Social Justice
BREAKING NEWS ... BREAKING NEWS ... BREAKING NEWS
SANCTUARY CIVIL FINES LAWSUIT SETTLEMENT
NPR Story: https://www.npr.org/2023/06/21/1183528143/four-immigrants-who-sought-sanctuary-in-churches-no-longer-face-deportation-fine
In the Settlement, ICE grants 3 years of deferred action for the 4 individual Plaintiffs and ICE agrees to exercise its prosecutorial discretion by filing a joint motion to reopen and dismiss, without prejudice, the pending immigration cases against 3 of the individual Plaintiffs (including Vicky). Should the case arise, ICE will also give due consideration to any future request for prosecutorial discretion made by the 4th individual Plaintiff. Should any of the individual Plaintiffs be arrested or charged with a criminal offense the terms of this paragraph of the Agreement will be nullified at the discretion of ICE with respect to the individual Plaintiff arrested or charged.
Thank you to all at First Unitarian Church of SLC who helped make this possible!!
Click here for the link to the OP Ed from our Reproductive Justice Committee that appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune on Oct. 28th.
People's Justice Forum
Once again this year, First Unitarian Church is supporting the People's Justice Forum (PJF), a grassroots citizen lobbying organization that focuses on progressive issues at the State Legislature.
What does the PJF do? We follow the 45-day legislative season in February and March, and we decide as a group which legislation we want to support or oppose. Then we strategize about how to do it: contacting legislators, attending committee meetings, getting creative about awareness or protest, etc. Our issues include reproductive health, poverty, environmental justice, LGBTQ+ issues, etc.
What's the commitment? You must support progressive issues (there's a screener question on the application regarding your support of abortion rights). Then, you have to be able to commit to a weekly meeting on Monday night, and a kickoff event on the evening of January 17, to be held in Eliot Hall.
If you've been wanting to get involved in politics and have some fun with it, join the PJF! Please reach out to Rev. Monica at if you have any questions. Here is the link to the application: People's Justice Forum 2019 Application
First Church is excited to begin a social justice partnership with Planned Parenthood of Utah. This partnership will include community gatherings, legislative action, and a volunteer sex education program benefiting incarcerated women.
We want YOU to get involved! The first step is to become a Planned Parenthood Ambassador. It's a simple process of signing up to be included in their email distribution list; then Planned Parenthood will notify you by email when a volunteer opportunity arises.
To become an Ambassador, please click this link. Scroll down to the middle of the page, and under "Become an Ambassador", click "Sign Up Now".
Then simply fill out the form, and watch for a welcome email from Planned Parenthood (note: it may appear in your spam filter!).
And be on the lookout for information from the Social Justice Council about opportunities to serve throughout the year!
The Struggle is Everywhere
As a child of the South, and especially as a native of Birmingham, Alabama, I often ask myself, if I’d been alive in the 1950s and 60s, would I have shown up for racial justice? Would I have skipped school to join the marchers on the steps of the 16th Street Baptist Church? Would I have faced down the tanks and hoses with Fred Shuttlesworth? Would I have sung songs and prayed with Dr. King? Or would I have stayed at home, too afraid for my own safety to do anything but pray?
This is a question that white Southerners ask themselves often. For we are well acquainted with racism, and aware of what can happen when it is ignored. Case in point: Charlottesville, Virginia.
We watched with horror as people descended upon this college town with Nazi flags and torches to defend whiteness, a malignant and destructive illusion of cultural uniformity based on skin color, that excludes any diversity or difference. We cringed to see the hate unmasked, open and even proud, marching defiantly on streets we thought belonged to all people. Yet, even as we condemn such displays of hate, we who are socialized to be white are sometimes reluctant to admit the advantages that the illusion of whiteness confers upon us, nor how much we will be called upon to sacrifice to rid ourselves of this evil.
A few days after the Charlottesville protest, Salt Lake had its own chance to show that white supremacy is unwelcome and intolerable. I joined the crowd at a rally at the City & County building, organized by the Utah League of Native American voters, where speakers of many identities invited us to grieve, pray, and fight together as one community.
It warmed my heart to see Utahns denounce white supremacy and recommit to building a society of justice and diversity. Racism is not just a Southern thing – it is everywhere. And yet, everywhere I go, there are people of principle who are determined to root it out. It is so encouraging.
But if I can pass along just one message from the struggle in the South, it would be this: an anti-racist society begins at home. We must commit to living anti-racist lives, to rooting out white supremacy in our own hearts, first. I invite you to join me in a mindful search for ways in which each of us who are white benefits from the economic and relational structures of white supremacy, and look for ways to disrupt those systems. As my friend Rev. Theresa Soto says, “It takes all of us for all of us to make it.”