UU's first principle means we are to love our enemies

One of the biggest implications of our UU first principle, the inherent worth and dignity of every person, is how we treat people who we feel threatened by.

One of the biggest challenges on our spiritual path and spiritual development is to love all of our brothers and sisters. Jesus tells us we must love not only our friends but also our enemies. In Matthew 5:43-48 Jesus tells us, 

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[a] and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

This is a very hard teaching. Our human brains are not wired this way. Our amygdala's spark the fight or flight response when we perceive a threat. To override our amygdalas and engage our pre-frontal cortex takes intention, self discipline and effort. In A Course In Miracles the following advice is given: "When you feel the holiness of your relationship is threatened by anything, stop instantly and offer the Holy Spirit you willingness, in spite of fear, to let Him exchange this instant for the holy one that you would rather have. He will not fail in this." T-18.V.6:1-2 This prayerful, mindful approach can be miraculous in lowering one's anxiety and allowing us to lean into the relationship rather than attack.

Loving our enemies requires us to look for the divine spark in people we fear and focus on that. This willingness is a sign of spiritual maturity. When we see all our brothers and sisters as parts of our shared humanity deserving of respect, compassion, and love, we experience a great and abiding peace.

Nicknaming: terms of endearment or bullying? The first principle of UU

Our UUAWOL fiction book for September, 2017, has been Dave Eggers' novel, Heroes Of The Frontier. On page 143 Josie, the main character in the book, refers to her foster sister Samantha, and describes how Sam nicknamed their foster mother, Sunny, "Sunsy." Eggers writes the passage thus,

"Neither she nor Sam had called Sunny by that name when they lived with her, and hearing her use it, twenty years later or whenever it was was, was jarring - as if Sam had assessed what Sunny had been to her and given it a name. Hadn't she once called her Sunsy? She had! Sam liked names, nicknames. These names did what - they helped Sam define, or redefine, what she and Sunny were to each other. They gave her some control, as if to call her Sunsy put her in her place, as a small and aging woman, whereas Mom had been a holy honorific." p. 143

Nicknames can be a form of endearment and they can also be a form of domination and control. Currently, we have had two presidents who have a habit of nicknaming people: George W. Bush, and Donald R. Trump, the most recent example when President Trump has called the North Korean President, Kin Jong-un, "Little Rocket Man."

To Unitarian Univeralist ears, these kinds of bullying put downs meant to belittle, and mock, are antithetical to our first principle of affirming and promoting the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Jesus taught that we are to love our enemies. It would be quite a different world if this injunction was affirmed, promoted, and acted on.

From whence does forgiveness come?

UUs covenant together to promote and affirm the inherent worth and dignity of every person, and justice, equity, and compassion in human relations. This is quite different from traditional beliefs of many religions especially Christianity which has taught that human beings are sinful and only acceptable to God because of Jesus death on the cross to atone for our sins.

Carl was so full of shame for what he had done in his past that he thought he was unlovable. "What should I do?" he pleaded not so much to me but to life in general. He seemed inconsolable. My providing a shoulder to cry on seemed to make him feel better because he calmed down as he expressed his anguish. What does one do when one feels lost, when what has happened seems unrepairable, when the harm is so great nothing, it seems, can ever make things right again?

T.V. Smith gave a lecture back in  1955 at the Social Welfare Forum conference called, "Solve, resolve, absolve." He pointed out that some problems are solvable, some are resolvable, and some there is no solution for or any resolution for, only absolution. And how is absolution obtained? Confession and forgiveness. The balm for our souls is forgiveness and from whence does forgiveness come? Forgiveness

comes from a change in our minds, a change from the ego plane to the spiritual plane. Forgiveness comes from the recognition, acknowledgement, and awareness that the drama on the ego plane has no effect on the spiritual well being of God and God's creations. This insight, this joining with the Love of God, disregards the drama of the ego plane and rises above it.

