Dear Ones:

Our ministry theme for January is practicing resistance. I’m not surprised that our friends at Soul Matters (the independent UU resource hub that provides materials for our monthly themes) have landed on this theme at this time. Unitarian Universalists across the United States have been considering this theme in earnest since the 2024 national elections. As I have discussed elsewhere, the current administration in Washington, DC has engaged in many authoritarian actions (e.g., abducting and deporting people without due process, deploying federal troops to US cities, cutting the social safety net to pay for tax cuts for the nation’s wealthiest residents, freezing funds Congress has already appropriated, defunding universities, criticizing judges, firing federal employees without cause, using the Department of Justice to harass and attack political opponents, etc.). People of liberal faith abhor such actions. We recognize a profound threat to our time-honored democratic institutions, practices, and assumptions. We feel called to resist. So, I welcome practicing resistance as our theme for the month. Again, I am not surprised.

Of course, Unitarian Universalists inherit a long tradition of practicing resistance to injustice. I intend to address pieces of that tradition—especially our tradition of resisting racism—in my January 18th service prior to Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. But before that, at our January 4th service, I want to address a way of practicing resistance that isn’t as familiar to me, what I call “direct aid.” The bottom line for me is that there is an increasing number of victims of the current federal administration’s policies, and they need help. Two victim groups that stand out to me are: 1) the families of immigrants who’ve experienced the abduction and deportation of a primary bread-winner; and 2) transgender people (or families with a transgender child) who are relocating from states with anti-trans laws to states whose laws are more supportive and protective of transgender people. There are certainly other victim groups. I am keenly aware of middle-income people and families who are losing access to affordable health insurance; and lower income people and families who are finding it increasingly difficult to make financial ends meet due to chaos in the economy. But given the kinds of requests I am getting on a fairly regular basis to support immigrant families; and given what I know is a long pipeline of transgender people who are seeking aid in relocating to Connecticut, I am increasingly led to the conclusion that our congregation has a role to play in providing direct aid.

This is not quite intuitive for me. During my seminary years, I received training in how to work for social change—to not simply “give to the poor,” but to dismantle the root causes of poverty. While I’ve always seen the value in providing direct aid to people in need, I’ve nevertheless focused my energy and much of our congregation’s energy on the work of social change. That work certainly continues, but the victims of the current administration’s policies can’t wait for social change. They need direct aid now. Learning as a congregation to offer such aid feels to me like one of the salient ways we can practice resistance. More to come….

With love, care, and hope,

Rev. Josh

#JanuaryNewsletter