Showing posts with label The Moral Unitarian Univeralist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Moral Unitarian Univeralist. Show all posts

Sunday, July 26, 2020

The Twelve Cardinal Sins

The Twelve Cardinal Sins

The mission of UU A Way Of Life is to improve spiritual health, reduce immoral and sinful behavior, and work across systems for positive societal change.  “Sinful” in the context of the UU A Way Of Life mission statement is defined as mistaken. The mission statement could read, “reducing immoral and mistaken behavior” but the mistakes being referred to are ones that cause spiritual injury and so we use the word “sinful.”.


“Cardinal sins” are major sins. They are the categories for types of sins and within each category there could be many sins enumerated. In describing the cardinal sins we are attempting to describe the category of mistakes which cause harm, suffering, and death whether psychological, social, spiritual, or physical.

Click on the link to take you to a description of each of the twelve categories which are juxtaposed to the components of spiritual health.


  1. Destructive management of fear
  2. Meanness 
  3. Blaming, attack, and vengeance
  4. Separation, enhancement of the ego
  5. Conditional love, indifference, abandonment
  6. The unexamined life
  7. Individualism instead of interdependence
  8. Slavery, and acedia
  9. Blaming and victimhood
  10. Being fake and phoney
  11. Taking the world of the ego seriously
  12. Certainty,  the need to be right, arrogance
In the pursuit of spiritual health not only do the components of spiritual health need to be nurtured and practiced to be strengthened, but the cardinal sins need to be recognized, acknowledged, and managed with the intent to diminish or eliminate their influence on one's life.

If you can't name the sin you cannot manage it. If you can't name it and manage it, forgiveness is not achievable because you are doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over and over again. 


Saturday, July 25, 2020

The Moral Unitarian Univeralist - Cardinal sin twelve: The need to be right, certainty, and arrogance

The bitter aftertaste of arrogance - Reputation Today

Cardinal sin twelve - The need to be right, certainty, and arrogance.

The mission of UU A Way Of Life is to improve spiritual health, reduce immoral and sinful behavior, and work across systems for positive societal change. This article is another in  a series of articles on reducing immoral and sinful behavior. “Sinful” in the context of the UU A Way Of Life mission statement is defined as mistaken. The mission statement could read, “reducing immoral and mistaken behavior” but the mistakes being referred to are ones that cause spiritual injury and so we use the word “sinful.”.

The twelfth component of spiritual health is not knowing and curiosity. What is the opposite of not knowing and curiosity? It is certainty and arrogance.. It is asked in A Course In Miracles, “Would you rather be right or be happy?” Unfortunately, on the path of the ego we would rather be right and the need to be right can be a very destructive thing.

The need to be right leads to judgmentalism, bias, prejudice, discrimination, contempt, disdain, separation and exclusion. At the more extreme, it leads to attack, punishment, and death.

The root of many sins is certainty, arrogance, and pride which leads to attack, domination, subjugation, and oppression. Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person and the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Unitarian Universalism is relatively unique in its nonjudgmentalism, inclusivity, and open mindedness and open heartedness.

The skills of not knowing and curiosity for most people don’t come naturally because so much of human nature is fear based. The opposite of love is fear and most of us live our lives with anxiety and avoidance rather than love and security.

What helps us overcome our fears is intentional curiosity and acknowledgement of not knowing everything. To ask the question, “What would love have me do?” requires genuine and sincere questioning and curiosity. Oftentimes when genuinely curious we are easily surprised and satisfied with what we learn and become aware of. Setting aside pre-ordained assumptions and expectations, fills one with a delightful sense of mystery and awe. Socrates taught that the hallmark of a wise person is knowing what one doesn’t know. When a person is sixteen they think they know everything. By the time one is seventy six one knows how little they know and they approach life with awe, reverence, and curiosity.

Should we put our faith in certainty and authoritative texts and teachings or should we be open to the awe and mystery and the lifelong search for the holy and peace which is our birthright?