Our anguish often brings us to the point of break through where we realize that our lives our unmanageable and we have to surrender to our Higher Power whatever we conceive our Higher Power to be. We move from darkness to light and we are filled with the hope that not only is salvation is possible but it is here right now and we can know it when we clear away the blocks and obstacles to our awareness of Love's presence which has never left us. We just got too caught up in our own ego drama to become aware of it. We realize we have been dreaming a really bad dream and we need to have awoken to a new reality which is God's love for us and our love for each other.

Carl, in his desperation, finally admitted that all the judgmentalism he had been taught about himself and other people was not true. He, with great sadness, said that the game he had been taught to play in his church where he was told he was a sinner and going to hell unless he did this or that or the other thing not only wasn't true but nothing that Jesus actually taught. Jesus, rather, told us that His Father in heaven loves us abundantly, that is unconditionally. Jesus, taught, in so many words, that there is no drama in heaven. Heaven is a place of love wherein, as Jesus said, "love as I have loved." And so Carl had a growing sense of peace. Maybe the things he had been taught and thought were not true. Carl said to me, "I think I am losing my faith." I said, "It sounds like you are and you are sensing everlasting life."

Here is what T.V. Smith said in his lecture about absolution:

"How, therefore, to absolve oneself from this excessive sense of guilt? I do not say from a mere sense of guilt, that is being too romantic; but how to contain this sense of guilt within its proper compass. We have on the one side the pathway worn by centuries of religious pilgrims who have undertaken through rites and creeds to load onto shoulders stronger than theirs burdens which they could no longer carry. We have in modern times the psychoanalytic couch. Neither of these is available to all men and women in our generation who must carry the weight of the world's causation upon their own shoulders. What are we to do? Is there a philosophy of life that when one has contained it will give him a curative sense of perspectives? I do not doubt but that there is. While this is not the occasion to present the remedial philosophy of life, let me call your attention to two attitudes, either one of which can enormously lighten the load of sensitive men and women whose chronic pablum is to feed upon the woes of other men and women. In the first place, this philosophy of life of which I speak would be characterized by a very robust sense of humor; and second, this philosophy of life would be characterized by what I may call "piety," in the old Roman sense of the term; identity with the world in which one lives, with the natural world and with the social world, in such fashion that one has perspective upon the world and does not feel himself to be alone. As a matter of fact, humor and piety are much closer together than most people think. Both of them are effective ways of getting perspective in terms of which we can recover our balance when the world or its tasks prove too much for us."

To summarize T.V. Smith's suggestions:
1. You can either laugh or cry
2. Keep the faith in God's unconditional love for God's creation.

Loving the one who scares you

It is written in A Course In Miracles, "There is a course for every teacher of God. The form of the course varies greatly. So do the particular teaching aids involved. But the content of the course never changes. It's central theme is always, 'God's Son is guiltless, and in his innocence is his salvation.'"

Rev. Lavanhar is a teacher of God as are all the people at All Soul's and billions of others around the world. It is Rev. Lavanhar's sermon on 09/17/17 that helps us remember what our true vocation is and that is to join with others to facilitate salvation or as A Course In Miracles calls it the Atonement which is the At-One-Ment when everybody loves everybody all the time. Impossible you say?

There are moments of grace when we have experienced this oneness with the universe but it takes, as Rev. Lavanhar reminds us, integrity to overcome our egos. Integrity is a wholeness within or as we said back in the 60s "getting our shit together." Some people have their shit together but most of us don't. It is a matter of degree because it is accurate to say that no one, on this ego plane, has his/her shit together completely. We are, to more or lesser extent, broken people. It is in unification that we compliment one another and achieve more wholeness. As Jesus promised, "Where two or more gather together in my name, there I will be." What Jesus meant was not literally in His name as in Christianity, but in His spirit which was loving the oneness of God's creation.

Today say hello to someone you don't like or who scares you and see what happens. Extending ourselves socially outside of our comfort zone may be one of the most loving things we, as egotistical human beings, can do.

