Religious leaders in Illinois and Wisconsin on Friday offered their congregations and homes as sanctuary for Democratic senators who walked out of the Legislature on Thursday to block a vote on Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to roll back collective bargaining rights for public employees.
The invitations, by a handful of churches and synagogues in Madison, Chicago and Glencoe, Ill., are the latest show of support by religious leaders whose faiths support worker rights on moral grounds.
“This is antithetical to all religious traditions,” said Kim Bobo, executive director of Chicago-based Interfaith Worker Justice, which is coordinating the sanctuary effort.
Bobo said she’s spent the week fielding calls from faith leaders around the country where similar efforts are under way.
“They are using the guise of a budget crisis to completely undermine workers’ rights to organize,” she said.
Congregations opening their doors tendered their invitations during a conference call organized by the advocacy group Faith in Public Life on Friday.
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