“What does the Lord require of me, but to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with my God?”
- Micah 6: 8
“Justice, justice shall you pursue.”
- Deuteronomy 16: 20
Our Vision and Values.
Scriptures from nearly all faith traditions describe a vision of society where God’s plentiful bounty is joyfully shared and enjoyed by all. Today, however, our communities are plagued by poverty, injustice, inequality, and despair. As people of faith, we believe that we are called to seek and to engage others in realizing God’s intended vision for our communities. Fundamental tenets of our faith traditions are working to fight injustice and loving our neighbors as ourselves. We feel compelled to “do justice” and build communities where justice, fairness, and dignity prevail for all.
Our vision for Manatee County is a community that is more like God intended it to be - where our values of love, justice, fairness, equity, and the respect and dignity of every person are lived out every day -as we “win justice” and create the fair and equitable systems needed to realize and sustain this vision over the long haul. We will create a more just, fair, equitable, caring, peaceful, and hopeful Manatee County by building the people power needed to transform systems that have generated inequality and injustice in our community.
“You have neglected the more important matters of the law - justice, mercy, and faithfulness.”
- Matthew 23: 23
The DART Credo.
4 core values unite the organizers, leaders, and members working for justice throughout the DART network.
We believe in the biblical story of justice.
The biblical story offers abundance, love, hope, promise, and community. In this story, loving God and your neighbor as yourself gives life meaning (Leviticus 19:18 and Luke 10:27). We believe that fighting for justice is fundamental to our identify as people of faith (Micah 6:8 and Matthew 23:23-24).
We need the power of organized people to win justice.
Through direct action, organized people from a cross-section of faith traditions publicly hold decision-makers accountable on justice issues that affect their communities. We cultivate relationships with people who share the values of abundance, love, hope, and promise. We support one another in the struggle for justice.
We stand over and against the “cult of money”.
The cult of money uses consumer culture to promote stories of scarcity, hate, fear, despair, and “me-ism”. In opposition to the biblical story, meaning comes from accumulating more and better “things”, i.e. greed.
We embrace high standards and rigorous accountability because our task is so important.
Those who build the power of organized people are recognized and promoted at all levels in the network. Leaders and staff conduct evaluations to achieve understanding, not to assign blame. Each of us celebrates when another succeeds. We embrace pragmatic, not dogmatic solutions. We are in this work for the long haul.
