WASHINGTON - Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) said today that faith and America's common moral values have been allies for social progress throughout American history, and he called for putting those values into action to meet the "unredeemed promise" of the civil rights movement and move the country "ever closer to our ideals."

In remarks today to the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, Lieberman said those values demand providing greater educational opportunity for minority students, breaking down continuing barriers to equality for women, and new laws to fight discrimination against gays and lesbians, including a plan to give domestic partnership benefits to federal employees.

"In Washington today, there are many who would suggest that faith leads only in one direction: the conservative political direction," Lieberman said. "That is self-evidently not so. Conservative politicians have no monopoly on moral values or the absolutely correct political positions."

Rather, Lieberman argued that faith's ideals of justice, individual dignity, and improving the world have long advanced social progressive goals and can and must continue to do so.

Citing the example of higher education, Lieberman criticized the Bush Administration's opposition to the University of Michigan affirmative action program, saying we cannot "abandon the work of opening our institutions of higher education to people of all races, income levels, and backgrounds."

Redeeming the unpaid "promissory note" that Dr. Martin Luther King cited in his "I Have A Dream" speech also demands closing the gap in college graduation rates between low- and high-income students, Lieberman said. He pledged to "ensure that at least 90 percent of students who start higher education finish within six years."

Lieberman condemned the ongoing legally-sanctioned discrimination against gays and lesbians. He reiterated his commitment to passing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would prohibit workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation. And he announced that he would make a concerted push this year for legislation that gives federal employees' domestic partners the same benefits afforded the spouses of their fellow employees.

"Heterosexual or homosexual: the prefix Americans use to describe themselves simply cannot be a divider as to whether and to what extent every individual American receives and enjoys the rights, respect and dignity the Declaration says he or she is entitled to," Lieberman continued.

Finally, Lieberman vowed to continue the fight for a full and equal place for women in American society, by closing the wage gap between men and women and protecting a woman's right to choose. "Thirty years after Roe v. Wade, you know and I do too that a woman's right to choose is being seriously threatened again in America. Our values and our respect for the Constitution make clear that women must have the right to choose -- and we will continue to fight for that right."

Concluding, Lieberman said, "This is the first nation founded not just on a set of borders, but on a set of ideals, that we should all be free to pursue our dreams and realize our God-given potential. If we have the courage to keep marching, the great American movement of social progress, which began in those bold, and I say advisedly, faith-based words of our Declaration, will unify and not divide us… bring us ever closer to our ideals… and bring us ever closer to the more perfect union our Founders envisioned."

Thank you. I want to wish congratulations to the Religious Action Center on its 40th anniversary and on the rededication of your historic building, from which so much social action and progress has sprung over the years.

Congratulations as well to the UAHC on turning 130 this year. Let me tell you, you don't look a day over 120.

And for 40 of those years, you at the Religious Action Center have been a guiding force for social progress based on faith… for extending to Americans and people around the world the blessings of liberty that are the birthright of every human being.

There's an internal story of social progress here in this organization, with the elevation of Rabbi Janet Ross Marder to the presidency of the Central Conference of American Rabbis. I know that for the preceding two years she's already been serving as vice-president… I note with admiration that she was able to rise to that job… and her barrier-breaking ascension to the presidency.

The RAC is a faith-based movement—a movement that reminds us that America's values come from its many faiths. Of course, one need not be religious to be moral. Morality springs from a powerful sense of right and wrong, not from any requirement of faith.

In America, we recognize that. We respect that. And we appreciate the fact that all the streams from all these sources flow in the same direction, into the same broad river of American values and American history.

n Washington today, there are many who would suggest that faith leads only in one direction: the conservative political direction. That is self-evidently not so. Conservative politicians have no monopoly on moral values or the absolutely correct political positions.

I say that here because the history of the Religious Action Center demonstrates that faith has led us forward, throughout the history of our nation, on the march of social progress, toward realizing the ideals that are expressed in the sacred civil text of our Declaration of Independence.

The core tenet of that Declaration is of course that all of us are created equal, and endowed by our Creator with inalienable rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

To advance the stunning idea and singular ideas of the Declaration, slavery would be abolished in the 19th Century. Religious discrimination would be overcome. Women would win the rights that men have, including the right to vote. And the civil rights movement would defeat the cruelties and indignities of segregation.

For me and so many others of my generation, it was in the 1960s that we came to understand the true possibility of progress built on the power of those American ideals. Yale's chaplain at the time was the great William Sloane Coffin. And it was he who inspired me, in 1963, to lead a group of classmates down to Mississippi to help register African-American voters for a mock election.

As Coffin once said, "Hope arouses, as nothing else can, a passion for the possible." In the fight for civil rights, so many Americans had that passion aroused in us.

And I still remember clearly 40 years ago this August. I was just one of 200,000 Americans gathered a few blocks from here, steps from the Lincoln Memorial, to share our commitment, but more importantly to hear Dr. Martin Luther King talk about his dream.

Dr. King forced us to transform our moral and religious values into deeds—to make good on what he called the "promissory note to which every American was to fall heir."

All of you here today have worked so hard through this movement to redeem that promissory note, and for that, you deserve our thanks and America's thanks.

Now, forty years later, the time it took Moses to cross the desert, we have made much progress but still have not reached Dr. King's promised land. And that's why we must continue the fight, as you will, to redeem that promissory note that Dr. King spoke of.

I want to speak today about the unredeemed promise of the civil rights movement and the work we can do together, today, to move ever closer to our ideals.

Think about the impact of racial profiling for a minute. Many of us have had African-American peers who have been through the indignity and offense of being stopped by police merely because of the color of their skin. This is 2003 and that's still happening. That's an assault on their individual humanity and their citizenship and it cannot be tolerated anymore.

