Important Election Year Resources
The Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (UUA) is pleased to announce two important resources to help congregations carry out effective, nonpartisan electoral activities in 2008 and beyond.
“Elections are a great opportunity for Unitarian Universalists to get out into the community and make an impact, from registering and mobilizing voters to raising important issues,” says Rob Keithan, Director of the Association’s Washington Office for Advocacy. “The IRS places certain restrictions on what congregations can do, and those boundaries need to be respected. However, there is a wide range of totally acceptable activities, and I sincerely hope that many congregations will choose to get involved. These two resources should help.”
1. Updated Version of "The Real Rules" Now Available
In order to provide congregations with the best guidance possible, the UUA has released an updated edition of “The Real Rules: Congregations and IRS Guidelines on Advocacy, Lobbying, and Elections.” The new version provides clear, up-to-date information on what congregations can and cannot do, drawing heavily on a binding decision issued by the IRS in June 2007. Most of the text comes straight from IRS publications, with sources clearly footnoted. Please discard previous editions and use the new one! You can access “The Real Rules” and other key social justice resources online.
2. Election-Year Resources and Opportunities from Faithful Democracy
Faithful Democracy is a nonpartisan online clearinghouse made up of national faith-based organizations. The goal of Faithful Democracy is to educate and engage people of faith about the role they can and should play in the democratic process, thereby increasing the number of informed faith-based voters in elections.
The Faithful Democracy website features resources from member organizations on what religious groups can do and how they can do it, including voter registration, education, mobilization, and poll monitoring. The site also features theological reflections from a variety of religious leaders on the connections between civic participation and religious values. The Unitarian Universalist Association helped to found Faithful Democracy in 2004 and remains an active participant.
For more information contact uuawo @ uua.org.
Last updated on Tuesday, June 3, 2008.
