"A job should keep you out of poverty, not in it"

This summer DOOR Atlanta will not only provide great hands on service and educational opportunities for the churches who participate in our Discover program, but we will add advocacy to our plate as well. We have partnered with the Georgia Minimum Wage Coalition to help educate people of faith about the difficulties of feeding and housing a family while working a minimum wage job. As part of this educational effort our participants will have the opportunity to write a letter to their representative in Washington and mail it during their week in Atlanta. My hope is that those in power will be inundated with letters from young people who are concerned about justice for low wage workers. Although this topic might seem controversial during an economic downturn, I am hopeful that the conversation will open participants' eyes to the struggles low wage workers are experiencing and be called to work for justice on their behalf.

I'd like to start the conversation by sharing an essay by my friend Chris Henry. He is a local Presbyterian pastor here in Atlanta and has been active in the Georgia Minimum Wage Coalition for several years.

"While I was a student at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, I had the opportunity to serve two nights a week as the Overnight Host at a men’s homeless shelter operated by Clifton Sanctuary Ministries, a former Presbyterian Church that now opens its doors nightly to thirty men who have nowhere else to turn for a warm meal and a place to sleep. I had taken the job because it would provide me with a little extra income as a student; what I received was an education in the realities of life for many who live and work in our communities. One of the most shocking discoveries for me was the number of men who worked full-time and still found themselves homeless and without enough income to provide the basic necessities. These men were security guards, retail store employees, custodians, and food service workers. They provided services on which we all rely and worked hard at their jobs. And yet, their hourly wages were not sufficient to secure adequate housing and food.


As a person of religious faith, I believe that we as a community have a God-given responsibility to provide fair wages to those who are doing their part by working hard everyday to make ends meet. It was the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah who reminded his community of their call to treat their workers with justice and fairness with these words: “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice; who makes his neighbors work for nothing, and does not give them their wages” (Jeremiah 22:13). In our own time and place, people of faith must again stand together to call for just wages.


That is why I am proud to say that over 130 clergy supporters have signed a letter urging the Georgia General Assembly to act on raising the state minimum wage. We have given presentations and preached sermons at churches. We have spoken out on the steps of the Capitol. We have sought to stand in the long line of prophets who have come before us to declare that the end of injustice and greed is coming, and, with great faith, we believe it to be so.


For people of faith all over the state, the issue of minimum wage is not primarily a political or economic matter. Rather, it is an issue of morality. We who believe that God has created a world of abundant goodness, also believe that God intends that abundance to be shared with justice and compassion. When we see families in our state suffering due to unjust wages, our faith calls us to hear their stories. When we watch the prices of almost everything rise dramatically and the minimum wage become a poverty wage, our faith calls us to respond. Working for fair wages is an issue of morality because it is an issue that affects real people—members of our families, our neighborhoods, our congregations and our faith communities. These are real people, just like those men at Clifton Sanctuary Ministries, whose only request from us is the opportunity to succeed.


Together let us pray for the day when justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Till then, let us give feet and voice to our prayers as we take action on behalf of those left behind in the state of Georgia."

~Jannan Thomas, DOOR Atlanta City Director