Seventh Principle: Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

1. This is the most recently added principle. It reflects a growing environmental consciousness and concern in the world and among our members.

2. As largely white, middle class Americans, a passion for saving the environment comes naturally to UUs. We have the education and access to information that alerts us to the serious, long term consequences of our current levels of resource consumption. The ignorant disregard of these issues by our leaders fills us with justifiable outrage.

3. Respect for the environment has taken on a deeper spiritual dimension for many UUs . We think of it in terms of our fundamental relationship to the cosmos, not just as a set of policy issues. Many UU s are attracted to the idea of an immanent God who resides within the very fabric of creation rather than in some distant Heaven.

4. However, the way in which environmental issues are sometimes formulated can easily deflect us from the actions that we need to take to seriously address these problems.

· Individual lifestyle choices frequently become to predominant or exclusive strategies for solving environmental problems.

(1) These choices are genuinely important, and they are something that we as individuals have control over.
(2) Reflection on our choices creates a very important dialog on needs vs. wants that is crucial to developing a sustainable society.
(3) However, unless these choices are linked to political organization and action little real progress on the environment is going to be made. The economic and political structures that perpetuate environmental degradation and limit our individual choices must be challenged.
(4) We also need to avoid a “purity” contest, in which individuals compete to be more virtuous in their relationship to the environment than others and claim superiority to those who don’t follow x, y or z environmental practice.

· Environmental action is often pursued independently of, or as a substitute for, action on other social justice issues. We compartmentalize them into middle class issues that are detached from issues of racial and class inequality.

(1) This discourages us from addressing issues of environmental justice, in which disadvantaged groups are disproportionately exposed to environmental hazards.
(2) It also prevents us from forming coalitions across race and class lines to simultaneously address economic inequality and environmental damage. This compartmentalization occurs within the U.S. and across national boundaries as well.
(3) It also can make us insensitive to the differential impact of various environmental measures on different groups. For example, imposing a $2 a gallon tax on gasoline to encourage conservation may entail relatively minor sacrifices for the affluent, but may impose major hardship on people with limited incomes.

3. Ignoring justice issues related to the environment is contrary to the full meaning of the seventh principle. Respecting the “interdependent web” includes creating just relationships with other human beings, not just altering our relationships with the natural world.

Sixth Principle: The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.

1. The term, Aworld Community, suggests that people can join together in communal relationships that transcend ethnicity, culture, and nationalism. Is this realistic?

• Ethnicity and culture are important parts of people=s identities. People often feel lost without this sense of rootedness. Yet, they are frequently the source of intolerance and hatred.
• Many actors on the world stage seek to dominate and control others, not join in community with them, and they are often willing to use violence to achieve this control.
• As growing populations and economic expectations put increasing pressure on scarce natural resources, conflicts may intensify.
• The world exists in a state of international anarchy - not in the sense of total chaos, but an absence of any central authority to enforce international law. This creates a need for personal and / or national protection from others who wish us ill. Often, acts of domination are justified in the name of protecting our nation. How do we distinguish between genuine protection and domination?
• Economic globalization has created multiple links of interdependence which could form the basis for world community, but the terms under which globalization is taking place disproportionately benefit a few economically powerful actors while imposing heavy costs on others.

2. Do the terms Aliberty@ and Ajustice@ have truly universal meanings that transcend the particular cultures in which they are defined and used?

• We encounter cultures in which, from our western point of view, individual freedom is severely curtailed in deference to collective order. Women, in particular, are the targets of strict control and domination.
• Are there emerging universal standards by which these practices can be judged or are we merely imposing our own values?
• For these cultures, western notions of individual liberty are seen as corroding their very cultural fabric, as subsuming their unique identity under global commercialism and individual license. Can these concerns be respected while real oppression is opposed?

