Witness for Justice Archives - United Church of Christ

Springing Forward

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 17:00:00 +0000

Spring is in bloom in my neighborhood. Trees are budding. Flowers are starting to blossom. The wood near my home is alive with the bright spring green that heralds new life. Birds are singing. Frogs are croaking. The sun shines…

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It’s Time to Get into Good Trouble

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 17:00:00 +0000

On Tuesday, April 3, history was made by U.S. Senator Cory Booker who spoke on the Senate floor for the longest consecutive time in history, over 25 hours. Senator Booker told dozens of stories during his speech: stories of Americans…

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Reflections on a Christian Understanding of State and Government

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 17:00:00 +0000

The testimony of both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures as well as theological reflections on state and government affirm them as established by God. From the establishment of kingship (1 Samuel 8:4-22), to the Hebrew prophets who insist on the…

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“What is Wrong with You People?”

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 17:00:00 +0000

I am writing this article from New York City as I engage with CSW, the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. The annual Commission is the world’s largest conference on women and meets to address widespread inequalities, violence,…

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Powers and Principalities

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 17:00:00 +0000

As a movement organizer and activist, I appreciate the clarity that emerges when communities who are discerning their calling “to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God” (Micah 6:8, NRSVUE) take the care to distinguish between service and…

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Heart-Centered Leadership

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 18:00:00 +0000

“Fear is such a powerful emotion for humans that when we allow it to take us over, it drives compassion right out of our hearts.” – Thomas Aquinas, 13th century Italian theologian, philosopher Lately, I have been saddened by the…

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Delving into Deeper Connection

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 19:00:00 +0000

i received two “Cs” in Seminary, one of which was for a class on the art of worship with Rev. Dr. Cláudio Carvalhaes. The last thing Dr. Carvalhaes shared with me was, “while I know you understand the academic side…

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Liturgical Movements in Prose with Purpose

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:00:00 +0000

I am a reader of books and have been since the age of three. One of my childhood favorites was authored by Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. My favorite of the 66 books written by Dr. Seuss…

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I Hope Everyone Can Live. I Will Help.

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 18:00:00 +0000

“Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” – The Gospel According to Mark, 10:15 (NRSVUE) Twenty years ago, I received a letter from a six-year-old in Abilene,…

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Frozen

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 06 Feb 2025 18:00:00 +0000

Ever since Inauguration Day 2025, the flurry of executive orders coming from President Trump has felt like a firehose directly pointed at the faces of all those who rely on the US government for anything. Hiring freezes, funding freezes, firings,…

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Recalling the Ministry of Reconciliation

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 18:00:00 +0000

The November 2024 election results left me, and many of my friends, neighbors, and family members, feeling deeply disappointed and fearful of what the future could hold if the country continued to be as divided as it seemed. Moving forward…

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Faith that Calls for Welcome Confronts the Harshest Anti-Immigrant Policies in Modern U.S. History

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 23:17:06 +0000

“In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.” Those were the words of The Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, Bishop of the Diocese of Washington at…

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Warning Labels

Dave Sarkies — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 16:57:52 +0000

In 2020, on the eve of the global lockdown due to the spread of the then mostly unknown COVID-19 virus, my father took sick in New York. I spoke with my sister who also lives in New York to determine…

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Marrying into Free Healthcare

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 18:00:00 +0000

In August of this past year, I married a percussionist in the President’s Own United States Marine Band and officially became an active-duty military spouse. Since getting married, I have been absolutely blown away by our military healthcare system. Active-duty…

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Health Care is a Human Right. Privatizing, Profiteering, and Withholding It is a Violent Evil

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 02 Jan 2025 18:00:00 +0000

My father is an infectious disease physician. Since the dawn of the AIDS epidemic, he’s spent his career leading front-line responses and spearheading decades-long investment and care for people living with HIV/AIDS. As he puts it, when the new health…

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Advent Invitation

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 26 Dec 2024 18:00:00 +0000

The Advent season is an invitation to those of us in the northern hemisphere to wait in darkness for Emmanuel, God-with-Us. Long nights wrapped in shadow challenge us to embrace a time of reflection and deep rest. Slowing our relentless…

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The Spiritual Side of Restorative Justice

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 18:00:00 +0000

In my formative years when, among other things, I was exploring my still-young Christian faith, I frequently turned to music to help make sense of it all. This included a “Christian music phase” in my high school in college years,…

