Our Seven Principles/the Beloved Community

[lilithu]

The Adult Spiritual Development course that I am cofaciliating this winter is "Exploring UU Theology Through Our Seven Principles." Basically, my cofacilitrator/dear friend and I are trying to show how our liberal religious theology is expressed in our Seven Principles, and trying to help people articulate the values that they already have but may not yet have been able to put into words. We're also reflecting on what it really means to affirm and promote these princples and finding that they are very demanding if one takes them seriously. We've had some great discussions.

Anyway, one of the things that we would like the class to discuss is "the Beloved Community" (as a way to explore principle 6) and I'm wondering if you guys would know of any good essays or sermons on the Beloved Community - what it is, what it isn't, how to get there... Just from some cursory research I now understand that the Beloved community is not some idealized, pie-in-the-sky fantasy that I had thought when I first heard of it. I have jokingly refered to it as "UU Heaven." The concept of the Beloved Community, put forth by Dr. King, recognizes that there will always be strife, things will never be "perfect," but perhaps enough people can commit themselves to acting with reason and compassion that we can deal with strife before it escalates. But that's all I really know about it; I haven't been able to find much on the internet. So I turn to my beloved community here for a little assistance, if you have any.

 

[Davidium]

I dont know of any.... but it sounds like one I should write!

Maybe for April.... the sermon I am currently preparing is my Borden Sermon Award entry... "Liberalism is Dead... Long Live Liberalism" (taken from the James Luther Adams quote) on adapting our idea of continuous religious transformation to the political and social witness/justice sphere....

But I will keep an eye out, and talk to my UU mentors...

Yours in faith,

David

 

[Green Gaia]

Hmmm... I don't know if I have anything right off to offer what you're asking, but this "goal of world community" is something I've been thinking some about lately - what it means and how we get there. Whenever I focus on one of the Principles, it seems to become the most important one for that time and I find myself asking what if we made it the most important. What if we really put all of our focus and energy into our "goal". For the most part I think we do, even if it's not always a stated as such.

Which brings up something else I've been thinking about.... why isn't our goal at the end of the Principles, like a summation of everything else already stated; what everything else we believe in is leading up to?

-The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
-Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
-Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
-A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
-The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
-Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part;
-WITH the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.

Stuck in the middle it seems to get lost and overlooked. People ask, "what is UU all about?" We give lots of answers; diversity; religious freedom; social justice - No, what's not what UU is about, those are the natural products of our faith however, but what we are about is this goal that just seems to get glossed over because either it's too big a thing to think about and we just end up focusing on the details, or we don't really believe it's possible. And if we don't believe it's really possible - then where does that leave our faith?

OK, now that I got that out of my system, on to your question. I'd said that I've been thinking about this some lately, but I hadn't until now really sat down and tried to put those thought into words. So I will apologize now because this will probably be all over the place. I don't see our "Beloved Community" as some utopian fantasy where everything is beautiful and perfect and everyone is dancing around a chalice with flowers in their hair. As long as we have humans on this earth, there will be suffering, strife, hardship - if we were to wipe out those things, I'm not sure we'd still really be human anymore. I see the "Beloved Community" as one in which love wins out, every time. When someone is struggling, they are not alone, apathy is not tolerated, wastefulness is not tolerated. Even now those of us who are surrounded by love and support and are not wanting for basic needs - we still struggle sometimes. In our "Beloved Community" everyone is surrounded by love and support and are not wanting for basic needs, and when they do have hardships, they are not alone.

**Disclaimer: these are the thoughts and ramblings of just one UU.

 

[lilithu]

Hmmm... I don't know if I have anything right off to offer what you're asking, but this "goal of world community" is something I've been thinking some about lately - what it means and how we get there. Whenever I focus on one of the Principles, it seems to become the most important one for that time and I find myself asking what if we made it the most important. What if we really put all of our focus and energy into our "goal". For the most part I think we do, even if it's not always a stated as such.

Which brings up something else I've been thinking about.... why isn't our goal at the end of the Principles, like a summation of everything else already stated; what everything else we believe in is leading up to?

-The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
-Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
-Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
-A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
-The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
-Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part;
-WITH the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.

