CHUMC Family,
Yesterday we wrapped up our Bible Year sermon series Faith When It Counts. In so doing, we discussed the call of Micah to respond to the grace of God by doing justice, providing relief to those who are victims of social injustice and seeking, by God’s grace, to shape our lives, our society and our world with justice. This is shaped by our walking humbly with God and in our love of kindness (the Hebrew hesed translated kindness speaks of living with loyalty, faithfulness, and love toward our neighbor) in response to God’s presence and hesed in grace.
We spoke specifically yesterday of our United Methodist commitment, along with numerous other Christian denominations, to the need for a living wage. The minimum wage in our country and wages for low income workers around the globe have extremely deficient buying power for people’s basic needs. The minimum hourly wage for a single adult with no children is just $1.06 above what our federal government considers poverty wages and is $10.57 short of a living wage in Dallas County. To understand this further, you can check out MIT’s Living Wage Calculator. Their website also includes documentation detailing their method for determining living wages.
This information can help us make informed decisions about how we ourselves do business in relation to anyone we employ and to work with low income workers to amplify their voices as they speak to the need for just wages.
As we may seek to do justice, I also remind you that I am a board member of Texas Impact, representing the North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church. Texas Impact is an interfaith group which works together, focused on the social principles the people from the different faith groups represented have in common, to advocate for justice in the legislation passed during each legislative session in the state of Texas. I invite you to learn more about Texas Impact here. Our legislative priorities for the 2023 Texas legislative session can be found here. For a detailed discussion of our legislative priorities and how you can engage your elected Texas officials, you can view the Weekly Witness Podcast on the Texas Impact website and YouTube channel. This year’s legislative priorities begin at episode 223 on July 27. 2022.
Grace and peace,
Rev. J.D. Allen
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