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Strategic and Faithful Disconnection

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 12 Dec 2024 18:00:00 +0000

In the months leading up to the last national election, I spent countless hours doing voter registration, mobilization, and education. I helped first-time voters register. I mailed postcards to low propensity voters to try to increase turnout. I served on…

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Consent Education is Suicide Prevention

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 18:00:00 +0000

“Consent Education is Suicide Prevention” read the sign the woman held. This resonates deeply with my work as Minister for Sexuality Education and Justice in the United Church of Christ, where I diligently advocate for sexuality education, its importance, its…

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Queerfully and Wonderfully Made

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 28 Nov 2024 18:00:00 +0000

Content Warning: This piece contains mentions of suicide and mental health. Please prioritize your well-being when deciding whether or not to read. When I was sixteen, I was a mess. Attending a conservative, anti-LGBTQ church in the Bible Belt plus…

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New Life in Harm Reduction

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 21 Nov 2024 18:00:00 +0000

Last Sunday, the Harm Reduction Family Love Feast formally re-launched our monthly worship service and community meal for the first time since COVID shut down New York City in March of 2020. In the assembly hall of Judson Memorial Church,…

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Imagine Together

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:00:00 +0000

This election year registered voters had the opportunity to take our values to the polls through early voting or election day voting. The election results tell us a lot about the true values of our neighbors. We are a nation…

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One Sure Thing

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 07 Nov 2024 18:00:00 +0000

The deadline for this column was one day before the November 5 election. By the time you read this, we might know the election results. Or we might not. That kind of anxious uncertainty has plagued me these last few…

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Companioning with a Stranger

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 17:00:00 +0000

As a new pastor in a church in Amish country, I did not expect to be welcomed by all. I was female, single and, as we say in my home state of Maine, “from away.” When I walked down the…

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Gerrymandering

Steven (Steve) Liechty — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 17:00:00 +0000

A just world for all includes an equal voice in the ballot box. Perhaps you remember the problem of gerrymandering from your high school civics class. Gerrymandering happens when one political party draws electoral maps that seek to dilute the…

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Saying ‘Yes’ to Reproductive Justice is Living Out the Gospel

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 17:00:00 +0000

Marching through the streets of New York City the day Roe V. Wade overturned became my birthplace in a deeper commitment toward reproductive justice. In the sea of 60,000 who marched, my most poignant memory is of the youth expressing…

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No Sacrifice Zones

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 17:00:00 +0000

A sacrifice zone is a geographic area that has been permanently impaired by state-sanctioned environmental devastation and/or organized abandonment. Sacrifice zones exist across Mother Earth already. Some examples include mountaintop removal and open pit mines—open wounds that won’t heal—industrial farming poisoning…

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Intergenerational Relationships—Our Secret Superpower

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 03 Oct 2024 17:00:00 +0000

Earlier in the year, I had a call with Liam McMahon, the Civic Engagement Director for a highly effective advocacy organization in Minnesota called ISAIAH. As McMahon explained his approach to voter turnout efforts, he made the observation that one…

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A Test of Faith

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 17:00:00 +0000

“The United States confronts a crisis of democracy, and the American church confronts a test of faith.” This is the first sentence of a recent statement signed by UCC General Minister and President, Rev. Dr. Karen Georgia Thompson, along with…

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Sticks and Stones and Hate Speech

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 17:00:00 +0000

There is an old playground saying that goes something like this: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” The implication is that while rhetoric and hate speech are bruising to the ego, they do…

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Civility across Differences

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 17:00:00 +0000

We are in the midst of yet another national election cycle in the United States. In these days leading up to the election, the political ads are appearing on our televisions with every commercial break, while the fliers and circulars…

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Toward a Better Understanding of China

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 19:00:00 +0000

Prejudice and hostility have been directed against many minority groups and those perceived as “other” throughout US history. During difficult times, politicians often stoke social division for political advantage. People of Asian heritage have been frequent targets of scapegoating, like…

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“For My Neighbor”

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 17:00:00 +0000

Growing up, I had a clear boundary when playing outside on my street. I could go no further than the corner on one end and no further than my friend’s house on the other. She had an older brother who…

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Reclaiming Religious Freedom

Dave Sarkies — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 17:00:00 +0000

“Which do you support more: religious freedom or LGBTQ+ rights?” This question has been posed to me more times than I can count by well-intentioned but deeply misinformed friends and family. I am a staunch advocate for religious freedom. I…