Stuck in the middle it seems to get lost and overlooked. People ask, "what is UU all about?" We give lots of answers; diversity; religious freedom; social justice - No, what's not what UU is about, those are the natural products of our faith however, but what we are about is this goal that just seems to get glossed over because either it's too big a thing to think about and we just end up focusing on the details, or we don't really believe it's possible. And if we don't believe it's really possible - then where does that leave our faith?

According to the book, With Purpose and Principle, the ordering of the 7 principles was done at the last minute by committee before it was presented to the general assembly. Basically, they started with the smallest unit, the individual, and worked outwards to the community and then to everything (the interdependant web). I am usualy of the opinion that committees may be good at getting the mundane but necessary chores done but they rarely come up with anything inspired. Here, I think they did. Call it divine inspiration. I understand your concern that the principles in the middle seem to get overlooked. But as you said, every one of them is vitally important if we think about it, so it wouldn't do to overlook 2-5 either. As a theologian what I like about the ordering of our seven principles is that it starts with a point of faith and ends with a point of faith, and really the two are the same. It comes full circle.

nonUUs and some UUs criticize our 7 principles for being too secular. "Where is God in that?" And indeed principles 2-6 are secular. There is nothing inherently religious about them whatsoever. Don't get me wrong; I think they're vitally important, but not inherently religious. And UU is a religion, not just a social club for political progressives. We affirm and promote the inherent dignity and worth of every person. That is a statement of faith. Not everyone believes that every person has inherent worth. And because we believe this, we believe in treating each other with justice, equity, and compassion, and that we must accept each other yet still encourage spiritual growth, and that people are free to search for meaning (yet responsible for their actions), and that decisions in community should be made democratically but each person retains the right of conscience, and that we will work for a goal of world peace, and liberty and justice. Then finally, we affirm and promote the interdependent web of existence of which we are apart. Again, this is a statement of faith. Not everyone believes that we are interconnected.

Why do we affirm and promote the interdependant web of existence? Because the parts of it have inherent worth. Why do we have inherent worth? Because we are interconnected. Full circle. I am going to argue in the last session of our class that God is in our seven principles, for those of us who choose to use the language of reverence. We have inherent worth; we are divine. We are part of an interconnected web of existence. We are part of God. For those of us UUs who are theistic, myself included, God does not stand separate and apart from creation. God is imminent in creation. (and the sum of the parts is transcendant) Of course, if one doesn't want to use such language that's fine too. Buddhism affirms the interdependant web of existence without ever mentioning God.

Sorry, I've gone off again. The short answer is I think we don't put the goal at the end of our principles because what we want to highlight, as a faith tradition, is the reason why we have that goal.

I don't see our "Beloved Community" as some utopian fantasy where everything is beautiful and perfect and everyone is dancing around a chalice with flowers in their hair. As long as we have humans on this earth, there will be suffering, strife, hardship - if we were to wipe out those things, I'm not sure we'd still really be human anymore. I see the "Beloved Community" as one in which love wins out, every time. When someone is struggling, they are not alone, apathy is not tolerated, wastefulness is not tolerated. Even now those of us who are surrounded by love and support and are not wanting for basic needs - we still struggle sometimes. In our "Beloved Community" everyone is surrounded by love and support and are not wanting for basic needs, and when they do have hardships, they are not alone.

Yes, that's what this one web site basically says, tho you said it much more nicely. It's from the King Center explaining what MLK meant by the Beloved Community. (http://www.thekingcenter.org/prog/bc/) I could not find anything online by UUs explaining what we mean by it. And given that we that we use the term so much I find that surprising, and alarming. Because without an explanation, I thought the Beloved Community was utopian, as did my roommate, and I bet others do too. About a year ago, I asked my minister whether he really believed that the beloved community was possible. He said that he didn't think that we could do it alone but with God's help it was possible. Given that Rob's roots are Christian, I just took that as a liberal Christian view of heaven on earth. It's a beautiful vision, but I personally don't that it's possible (for the same reason that "the Fall" was inevitable - as long as there is free will there will be strife). I've since learned that his view of God is similar to my view of God (see above). And now I understand better that the Beloved Community is not "perfect." So a year later I take his answer quite differently than I did then. We were using the same words but with different meanings. In reality, we actually agreed. But I had to go to an "outside" source to get to this understanding of that conversation. What I'm saying is that we UUs need to be talking about the Beloved Community. Not just that we want it but what it is.

So David, yes, please write your sermon!!