Radical hospitality

Went to church today, Sunday, 09/18/17. First time this new church year. The theme this month is "radical hospitality." The sermon was mush. Preacher seemed to miss the point. Didn't get what I wanted so I thought I would write my own sermon.

What is "radical hospitality?" Bottom line: it is hosting and welcoming people you don't like, people you find repugnant, people who scare you. It is easy to be nice and welcoming and host to people you like or aspire to ingratiate yourself with. That's mostly what passes for hospitality in churches looking to add to its membership. How about hosting and welcoming people your are afraid of and/or don't like? Now that's radical. It's based on our UU first principle.

Somebody asked Mother Teresa one time, "Mother, Jesus said that the way to the kingdom is to love as I have loved. Who should I love?" Mother Teresa said, "Whomever life puts in your path." And we can add, even if they scare you or you don't like them.

That's the hard teaching I wanted to hear and didn't. So I preach to myself and ask God for the courage and strength to be kind to the people who scare me.

Amen. May it be so.

In times of tragedy from whence comes Grace?

During September, 2017 we continue our discussion of the UUAWOL fiction book for the month which is Dave Eggers' novel, Heroes Of The Frontier. Heroes Of The Frontier doesn't have much of a plot and it not being plot driven so some readers might find it boring but it is rich in character and observations of the human condition. For example, Eggers writes about Samantha, Josie's foster sister, "But Sam had always been flippant about any loss, any tragedy. She felt it her right, as a survivor of a broken personal world." p.136. I know people like this and feel and act this way myself at times. I sometimes feel exasperated with people when I'm not all that empathic and want to say to them, "Look, you need to get over yourself. This shit that has happened to you is really not all that important in the big scheme of things."

Our Unitarian Universalist faith teaches us, though, that every person is important and has inherent worth and dignity and that we should treat each other with compassion. Well when you have been wounded yourself, or worse yet, traumatized, this kind of empathy is extremely difficult if not impossible without the intervention of some kind of grace.

Those of us, who have resolved our trauma and learned from it, are especially called upon to minister to those who are still hurting. To be flippant and dismissive is to protect ourselves from having our wounds re-opened. It is important for us in our ministry to tune into where people hurt and at the very least do no further damage. The intervention of grace referred to above comes from the covenant we make with each other to promote and affirm the faith we have placed in our seven principles. The covenant is a source of grace. The more the merrier. Many hands make light work.

Holy relationships and the first principle of UU

Allen, you asked about your marriage and you said you were feeling very confused. You told me that part of the time you love Allison dearly more than anything and at other times you can't continue the relationship and just want to leave. We laughed about your feelings about the relationship being a real roller coaster ride.

Most relationships whether we recognize it or not are based on a "give to get" model. We give something, sacrifice, in order to get something, reciprocation. Unconsciously we feel guilty about this manipulation, and we hate ourselves for exploiting the relationship with the other. Further, we become resentful when we don't get what we believe we are now owed because of the sacrifices we have made, and so we attack the other for faults we attribute to what we believe they have done or not done to us based on our deal. As you have felt, Allen, this dynamic is insane and is doomed to failure because of it is built on the premise of the ego which is the "give to get" model.

The opposite model for relationships is the Holy relationship which is based on unconditional love. We turn our relationship over to the Spirit of Life and seek interior guidance based on faith in the goodness of the universe that the relationship can be transformed to a Holy one. The ability to do this is based on the implementation of Unitarian Universalist principle of affirming and promoting the inherent worth and dignity of every person. We focus on the divine spark in the person and forgive the rest of the drama. A sense of peace fills us when we can "turn it over to our Higher Power."

Allen, I don't mean to imply that this turning over of our relationships from "give to get" to unconditional love is easy. It takes repeated intentional efforts over a period of time sometimes. It is not a light switch we can just turn on and off, but rather a process which we have to patiently persist in implementing. However in the long run we become aware of increased happiness which is our natural inheritance from our creator.