Nor can we abandon the work of opening our institutions of higher education to people of all races, income levels, and backgrounds.

Tomorrow, in this city, a short distance from here, the Bush Administration will stand before the United States Supreme Court and ask it to strike down the affirmative action program at the University of Michigan. That is wrong.

John Ashcroft wants the Court to reverse the reading of the Constitution under which we have lived not just peacefully but progressively since 1978—and under which many minority students had the doors of higher education opened to them.

What, after all, is the University of Michigan fighting for?

To ensure that each applicant receives personal consideration in the admissions process. That's very American. To promote a student body that is diverse and makes for a stronger, better university, and a stronger, and better country.

And let me tell you. College admissions isn't enough. That promissory note is not fully redeemed when low-income college students graduate at a staggeringly lower rate than all other students.

We must do better. Admission to college is not enough; graduation must be our goal. We must work to ensure that at least 90 percent of the students who start higher education finish within six years. By achieving that goal we will help to redeem yet another portion of Dr. King's promissory note.

Social justice means equal rights and responsibilities for all of our people. There are no exceptions to the guarantee of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. No asterisk. No fine print.

The Bush Administration tells us it's compassionately conservative. Maybe they mean that they conserve compassion.

And even compassion isn't enough. It's a feeling. What matters is a real commitment to social justice. That's what we need and need now.

Heterosexual or homosexual: the prefix Americans use to describe themselves simply cannot be a divider as to whether and to what extent every individual American receives and enjoys the rights, respect and dignity the Declaration says he or she is entitled to.

This particular struggle to realize the ideals of our Declaration has gone on longer than we sometimes think. I remember twenty-five years ago; I was the Majority Leader of the Connecticut State Senate when—by one vote—we passed a bill banning discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, public accommodations, and housing. It failed in the state house then but would become law in the 1990s. For years in the U.S. Senate, I've been fighting to extend that employment discrimination ban nationwide. But this time, we won't wait as long. With your help, we will get it done.

But there is more to do.

When gay and lesbian Americans choose a partner, they deserve the respect of the law. You and I have talked with couples who have formed long-term committed relationships but who still are discriminated against when they discover that they can't visit their partner in a hospital or can't receive healthcare benefits or enjoy other crucial rights and responsibilities.

Here I want to mention the name of Paul Wellstone, of blessed memory. Senator Wellstone, a relentless fighter and fallen hero in the long struggle for social justice, joined his close colleague Senator Dayton in introducing a bill in the Senate last year to extend to the domestic partners of all federal employees the same benefits and obligations that are afforded the spouses of their fellow employees.

We need to finish the work they started. I'll work for that legislation this year and, if it doesn't get done in the next two years, I intend to introduce it and sign it as President of the United States.

Finally, as we move America along the path of progress, we must continue our work to end discrimination against women.

We have made great progress on this front. But believe me. Despite years of opening opportunities, we still haven't achieved equality for women.

Even today women earn only 75 cents on the dollar compared to men. How long will it take before we deliver real change for a dollar?

And 30 years after Roe v. Wade, you know and I do too that a woman's right to choose is being seriously threatened again in America. On the Senate floor earlier this month, my colleagues and I fought efforts to outlaw a single type of abortion throughout a pregnancy—a backdoor attempt by the Republicans to encroach broadly on the right to choose by failing to protect the health and safety of the woman and creating a precedent for future restrictions.

Let us be clear on this. Our values and our respect for the Constitution make clear that women must have the right to choose—and we will continue to fight for that right

The air that feeds the flame of social justice that I've touched on this morning is free speech… civil liberties animate and energize civil rights. You at the RAC understand that—that's why you're here in Washington today. Because without the vigorous exercise of free speech and assembly, there is no freedom. There is no chance to choose. There is no means to find the way forward.

Because a democracy can only work if every one of us can tell the truth as we see it. It is from that vibrant marketplace of ideas—churning, debating, advancing, and always open—that our future course can be charted.

If we have the courage to keep marching, the great American movement of social progress, which began in those bold, and I say advisedly, faith-based words of our Declaration, will unify and not divide us… bring us ever closer to our ideals… and bring us ever closer to the more perfect union our Founders envisioned.

Today, as American men and women in uniform continue to fight overseas, we would do well to pause and ask what is it about our way of life that we're fighting for.

This is the first nation founded not just on a set of borders, but on a set of ideals, that we should all be free to pursue our dreams and realize our God-given potential.

The terrorists we're fighting against overseas don't understand that. Freedom, respect, and inclusion are to them a threat—a threat to the cruel and rigid and exclusive and hateful order prescribed in their fanatical movement.

They've forgotten the words of the Quran, in which it is written, "The White man is not above the Black, nor the Black above the Yellow, all men are equal before their Maker." They not only seek to turn back our march of social progress here in America… but to block the path to a better life with more freedom, tolerance, opportunity, and human dignity sought by Muslims around the world.

We rebuke them every day in which we act here at home with dignity and respect to people of all religions—including of course our fellow Americans who are Muslim.

The Religious Action Center has played an important role in leading that effort. I thank you for speaking out for religious freedom—but more than that, for religious tolerance, understanding, and harmony.

Unfortunately, we will have to fight the war on terrorism with swords along the way. But ultimately we will win this war, and build an ever safer and stronger and better world, with the plowshares of our principles and the pruning hooks of our values.

In all these fights for freedom, equality, and social progress, the Religious Action Center and the UAHC have played and must continue to play a critical leadership role. For your courage and consistency in articulating and advancing those principles and turning them into law and social progress, I thank you. Through these tough times, we need you to continue to guide us, inspire us, and help us climb ever higher toward the full realization of the ideals of our faith and of our country.

Thank you for having me here, and God bless you.