This service was presented by Rachel Alvarez on Sunday, January 31
Reading #1: Reflection on the
First Principle
“Reverence and respect for human nature is
at the core of Unitarian Universalist (UU) faith. We believe that all the
dimensions of our being carry the potential to do good. We celebrate the gifts
of being human: our intelligence and capacity for observation and reason, our
senses and ability to appreciate beauty, our creativity, our feelings and
emotions. We cherish our bodies as well as our souls. We can use our gifts to
offer love, to work for justice, to heal injury, to create pleasure for
ourselves and others.
“‘Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is
holy,’ the great twentieth-century Rabbi Abraham Heschel wrote. Unitarian
Universalists affirm the inherent worth and dignity of each person as a given
of faith—an unshakeable conviction calling us to self-respect and respect for
others.”
—Rev. Dr. Rebecca Ann Parker, minister,
theologian, and author
Reading #2:
The following quote
was written in the wake of September 11, 2001, by Rev.
Sean Parker Dennison of South Valley UU in Salt Lake City, Utah.
In a time like this, it is important to remember that
"inherent worth
and dignity" is not the same as blamelessness or freedom from
accountability. If we uphold the inherent worth and dignity of
every
person we are not saying that whatever they choose to do is
somehow
okay. What we are saying is that unlike the people that planned
and
carried out these horrific events, we value human life—every human
life. When people behave cruelly and with hatred we will intervene,
but we will do so in ways that protect and preserve life. Even
when
we are enraged and seek to redress a horrible wrong, we will
measure
our acts by the standards of dignity, honor, and justice. Even in
the
face of tragedy, we must not forget that every life—American,
Arab,
Persian, Afghani—is precious. May we not waste a single one.
Inherent worth and dignity is not something we confer upon people
when they are good and rescind when they are bad. Inherent worth
and dignity is not something that resides in the other, but
something that is demanded of us.
Presentation
As Unitarian
Universalists, we don’t have specific creeds that we must all agree upon and
follow. Instead, our Seven Principles
provide guidelines for us to live by.
Growing up, when friends would ask about the church I attended and our
beliefs, I would struggle with how to respond, but usually, I said something
related to the importance of “being a good person.” In my opinion, the Seven Principles are the
foundation for UUs to be good people.
Knowing that UUs may have different beliefs than me about the existence
of a god or gods, heaven, hell, etc… I
generally understand that UUs share the Seven Principles as a common
foundation, which is comforting to me in a very diverse religious
community.
Today’s presentation will be kicking off a second cycle of
a series discussing our Seven Principles.
To begin, I wanted to discuss the Seven Principles in general, before
specifically focusing on the First Principle, promoting the inherent worth and
dignity of every person.
In preparation for this sermon, I found an article that
resonated with me and made me think of the Seven Principles in a slightly
different way. I would like to share
some excerpts from it. In the Summer
2014 issue of UU World, in his article titled “I don't 'believe in' the Seven
Principles: I don’t think of them as beliefs at all…” Doug Muder writes, “The absolute worst of the common answers [to
the question of what UUs believe] is “[that we] can believe whatever they
want.” In fact the exact opposite is true. Maybe more than any other religion,
Unitarian Universalism pushes us to ask: “Is that really true or is it just
what I want to believe? Precisely
because I am a UU, I question ideas whose primary virtue is that I want to
believe them. Once you step around that
pothole, discussions tend to gravitate towards the Seven Principles. As a list
of things that our congregations are committed to affirm and promote, the
Principles have at least a formal resemblance to the creeds of Christian
churches; we teach them to our children, introductory books are organized
around them, and so forth. So if someone comes to a UU congregation looking for
the Unitarian Universalist creed, the Principles seem to be it. But if you’ve ever tried to present the
Principles to creed-seeking newcomers, you’ve probably seen their
disappointment. “And?” their expressions seem to ask.
I can relate to
this feeling. In telling my friends that
my religion promotes “being a good person,” I feel like I fall short of some
deeper meaning. Is “being a good
person,” really such a great feat for us to strive for? Do we really need a
religious community to remind us and encourage us to be good people?
Muder continues, “The Principles fail as a creed because
they’re too easy. Billions of people who literally would not want to be caught
dead in a UU church can nod along with them. Take the Second Principle:
“Justice, equity, and compassion in human relations.” Does some other religion
take a bold stand for injustice in human relations? People may argue about what
“justice” means, but everybody is for it.
