Life is not black and white but a lot of gray. The ego mind likes to dichotomize and play one off the other. We constantly double bind ourselves into believing that we have to choose one or the other alternative when there can be a third, fourth, and fifth way. The questions to be asked are: Can you hold contradictory ideas of the “right thing” in your mind simultaneously and perceive the larger system and context which allows other options? Can you make decisions in the face of uncertainty?
The conventional level of morality would have us choose between right and wrong but what is legally right is sometimes morally wrong and what is morally wrong is sometimes legally right, and the mature person can rise above the conventional level of norms and can apprehend the higher good and truth which is above legal and moral codes. This level of spiritual judgment is called “post conventional.”
In Unitarian Universalism, the fourth principle is the affirmation and promotion of the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. This search takes the seeker into the realm of complexity beyond the dichotomous world of simply right and wrong. Rather than black and white and compliance with some externally imposed moral code, the seeker is encouraged to rise above this code to apprehend the higher Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. Jesus said “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.
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