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Formerly the Mid-South Interfaith Network for Economic Justice     

Faithfully seeking justice with workers                                                         

  Faith Leaders' Open Letter to the Memphis
  City Council on the Living Wage

 March 30, 2006

 Dear City Council Members,

   As leaders of our respective faith communities, we are participating today in the Forty Hour Fast for a Living Wage. We
have encouraged members of our congregations and faith communities to join the Fast as a time of prayer, reflection, sacrifice, and action with workers who earn poverty wages. We are led by the prophetic voices in our faith traditions, which tell us that God calls us to measure our economy by how our most vulnerable brothers and sisters are faring. As you are well aware, too many of our fellow Mid-Southerners are toiling long hours but still have difficulty putting food on their families’ tables, paying their rent, and getting even basic medical care.

   We are undertaking this Fast because we are deeply troubled that so many workers are forced to live in poverty because of low wages, even while their employer receives hundreds of thousands of our taxpayer dollars in the form of city contracts and tax subsidies. When companies receive public money and pay their workers poverty wages, the entire community is unwittingly subsidizing their injustice. When the City of Memphis itself still pays many of its temporary workers poverty wages with our taxpayer dollars, we are compelled to call our City and all of its citizens to repent.

   This is why, as part of our Fast, we urge you to pass a strong, comprehensive living wage ordinance. We congratulate you on the resolution passed last month to bring full-time City workers up to a living wage by July 1^st. It is crucial that the Council continue the action it has begun by requiring city contractors and recipients of property tax freezes to pay their workers a living wage in return for the subsidies they receive. It is critical that temporary City of Memphis workers be paid a living wage, especially when so many of them are being employed on a long term basis by the City.

   Too often, our city is recognized for its discouraging patterns of poverty, racism, and violence. The living wage ordinance is an opportunity for Memphis to instead be a city on the hill, shining a light of economic justice throughout our region and even our nation. As we fast today, our collective prayer is that each member of the Council will do everything in your power to enact a living wage.

 Sincerely,

 Father John Atkinson
 Dean C.B. Baker, St. Mary's Episcopal Cathedral*
 Dr. Nabil Bayakly, Muslims in Memphis
 Rev. Jared Bingham, Shady Grove Presbyterian Church
 Rev. John Bonson, Trinity United Methodist Church
 Dr. Valerie Bridgeman-Davis, Memphis Theological Seminary*
 Rev. Alma Brown, Gifts of Life Ministies*
 Dr. Paul B. Brown, Cumberland Presbyterian Minister*
 Sister Nic Catrambone, BVM, St. Augustine Catholic Church*
 Rev. Burton Carley, Church of the River*
 Rev. O.C. Collins Jr., Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church
 Rev. Cheryl Cornish, First Congregational Church
 Rev. Senter C. Crook, Grace St. Luke’s Episcopal Church
 Rev. Cynthia Davis, Friendship United Methodist Church*
 Dr. Paul R. Dekar, Memphis Theological Seminary*
 Dr. Daniel J. Earheart-Brown, Memphis Theological Seminary*
 Rabbi Meir Feldman
 Dr. Cozette R. Garrett, Community of Faith Christian Church*
 Rev. John Gilmore, Open Heart Spiritual Center
 Sister Regina M. Grehan, Sisters of Mercy
 Rev. Autura Hampton, Calvary Longview United Methodist Church
 Rev. Willie Hardy, Cazassa Hope Center (Baptist)*
 Rev. Robin Hatzenbuehler, Grace St. Luke’s Episcopal Church
 Dr. Barbara Holmes, Memphis Theological Seminary*
 Rev. Verlie Horton, Christ Tabernacle African Methodist Episcopal Church*
 Rev. J. Jeffrey Irwin, Metro Office of Urban Ministries
 Rev. Jonathan Jeffords, St. John’s United Methodist Church*
 Rev. Andre Johnson, Gifts of Life Ministries*
 Rev. Virginia Jones Finzel, Mount Vernon United Methodist Church
 Rev. R. Craig Jordan, United Methodist Minister*
 Rev. Rebekah Jordan, Mid-South Interfaith Network for Economic Justice
 Father Albert Kirk, Church of the Holy Spirit*
 Rev. Melvin Lee, Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church, Hyde Park, Inc.*
 Dr. Herbert Lester, Jr., Centenary United Methodist Church
 Dr. Martin G. McCain, Grace United Methodist Church
 Rev. Emily Matheny, Highland Heights United Methodist Church*
 Rev. Mark Matheny, St. Luke’s United Methodist Church
 Rev. Debby Mathewson, Whitehaven United Methodist Church*
 Rev. Harry Mathewson, Whitehaven United Methodist Church*
 Rev. Tim Meadows, Holy Trinity Community Church
 Rev. John E. Meeks, St. Matthew's United Methodist Church*
 Father John H. Moloney, Grace St. Luke’s Episcopal Church
 Rev. Dwight Montgomery, Southern Christian Leadership Conference*
 Rev. Freddie Moore, Holy Community United Methodist Church
 Rev. J. Herbert Nelson, II, Liberation Community Presbyterian Church*
 Dr. Billy Newton, Rhodes College*
 Rev. Rosalyn Nichols, Freedom's Chapel Christian Church*
 Rev. TroyAnn Poulopoulos, Galloway United Methodist ChurchRev. Joe Porter, Grace St. Luke’s Episcopal Church
 Dr. Lee Ramsey, Memphis Theological Seminary*
 Rev. Judith Foster Reese, Presbyterian Church (USA)*
 Rev. Tom Rhodes, Neshoba Unitarian Universalist Church*
 Rev. Ellen Roberds, First Presbyterian Church*
 Rabbi Aaron Rubinstein, Beth Sholom Synagogue*
 Rev. Steve Shapard, Mullins United Methodist Church*
 Rev. Elliot Shelton, Promise Land Church*
 Father Tim Sullivan, St. Patrick Catholic Church*
 Rev. Billy Vaughan, Memphis School of Servant Leadership
 Dr. Stevey Wilburn, Mt. Olive Cathedral CME Church
 Dr. R. Stanley Wood, Memphis Theological Seminary*
 Rev. Bindy Wright Snyder, Memphis Theological Seminary*
 Rev. George S. Yandell, Calvary Episcopal Church

 *Congregation or organization listed for identification purposes only.

 Background Information on the Living Wage Campaign