Tuesday, July 21, 2020

The Moral Unitarian Univeralist - Cardinal sin eleven: conditional love and indifference

Conditional Love - I am 1 in 4

Cardinal sin eleven: conditional love and indifference

The mission of UU A Way Of Life is to improve spiritual health, reduce immoral and sinful behavior, and work across systems for positive societal change. This article is another in  a series of articles on reducing immoral and sinful behavior. “Sinful” in the context of the UU A Way Of Life mission statement is defined as mistaken. The mission statement could read, “reducing immoral and mistaken behavior” but the mistakes being referred to are ones that cause spiritual injury and so we use the word “sinful.”.

The eleventh component of spiritual health is unconditional love, What is the opposite of unconditional love? It is conditional love and indifference. Conditional love is “I’ll love you if……………………” of “I’ll love you when……….” Another form of conditional love is indifference, avoidance, and rejection and abandonment.

If you ask people what is the opposite of love they most likely will tell you hate. But this is not true. What do love and hate have in common? You care about your relationship with the person sometimes passionately one way or the other. What is the opposite of caring? It is not caring. And so the opposite of love is indifference, avoidance, rejection, and abandonment. These four things:indifference, avoidance, rejection and abandonment are another form of separation. Separation from the Unconditional Love of the Oneness which is the original sin when we began to think that we had separated ourselves from the love of God. This “tiny mad idea” as A Course In Miracles names it, gave birth to the ego and all its idols, and led to the worship of false gods.

The cardinal sin, mistake, is made many times a day and thousands of times in a life time. Every time we think and treat someone as “the other” we have sinned. There is no other. We are all part of the Oneness. When we have abandoned, judged, and rejected the other we have harmed our Self. The navigational north star as we decide on our own conduct and our relations with others, is the question, “What would Love have me do?” Love would have us extend the unconditional love of the universe to others. As Peace Pilgrim said, “I look for the divine spark in every person and focus on that.”

In what do we put our faith: conditional love or unconditional love? Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. It is in this inherent worth and dignity of every person that we put our faith. It is the foundational belief of the Universalists that God loves all of God’s creation unconditionally and there is no hell other than that of our own making. We put our faith in Unconditional Love on earth as it is in heaven.

Sunday, July 19, 2020

The Moral Unitarian Univeralist - Cardinal sin ten: taking the world of the ego seriously

Gold comedy and tragedy theater masks Royalty Free Vector

Cardinal sin ten - taking the world of the ego seriously

The mission of UU A Way Of Life is to improve spiritual health, reduce immoral and sinful behavior, and work across systems for positive societal change. This article is another in  a series of articles on reducing immoral and sinful behavior. “Sinful” in the context of the UU A Way Of Life mission statement is defined as mistaken. The mission statement could read, “reducing immoral and mistaken behavior” but the mistakes being referred to are ones that cause spiritual injury and so we use the word “sinful.”.

The tenth component of spiritual health is laughter, What is the opposite of laughter? It is being judgmental, too serious, rigid, obsessive, exuding contempt and disdain stemming from a place of arrogance, pride, and superiority.

When people are stressed and taking things too seriously, it might be suggested that they lighten up. There is relief in recognizing and acknowledging the paradoxical nature of things, the inherent contradictions and absurdity of the beliefs of the ego.

We learn in the Tao Te Ching about the dichotomous mind that learns about the ego world from comparisons, contrast, division, and separation and yet the yin and yang make up the whole. It is seeing the whole and the mistake of taking the yin or yang as serious that is funny.

It is important to laugh with people and not at people. Laughter which is sarcastic and communicates contempt and disdain is not funny but a veiled form of attack. When a person objects to teasing or joking as being hurtful, to excuse one’s attack by saying, “What’s the matter? Can’t you take a joke?” is not the kind of humor and laughter that is being described here.

Laughter, like choral music, is to be shared and enjoyed together. This kind of laughter and humor is a form of joining and alliance with others. It is a mutual recognition and acknowledgment of the absurdity, and silliness of the world of the ego. Holy laughter is a form of love. Laughter at the expense of another communicating contempt and disdain and superiority and judgment is an attack that can break someone’s heart and spirit.

A good sense of humor is endearing. A bad sense of humor is a sin in two ways. First it is a hurtful attack, and second the attack is hidden in such a way that if the victim objects, the victim is further victimized by being belittled and criticized for their objection as if there is something wrong with them for objecting.