I sometimes ask people when they say they "love" another person what they mean by that and people are hard pressed to describe this thing they are calling "love". "Love" is a word too easily used without much thought. I had somebody tell me yesterday how much he loved me because he was upset and wanted attention and support from me. Telling someone that you "love" them often is a manipulation wanting reciprocation of some sort. This interaction is, of course, not love at all but exploitation. When we are told we are "loved" by another in this way we often feel unnerved, anxious, maybe somewhat annoyed and we want to get away from the person. It is at this point that we can ask the Holy Spirit for guidance and with this intention lean into the relationship a bit by giving our attention to the other person nonjudgmentally for a brief period and see what happens.

Allen, some people enjoy riding roller coasters and some don't. Even those that do wouldn't want to ride them everyday. It seems that you are not enjoying your roller coaster ride and want to get off. You can't get off in the middle of the ride. Close your eyes, take deep breaths, and allow the roller coaster to come safely to the end of the ride and then approach any future roller coaster riding with a peaceful frame of mind recognizing that you are not in charge, and are willing to have the experience transformed into an experience of flow.

It remains to be seen what will happen with your relationship with Allison. If you decide to love the relationship with her unconditionally you will be well in any event. Your loving the relationship with Allison unconditionally does not depend on what she does only on what you do. You have no control over her only over yourself. How you proceed in your relationship with Allison is up to you and God. If you are are willing for God's will to be done and not your own you will be on solid ground to proceed.

Sincerely,

David

Happy To Be Here

UUs covenanting to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person are able to discern the Great Rays of the divine in every person they encounter. The UU Way Of Life is miraculous.

 Hi! How ya doin?

 Happy to be here.

 And I'm so much better now that you're here!

 Wow!.

Cosmic consciousness and Unitarian Universalism

Kevin, I know that you were raised as a Christian and have taken your faith seriously for most of your life. However, when you told me that you are starting to question your faith I, for one, reassure you that this is a good thing for many of the things that we are taught by our religion can impede our spiritual development unless we  question some of the teachings that don't seem quite right to us.

You asked me about Jesus' statements in Matthew's gospel where Jesus says "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me; and anyone who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it"10:37 This teaching is rarely understood and preached on because it is so foreign to what our society's norms are and what people want to hear.

The ego wants us to put special relationships ahead of God because the ego teaches that these special relationships are what will make us happy although when we are honest we must admit that these special relationships bring us as much suffering, anxiety, anger, hurt, and destruction as they do joy and peace. The reason these relationships disturb our joy and peace is because our desire for union and completion (belonging) is misplaced. What we unconsciously are really desiring is to become one again with the universe and enjoy the enlightenment of cosmic consciousness. Can special relationships ever give us that?

When we realize that we have been looking for love in all the wrong places we feel foolish and ashamed. We think we should have known better all along. We may also be angry and sad that we have wasted so much time in the drama and enervation of trying to achieve the unachievable. Jesus tries to set us straight, to point us in the right direction, but largely, even by churches that profess to follow His teachings, His teachings are either not understood or ignored as being too difficult to act on.

Unitarian Universalism teaches the unconditional love of the creator and reassures us that the Spirit of Life would never abandon us or condemn us to punishment. UU encourages us to not get people into heaven but heaven into people and asks us to covenant to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person not just some people or special people. One of the ways to get heaven into people is to recognize and acknowledge that all people are special in the sense that everyone is unique just like everybody else.:-)) Jesus is calling us to a higher path when He tells us we must detach from special relationships and first and foremost devote ourselves to the Holy, the union of everybody with everybody all the time which is heaven.

Kevin, this calling by Jesus is a call to a miraculous way of living in which we change our perception from the special relationships on the ego plane to the cosmic consciousness of oneness with the Godhead.

As they say in AA, "Let go, and let God." Continue to question authority on the ego plane and seek the guidance of the inner voice of God. The way you can tell the difference is if the ideas give you peace.

