by Dave Nichols

Good morning. I have been a member of this UU for about five years, and I sit on the board — so let me say at the start that this morning I am speaking for myself. Not for the board, and not for this congregation.

I want to speak about something I have been working on. I am not asking you for anything today.

There is a national party called the Justice for All Party. It is new. It is small. I am part of a group that is forming its Pennsylvania affiliate. Right now, the Pennsylvania group is four people. Two in Luzerne County, one in Philadelphia, and one in Pittsburgh. That is the honest number.

The party organizes around three words. Truth, Justice, and Love. Truth means saying plainly what is being done to people, and by whom. Justice means ending the harm and undoing it. Love means the people who are harmed matter — including the ones you will never meet.

You might ask why start a new party instead of working inside the two we have.

The reason is that there are things large majorities of Americans want that never happen. Eighty-six percent of us want to bar members of Congress from trading individual stocks. Eighty-seven percent want term limits. Seventy-two percent want limits on campaign spending. Those numbers hold among Republicans and Democrats alike. None of it gets done.

Look at what those three have in common. Every one of them restrains the people who would have to pass it.

That is the problem I am most interested in. Not any single issue, but the arrangement itself. Both parties share an interest in staying in charge, and what the public wants comes second to that. Neither of them will let the public take charge. That is what a new party is for.

Some of the specific things we stand for are housing as a human right, Medicare for All, a living wage, serious action on climate, protecting reproductive rights, and protecting LGBTQ rights. That is six of the fourteen points our state group adopted last week. I would rather go through the specific programs with you in conversation than read a list from up here.

Our goal in Pennsylvania is to build a state party large enough to be recognized under the state's election law. That hurdle is higher than most people realize. Then we plan to put candidates on local ballots. We are looking for people across Luzerne, Lackawanna and Wyoming counties.

We are small. What we need is not money and not your vote. We need people willing to come to a meeting and find out whether this is something they want to be part of. We meet every two weeks.

If you are curious, ask me. I am here most Sundays, and I will tell you anything you want to know, including the parts I am still unsure about.

Thank you.

Sources for the three figures: 
Program for Public Consultation, University of Maryland (congressional stock trading, 86%)·
Pew Research Center, "Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics", September 2023 (term limits 87%, campaign spending limits 72%).

by Stella Dubish

My dad taught me how to garden when I was a teenager, and we spent hours turning soil, planting, watering, and weeding.  I loved being close to the earth and coaxing something beautiful and nourishing out of what appeared to be almost nothing - a tiny seed. My love of gardening led me to my husband, Bryan, and through Bryan, I became friends with Bill Braun and Deanna Levanti, of Freed Seed Federation.  “Freed Seed Federation is a farmer-run nonprofit dedicated to the preservation, adaptation, and diversification of place-based seed.  Their mission is simple: to fortify regional food resilience from the level of the seed” (Freed Seed Federation, n.d.).

Over the last century, 90% of our food's genetic diversity has vanished, leaving crops vulnerable to environmental upheaval. Today, most seeds are controlled by a few corporations, detached from cultural and historical roots. Bill and Dee believe seeds belong in the hands of the people. Their work focuses on growing open-pollinated, patent-free seeds adapted to our region and resilient against climate change. They advocate for food sovereignty through participatory breeding, education, and community-building, ensuring seeds remain embedded in the communities they nourish (Freed Seed Federation, n.d.).

This summer, we visited their farm and saw heritage grains and vegetables grown from seeds passed down through generations. Seeing these crops makes the importance of their mission clear—whether you are walking through their fields or searching for quality produce at a grocery store.

You can support this vital work in two ways: 

1. Watch their YouTube crash course on seed saving to learn how to sustain your own garden. freedseedfederation.org or YouTube @freedseedfederation2058  
   
2. Make a donation via their website or participate in next month’s "Collection for a Cause," where Freed Seed will be the featured beneficiary.

Freed Seed Federation.  (n.d.)  https://www.freedseedfederation.org/  

by Jenny Blanchard 

What is the minimum wage in PA?

