Tools  for  Activists
      
The price of apathy towards public affairs
         is to be ruled by evil men.       -----Plato


The Pagan Institute does not endorse political candidates, legislation, or political parties. 

WE DO encourage active citizenship through information, community organizing, participation in elections, volunteerism, and civil dialog. 
 

No Frames    This page provides tools to support active engagement in the political process.
Send your questions, info, essays here.                              

                     Who owns the government?

• Voting Record by Member of Congress
• Voting Record by State Congressional Delegation

• Election site shows the money trail

• Find out all about your elected official

Are YOU getting all the government you pay for?

• Check the Status of a Bill

• Find Out How Your Legislator Voted http://www.voterpunch.org/

• How to phone your legislator

• How to write effective letters to government & media

• A political compass test

• Legal Tools

Protect Your Privacy:

• How to Deal with Hate Mail

• Are You Being Watched? Tools from ACLU

• See FBI Training Materials on Pagan & Other Religious Groups 

• Religious Anti-Discrimination Law & Guidelines

• Workplace Discrimination
   

Allies and Volunteer Opportunities

• UU services of special interest to Pagan Activists

• Defending Democracy

• Serving and learning from Native American communities

• Pagan Volunteerism

"Thomas Jefferson said the Book of Revelations was the ravings of a lunatic.
George Bush organizes his entire foreign policy around it."
----- Bill Maher.
Less  than  16 months  'til  the next  election!
"...we hold talisman by which to show the right of all classes to the ballot,
to remove every obstacle, to answer every objection,
to point out the tyranny of every qualification
to the free exercise of this sacred right."

-----Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Universalist, Feminist
 

2007 Summer Internships at Harvard

The Pluralism Project at Harvard University seeks interns for the summer of 2007. Interns will be involved in a wide variety of projects including research, site visits, outreach, website and database maintenance, and administrative tasks.

For more information see:
http://www.pluralism.org/resources/calendar/summer_internships.php

Election Site Shows the Money Trail! l

Find out who bought your civil servant and for how much $ 
http://www.opensecrets.org/

Religious Right's role in the 2002 campaign 
Americans United Special Report
 

Thanks to Rob Lytle, Oklahoma State Chair Pagan Unity Campaign for passing this information on.

Before you invent the wheel...

UU Services of Special Interest to Pagan Activists 

There is a new UU community organizers email list through the UUA:
cbco-l@uua.org

Also note the new UU Peace/World Community email list through the UUA: 
UUPeaceWorldCom@yahoogroups.com 

When was the last time you discovered a book that you had needed for a long time, but didn't know that anyone might have written it? For hard to find books about building community, understanding oppression, and celebrating diversity, check out the all-new UUA Bookstore on the web -- See best sellers, new titles, or write reviews of your favorites. You can also enter item numbers from our print catalog to find items on the web, or use the search engine to locate titles in your area of interest. Go to  http://www.uua.org/bookstore and be amazed at what's new from the UUA!

The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee: 

advancing human rights and social justice in the United States and throughout the world.

Family member of key witness in Guatemala human rights legal case is murdered

Most recently, a key witness in a Guatemala murder case involving the husband of U.S. activist Jennifer Harbury, has been murdered. Ms. Harbury recently joined the staff of UUSC as director of its new STOP (Stop Torture Permanently) Campaign.

To take action against this outrageous attempt to intimidate human rights defenders in Guatemala, visit http://www.uusc.org/news/alert080904.html.

For more about the STOP Campaign, visit:
http://www.uusc.org/programs/STOP/index.html

********************************

UUSC, colleague organizations form Save Darfur Coalition

Public awareness is urgently needed to mobilize members of the international community to respond to and help end the atrocities that threaten the lives of 2 million people in Darfur, a western region of the Sudan. The Sudanese government backed by the Janjaweed Arab militia, has been accused of carrying out a systematic and deliberate campaign of terror in which thousands have been killed or displaced from their homes.

In response, UUSC joined forces with 80 organizations representing the Sudanese community, faith-based, humanitarian and human rights agencies in the newly established Save Darfur Coalition.

To learn more about the Save Darfur Coalition, visit:
http://www.uusc.org/info/article071604_5.html

For updates on the crisis in the Sudan, visit:
http://www.uusc.org/info/article071604.html

********************************

Fair trade chocolate bars available through UUSC Coffee Project

UUSC is pleased to announce the addition of fairly traded chocolate bars to the coffee, tea and cocoa already available through our partnership with the Fair Trade company Equal Exchange. By buying fairly traded coffee, tea, cocoa and now chocolate bars through the UUSC Coffee Project, our members and supporters can help make a crucial difference in the lives of small farmers in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

To learn more about the UUSC Coffee Project,
visit: http://www.uusc.org/info/article082504.html

********************************
More about UUSC

To learn more about UUSC membership or to make a donation today, visit:
http://www.uusc.org/info/support.html

You do not have to be a member of UUSC to receive the bulletin, but we hope that after learning
more about UUSC you may wish to join. Sign up to receive your own copy at:
http://www.uusc.org/info/emailbulletin.htm