Uncle David

What's love got to do with it? and the first principle of Unitarian Universalism

Jason, you mentioned to me in our last conversation that it seems strange to you that we hate the most the ones we love the most, and we hurt the most the ones we love the most. It is, indeed, strange, and in the superficial world of the ego it seems contradictory when in fact it makes good sense if we think that the opposite of love is hate, and the opposite of hate is love for how could we understand the one without the other?

The deeper truth, Jason, is that the opposite of love is not hate, but fear. We hate what we are afraid of. If you find yourself angry or you observe anger in someone else ask yourself or them "what are you afraid of?" You will get better information with which to manage your or their angry emotions.

"Special relationships" which we call "love" are illusions which are used to offset the unconscious hate we feel for ourselves and for others. We reassure ourselves that our hate cannot be that harmful if we can offset it with the asylum of a special relationship which we call love. We live in a world where these attempts are notoriously unsuccessful with the divorce rate of first marriages in the U.S. about 50% and for second marriages 65%, and relationships between parents and children become increasingly problematic as the children and parents age often leading to cut offs and estrangements.

The problem of this love/hate illusion is that we overlook the first principle which is to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person which is based on intrinsic value founded on the divine spark that animates our existence.

Jason, rise above the love/hate illusion and dwell in reflection on the interdependent web of all existence which transcends the mundane. When I say I love you, I mean this as a brother who shares in the divine creation with us all together. Loving in this way means that I love you as I love myself and vice versa. The Atonement, At-One-Ment is when everybody loves everybody all the time. In a spin on Tina Turner's great song we might ask, "What's hate got to do with it?" For Tina's song click here. Hate has nothing more to do with it than what we call love. It is fear, Jason, which is based on an existential awareness that we have separated ourselves from the Godhead.

Blessings,

Uncle David

Unitarian Universalism and sex.

Lucy, your question about sex and Unitarian Universalism is appreciated. As you mentioned, other religions and Christians denominations have many teachings and rules about sexual behavior that sometimes seems way out of proportion to other moral issues.

Unitarian Universalism is neutral about sexual behavior being neither for it or against it. UU respects the person's right to conscience and the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. UU also insists on the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Having said that, UU leaves the topic of sex alone.

The main purpose of sex, of course, is procreative to assure the continuation of our species, homo sapiens. Mother Nature has also made sex enjoyable for the most part so that humans will engage in it. On the ego plane, humans have wrapped sexual behavior into a belief about special relationships which becomes called romantic love. This emphasis on special relationships when it comes to sex contributes to huge amounts of drama as evidenced in our songs, our movies, our TV shows, and literature.

When it comes to sexual attraction and behavior, the emphasis is on the body with less attention to the soul. Pornography carries this dynamic to the extreme wherein lust is stimulated by images and interactions which have nothing to do with the spirits of the people engaged in the activity. This emphasis is in violation of UUs first principle and the fourth and so may diminish the deeper awareness of the possible meaning and purpose of sexual behavior which may be to transcend the physical and enhance deeper spiritual communication. Psychologists have found that sexual satisfaction is not enhanced by mechanical actions but by the quality of friendship of the people involved. 

And so we come back again to the question behind your question which is "What is the purpose of sexual behavior?" The answer is procreative and recreative and it is in the procreative aspect that unconsciously we experience the most guilt because we believe that we have usurped the creative power of God. God is the creative energy of the universe who uses us to extend God's creation and we should realize that this creative power is not ours, but comes from the Godhead working through us. Do we understand ourselves to be the extension of God's creative energy in the world when we engage in sex or do we think we have stolen this power to ourselves alone? It is this unconscious guilt that we have stolen the fire of creation from God that leads to the myriad rules that religions make about sex without being fully aware of what they are doing.

Unitarian Universalism is not a guilt inducing religion. It does not teach the belief about Original sin but of Original blessing. UU does not believe in sin, guilt, and fear as other religions do and so it is neutral when it comes to sexual behavior. Unitarian Universalism is one religion which is not into the guilting business. If UUs teach anything about sexual behavior, it is that  sex should always be loving, and respectfully engaged in with an awareness of our contributing with the Godhead to the interdependent web of all existence.

