Issues of Focus
Recognizing that justice work is inherently intersectional, our organizing work is broad and inclusive. See below for some recent areas of focus.
Defending Democracy & “UU the VOTE”
MUUSJA coordinates faith-based, nonpartisan work to protect democracy, voting rights, and voter engagement in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
For information on 2024 UU the Vote efforts, please contact MUUSJA’s Democracy Strategist, Karen Wills, at kwmuusja@gmail.com.
Work Includes:
- Annually implementing regional #UUtheVote campaigns.
- Organizing Get out the Vote and Direct Action campaigns through postcards, letters, phone-banking, text-banking, and recruiting election judges and recount observers.
- Collaborative organizing with community partners including We Choose Us MN, Minnesota Voice, League of Women Voters, the Poor People’s Campaign, Common Cause, ISAIAH Clergy Network, Reclaim our Vote, Vote Forward, When We All Vote, National Voter Registration Day, and Unitarian Universalist congregations across Minnesota.
We are grateful to the UU Funding Program, UUA’s UU the Vote, Minnesota Voice, and Still Ain’t Satisfied Foundation for their generous support of MUUSJA’s democracy defending.
Climate Justice
MUUSJA mobilizes Unitarian Universalists across Minnesota to work towards climate justice in collaboration with UUSC, UU Ministry for Earth, Minnesota Interfaith Power and Light, and other environmental action organizations.
Pipeline Resistance
MUUSJA was extremely active in resistance to the Line 3 pipeline construction in northern Minnesota, following the lead of frontline, Indigenous-led organizations such as Honor the Earth, Giniw Collective, Rise Coalition, and Gitchigumi Scouts. MUUSJA’s activism on this front included the following:
- Prepare to Care: A nationally broadcast forum featuring Winona LaDuke, Tara Husk, Liz Jaaokla, Dawn Goodwin, Taysha Martineau, Shanai Mattson, and Sharon Day.
- Protect Sacred Water: A Digital Rally to Stop Line 3.
- Outdoor Prep for Action: An online workshop in preparation for frontline resistance.
- Virtual Tour of the Welcome Water Protectors Center
- Virtual Tour of Camp Migizi.
- Trainings for water protectors and allies focusing on non-violent direct action.
- Legal and jail support for water protectors.
- Storytelling, songs, and art-making.
- Mobilization of Unitarian Universalists from across the world to join the Line 3 resistance movement.
- Provided supplies and materials to Line 3 resistance camps.
- Active participation in the indigenous-led Treaty People Gathering.
- Active participation in the Treaty People Walk for the Water, a 250 mile “prayer with our feet” that began at the Mississippi headwaters in Itasca and ended at the Minnesota state capitol.
- Interfaith vigils of solidarity and prayer in support of the land and waters.
We continue our work to honor treaties and resist environmental destruction from unregulated mining and fossil fuel extraction. We continue to support individuals facing arrest, imprisonment, and community re-entry struggles following incarceration for nonviolent direct action to protect the earth and waters.
Racial Justice
As Unitarian Universalists, we are called to accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.
Recent actions include:
- MUUSJA Online Book Group: The Activist’s Guide to Defund Fear by Zach Norris
- Racial Justice Series: Solos, Silos, Sanctuary, & Solidarity
- Reflection and Readiness: MUUSJA’s Statewide Racial Justice Convening
- TRUE Forum: When Hate Comes to Town
- Participation in Side With Love’s Thirty Days of Love Campaign.
- Immigration Forum: Sanctuary, Accompaniment, and Resistance
- Collaborative organizing with community partners such as Jewish Community Action, Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), ISAIAH, Minnesota Council of Churches, Muslim American Society, Joint Religious Legislative Coalition (JRLC), and the Minnesota Multi-faith Network.
- Participation in the UUA’s New Day Rising Conference.
- Offering of Beloved Conversations curriculum, a program for Unitarian Universalists seeking to embody racial justice as a spiritual practice.
- Ongoing participation in rallies, protests, and actions in defense of Black and Brown lives.
Immigration Justice
MUUSJA is proud to be an active founding member of the North Star Alliance and the Minnesota Sanctuary State Coalition. MUUSJA resists exploitation of refugee and immigrant workers, and state-sanctioned separation of families via ICE detention and deportation.
Recent Actions:
- Resisting worker exploitation and inadequate protections.
- Amplifying the stories of workers resisting unfair conditions.
- Conversations with Friends: writing and meeting with people in detention.
- Providing backpacks and related supplies to people in detention.
- Volunteering as Court Observers — witnessing and taking notes on the proceedings of Minnesota immigration courts.
- Vigils and rallies protesting ICE detention.
- Provisioning and supporting congregations in providing sanctuary for immigrant families.
Gender Justice
Pride Festivals: Annually, MUUSJA supports Unitarian Universalists congregations’ participation in Pride festivals across Minnesota and the Dakotas by offering resources, staff, supplies, and organizing support.
Transgender awareness, solidarity, and refuge: MUUSJA sponsors and hosts forums such as a conversation with Minnesota’s Queer Caucus legislators; an online course centering the “Transforming Hearts” curriculum; and connects with Pink Haven, the UUSC-developed resource for congregational support of transgender refuge.
Reproductive Justice
MUUSJA joins with congregational groups to support annual pro-choice rallies for reproductive rights, and sponsored the series,
Becoming a SACReD Congregation: An 8-Week curriculum offered to Unitarian Universalist reproductive justice activists across Minnesota and the Dakotas seeking to achieve SACReD (Spiritual Alliance of Communities for Reproductive Dignity) designations for their congregations.