• $7.25/hr
  

When was the last time the PA state legislature voted to raise the minimum wage?

• In 2006 they voted to raise it to $7.15/hr.
  
• It increased to $7.25/hr in 2009 to match the federal minimum wage.

Over the last 20 years, there have been numerous efforts to raise the minimum wage in PA. Most recently, House Bill 2189 passed the Democratic-controlled House with bipartisan support in March 2006. The bill outlined a gradual rollout starting at $11 per hour in 2027, $13 in 2028, and $15 by 2029. Senate Republicans blocked the latest minimum wage increase bill by refusing to advance it out of the Senate Labor & Industry Committee, which means the bill will never come to a vote on the floor of the Senate.

When I worked at the Catherine McAuley Center, one of our clients who had struggled with homelessness came through the door excitedly to announce that she had secured a job at the Radisson Hotel in Scranton, at an hourly rate of $8 an hour. She was the mother of three children, which means she needed a two-bedroom apartment at the bare minimum.

What is the average cost of a two-bedroom apartment in Scranton? Anywhere from $1,200 to $1,500 a month. You need to earn $3,600 a month or $830 a week to afford this apartment (your rent should not exceed 30% of your income).

Assuming a 40-hour work week, how many hours a week do you have to work to afford the two-bedroom apartment?

• At $8 an hour, she has to work 104 hours a week.
  
• At $15 an hour, she has to work 55 hours a week.

There are many opposing arguments against raising the minimum wage that falsely insist that this will hurt the economy, lead to job losses, and increase the price of goods. But the worst and completely baseless argument is that most of the people who work at the minimum wage are teenagers, and therefore it is not meant to be a living wage. This is a lie.

The vast majority of minimum wage workers are adults. Two thirds are over the age of twenty. Nearly half are over thirty. They are the home health aide, the fast-food worker, the retail clerk, the childcare provider. They are disproportionately women. They are disproportionately people of color. Many are the primary earners for their families. The “teenager” in the myth is a figment that serves as a convenient excuse to explain away the reality of adults being paid poverty wages. 

We commonly use expressions like unskilled labor, entry-level jobs and then refuse to consign any dignity to these jobs. The minimum wage was always about life. It is about the price of rent, of bread, of light, of heat. It is about the value of an hour of human life spent in labor.

The argument that the minimum wage is not meant to be a living wage suggests that some people do not deserve to live.

by Eoin Carroll

Birds need our help.  Habitat loss is the number one threat facing birds and we can do something about it in our outdoor spaces, gardens, and landscapes.

Reproduction success is closely tied to food availability.  For 95 to 98 percent of songbirds the main food that they feed their young are caterpillars.  If there are not enough caterpillars then the babies will starve.

Insect populations are declining across many regions, especially the species that ecosystems depend on most. One major reason is the loss of the plants they need to survive.

The vast majority of North American caterpillar species can only feed on a small number of specific plants. They cannot develop on most other types of vegetation.  This is because most plants have created various defenses to keep from being eaten.  Only certain caterpillars have evolved the various enzymes that are necessary to break down these defenses.  If those plants are missing, caterpillars cannot survive, and the food web begins to break down. Caterpillars are especially important because they transfer energy from plants to other animals, making them a critical link between plants and wildlife.

Thus you can have what appears to be a very beautiful yard that is full of healthy plants but if they are not native plants then what you have is a caterpillar desert and is no help for our hungry bird babies.

The same logic holds for the rest of the insect kingdom.  One example, which most people know, is the dependence that monarch butterflies have with milkweed plants.  This is the only plant that the monarch butterfly will lay her eggs on as it is the only plant that will make both the monarch butterfly and its caterpillar taste really bad and thus avoid being eaten.

One place that you can get native trees and shrubs is from the Master Watershed Stewards annual fundraising sale which is in progress now.  There is a link to the site in our weekly announcements.  The catalog on the website has lots of information on the 24 varieties of trees and shrubs to help you understand if it would do well in your yard.  Proceeds support Master Watershed Steward projects and educational programs in the selected region, including stream restoration efforts, tree plantings, youth education initiatives, and other community-based conservation activities.  