The
Principles are littered with feel-good terms like that: “spiritual growth,”
“democratic process,” “search for truth and meaning,” “world community,”
“peace,” “liberty.” If all Unitarian Universalism wants you to do is approve of
such concepts, that’s not very demanding, is it? In addition to thinking that
they describe a really wimpy religion, I have an even more serious objection to
the Principles as a defining set of Unitarian Universalist beliefs: I don’t
believe in them. In fact, I don’t think
of them as beliefs at all. I think of them as visions.
“The point of putting the Principles
in the front of the hymnal and teaching them to our children isn’t to assert
their truth, or even to encourage you to nod along with the idea that they
should be true. Unitarian Universalism is a commitment to envision a world in
which the Principles have become true, to envision it so intensely and in such
detail that it becomes a genuine possibility, and to join with others in making
that possibility real. That’s how the
Seven Principles turn into a challenging spiritual path. So, do I believe in the inherent worth and
dignity of every person? No. I am committed to envisioning it. Together with
others, I hope to imagine it so well, so convincingly, and so beautifully that
the vision becomes viral and takes over the world.
“That’s much harder than just
believing the First Principle is true, because truths can take care of
themselves. The difficulty of our task is why Unitarian Universalists need each
other. If the point of Unitarian Universalism were just to believe the Principles,
I could do that on my own. But the path of not believing—or believing that the
First Principle is not true yet—is more challenging. I can’t do it by myself.
If I’m trying to envision the Principles into existence, then I need my
congregation and all the other congregations and all the help they can
muster. So what do Unitarian
Universalists believe? We’re not committed to beliefs, we’re committed to
visions. That’s much harder.” [End quote]
So, looking more specifically at our first principle, we as
Unitarian Universalists we “covenant to affirm and promote the inherent worth
and dignity of every person.” According
to Merriam-Webster, “inherent” can
be defined as “belonging to the basic nature of someone or something,”
“involved in the constitution or essential character of something,” or
“belonging by nature or habit.” The definitions of “worth” include “the value of something measured by its qualities or
by the esteem in which it is held,” “moral or personal value,” or “usefulness
or importance.” Finally, “dignity”
is defined as “the quality of being worthy of honor or respect.” Putting all of these terms together, the
first principle, to me, means consistently and deliberately recognizing and
promoting the importance and value that is essential to each person’s very
being. According to our first principle,
each person is unconditionally worthy of honor and respect. Building off Muder’s assertion, this may not
be true in our world yet, but we are envisioning a world in which all people
are treated with unconditional honor and respect. That is, indeed, much more challenging than
just believing that it should be the
case.
Even this can potentially be a struggle for some of us when
we encounter stories of crime, racism, terrorism, or even just a difficult
co-worker. How do we reconcile the
inherent worth and dignity of people with their sometimes careless, hurtful, or
downright tragic actions? How do we
treat people with respect, honor, and compassion, when we don’t feel they are
offering the same treatment to others? To
skip ahead a bit, I’ll tell you now that I don’t know the answers to these
questions, and I struggle with thoughts like these. When challenged by a person I can’t seem to
understand or with whom I cannot find common ground, I want to make a greater
effort to treat that person with kindness.
I try to remind myself of the quote, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is
fighting a battle you know nothing about.”
By acknowledging that every person is complex and that any number of
factors can contribute to his or her beliefs or behavior, it is slightly easier
to remember their inherent worth and dignity.
Beyond this, how can we commit to building a world in which this is,
undeniably, the case? I don’t know, but
I feel that in coming to our services here and reading more about UUism, I feel
closer to that reality.
Finally, part of honoring every person’s inherent worth and
dignity must be applied to the ways in which we perceive ourselves. On the UUA website, a downloadable cell phone
wallpaper reads, “Remember your inherent worth & dignity.” I love this message. Sometimes, we are our own worst enemies and
critics, and UUs who may be extremely forgiving and compassionate toward others
may put themselves down or be too hard on themselves. In addition to treating others with respect,
it is arguably more important to consciously remember and reinforce our
self-respect.
As I think about raising my own daughter, who will be
arriving in just two months, I remind myself of the messages I want to teach
her. I want her to be self-confident,
curious, open-minded, and compassionate.
I hope that she learns to treat herself kindly, which has not always
been easy for me to do for myself. I
also hope that she treats others with respect and kindness, no matter their
gender, race, ethnicity, age, or background.
And I hope that she doesn’t just nod along in agreement to the first
principle, but that she strives to contribute to the building of a community
based on that vision of each person’s inherent worth and dignity.