To download a printable version of this bulletin, visit:
http://www.uusc.org/info/bulletinpdfs.html

If you need to receive the bulletin at a different e-mail address, please visit: http://www.uusc.org/info/bulletinchange.html

Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
130 Prospect Street
Cambridge, MA 02139
ph: 617.868.6600 fax: 617.868.7102
info@uusc.org; www.uusc.org

Leadership School

UUs believe in the Priesthood of ALL members, and provide for training in leadership skills such as organizational development, generating change in a religious community, and the care and feeding of volunteers. I attended  Leadership School towards the end of my years in seminary; in my opinion, if you want to help rugged individualists collaborate to build community, a week at leadership school may be better than a year in a seminary. Our regional Leadership School is held in Beloit, WI every summer and costs the participant around $500 including room, board, and materials. Two of the instructors have been Pagans. You MUST be a member of a UU congregation to attend. 

For the Leadership School serving this district, visit
http://www.unitarian.org/mwls/index.html

All UU Leadership Schools: 
http://www.uua.org/administration/organizations.html#leaderschools

Return to the Index

• Identifying and training local leaders 
• Strategic planning and issue cutting 
• Researching and targeting decision makers 
• One-on-One relationship building 
• Developing and training leaders to take successful Direct Action on issues
• Fund Raising for the long-haul 

Graduates from the four month DART Organizers Institute have gone onto accept Executive Director and Immigrant Organizing positions throughout the country making between 27 - 34,000 in starting salaries. We continue to train the best of those working to build the power of low-moderate income communities to win victories on important issues in their community. The DART Center has built coalitions throughout the country that have won important victories on a broad set of justice issues including: 

• Education reform in low-performing public schools 
• Fair immigration policies 
• Police misconduct
• Living Wage campaigns & job training
• Affordable housing, etc.

To apply, applicants must send materials (resume and completed application form) to Ben MacConnell,
the Recruitment Director at: institute@thedartcenter.org . You can also call him with questions:
(785) 841-2680. 

To download our applications or find out more about the DART center, check out our website: www.thedartcenter.org 
 http://www.uua.org/mailman/private/cbco-l/attachments/20031111/090cac54/attachment-0001.htm

Sec. 1605.2 Reasonable Accommodation without Undue Hardship as Required by Section 701(j) (paragraph 9500 of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. ---

(a) PURPOSE OF THIS SECTION. This Section clarifies the obligation imposed by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, (sections 701 (j) (paragraph 950), 703 (paragraph 954) 717, (paragraph 982)) to accommodate the religious practices of employees and prospective employees. This section does not address other obligations under Title VII not to discriminate on grounds of religion, nor other provisions of Title VII. This section is not intended to limit any additional obligations to accommodate religious practices which may exist pursuant to constitutional, or other statutory provisions; neither is it intended to provide guidance for statutes which require accommodation on bases other than religion such as Sec. 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (paragraph 999.6C). The legal principles which have been developed with respect to discrimination prohibited by Title VII on the bases of race, color, sex, and national origin also apply to religious discrimination in all circumstances other than where an accommodation is required.

(b) DUTY TO ACCOMMODATE. (1) Section 701(j) (paragraph 950) makes it an unlawful unemployment practice under Sec. 703(a) (1) (paragraph 954) for an employer to fail to reasonably accommodate the religious practices of an employee or prospective, unless the employer demonstrates that accommodation would result in undue hardship on the conduct of its business. (2) Section 701(j) (paragraph 954) in conjunction with Sec. 703(c), imposes an obligation to reasonably accommodate the religious practices of an employee or prospective employee, unless the labor organization demonstrates that accommodation would result in undue hardship. (3) Section 1605.2 is primarily directed to obligations of employers or labor organizations, which are the entities covered by Title VII that will most often be required to make an accommodation. however, the principles of Section 1605.2 also apply when an accommodation can be required of other entities covered by Title VII, such as employment agencies (Sec. 703 (b) (paragraph 954) or joint labor-management committees controlling apprenticeship or other training or retraining (Sec. 703 (d) (paragraph 954)).

(c) REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION.
(1) After an employee or prospective employee notifies the employer or labor organization of his or her need for a religious accommodation, the employer or labor organization has an obligation to reasonably accommodate the individual's religious practices. A refusal to accommodate is justified only when an employer or labor organization can demonstrate that an undue hardship would in fact result from each available alternative method of accommodation. A mere assumption that many more people, with the same religious practices as the person being accommodated, may also need accommodation is not evidence of undue hardship.
(2) When there is more than one method of accommodation available which would not cause undue hardship, the Commission will determine whether the accommodation offered is reasonable by examining: (i) The alternatives for accommodation considered by the employer or labor organization; and (ii) The alternative for accommodation, if any, actually offered to the individual requiring accommodation. Some alternatives for accommodating religious practices might disadvantage the individual with respect to his or her employment opportunities, such as compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment. Therefore, when there is more than one means of accommodation which would not cause undue hardship, the employer or labor organization must offer the alternative which least disadvantages the individual with respect to his or her employment opportunities.