3. How can we establish world community under these circumstances?

• View other cultures without immediate judgment as to their inferiority.
• Recognize that no culture is uniform in its perspectives. Cultural values that we find objectionable are often challenged from within the culture as well, especially by those who are not privileged by existing arrangements.
• International standards of dignity and justice are evolving, standards that can be genuinely shared by different cultures rather than imposed by the West. Our task is to promote this evolutionary process.
• Promote the international rule of law, as a substitute for domination by the stronger.

Fifth Principle - The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large.

1. The wording of this principle reflects two key dimensions in modern conceptions of democracy, both of which affect us as individuals and as a congregation, as well as in our role of citizenship.

a. Individualism
(1) Democracy is a system that protects the individual=s right to make choices and to pursue her/his talents and interests wherever they lead. The key individual right is to be Aleft alone.@ The Aright of conscience@ focuses on the right of each individual to act according to his own conscience, regardless of whether others agree.
(2) In the classical liberal view, government is necessary only to protect the rights of individuals

• Majority rule is a way to insure the consent of the governed.
• Collective power has to be tempered with protection of individual rights even from the actions of the majority.

(3) Government has a limited role to play in the lives of individuals. This fits with Afree market@ ideology of capitalism, in which government stays at arms length from the process of production.

• This runs into a contradiction when the actions of the market drastically limit the quality of people=s lives, as when workers with few real choices are exploited.
• It also encourages the adoption of a Acitizen as consumer@ view of politics - our role is to choose between pre-determined candidates and issues that are marketed to us.
• Modern economic theory creates a distrust of any collective choices and tries to reduce societal choices to a series of individual choices.

b. Community

(1) Democracy is a system in which citizens come together to make collective decisions that affect their lives. This can be in formal governmental institutions or in informal, Acivil society.
(2) The key individual right is one of participation, or representation, not the right to be left alone. This view stresses participation as a sacred obligation of individuals, not just something they do when particular, individual interests are threatened.
(3) One view of participation says that individuals come into the collective decision-making process with relatively fixed preferences for certain outcomes. The actual outcome is a compromise between these preferences that fully satisfies no one.
(4) Another view of participation says that individuals can deliberate together and come up with an alternative that is truly satisfying to all, or most participants. This Adeliberative democracy@ model involves the willingness of the participants to change and grow during the process of deliberation.

2. How do these two dimensions affect us as a congregation?

a. Do members view the congregation from a perspective of limited liability? That is, they come as long as the congregation meets their needs and if it doesn’t, then they leave.
b. Alternatively, do members view the congregation as a community in which they can actively participate to meet their needs and those of others?
c. At what point does an individual's Aright of conscience@ compel him or her to separate from the community when collective decisions offend her/his basic values.

Fourth Principle - A free and responsible search for truth and meaning.

1. An earlier version of this principle was Aa free and disciplined search for truth and meaning.@ Why do you suppose that word was changed? What does it mean to engage in a Aresponsible@ search as opposed to an Airresponsible@ search? At one time, exploring pagan beliefs would have been seen as an irresponsible embrace of Asuperstition@ (and maybe still is by some people.) Does Aresponsible@ mean the same as rational or analytical?

• AResponsible@ suggests careful study and reflection in choosing beliefs. We don=t quickly and easily adopt a belief because it Afeels good.@ The use of reason and analysis are part of this search but not all of it.
• The Asearch@ for truth recognizes that truth is evolving and open ended.
• AMeaning@ has a personal, emotional dimension - each individual=s unique way of making sense out of the world and her/his place within it. It doesn’t always correspond to more abstract Atruths@ that many people can agree on.

2. What is the difference between truth and meaning? What are our criteria for deciding if something is Athe truth?@ Can something be meaningful without being what others would consider the Atruth?@

3. When UU's say that truth is open-ended and evolving, not fixed and eternal, does that mean that we can never arrive at anything that we can say with confidence is the truth? How about these principles? Why do they ring true to most of us?

Third Principle - Acceptance of one another and encouragement of spiritual growth in or congregations and in society at large.