Love,

Uncle David

More unum, less pluribus

Dear Jason:

I am glad you enjoyed the bumper sticker, "Too much pluribus, not enough unum." It made me laugh as well and there is nothing that joins people together in a holy instant of communication like a good laugh, and a song.

We get so hung up on bodies and we get aroused sexually by the fantasy of their interaction that we forget that the joy and the bliss of such togetherness comes from the rapport, the deep communication not from physical friction. And so we might appreciate that heaven would be the joyous rapport without the necessity of bodies, only pure communication and a sense of beloved oneness. It says in A Course In Miracles, "For communication embraces everything, and in the peace it re-establishes, love comes of itself."

When, Jason, you find a friend that you can talk to without any effort or sacrifice, only pure joy and openness, you no doubt, if you are mindful, will be aware of a blessing which we call grace. If we are skilled enough to listen deeply to a person and we look for the divine spark and focus on that we can establish this kind of rapport with any of our brothers and sisters. These skills do take a purity of mind, an intention of generosity of our effort and energy, and the deliberate diminishment, if not elimination, of our fears. These skills are a very tall order, but achievable of development with sincere intention.

Our Unitarian Univeralist covenant calls us to this kind of life in our first, second, and third principles. We promise to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person,  to strive towards justice, equity, and compassion in all our human relations, and to accept one another and encourage the spiritual growth of ourselves and those we interact with in our congregations, our work places, our families, our communities, our states, our nation, and the whole wide world.

If you wonder, Jason, if this can be done, we can study and reflect on the lives of Jesus, Buddha, St. Francis, Martin Luther King, Jr. and any number of other enlightened masters and saints who have walked the earth. You may have your own heroes and heroins whom you admire and would like to emulate. We UUs call these people "prophetic women and men" and their lives and witness are the second of six sources of the UU tradition.

If there is one quality which I would encourage you to look for it would be a cosmic consciousness, what we UUs call a respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. There seems to be a minority of human beings who achieve this level of awareness and I don't know if UUs are any more developed than our fellow citizens, but at least we intellectually acknowledge this value which is far more than most human organizations and individuals do.

Let us work together, Jason, for more unum and to respect and appreciate the pluribus without attacking it as threatening.

We should strive Jason to create heaven right now, right here where we presently find ourselves. We can accomplish this with the establishment of loving communication. I define the atonement as that time in human history when everybody loves everybody all the time. Each time we ask the Holy Spirit to help us with this activity, we decrease the length of time before human kind achieves this state.

Blessings to you and your family,

Uncle David

Why is the first principle of Unitarian Universalism even necessary?

What is the basis of my fears that I am defective and inadequate in some way and it is only a matter of time before  people figure this out about me? At our roots we, unconsciously, experience shame, not of who are are, but of who we think we have become. The first principle of Unitarian Universalism is to covenant to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. UUs affirm and promote this principle because it is counter cultural as we live in a culture that believes that people are inherently sinners who without divine intervention will be consigned to hell. This incorrect belief in the inherent defectiveness in human beings gets projected onto "the other" and this projection leads to attack and hell on earth.

We have separated ourselves from the source of our being as we have developed our egos. We have separated ourselves to insure our physical survival and as we have developed we have realized that we not a body containing a soul, but a soul with a body which sometimes is not worth protecting and saving. The identification with the body is a road to hell. Not that our bodies are not important because they are the vehicles through which our soul awareness is realized, but undue attachment causes anxiety. As Bruce Cockburn sings in his great song, Last Night Of The World, "I learned not to trust in my body"

When bodies herd together to protect themselves from groups of other bodies we create hell on earth because at at spiritual level we are all one and to appeal to the herd for salvation is insanity.

Barry told me he believed in white supremacy and the problem in America is the "niggers". President Trump has told Americans that their problems are due to Mexicans and Muslims and if elected he will build a wall to keep Mexicans out and he will create bans and extreme vetting to keep Muslims out which will make America great again and keep Americans safe. Americans, out of their fears of "the other" elected him their leader.

