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Take Part in Labor in the Pulpits this Labor Day Weekend |
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Each Labor Day weekend, Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) and the AFL-CIO sponsor the Labor in the Pulpits /on the Bimah /in the Minbar program, which highlights the shared goals of the faith community and the union movement for a new vision for justice in our communities.
As part of Labor in the Pulpits, union members serve as guest speakers in congregations to speak out about their faith, work and the union movement. Some AFL-CIO central labor councils use this program as an opportunity to host a Faith and Labor meeting in which participants discuss important issues facing workers in their local communities and reaffirm their shared commitments to social justice. This year, more than 1,000 faith congregations are participating in Labor in the Pulpits.
Over the years, the Labor in the Pulpits program has helped thousands of congregations focus their Labor Day weekend services on the injustices facing low-wage workers and the religious community’s efforts to support those workers’ struggles for living wages and family-sustaining benefits.
Says IWJ Executive Director Kim Bobo:
Labor in the Pulpits /on the Bimah /in the Minbar expresses in a very clear way the bonds between religion and labor. Every major religion teaches respect for work and the moral duty to care for the poor and foster social justice-the same goals that the union movement holds.
Those shared goals create a natural bond between us. That bond is even stronger this year as we stand poised to bring about real change in our country from reforming health care to stopping wage theft and making our workplaces more democratic.
On the Labor in the Pulpits /on the Bimah /in the Minbar website here, local unions and faith congregations will find information and aids to plan a worship service focused on social justice and workers’ issues. You can also:
- Hear from some people who have hosted Labor Day services.
- Add your congregation to the growing list of participants.
- Download new materials on Muslim readings and prayers, the 2009 D’var Torah, Jewish perspectives on healthcare and the rights of workers.
Labor in the Pulpits also offers a series of litanies, responsive readings, reflections, interfaith prayer service guides and healthcare justice quotes.
The Rev. William Corcoran, pastor of St. Linus Church in Oak Lawn, Ill, sums up the value of Labor in the Pulpits this way:
When congregation members make the connection between God, their workplace, their church, and their lives, their faith is deepened and their lives empowered.
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Defend us against our government which is trying to send our jobs to other countries.
Angels, Saints, Gods, and Unionists
To all of us, angels represent our connection to our spirit. They are the messengers that deliver the words from the spiritual realm. Saints, in all religions, live the life of the spirit here on earth. Determined Gods, Gods without regard to self, point the way to a fulfilling life. Gods supply the angels with their messages. The angels in-turn deliver their messages to the saints. The saints in-turn apply those messages to lead their noble lives. All Gods of all religions represent an affirmation of pure inherent good.
It’s been 2,000 years since the last God visited this earth. Angels stopped speaking to us long before that. Without these voices to guide us, is it even possible for a modern day, authentic saint to exist?
Many of us, after being disgusted by the hypocrisy of so called religious people and their dated religions, are able to discover the pure inherent good of existing Organized Labor. We see the people who are members and supporters of Organized Labor to be likened to tangible angels, saints, and Gods. We know that heaven and hell exist right here, not in some crack in the cosmic universe, or in a nonexistent fairytale land which every person describes in a different way. People who fight to edge our reality towards sanity, in all of our relationships, are Gods in our real, tangible evolving heaven.
An important part of everyone’s life is an honest search for some higher power to believe in. All of us can find that higher power in the ideals, purpose, and aspirations of the Organized Labor movement. The concept and principles of Organized Labor, just as all religions, transcends, time, cultures and language. Organized Labor is an effort and an affirmation of all the good that exists within us. A Unionist lives an active determined life, working unselfishly for the betterment of all workers, especially Union members.
If the ethereal Gods have abandoned us, if we have fallen too far from the heavens, if there was never a real crack in the universe for us to escape, we must become our own Gods, determined Gods creating in this, our earth, our lives, our evolving heaven.
There is an openness and a confidence that is bestowed upon one who believes in and defends the undeniable, inherent, spiritual good of Organized Labor. Believers in the strengthening and the evolution of society are compassionate to all people who support the Brotherhoods, Guilds, Associations, of free, independent Unions, either as employers or employees, individuals when acting as capital or as labor when representing the best interests of the objects and material that make up the spiritual miracle of Organized Labor.
All active members of organized labor; believers in Organized Labor and the supporters thereof, are perhaps the new missionaries of a modern vision of hope. Perhaps, even unknowingly, the words of the Gods are already tattooed upon our tongues…
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