I imagine Jesus laughing when, hanging on the cross, he says “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they didn’t. And we are still talking about this over 2,000 years later. It is funny that the Romans thought they could get rid of Jesus, a perceived trouble maker, by killing His body. Little did they know that His Spirit would influence humankind for millenia.

We have an expression, “You can either laugh or cry,” or perhaps a little of both. While we are hurt and sad when our ego is attacked and injured, there is part of us, in our Spirit, that knows we, as the beloved creations of God, are invincible and so the whole tragic drama becomes a comedy.

What do we put our faith in? Do we put our faith in the seriousness of the ego or the lightness of the Spirit which sees through the whole joke of the ego world?

Friday, July 17, 2020

The Moral Unitarian Univeralist - Cardinal Sin nine - being fake and phoney

How To Stop Being A Complete Phoney

Cardinal sin nine - being fake and phoney

The mission of UU A Way Of Life is to improve spiritual health, reduce immoral and sinful behavior, and work across systems for positive societal change. This article is another in  a series of articles on reducing immoral and sinful behavior. “Sinful” in the context of the UU A Way Of Life mission statement is defined as mistaken. The mission statement could read, “reducing immoral and mistaken behavior” but the mistakes being referred to are ones that cause spiritual injury and so we use the word “sinful.”.

The ninth component of spiritual health is authenticity. What is the opposite of authenticity? It is being phoney and fake..Phoney and fake is creating, developing, and projecting a false self. It is pretentiousness. People often come to believe that their false self is real. They are so immersed in their inauthenticity that they lose touch with who they really are. They have forgotten the ground of their being. They think they are the authors of their own existence. This mistake often leads to alienation and despair.

When a person enhances and/or defends their ego, they create a hell on earth. When we pray in the great Christian prayer, the Our Father, “and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” we are expressing an intention not to continue on the path of the ego but to redirect ourselves on the path of the Spirit.

The biggest sins of phoniness and fakeness is the worship of false idols. We believe that money, power, status, prestige, romantic relationships, the acquisition of things material and immaterial will make us happy. We say things like, “I could be happy if only I won the lottery.” “I could be happy if only I could get that job, take that trip, buy that house, marry that person.” None of this, of course, is true, but we come to believe it especially in our capitalistic, materialistic society which conditions us constantly with advertisements, social messaging, and peer pressure (keeping up with the Jones) to seek these things by competing with others for what are believed to be scarce resources for happiness.

Holden Caulfiend, in J.D. Salinger’s classic novel of adolescent angst, Catcher In The Rye, called this social conditioning “the big lie.”

The three major existential questions which we all contend with throughout our lives are: Why was I born? What is the purpose of my life? What happens when I die? We can attempt to answer these questions pursuing the path of the ego or the path of the Spirit. In Unitarian Universalism people covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. This search, if it is to be successful, takes us into the authentic, the genuine, the real, and away from the fake, the phoney, the counterfeit, the pseudo.

To achieve an authentic, genuine, honest life of integrity, we must be willing to regularly examine our lives and consciences. This is best done daily with further reviews weekly, monthly, and annually. The major questions are “Have I been true to myself?” “Am I becoming the person that I believe deep down in my heart, God created me to become?” “Am I doing with my life what I believe deep down in my heart, God is calling me to do?” It helps to do these reviews and questions with a trusted other. It can be a life partner, a good friend, a spiritual director, a therapist, a group of committed participants.

We can put our faith in the ways and promises of the world of the ego, or in discerning what we believe is Life’s will for us in the world of the Spirit. We have multiple opportunities to make this choice. When we choose to discern Life’s will for us, we have kept the faith.

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

The Moral Unitarian Univeralist - Cardinal sin eight - blaming and victimhood

KEEP CALM STOP Playing THE VICTIM! Poster | Hope T | Keep Calm-o-Matic

The mission of UU A Way Of Life is to improve spiritual health, reduce immoral and sinful behavior, and work across systems for positive societal change. This article is another in  a series of articles on reducing immoral and sinful behavior. “Sinful” in the context of the UU A Way Of Life mission statement is defined as mistaken. The mission statement could read, “reducing immoral and mistaken behavior” but the mistakes being referred to are ones that cause spiritual injury and so we use the word “sinful.”.

