Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Should inherent worth and dignity absolve victimization and guilt in Unitarian Universalism?

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Many UUs do not practice or really believe what they preach. If UUs genuinely recognized and acknowledged this principle there would no longer be places in our lives for victims and guilt.

Unfortunately, in their commitment to social justice, many UUs treat certain people like victims and certain others like guilty perpetrators. Often in interactions among themselves, UUs play the role of the victim and attack others as guilty perpetrators assigning guilt to a brother or sister who, otherwise, has supposedly inherent worth and dignity.

There are times in life when we play the victim. Some of us more of the time than others.

Playing the victim is done for two reasons: to gain sympathy and make the perpetrator guilty. It is a social game played enthusiastically in our society and continually reinforced by all kinds of audiences and the media of all sorts.

Playing the victim is a choice which each of us has to make at the most basic of levels. The choice is based on what we believe ourselves to be and what we believe our brothers and sisters to be.

Choosing to be a victim creates a hell for ourselves and all those around us. Ultimately, we are not victims, we our the precious extension of Existence. Our bodies can be battered and attacked, but our spirits are as innocent and clear and luminous as we recognize and acknowledge them to be.

Jesus, even though He was tortured and crucified, refused to be a victim although at one point was tempted. His body was destroyed but His Spirit resurrected and lives on in our world vibrantly to this day.

It is written in A Course In Miracles that our function, our purpose, during our stay on earth in a body is to witness to the fact that we are not victims but luminous beings extensions of Existence's manifestation in the world. We recognize this luminous spirit in ourselves and in our brothers and sisters and rejoice in the goodness of creation.

Once we recognize and acknowledge the goodness of our lives, there is no place any longer for victims and guilt among us.

2 comments:

  1. The idea that there are no victims and no guilty perpetrators by virtue of our inherent worth and dignity is a powerful idea that our conditioned minds have a difficult time understanding. I appreciate this article bringing it to our attention. Getting out of a victim role takes a tremendous amount of self knowledge which far too few people make the effort to acquire. I appreciate your nudging.

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  2. People fall into playing the victim because they have been abused and traumatized as children and they learn that they can guilt people into providing sympathy and care if they whine enough about how poor off they are and how badly life has treated them. Making people feel guilt is probably the most prevalent way of manipulating other people and parents do it to children and spouses to each other and children to parents all the time. It happens so often and so endemic to our functioning in our society that this dynamic is unconscious most of the time. The unconscious aspect of this dynamic of human interaction is the reason that the lack of self knowledge leads to a lack of understanding and appreciation of the first principle. This article should be closely read and reflected on if one is to grow and our congregation is to have the impact on the wider society that it aspires to have.

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