1. Acceptance suggests embracing of differences and toleration for each other's mistakes and foibles. However, it also means not papering over differences but trying to work them out.

2. Spiritual growth can be a mutually supportive process but also can entail some anxiety and friction. People are uncomfortable being challenged to broaden their spiritual perspectives. The congregation can creatively challenge people, but we must be careful not to tacitly assume that another person’s “growth” means moving towards our own beliefs.

3. What do we mean by Aspiritual?@ Definitions vary, and some UUs don't even like the term. Some definitions that were discussed:

• Spirituality is our relationship to the Creator.
• Spirituality involves an element of mystery - embracing the unknown and that which cannot be fully explained or conceptualized.
• Spirituality relates to our sense of wholeness - of being connected to all of existence. We experience this both in our connection to nature and to other human beings.
• Spirituality is a journey, not a fixed destination.
• One=s quest for spirituality is a unique, individual quest, but it can be meaningfully shared with others.

Second Principle - Justice, equity, and compassion in human relations.

1. What is the difference between justice and compassion?

• There is a social structural component to Ajustice@ - it speaks to how relationships are ordered among all members of the society.
• Justice suggests fair treatment, not necessarily compassionate treatment. A system of justice often requires exercising sanctions against some people in order to protect the rights of others. The term justice is often associated with the Arule of law.@
• Is compassion primarily an individual relationship, or does it have a social component? Does compassion connote a direct experience of empathy that one has for another=s plight? Can you have a Acompassionate@ society?
• Our notions of both justice and compassion are directly linked to the Ainherent worth and dignity of all persons.@ Justice is more than a set of rules - it=s a moral expectation as to how human beings should be treated. Compassion is a deep acknowledgment of the shared humanity of others.

2. What do we mean by Aequity?@

• Equity is different from equality, to the extent that the latter term connotes treating everyone exactly the same. It involves fairness and respect for individual differences.
• Is equity more compatible with equality or inequality? How do we encourage people to fully express their capacities if we don=t reward them with certain forms of inequality? How to we prevent the inequality that emerges from limiting the capacities of others to grow and develop.
• If we advocate universal access to health care for all people, is that based on justice, equity, or compassion? Or is it enlightened self interest ( i.e., enhancing the productivity of society) ?

First Principle - The inherent worth and dignity of every person.

1. What do we mean by the inherent worth and dignity of persons?

• Natural rights perspective - worth and dignity are the birthright of everyone, whether "endowed by our Creator" (as in the Declaration of Independence) or simply a part of our natural place in the universe.
• Humanist perspective - If we treat everyone that way, all of us will be better off in the long run. This Aenlightened self-interest@ perspective is also implicit in the formulation of the Golden Rule.

2. What do we mean by the Adignity@ of persons?

• Fulfillment of basic human needs - material and psychological.
• Obligations of society to individuals and individuals to society.

3. An argument can be made that this principle is the most fundamental of the seven principles, in that pursuing the others has as its ultimate purpose the achievement of human worth and dignity.

4. Congregations must strive to respect the worth of every member by according them a voice and respectfully listening to their perspectives.

What are the UU Principles?

I. Introductory Comments – R. A. Hays

1. The UUA Commission on Appraisal has requested that congregations engage in study and reflection on the seven principles. This is part of a periodic review mandated by the UUA By Laws. This review doesn’t necessarily mean that any proposals for revision will be made.

2. To start, it=s a good idea to briefly review what the seven principles represent.

$ They are not a creed that is, a statement of belief that every UU must subscribe to. You don't have to promise to believe in them when you sign the membership book.

$ Rather, they are a covenant; that is, an agreement that these are the principles that will guide the actions of our religious community.

$ They do not contain any theological statements; that is, assertions about the nature of the divine or about a single prophet whose teachings reveal the divine. Quite the opposite - the seven principles are linked to an affirmation of the multiple religious perspectives that inform and inspire these principles - including Christianity, Judaism, humanism, and nature-based spirituality.

