Showing posts with label guilt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label guilt. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 5, 2019

Unitarian Universalism is a beacon of light in a dark world.


What happens to the people when its leader is an unethical con man? What happens to a people when corruption undoes the law of the land? What happens when people elect people who make laws which are antithetical to a society's well being and favor only the powerful few with privileges others can't enjoy?

A person can blame the leader. A person can blame people with privilige who practice corruption to escape accountability to the just laws of that society, or a person can look ino his/her own heart and attempt to understand how such people were put into power to begin with and why they continue to vote for them so they can continue in their positions allowing them to exploit.

Most people love a con man and will vote for a person who practices corruption because  the person would like to be like them. The person enjoys the pain and suffering and exploitation. It is like the audience who is titillated watching a bully assault the victim. People love the titillation of vengeance and attack. It is emotionally arousing and for the bored, the emotionally blunted, attack is entertainment.

Deep down a person feels inadequate and defective. The person has been told that he/she was born with Origninal Sin and is doomed to damnation unless there is a blood sacrifice to redeem them from a wrathful, malevolent being who looks on them with contempt and disdain. A person gets defensive and thinks, "Well if I am bad, I am not as bad his him/her," and points their finger at the other to displace the burden of their own guilt onto someone else. He/she enjoys the victimization because it is comforting knowing that the other is being attacked and not them.

It is this displacement of guilt on the other that leads to the love of corruption and attack. There is a justified satisfaction. This justified satisfaction creates and maintains the evil in the world.

Unitarian Universalism sees the world from a different lens. UUs believe in the Original Blessing not Originanl Sin. UUs believe in the inherent worth and dignity of every person and do not play the blame game of "one or the other." UUs affirm and promote justice, equity, and compassion and do not believe in vengeance, blood sacrifice, and attack. Redemptive violence has no place in the UU covenant and principles.

Unitatian Universalism provides a view of the world which is counter cultural. It is a beacon, a light for the world. This view, this light, begins in individual hearts and is a choice that saves the person and the world.

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.
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