The eighth  component of spiritual health is self efficacy. What is the opposite of self -efficacy? It is playing the victim. It is blaming others and failing to take responsibility for oneself. It is denial that one always has a choice between walking the path of the ego or the path of the spirit.

The existential problem of human beings is guilt. We love to play “one or the other” and “it’s you not me.” We love to play the victim and blame others and in doing so we give all our power away, the power to choose who we understand ourselves to be and how we see existence.

The blame game is easy to play as we attack others full of resentment, grievance, recrimination, fear and anger. “How could you have done this to me!?” “You are a terrible person!” “I would be happy if only you would …………..or stop…………”

When we are stuck in victimhood and make other people and things responsible for our unhappiness and suffering, we are lost to the wiles and snares of the ego. The solution is forgiveness. Forgiveness is when we are willing to give up making other people responsible for our unhappiness. No one and no thing can make you choose fear and hate over love and compassion.

Gary Renard, a teacher of A Course In Miracles, points out that we have multiple forgiveness opportunities every day. Every time we are annoyed, angry, irritated, hurt, scared we can step back and ask “What would love have me do?” Love does not see us as a victim. Love does not choose victimhood for us. Love tells us that we should not accept victimhood for ourselves. Love tells us we can choose peace, joy, and joining instead.

We must ask ourselves in what to put our faith. Do you favor the ego or the spirit? Do we favor fear, anger and blame or compassion, love and peace? Do we put our faith in blame and victim hood or forgiveness and self efficacy?

Tuesday, July 14, 2020

The Moral Unitarian Universalist - Cardinal sin seven: slavery and acedia

Business Insider

You are free to choose. What will it be?

The mission of UU A Way Of Life is to improve spiritual health, reduce immoral and sinful behavior, and work across systems for positive societal change. This article is another in  a series of articles on reducing immoral and sinful behavior. “Sinful” in the context of the UU A Way Of Life mission statement is defined as mistaken. The mission statement could read, “reducing immoral and mistaken behavior” but the mistakes being referred to are ones that cause spiritual injury and so we use the word “sinful.”.

The seventh component of spiritual health is freedom from and freedom to. What is the opposite freedom free and freedom to? It is slavery, possession, domination, subjugation, coercion and boredom, apathy, indolence, sloth, laziness, and what is called in the spiritual literature, acedia.

Slavery, possessing bodies, is a cardinal sin, but what’s even worse is enslaving a person’s mind by breaking their spirit. It is known colloguieally as “soul murder.” It happens all the time when we lie to people, manipulate people, put them down, bully them, insist they do things they don’t want to do and when they don’t punish them in the ten thousand ways we have learned to attack and get revenge and exact our will.

Dispirited, demoralized, it is easy to give up, to not care, to deny, to minimize, to alter our moods with chemicals and other compulsive activities and to keep going until we run out of resources, burn all our bridges, hit bottom, and.or sink into lethargy. We become proverbial couch potatoes.

With freedom comes responsibility. When a person develops a mind of their own, can stand on their own two feet, becomes captain of their own ship, and master of their own fate, they have come to stand for something, to take a position on things, to have gotten their shit together,and have become the real deal. Many people don’t want to take the responsibility. Their fear keeps them prisoner and they blame others for their spiritual failure to take responsibility for themselves.

The choice is actually very simple, the way of the ego or the way of the Spirit. The way of the ego is the path of separation, attack, resentment, revenge, grievance, and fear. The way of the spirit is the path of Oneness (holiness), love, joy, and peace.

We are free to choose any time. More likely the fork in the road will be encountered multiple times, sometimes in one day. All we need to do is ask “What would love have me do?” Love of God, love of self, love of others, love of life?

In what do we choose to put our faith: the things of the ego or the things of the spirit? We become aware of our freedom to choose. The question is which will it be?

Monday, July 13, 2020

The Moral Unitarian Univeralist - Cardinal Sin 6 - Individualism or interdependence?

Seeking Interdependence As We Celebrate Independence Day - Fedcap

Individualism or interdependence?