$ From the perspective of traditional religion they are "merely" a statement of ethical principles. For traditional religions, ethics are derived from theological statements about the nature of the divine. In other words; "God is like this; therefore people should behave in this way."

$ The UU perspective is fundamentally different - that people can arrive at an agreement on ethical principles even if they derive these principles from somewhat different theological assumptions.

2. When UU's are asked, "What do you believe?" we are often inclined to emphasize that we accept different beliefs.

a. To many traditional Christians, this is the equivalent of saying that we believe in nothing. According to the traditional religious paradigm, in which acceptance of a creed is central, a non-creedal religion appears to be a permissive vacuum.

b. To people who are unhappy with the constraints of fundamentalism, but who want some kind of structure of meaning and belief, this image of a vacuum can be off-putting. We've lost members who have said "We want more structure in our religion."

c. The irony is that UU's do not behave like people who believe in nothing or everything. They are some of the most strongly ethical people that I know - people willing to act on their deeply held beliefs, even in the face of personal risk.

d. I'd like to present for your consideration an alternative way to answer the question "What do we believe?" This alternative way stresses our different paradigm of religious belief.

$ Unitarian Universalists share a covenant to support and defend a set of central ethical principles. These principles offer guidance as to how human beings should relate to each other and to the planet.

$ We recognize that people can arrive at these principles from a variety of religious perspectives, as evidenced by the fact that many of these principles are common to all the world=s religions. That is why we don=t require the uniformity of a creed within our faith.

$ These ethical principles have a spiritual dimension. They are not just pragmatic rules of behavior but suggest something profound about the place of human beings in the cosmos.

$ For us, the purest and noblest expression of our spirituality is to work to realize these principles in the world. Our spirituality leads us to focus on the collective fate of the human species, not on individual salvation.

$ If you join us, you will be joining a group of people who strive to act upon their principles and to reshape the world for the benefit of all people.

3. I must confess that when I first became a UU, the principles did not seem that important, because they sounded a bit like "motherhood and apple pie." That is, they seemed somewhat trite and obvious.

a. The reason I reacted that way is because many of these principles are at least given lip service by a wide variety of both secular and religious institutions in our society. They seem like a part of our common cultural heritage, not unique beliefs that identify a particular religious community.

b. The longer I have been a UU, the more I have realized that true and honest adherence to these principles really can make us a unique religious body. Many of the assertions of these principles by other institutions and their leaders are revealed to be superficial and hypocritical upon closer inspection.

c. Of course, we, too, can be superficial and hypocritical in our espousal of the principles if we don't constantly examine and challenge ourselves to improve the ways that we live them out.

d. The principles can serve as aspirations and as goals that challenge us to be better people and a better community. They can move us away from religion as something we Aconsume@ for our own individual benefit towards religion as something that asks a lot of us. We can invite people to become part of an important religious movement, not as spectators to entertaining services.

Blog Introduction

Congregational Discussion Sessions on the Unitarian Universalist Principles.

The Unitarian Universalist Society of Black Hawk County held five discussion sessions during June, July, and August of 2007, by R. Allen Hays. Attendance averaged between 15 and 20 people. This was a relatively good turnout for our summer “down time” and it indicates considerable interest in ongoing discussion of the Principles.

We did not come up with “answers” as to how to interpret and act on the principles. We explored the complexities and challenges of acting on these principles.

To facilitate ongoing dialog concerning the Principles, we have created a blog: uuprinciples.blogspot.com We will invite members of the congregation to visit the blog and add their comments or reflections.

Welcome to the UU Principles Blog

This blog is the continuation of the discussions with the Unitarian Universalist Society of Black Hawk County in Cedar Falls, Iowa. (http://www.uusbhc.org)

We have been reflecting on the meaning of the seven principles which are central to the Unitarian Universalist community. We encourage others to join in this dialog with their thoughts.

We look forward to having a stimulating interactive discussion.