Tonight we will discuss Let Justice Roll: The Campaign for a Living Wage with Rev. Dr. Paul H. Sherry.
With over 100 member organizations, the nonpartisan Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign is the leading faith, community, labor, business coalition committed to raising the minimum wage to a living wage at the state and federal level.
The minimum wage is where society draws the line: This low and no lower. Our bottom line is this:
A job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you in it.
Dr. Sherry was the President of the United Church of Christ from 1989 to 1999. From 2000 to 2005 he served as a consultant to the Center for Community Change and from 2003 to 2007 as the Coordinator of the Anti-Poverty Program of the National Council of Churches. In the Spring of 2008 he was a visiting lecturer at Union Theological Seminary in New York City where he taught a course entitled "Faith Based Bodies and Social Transformation."
Sherry was the Executive Director of Chicago's Community Renewal Society from 1982 until 1989.
He speaks on a regular basis on issues of church and society and has hosted religion and society talk shows on television and radio in Chicago, New York City and Cleveland. He is the author of numerous published articles, the Editor of The Riverside Preachers, Co-author of A Just Minimum Wage: Good for Workers, Business and Our Future, and a contributor to a number of other publications.
Born in Tamaqua, a small coal town in northeast Pa., on December 25, 1933, Dr. Sherry grew up as a member of what is now St. John’s United Church of Christ. He earned a B.A. degree (1955) from Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pa. and an M.Div. (1958) and a Ph.D. in theology (1969) from Union Theological Seminary, New York City. He is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the Midwest and elsewhere.
Sherry has received honorary degrees from Chicago Theological Seminary, Eden Theological Seminary, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, the Reformed Theological Academy, Debracan, Hungary, Lakeland College, Defiance College, Elmhurst College, Ursinus College.
He is married to Mary Louise Thornburg. The Sherrys are members of Euclid Avenue Congregational United Church of Christ, Cleveland, Ohio. Previously, they were members of The Riverside Church (1965-1982) and Kenwood United Church of Christ, Chicago (1982-1989). They have two children and four.
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