The mission of UU A Way Of Life is to improve spiritual health, reduce immoral and sinful behavior, and work across systems for positive societal change. This article is another in  a series of articles on reducing immoral and sinful behavior. “Sinful” in the context of the UU A Way Of Life mission statement is defined as mistaken. The mission statement could read, “reducing immoral and mistaken behavior” but the mistakes being referred to are ones that cause spiritual injury and so we use the word “sinful.”.

The sixth component of spiritual health is the felt connection to the interdependent web. What is the opposite of felt connection to the interdependent web? It is individuality. It is looking out for and advocating for numero uno. It is uplifting the ego in place of the mutual welfare.

As the poet John Donne wrote, “No man is an island,” and yet, especially in America with its ethic of rugged individualism, we act as if he is separate unto himself with no regard for the environment and ecosystem within which he lives.

We extract resources for profit. This is the basis of our capitalistic system with no regard for what are called the “externalities” which are the hidden costs which don’t get factored in the price paid.

When we were children we were encouraged to share. Generosity was seen as a virtue, but then as we grew older accumulation of wealth was promoted as the primary criteria of “success.” This accumulation of wealth whether it be material, psychological, social, physical, and even spiritual has been held up as the epitome of achievement. The glorification of individual performance is the hubris that is destroying us in these days of Covid-19 and climate warming.

We are quickly coming to learn about public health consequences of our behaviors which contribute to “herd” infection and death. We are learning about supply chains and the importance of their integrity to deliver the goods. We are quickly becoming aware of our interdependence and the fissures and fracturing of our safety net. We are learning who performs “essential” work, and who are nonessential and exist merely for entertainment and unnecessary luxury.

Obliviousness about the interdependent web in which we exist and live is one of the cardinal sins of our age and will be the cause of immense suffering and death and perhaps extinction of our species.

How do we diminish this obliviousness of the interdependent web of which we are a part? We must teach ourselves and others to diminish the ego and empathize with others. Some might name it compassion, but it is more than that, it is a humility to recognize and acknowledge that we are a part of something greater than ourselves. We are called to join with and nurture and respect that something greater. Some would call it “reverence” and even “piety.”

The key skill is learning to connect the dots and recognize, acknowledge, and appreciate the wholeness (holiness) of the systems in which we participate.

We have a choice in what to put our faith: individualism or the interdependent web of which we all are a part.

Wednesday, July 8, 2020

The Moral Unitarian Universalist - Cardinal sin five: The unexamined life

The unexamined life is not worth living - Tom McCallum - Medium

Cardinal sin five - The unexamined life

The mission of UU A Way Of Life is to improve spiritual health, reduce immoral and sinful behavior, and work across systems for positive societal change. This article is another in  a series of articles on reducing immoral and sinful behavior. “Sinful” in the context of the UU A Way Of Life mission statement is defined as mistaken. The mission statement could read, “reducing immoral and mistaken behavior” but the mistakes being referred to are ones that cause spiritual injury and so we use the word “sinful.”.

The fifth component of spiritual health is mindfulness. What is the opposite of mindfulness? It is impulsiveness, compulsiveness, and playing the victim. Are we reactive or responsive? Do we have some idea of what makes us tick? Do we take responsibility for how we manage our thoughts, feelings and behavior or do we, like a leaf on the wind, go whichever way the wind blows?

Mindfulness is a sign of maturity. It is the ability of a person to witness, objectively, and nonjudgmentally, their own functioning cognitively, affectively, psychologically, socially, and behaviorally.

The bumper sticker reads, “The unlived life is not worth examining.” Are we living our lives or wasting them? Too many, unfortunately, are wasted and that’s a sin.

How does one cultivate mindfulness? A person needs to stop their business, or their lethargy. This kind of lethargy is what has been called in spiritual texts “acedia” which in everyday contemporary language is defined as “not giving a shit.” Acedia is a loss of faith and looks to the modern observer like depression, but it is a spiritual conditional more than a psychological condition.

Some people define “mindfulness” as meditation or contemplation. It is a practice of witnessing, objectively and nonjudgmentally our functioning. It is taking stock of our own functioning and works best with an attitude of curiosity where we just watch, review, and let go or surrender. Some people call it “centering.” It is a process of looking inward not outward. This can be done once a day for 15 minutes or every hour for 5 minutes or in an ongoing way as we go about our day.

