JRLC "Day on the Hill"

Thursday, March 11th, 2004

The Joint Religious Legislative Coalition is sponsored by the Minnesota Catholic Conference, the Minnesota Council of Churches, the Jewish Community Relations Council, and the Islamic Center of Minnesota. It sponsors and supports legislation which promotes social justice, and opposes bills which are contrary to our common religious and spiritual principles.

This year the Day was on March 11, 2004. About 1000 people gathered at the Saint Paul RiverCentre for issue briefings and instructions on effective lobbying. St. Joan of Arc was well represented by Julie Madden, Kathy Itzin, Annie Anderson-Itzin, Nancy Becker, Hannah Becker, Ellis Waltz, Gerri Sell, and Bob Beutel. Anna Vagle and Deb Harley pumped us up by leading the singing in the Capitol Rotunda. There may have been more, but that’s who we spotted in the crowd. We were pleased to see at least 100 or more Muslims in attendance. It was also common to spot acquaintances from the various social action groups now gathered to represent their congregations. Several new friends commented on SJA’s reputation for making peace and justice, as well as for our uplifting liturgy.

Bob Beutel, is a 20+ year "Joanie", a member St. Paul Saints Small Christian Community, the Scripture Study group, and the SJA Bookstore assistant manager. Bob says he is married to a very spiritual spouse whose challenges keep him active at SJA. They have three daughters and two granddaughters. Bob claims to be blessed beyond belief.
The theme was “Let’s Make this a Place We All Want to Live In”, meaning the state should be welcoming to all cultures and that we can be proud of the level of social justice. Episcopal Bishop James L. Jelinek gave a keynote address which was prophetic and inspiring. Filled with the spirit, we headed out to meet our respective senators and representatives. We impressed on them our positions on five selected issues: child care, affordable housing, capital punishment, minimum wage, land use and rural life, and health care. Your reporter’s senator, Dick Cohen, and representative, Mike Paymar, have long been singing from our hymnal, so to speak, so our questions were more on how to effect change in other legislators. They told us letters to the editor seem to carry a lot of weight and that we should talk to our suburban friends about leaning on their legislators or supporting candidates who are sympathetic to the causes of social justice.

The Joint Religious Legislative Coalition has a website at www.jrlc.org. Joanies should consider it as a part of their contribution to social justice.

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