Central Coast Clergy for Justice
An Interfaith alliance promoting peace and justice for all
Serving San Luis Obispo County, California
Central Coast Clergy for Justice is an interfaith alliance united to demonstrate the inclusive love of God by promoting compassion, generosity, non-violence, and respect for diversity. We seek to influence public discourse and to enhance the quality of life through ongoing education and strategic advocacy.
Principles
As clergy from a variety of backgrounds, our commitment to justice is expressed in differing ways dependent upon our faith tradition and our personal understandings of the reign of God. We will not always agree on issues, rather find ourselves surprised when we do. The manner in which we negotiate the differences amongst ourselves is in itself part of our commitment to justice.
We believe that God wills shalom; peace, justice and wellbeing for all people, all nations, and for our planet. God’s shalom has firm scriptural grounding in the concepts of social righteousness, justice and peacemaking. Scriptural justice is the societal expression of love.
We believe that a just and good society balances individualism with the needs of the community. The claims of our faith drive us to affirm a bias in favor of the poor and powerless, and an openness towards perceived enemies. We believe that evil cannot be overcome by evil, but only by good, and that the meaning of shalom is discovered in commitment to non-violence, in seeking peace and in striving for the increase of freedom and equality among all people.
Economic Justice
Sacred scriptures describe basic human needs for food, clothing, healing, compassion and hospitality. A contemporary list of human needs would also include a decent job that earns a living wage, adequate and accessible health care, affordable housing, quality public education, high quality childcare, and a healthy environment.
In an increasingly interdependent world economic order, unfair systems work to benefit some and hurt others. Globalization has helped to create a situation in which relatively few are hoarding an increasingly large amount of the world’s resources, while over two-thirds of the world falls further into poverty.
We have a responsibility to address these inequities and the political processes that organize our common life, allocate resources and tackle our shared problems. We have a responsibility to speak on behalf of, and stand with, the poor, oppressed and marginalized in order to redress the imbalances and live together in God’s shalom.
Human and Civil Rights
The rights and privileges our society gives or withholds from its members reflect how those members are valued within society. We affirm the common humanity, the equal worth and integrity, of all people regardless of ethnicity, race, gender, class, ability, sexual orientation, religious conviction or tradition, or any other characteristic which may be used to divide and to discriminate. Consequently we reject all social practices and structures that discriminate, and all social attitudes that involve prejudice against any individual or group.
We will seek to address such practices and attitudes wherever they are to be found, especially in the areas of health care, abortion, marriage equality and immigration, and the prejudices of gender, heterosexism and racism.
Environmental Justice
Because we worship and honor the Creator, we seek to cherish and care for creation. Humanity has failed in our task of stewardship, with the result that significant parts of our planet are severely threatened. In this failure, the Creator calls us to learn, educate and act in order to promote the stewardship of land, waters and air.
We support and encourage initiatives that will reduce global warming; reduce waste and the use of petrochemicals andother nonrenewable resources; encourage renewable energy sources, sustainable growth, agriculture and fisheries; keep the oceans clean and hospitable for all marine animals; and preserve open spaces and natural beauty for the generations to come.
Peace and Non-violence
While acknowledging our own responsibility for conflict and injustice, we believe that violence and war are incompatible with the ethical teachings of our faith traditions. Consequently we reject war as an instrument of foreign policy, except as a last resort to prevent such evils as genocide and the brutal suppression of human rights, and insist that the first moral duty of all nations is to resolve disputes by peaceful means.
We are opposed to the militarization of society and the manufacture and sale of weapons, believing that human values must always outweigh military claims. We support an ethic, not merely of restraint in waging war, but of just peacemaking. Believing that without justice there can be no lasting peace, we will work for the prevention of war and the creation of a peaceful and just society.
www.progressivechristiansuniting.org