We can sit on a cushion, find a quiet place, listen to music, take a walk, there are many methods of mediation. It has sometimes been called a “flow” state where we become one with the All.

Some people seem to be “driven.” They are impulsive and compulsive. They are not in control of their own functioning but triggered by external circumstances and phenomena. They are not in control of their own functioning, but are controlled by their environment. The primary ingredient of mindfulness is awareness. The bathroom graffiti reads, “Be alert! The world needs more lerts.”

And so in what do we put our faith? Do we want to know what makes us tick or are we too afraid to slow down, stop, and look within? Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. That truth and meaning is to be found not without but within. Our faith is in our own internal, intuitive wisdom which is part of the Universe of existence, not in the triggers on the path of the ego which populate our daily experience.

Monday, July 6, 2020

The Moral Unitarian Universalist - Cardinal sin four: separation and enhancement of the ego

THE GOSPEL - Bethsaida Baptist Church

Cardinal sin four: Separation and enhancement of the ego.

The mission of UU A Way Of Life is to improve spiritual health, reduce immoral and sinful behavior, and work across systems for positive societal change. This article is another in  a series of articles on reducing immoral and sinful behavior. “Sinful” in the context of the UU A Way Of Life mission statement is defined as mistaken. The mission statement could read, “reducing immoral and mistaken behavior” but the mistakes being referred to are ones that cause spiritual injury and so we use the word “sinful.”.

The fourth component of spiritual health is attunement to the non dualistic Oneness. What is the opposite of attunement to the non dualistic Oneness? It is separation and enhancement of the ego. When we separated ourselves from the non dualistic Oneness, it is written in A Course In Miracles, we forgot to laugh. The idea that we are the author of our own existence is ludicrous. It is a cosmic absurdity. It is the biggest mistake of all.

In religious theologies of the major world religions this denial of the ground of our being is called by many names such as pride, arrogance, hubris, vanity. In everyday language we call it bragging, being puffed up, having to be right, thinking one is “big stuff,” being pretentious, showing off, hogging the spotlight, etc.

Further, the sins of separation and enhancement of the ego manifest in racism, xenophobia, misogyny, bullying, oppression, subjugation, domination, enslavement, exploitation, and what, these days, we are calling implicit bias.

Whenever we put others down, see them as less than, dehumanize them by seeing and treating them as “the other” we are separating ourselves from the non dualistic Oneness of creation. To think that we know better, deserve more, can do things alone individually, we perpetuate the primordial sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden who made the decision to go it alone without God. They thought, “We have everything. Who needs God?” And a wise person, witnessing this act of separation from the non dualistic Oneness might ask, “How is that working for you?”

In Alcoholic Anonymous, one of the greatest spiritual development programs of all time, asks its participants, in step one of the twelve step program,  to admit that their lives have become unmanageable. In step two program participants are asked to come to the realization that a Power greater than themselves can restore them to sanity. In step three, participants are asked to turn their will and lives over to the care of the non dualistic Oneness however they understand it whether as God, as Tao, as the Universe, as the Ground of Being, as the Great Spirit, as the Spirit of Life. It is in this surrender of our will, and willfulness, to the will of the non dualistic Oneness that this willingness to surrender our own will attunes us to the non dualistic Oneness and decreases the separation and the preservation of our individual ego.

This surrender of our own will to the Tao takes mindfulness and repeated decisions throughout our day. We have to ask ourselves many times throughout the day, “What would love have me do?”

Meditation, centering, helps one escape the ego and its multitudinous demands for our attention, time, energy, and efforts to make us happy. The famous Christian prayer, the Our Father, has a phrase which reads, “....and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” The temptation being referred to is the demands of the ego for separation and the eschewing of the attunement with the Oneness.

The choice is very simple, the ego or the Higher Power? The ego promises us conditional love and happiness while our Higher Power offers us Unconditional Love and bliss? Give up the things of the ego which are barriers and obstacles to awareness of unconditional love which is our natural inheritance. Put your faith in your Higher Power and leave your ego in the dust.

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