Trump's  proposals promise to protect people's bodies while they destroy people's souls. It is written in A Course In Miracles, "For separation is the source of guilt, and to appeal to it for salvation is to believe you are alone. To be alone is to be guilty. For to experience yourself as alone is to deny the Oneness of the Father and His Son, and thus to attack reality." T-15.V.2:5-7

The At-one-ment is the cosmic consciousness that we are all in this thing called Life together. To project our shame on each other is the basis of sin and the cause of hell on earth.

 

Only 15% of the population are Good Samaritans according to this study in Sweden

The modern day Good Samaritan story. How many people would stop and offer help? 15%. How many Unitarian Universalists would stop?



If Unitarian Universalists practice their first principle, to affirm and promote the inherent worth and digntiy of every person, they would definitely stop, wouldn't they?

Tuesday night class #5 - Who is the you who gets lonely?

Unitarian Universalists are miracle workers when they enact the role of enlightened witness

by Stephen Dailey

There is no more toxic belief system to be inculcated in human beings than the belief that they are born defective because of Original Sin. The only other belief as toxic is the belief in retaliatory justice, the old Hammurabi code of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. It could be argued that the second toxic belief flows from the first that human beings are innately evil and so need to taught a lesson by some vengeful, retributive authority figure whether it is a divine being like God or an social constructive like the State.

Along comes a small counter cultural group like Unitatarian Universalists who buck the tide of millennia of toxic false beliefs. We, as UUs, are pissing in the ocean and farting in a hurricane and yet we bring radically different values and provide a role of the enlightened witness professing good news that here is a different and more holy way of perceiving and creating the world.


To paraphrase H.L. Mencken, "The people that the people admire the most are the biggest and most daring liars; the people they detest most violently are those that would dare to tell them the truth puncturing holes in the beliefs they have been taught erroneously to believe in."

Unitarian Universalists have been criticized regularly for being heretics. We don't oppose the common beliefs and norms to be contrary, but rather to point to another more miraculous reality. That reality is God's love for God's creation in which God is well pleased.

Are you holy? Unitarian Universalism teaches that you are

by Barb McMullen

The idea that "the person" is made up of the social roles he or she plays is a significant and powerful idea. Our beliefs in what we should think, how we should feel, and how we should behave is strongly influenced by peer pressure which come from the norms and attitudes of our reference groups.

We often accept the idea of "free will" but upon closer study it becomes apparent, sometimes to our shame, that our behavior, thoughts, and feelings are more influenced by social dynamics and environmental circumstances than by individual awareness and decision making.

The social psychological research of pioneers in the field of social psychology like Stanley Millgram and Solomon Asch demonstrate that human behavior is more determined by social expectation than by individual autonomy. These findings have significant implications for our moral and spiritual awareness and development. Mr. Markham referred to this with his examples of people in recovery doing a relapse prevention plan where the person is asked to focus on his/her triggers and when necessary to avoid or diminish the influence of those triggers by changing his/her "people, places, and things." The Our Father, the great Christian prayer, says in part, "...and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil..." Evil in this context refers to separation from God and further enmeshment in the ego plane. What are the triggers in our lives that cause a relapse, meaning a shift from miracle thinking to the activities of the ego?

The "miracle" as Mr. Markham refers to in his third class is a higher level of consciousness which is focused on the spiritual plane of the holy, not the drama of specialness and scarcity. When Unitarian Universalism points, in the first principle, to that idea that every person has inherent worth and dignity, it is saying that every person is holy. What if we started treating everybody this way? In order to do this, we must first include ourselves. Do you think and feel yourself to be holy, that is a person of inherent worth and dignity? Unitarian Universalism teaches that you are while other religions teach that you are a sinner. This religious belief that people are inherently defective and sinful is a false teaching opposed to the insight and awareness of UU. Will you join the effort to spread the good news that people are holy?