Monday, October 5, 2009

Mormons and Social Justice...in the same sentence!?

Hallelujah!

Mormons for Equality and Social Justice

I was raised Unitarian Universalist, and still have a fondness for the true and gospelly-sound principles found in that theological system. The UUs are very involved with social justice concerns. That sense of social awareness never left me as a converted to LDS theology. In fact, my desire to help others and my "love of God and for all men" was increased. So I got all excited about the good that Latter-day Saints could do with the impressive resources of the Church on social justice issues. And then I got confused because I didn't see it happening. Sure, I knew that some LDS somewhere were engaged in certain social justice issues. But as an activist I know that there is strength in numbers, that people cooperating and working together in a common cause is more effective than individuals working separately.


So glad to come across MESJ. I hope there will be others around me that I can connect with. I'll likely be posting more about this exciting line of involvement.

2 comments:

Kevin at Arizona Western College said...

Looks like Mormons for Social Justice is not too active. . . maybe try the LDS Left group on Facebook? http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=2210558813

Or there is the LDS Earth Stewardship group as well: http://www.facebook.com/?sk=2361831622#!/group.php?gid=21141126751

Are you familiar with Bioneers? You would probably like what they do, since they include social justice along with the environment. I wish they would make more of their conference addresses publicly available.

Jenne said...

Thanks for sharing, Kevin! I will certainly check them out and likely join.

MESJ does have a very active yahoo group entitled LDS Left and I follow the conversations there via digest. Often a lot of financial talk that I'm not too savvy about.

I've really been into the organization MomsRising, even though it is not LDS led, it still maintains many of the values that LDS families are hoping for.

I've been hoping for awhile to create a Social Justice type Relief Society Activity Group in my ward, but finding more interested in the Green Group which is organizing.