You place your order online and then need to pick up your purchase from the site you designate.  The closest sites to our church are at the Wyoming County Conservation District in Tunkhannock or at Sweeneys Beach in Scranton.  If you come to the Wyoming Country site then your plants will be personally loaded into your car by either me or my wife.

by Lilly Gioia

In May 2025 President Trump issued an Executive Order forming his RELIGIOUS LIBERTY COMMISSION made up of 12 members, many of them his allies: 11 CHRISTIANS & 1 ORTHODOX JEW. The Commission was to hold hearings and issue a report on the history and state of religious liberty in America. Its draft report just issued in June focused on witnesses and members who basically spoke about RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE and INTIMIDATION primarily faced by CHRISTIANS!

In case you were not aware of the persecution and discrimination against American Christians, you can read the 224 page Religion Liberty Commission report online containing dozens of policy and legal recommendations. It calls for establishing a Religious Liberty Violation Hotline, expanding school choice funding, appointing judges with a proven commitment to religious liberty and forming a Justice Department Religious Liberty Task Force. I watched the testimony on C-SPAN as a supporter of the Interfaith Alliance.

The Interfaith Alliance filed a lawsuit forcing the administration to publish Religious Liberty Commission records that had been kept secret from the American people. The suit was a multi-faith coalition effort represented by Democracy Forward, and Americans United for Separation of Church & State, arguing the Commission violated federal law as an unbalanced, biased panel operating in near secrecy. Facing the lawsuit, the Commission allowed public comment on its draft report. 1,700 people flooded an email portal with objections.

The Religious Liberty Commission is what Christian Nationalism looks like when it has the power of government and weaponizes language of religious freedom, critics said. Not only have the Interfaith Alliance, the Secular Coalition for America, Muslim, Sikh and Hindu organizations strongly objected to this Commission’s narrow focus, but also Catholic Bishops voiced criticism. Critics have attacked the Commission for ignoring issues like Islamophobia.

Basic takeaways from the report are the Commission’s argument that there is a misunderstanding of SEPARATION of CHURCH & STATE. They claim the “wall of separation between church and state” has been misapplied and  weaponized to restrict religion’s place in public life. They assert that the term separation of church and state never appears in the Constitution. That religious liberty is the “bridge” between church and state. They recommend that the Department of Justice issue guidance clarifying that.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation was among organizations raising an alarm because the Fourteenth Amendment’s Establishment Clause bars passing any laws that favor one religion over another. Freedom From Religion Foundation said, “The Establishment Clause exists precisely because the government must remain neutral on matters of religion.”

The Commission also recommends REPEALING the Johnson Amendment that forbids nonprofits, including houses of worship, from endorsing political candidates. Repealing the Johnson Amendment has the potential for turning churches into tax exempt Political Actions Committees able to endorse candidates. This Religious Liberty Commission report fails to discuss the rights or experiences of the religiously unaffiliated, who make up roughly one-third of all Americans today.

The Secular Coalition for America said: The report is “not a blueprint for protecting religious freedom. It is a roadmap for expanding religious privilege.” The Interfaith Alliance (to which our congregation has donated) said: The report and the Commission behind it fail to represent and uplift the importance and tolerance for all faiths in our country—not just a special, chosen few.”

On July 28 a federal judge dismissed the Interfaith Alliance lawsuit. In a statement the Alliance said that with multi-faith partners they intend to keep standing up to Christian Nationalism wherever it threatens our democracy. A coalition built to promote a true and inclusive religious freedom will outlast any single ruling.

On a positive note last week we saw a meeting of the Third Annual Congressional Freethought Caucus Reception. Sponsored by the Secular Coalition for America, the American Humanist Society and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, there are now 37 members of Congress in the Freethought Caucus on Capitol Hill. Their keynote speaker was Mary Trump as they gathered to celebrate Constitutional Democracy, Reason, and the rights of non-religious Americans. They reflect increasing support for religious equality and secular government.