you are a college student hoping to spread the love on your campus, or a congregation hoping to reach out to college students in your area you have a role to play. Will you join us in this effort?

Click here to sign up and receive more information about this exciting project.

Our first step in this collaboration is thinking about how to include non-congregational communities in our campaigns. The Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministries has been participating in 30 Days of Love and writing about it in their Blue Boat Blog. Together, we’re developing a Standing on the Side of Love college chapter program and advocacy resources for campus ministries. We have already begun a dialogue among our own offices, campus ministry leaders, and other stakeholders about this vision, and would love for you to join us.

Sign up to receive more information about how college students and congregations can be involved.

As you begin to think about what will come after your 30 Days of Love, I hope that your vision includes bringing Standing on the Side of Love to college campuses like mine across the continent. Help us expand the network of love.

In faith & justice,

meredith ga

Meredith Lukow
Program Assistant
Standing on the Side of Love

P.S. If you’re looking for more resources on bringing Standing on the Side to college campuses, check out my best practices blog post on the Blue Boat Blog.

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