“…I can’t just watch our nation, our democracy being stolen from us. Electeds only work for the Billionaires, Corporations, Developers. Remember the closing of Hahnemann Hospital and the Save Chinatown fight!” I… we need to find a way to push back. To get involved. To make our officials, our government serves the needs of regular people, not just the powerful and rich few.”
In his sermon “Will We Be Christians (or Romans)?” last Sunday, Michael preached that it’s crucial, even essential that Christians stand for justice against all forms of domination and empire. The Pharaohs and the Roman Empire, principalities and powers – and their robbing regular people in order to grab more and more authority for themselves. These targets are a big part of the change our faith means to make in the world.
At the end of the service, Michael said, “I have found out how I can fight back. Like those workers at the first Labor Day March, I need to build my own power; help others find theirs. Organize. Together, we can rewrite the rules and level the political playing field enough so OUR electeds work for us and our agenda. It’s a huge fight. We need to invite others into this effort with us. It takes a whole lot of people to have as much power as the money of the Billionaires. And think of all the people it’s going to take for rebuilding after our national nightmare is over.”
Michael then told us about POWER Interfaith’s new citywide campaign, “We Make Philly.” In a house meeting campaign two summers ago, POWER uncovered an affordability crisis: 30% of the people we talked to can’t pay their monthly bills. And in June 2025, the City Council voted for the gradual elimination of the Business Tax, with a net loss of $2.8 billion revenue for the city over 12 years. In the face of decreasing federal funding and other revenue shortfalls, neither the City Council nor the Mayor are making any plans for additional revenue sources. The We Make Philly” campaign aims to get Philadelphians the relief they deserve; grow the city’s revenue pie for all of us; and get big businesses and the wealthiest to pay their fair share.
Our “We Make Philly” campaign has 3 initial demands:
- A 5-year freeze on gas prices charged by the city-owned Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW).
- Raising the homestead exemption to its legally allowed limit to save homeowners money on their property taxes.
- Institute a city tax on all non-retirement investments as a way around Pennsylvania’s Uniformity Clause towards a wealth tax.
The “We Make Philly” campaign is not even launching publicly until early October, but already City Council people are very interested in our work and coming to us to ask how we might work together…
Would you want to work on this with us? Below is a commitment form to get involved.