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In A Beginning … A Just Creator

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 17:00:00 +0000

In [a] beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said…

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Witnesses to Love

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 17:00:00 +0000

13,000. That’s how many Palestinian children have been killed in Israel’s ongoing military campaign against Hamas, as estimated by UNICEF this spring. 1,195,070. That’s how many deaths in the United States have been attributed to COVID-19 since the start of…

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A Call to Protect Indigenous Peoples

Steven (Steve) Liechty — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 18:00:00 +0000

My delegation mates are in awe. Nestled in the mountains of Guatemala, pristine forest and a rushing, dammed river stretches out below us. Yet, surrounded by all this beauty, I feel the most unsettled I’ve been since touching down in…

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Demystifying the Stigma of Mental Illness

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 17:00:00 +0000

Like many others, I come from a family system that placed taboos on speaking publicly about one’s personal life. My siblings and I were conditioned at an early age not to discuss “personal things” outside of the home, especially something…

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Staying Grounded in Tumultuous Times

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 17:00:00 +0000

For years I have referred to myself as a peace-loving hippie-type pacifist who believes that violence is never the answer to humanity’s problems. In case I need to be clear, it was never the best choice to begin with and…

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Vision and Reality

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 17:00:00 +0000

In 1215, at Runnymede in England, King John signed the Magna Carta. The mythos surrounding this document as a foundational text of Western democracy, which ensured that even kings were subject to the rule of law, inspired the those who…

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Seizing the Kairos Moment

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 04 Jul 2024 17:00:00 +0000

We find ourselves in a kairos moment, a time of crisis and opportunity. We are in a moment that is God-charged and is ready to bring forth a great movement. This is a moment of truth for the church. We find…

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People Who Use Drugs Are Beloved by God

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 27 Jun 2024 17:00:00 +0000

I recently moved into the East Office of Judson Memorial Church, overlooking Washington Square Park, in the heart of New York City. Flanked by New York University and other affluent Greenwich village institutions and residences, the park and the historic…

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Personal Musings of a UCC Minister on Church and Politics

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 17:00:00 +0000

Summer is upon us, a season often associated with outdoor barbeques, beaches, and vacation fun. This is also the start of a presidential election campaign season, where the political parties have selected their candidates to be our country’s next president…

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In an Era of Surveillance, Privacy Matters

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 17:00:00 +0000

I’ve spent a good portion of my life waiting in lines at the airport, and about six months ago, I noticed a change. When I approached the TSA agent for screening, they asked me to take off my hat and…

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Anxious Summers

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 06 Jun 2024 17:00:00 +0000

With summer vacation comes a temporary break from morning routines: the frenzy of getting children up, bookbags and lunches packed, sticky syrup faces and hands wiped down, the dreaded drop off and pickup school lines, homework, missing uniforms, and all…

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Knowing One Another

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 30 May 2024 17:00:00 +0000

“Even the most ardent revolutionist, seeking to change the world, to overturn the tables of the money changers, is trying to make a world where it is easier for people to love, to stand in relationship to each other. We…

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Thankful

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 23 May 2024 17:00:00 +0000

During the last weeks of April and early weeks of May, it felt as if our college campuses—most visibly at Columbia University but also elsewhere—were filled with activists, police, and violence. Demonstrations were attended by supporters and disrupted by police…

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On Just Sharing

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 16 May 2024 17:00:00 +0000

Saint Paul led the first-ever organized effort in Christian history to share resources among the sibling churches. As we know, there was a lot of tension leading up to this mobilization of resources and sharing that Paul organized. The Jerusalem…

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Peace is Possible

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 09 May 2024 17:00:00 +0000

Nearly 40 years ago, the United Church of Christ passed a pronouncement at our Fifteenth General Synod in 1985 declaring ourselves a ‘just peace church’. Threaded through the pronouncement’s language were three bold words: “Peace is possible.” That was a…

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Love Your Neighbor OUT LOUD: Honoring Queer Bodies & Committing to LGBTQIA+ Justice

Dave Sarkies — Thu, 02 May 2024 17:00:00 +0000

“Everyone deserves care that honors the dignity and sovereignty of our bodies and our kin.” – Susan Raffo, Liberated to the Bone “For it was you who formed me…You knit me together…I am fearfully and wonderfully made…my frame was not…

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