Justice and Youth

Around the UUWorld Brown Bag Lunch Discussion

Wednesday April 11

The Wednesday "Around the UUWorld" Brown Bag Lunch on April 11 will discuss two articles from the 2012 Spring issue of UUWorld. To read the articles, click the titles:

1. "Congregations Study, Plan for Justice GA"
2. "If We Don't Invest in Our Youth, Others Will"

1. "All across the country, congregations and Districts are organizing for General Assembly."

David Petras of North UU Congregation in Lewis Center, Ohio (one of four UU congregations in the Columbus metropolitan area; North UU has 143 members), travels across the state preaching at Ohio congregations about immigration issues the importance to the Justice GA in Phoenix.

Congregations in Southern California have teamed up to create a "Southern California UU Justice Team" (SCUUJT) with a paid (quarter-time) justice coordinator. The SCUUJT hopes that soon it will have raised enough funds to hire a second justice coordinator, so one can focus on Los Angeles and the other on San Diego.

Gini Courter, the UUA Moderator is out talking up Justice GA -- especially with our youth.

Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray, minister of the UU Congregation of Phoenix and head of Arizona Immigration Ministry, is urging all UUs to learn about immigration and work for immigration justice in their communities.

The Mt. Diablo UU Church (Walnut Creek, CA, membership 440) hosted an immigration conference.

Rev. Carlton Ellis of the UU Church of Arlington, VA (membership 845) , organized a weekly audio forum. (Check it out here.) His congregation plans on doubling its regular GA attendance.

Youth at the UU Church of Minnetonka (Wayzata, MM, membership 181) have a goal of $12,000 in fundraising to support their trip to GA.

QUESTION:

What can UUFG do to prepare for the 2012 GA (Jun 20-24) -- the first ever "Justice GA"?

2. "If We Don't Invest In our Youth, Others Will"

"Totalitarians put their resources into building youth programs. Pluralists don't."

The Unitarian Universalist Association selects a book each year as its "Common Read" for all Unitarian Universalists to read.
The UUA Common Read for 2010-11 was Margaret Regan, The Death of Josseline.
The UUA Common Read for 2011-12 is Eboo Patel, Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Sturggle for the Soul of a Generation.
(Both books are available at our book cart. If you don't have a copy, get one! If you haven't read them, do!)

The second article for this week, is adapted from Eboo Patel's book.

Supplementary material -- raising the point from a humorous angle: "Young people think they can change the world -- and they have the energy to do it," says humorist Al Madrigal in this clip (about 3-and-a-half minutes) from the 2012 March 12 Daily Show. Click this link:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-march-12-2012/my-little-kony---youth-activism

Young people can get energized for wonderful causes. They can also be recruited for extremist purposes. Patel notes, "Religious extremists saw a fire in young people that others were missing. They were stoking that fire and turning it into targeted assassinations and mass murder."

Why is this happening? Patel says, "Religious totalitarians have put enormous effort into two institutions where young people spend a great deal of time: schools and websites."

Young people yearn to be a part of something larger than themselves. If we don't provide young folks with a deep and rich context of deep meaning in which to engage their energies, then young people will turn elsewhere for a context of deep meaning.

The UUWorld's adapted excerpt from Patel concludes:
Every time we read about a young person who kills in the name of God, we should recognize that an institution painstakingly recruited and trained that young person. And that institution is doing the same for thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of others like him. In other words, those religious extremists have invested in their youth programs. If we pluralists had invested in our youth programs, could we have gotten to those young people first?"

QUESTION:

What is UUFG's commitment to youth programming, and what should it be?

The first and the second article are connected: Getting our youth involved in Justice GA would provide them with an important and formative experience for their future -- as well as the future of immigration in the US. So, friends . . . what are we doing?

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Can't make the Wednesday discussion? Click the word "comments" below to leave your reflection on the issue.