(d) ALTERNATIVES FOR ACCOMMODATING RELIGIOUS PRACTICES.
(1) Employees and prospective employees most frequently request an accommodation because their religious practices conflict with their work schedules. The following subsections are some means of accommodating the conflict between work schedules and religious practices which the Commission believes that employers and labor organizations should consider as part of the obligation to accommodate and which the Commission will consider in investigating a charge. These are not intended to be all- inclusive. there are often other alternatives which would reasonably accommodate an individuals religious practices when they conflict with a work schedule. There are also employment practices besides work scheduling which may conflict with religious practices and cause an individual to request an accommodation.

(i) VOLUNTARY SUBSTITUTES AND "SWAPS," Reasonable accommodation without undue hardship is generally possible where a voluntary substitute with substantially similar qualifications is available. One means of substitution is the voluntary swap. In a number of cases, the securing of a substitute has been left entirely up to the individual seeking the accommodation. The Commission believes that the obligation to accommodate requires that employers and labor organizations facilitate the securing of a voluntary substitute with substantially similar qualifications. Some means of doing this which employers and labor organizations should consider are: to publicize policies regarding accommodation and voluntary substitution; to promote an atmosphere in which such substitutions are favorably regarded; to provide a central file, bulletin board or other means for matching voluntary substitutes with positions for which substitutes are needed.

(ii) FLEXIBLE SCHEDULING. One means of providing reasonable accommodation for the religious practices of employees or prospective employees which employers and labor organizations should consider is the creation of a flexible work schedule for individuals requesting accommodation. The following list is an example of areas in which flexibility might be introduced: flexible arrival and departure times; floating or optional holidays; flexible work breaks; use of lunchtime in exchange for early departure; staggered work hours; and permitting an employee to make up time lost due to the observance of religious practices.

(ii) LATERAL TRANSFER AND CHANGE OF JOB ASSIGNMENTS. When an employee cannot be accommodated either as to his or her entire job or an assignment within the job, employers and labor organizations should consider whether or not it is possible to change the job assignment or give the employee a lateral transfer.

APPENDIX
1. There is widespread confusion concerning the extent of accommodation under the HARDISON decision.

2. The religious practices of some individuals and some groups of individuals are not being accommodated.

3. Some of those practices which are not being accommodated are:
---Observance of a Sabbath or religious holidays;
---Need for prayer break during working hours;
---Practice of following certain dietary requirements;
---Practice of not working during a mourning period for a deceased relative;
---Prohibition against medical examinations
---Prohibition against membership in labor and other organizations; and
---Practices concerning dress and other personal grooming habits.

4. Many of the employers who testified had developed alternative employment practices which accommodate the religious practices of employees and prospective employees and which meet the employer's business needs.

5. Little evidence was submitted by employers which showed actual attempts to accommodate religious practices with resultant unfavorable consequences to the employer's business. Employers appeared to have substantial anticipatory concerns, but no, or very little, actual experience with the problems they theorized would emerge by providing reasonable accommodation for religious practices.

For the latest additions to our Career Center, see http://www.idealist.org/career.html 

Action Without Borders
http://www.idealist.org

Action Without Borders connects people, organizations and resources to help build a world where all people can live free and dignified lives. Idealist.org, a project of AWB, is the most comprehensive community of nonprofit and volunteering resources on the Web, with information provided by 32,000 organizations in 165 countries and 20,000 visitors every day.

Handling Hate Mail

ERAL reports that a public Pagan leader in Texas recently received hate mail and turned it over to her local police for investigation.

It came in a hand-addressed small envelope with a flag stamp and a partial cancellation stamp. (Neither she nor the police officer could read it.) Inside was a handwritten note with an enclosure. The note read:

"We are through playing Harry Potter pussy 
with people like you! This is your future,                 (leader's name)!  We think you agree it's not 
very bright."

The note was not signed. Enclosed was a small comic from Chick Publications, P.O. Box 3500 Ontario, Calf. 91761-1019 USA. The front showed the Grim Reaper with the title of "Hi, There!" and the initials J.T.C. On the back of the comic in the same writing as the note was:

Get out of Texas! 
-----The Church!

The recipient is treating this as a mild threat and am taking precautions to ensure documentation of any further incidents if they happen. (For those of you not familiar with Chick Publications, they have regularly published right-winged Christian propaganda comics portraying Pagans as devil worshippers going to hell.)

The Pagan in question has asked that if anyone has received anything similar, please make contact through the Editor, so she can document it. She's probably not the only victim. If anyone receives something in the future, please do NOT throw it away. Record when you received it and file a complaint with either your local police department or the FBI. ERAL is tracking these as well. You can report to the Editor  for forwarding to ERAL. 
See  http://www.paganinstitute.org/Links.html
If you have any other suggestions on how to handle this or suggestions on prepare effective documentation, please pass those on, too.

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Legal Rights Hub

Religious Liberties LAW

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& Child Custody

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