Stop Assault of Civil Rights and Non-profit Orgs.

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We Side With

Civil Rights Organizations

and Nonprofits

Across the U.S., nonprofits provide service and care where the state falls short. Now, some national leaders are targeting the entire nonprofit sector, especially civil rights, good-governance, and watchdog organizations. They are jeopardizing this vital dimension of our economy and society.

The most recent example is the President’s Memorandum, Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence, which in our estimate, attempts to exploit recent political violence, to threaten civil rights and nonprofit organizations, the modern backbone of civil society.

Join UUSJ and side with the ministries of your congregation, church or fellowship. Join us to defend your local and national nonprofits, their volunteers, and staff who serve the public good in ways only your community can truly appreciate.

Send a message to your federal legislators reminding them of the role civi society plays, and urging them to side with nonprofits.

Early Analysis and Statements:

Turning Powerful Post 9-11 Counterterrorism Tools Onto Domestic Policy Targets, Arnold & Porter
ACLU Statement on the Trump Administration's Memorandum Targeting Political Opponents
Leadership Confrence on Civil and Human Rights Statement - Civil Rights Groups Will Not Be Silenced
Attacks on Freedom of Speech: What Nonprofits Need to Know, National Council of Nonprofits
FARA Enforcement Gets a Major Shake-Up Under New Presidential Directive, National Law Review
Trump signs memo targeting ‘domestic terrorism’ amid fears of crackdown on the left, Guardian
National Security Directive Declares War on Those Who Don’t Support Trump Agenda, truthout

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Context:

The President’s Memo, Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence, attempts to exploit recent political violence, to threaten civil rights and nonprofit organizations, the modern backbone of civil society. In our view, it is a continued attempt to secure the policy, perhaps political, aims of a dangerous provision, previously proposed in Congress and responding to signals of interest from the White House.

That provision would allow the government shut down nonprofits without due process. The measure was temporarily removed from the House GOP tax bill. But previously the National Council of Nonprofits said “we must remain vigilant to ensure the language doesn’t get added back into the bill on its way to enactment.” And it seems they were correct, at least in spirit, because we feel this is the impetus behind the memo.

To take action with UUSJ on that specific text and provision, click here.

We were warned it could come back any moment. In bureaucratic terms it has. The President's memo directs various agencies to act in a fashion consistent with the reprisal ethos, the “daddy state” as some term it, embodied in the provision, and to seek out and penalize nonprofits acting in ways that defy the current administration's political and policy agenda..

This continues to be a First Amendment emergency, not a partisan issue. Your voice matters. Free speech and nonprofit advocacy are on the line. This bureaucratic and political gambit must be rejected.

UU Grounding

Unitarian Universalists honor the interdependent web of life, of which we are all a part. We believe that when one of us is targeted, all of us are targeted. Nonprofits work to make our communities and our lives better because we believe in justice and the inherent worth and dignity of ALL people. Our government shouldn’t use its power to arbitrarily remove tax-exempt status of a nonprofit or a church because they disagree with some statement or action taken by someone in the organization. How can we build community together, if we worry that something someone says may be taken out context. This would affect our ability to do good work for others.

Unitarian Universalists are united in our broad and inclusive outlook, and in our shared values. We are united in shared experience: our open and stirring worship services, religious education and rites of passage; our work for justice; our commitment to center the experiences and needs of the marginalized and most vulnerable among us; our dedication to living in a way that always centers love.

As of General Assembly 2024, we Unitarian Universalists, have agreed to “adopt new language on core religious values.” We agree love is the power that holds us together and is at the center of our shared values. The values we share include all the following, which we hold as inseparable and deeply interconnected: Interdependence, Pluralism, Justice, Transformation, Generosity, and Equity. (Read more on the Article II revision process.)

Our shared covenant is expressed through a set of inseparable and deeply interdependent shared values. [UUA]

With these agreed core religious values in mind, we also ground our call to preserve easy access to the vote in support of a healthy democracy in the following Unitarian Universalist Statements:

Stop Voter Suppression and Partner for Voting Rights and a Multiracial Democracy, 2021 AIW
Undoing Systemic White Supremacy: A Call to Prophetic Action, 2021 SOC
Our Democracy Uncorrupted, 2019 SOC
Oppose Citizens United—Support Free Speech for People, 2011 AIW
Moral Values for a Pluralistic Society, 2007 SOC
Voting Rights for Communities of Color, 2007 RR

We Side With
Civil Rights Organizations and Nonprofits

This continues to be a First Amendment emergency, not a partisan issue. Across the U.S., nonprofits provide service and care. Now, some national leaders are targeting the entire nonprofit sector, especially civil rights, good-governance, and watchdog organizations. They are jeopardizing our economy and society.

Send a message to your federal legislators reminding them of the role civi society plays, and urging them to side with nonprofits.

Free speech and nonprofit advocacy are on the line.

Sign now to send a message to your elected representatives

Nonprofit Senate

Subject: Support and respect America's non-profits

Message:

As a constituent and a person motivated by faith, Unitarian Universalist religious values, and moral conscience, I urge you to side with America’s nonprofits.  Just as Houses of Worship are the moral conscience of our body politic, nonprofits are the backbone of civil society. Volunteers and dedicated professionals are the loving hands of compassion and care in our communities. More often than not, nonprofits represent neighbors helping neighbors.  Committed to mission, service, and rendering care where public systems fall short, nonprofits place faith or civic duty above profit. They indeed strive to effect the triple bottom line. They care for our youth, veterans, and feed families in need. They support our elderly, the sick, and those with disabilities. They explore ideas, concepts, and innovations for the public square that the market or the state cannot delve into at any given moment. As Congress and the Administration, our national leadership, continue to evaluate changes to nonprofit tax-exempt status, federal funding, and relevant regulatory or monitoring frameworks, I urge you to support nonprofits, whether local or national. Keep central in your analysis the profound good that nonprofits facilitate. Remember, much of our greatness stems from the diversity and depth of our economic activity, which nonprofits help to foster. Policies that limit the capacity of nonprofits to operate independently and effectively, to raise funds, and to serve our communities undermine the civil society that makes our nation strong, invigorates our economy, and makes our country a leader of the free world.   For me, this is not a partisan issue. It is a matter of protecting faith-based compassion and care, as well as commitment to ministry and serving the community, alongside free speech, due process, and upholding the democratic process. I urge you to publicly oppose any provision or program, in legislation and beyond, that challenges the position of non-profits to serve. Where needed, ensure such changes do not become law in any form. Thank you,

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