Wired to Work for Justice
Terry Woodnorth
Software engineer, IBM
CPJ trustee
One Saturday each October, Terry Woodnorth pulls on his workboots and a pair of gloves and joins as many as 400 others in his upstate New York community to pick up trash along the three rivers that run through the area.
Two other Saturdays in the fall, he helps run a book recycling fair in his community, accepting used-book donations one week and holding a free book pick-up day the next. A veteran IBM software developer, Terry helps organize these events through his county's Environmental Management Council, a citizen group that advises county government on environmental matters. He recently finished a term as the group's chair, focusing on issues of recycling, waste management, and green space preservation.
"As a citizen with an interest in a healthy environment, I see this as a concrete way that I can become directly involved in decision-making in my immediate area," says Terry, a grassroots activist and a longtime supporter of the Center for Public Justice (CPJ).
"My approach is to pick a place where you can have an influence and try to be as effective as you can."
An Advocate for Change
If truth be told, Terry hasn't picked just one place to make an impact. He advocates for justice in many ways, through many organizations. For example, he:
- Organizes an annual "offering of letters" to members of Congress on behalf of Bread for the World, a nonpartisan organization of Christians lobbying against hunger.
- Is involved with FairVote, an organization calling for electoral reforms such as proportional voting, instant runoff voting, direct election of the president, and automatic voter registration.
- Is a former board member of the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee, his denomination's relief, development, and justice ministry.
- Served for 10 years as a deacon in his church, carefully heeding his promise to relieve victims of injustice in Christ's name.
- Served as board president of a start-up, parent-run Christian grade school in upstate New York in the 1980s, drawing on CPJ's education justice work.
- Regularly volunteers as a budget counselor with his local Habitat for Humanity chapter and other organizations, to help families get their finances under control.
- Attended the 2005 "One Table, Many Voices" conference calling for the elimination of poverty and hunger (See his review in the Public Justice Report, Hunger No More.)
- Is a supporter of CPJ, Bread for the World, Evangelicals for Social Action, the Evangelical Environmental Network, and Sojourners—all faith-based organizations addressing issues of public, social, or environmental justice.
- Regularly submits letters to the editor of his local newspaper to make readers aware of a range of issues, such as housing equity for people with disabilities.
"I try to keep involved and encourage others to be involved," he says.
Getting Hooked
Terry's connection with CPJ reaches back to the 1970s, when his father-in-law in Chicago told him about a new movement getting off the ground—an organization of Christians interested in public justice, known today as CPJ. He started digging into the organization's publications, and was hooked. He now goes out of his way to attend Center events, such as Kuyper Lectures, Leadership Award celebrations, and conferences.
How has the Center influenced him? The most basic way, he says, is through the concept of what constitutes Christian citizenship. "It isn't just paying your taxes and voting for the candidate with the 'right' position on a particular issue. It's much more complex," says Terry. "Without the perspective of the Center and other organizations, I may not have ever thought citizenship meant more than that."
Through CPJ, Terry has also found an integrated framework for understanding public policy issues. "The Center helps me see how justice issues are connected," he says. "Seeing the bigger context puts the individual issues that the church gets involved with into perspective."
Seeing that perspective take root on Capitol Hill makes his support of CPJ even more gratifying, Terry says. "It's encouraging to know that people working at the Center were the primary architects of Charitable Choice—to know that our work could influence national welfare policy and have such a practical impact. ...I can't think of another organization more worthy of my and others' donations."
Terry helps extend the Center's impact himself by distributing the Capital Commentary to the members of his church. "It's a great publication to distribute," he says. "It's short and accessible, and covers subjects that the everyday churchgoer might not pursue.
"I like pursuing these things. That's the way I'm wired."
Related links:
Broome County Environmental Management Council
Christian Reformed World Relief Committee
Evangelical Environmental Network
Evangelicals for Social Action
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View other stories of CPJ's impact.
