Great blessings and great harms may emerge from religious teachings. How might one assess a religion’s value? Methodist minister Howard Clinebell suggested posing several questions. He asked whether the particular religious thought and practice: Builds bridges or barriers between people? Strengthens or weakens basic trust in the universe? Stimulates or hampers inner freedom and personal … Continue reading Test of a Healthy Religion [#44]
Unitarian Universalists prefer that personal experiences, rather than scriptural texts, determine one’s core values. One prominent example is Dr. George de Benneville (1703-1793), a physician and friend of Benjamin Franklin, who brought Universalism to America. George was raised by his godmother, Queen Anne of England. His parents were French aristocrats, who fled to England’s Royal Court … Continue reading First UU Teacher in America [#43]
Unitarian Universalists honor freedom and individuality. Yet they recognize that their autonomy has limits, expressed in the seventh, and most basic, principle of their faith: “Respect for the Interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.” This “web of all existence” is hard to define. Some call it the spirit of life, … Continue reading The Web of Existence [#42]
The second U word in the Sedona Unitarian Universalist Fellowship explains the group’s sixth (out of seven) basic principles. “Universalism” has the “goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.” Unlike some traditional religions, UUs’ ethical responsibility is not to guide a particular faith group into Heaven, but to contribute to bringing … Continue reading UU and the World Community [#41]
A unique element of Unitarian Universalism (UU) is viewing democracy not only as a political value, but as a religious value, as well. Their fifth of their seven core principles is “The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large.” In other words, although UUs … Continue reading UU and Democracy [#40]
A basic Unitarian principle (the fourth of seven) is to engage in “a free and responsible search for truth and meaning.” The Sedona Unitarian Universalist Fellowship’s members cherish their freedom of thought, unconstrained by church or state. But freedom’s not the whole story. They know responsibility completes freedom. Theirs is a freedom for—first of all, for … Continue reading Freedom and Discipline [#39]
While Unitarians value their individuality, they also treasure their relationships with each other. They realize no one is an atomized unit, and they quip, “It’s impossible to be a Unitarian by oneself.” In fact, the third principle (of seven) underlying Unitarian Universalism is “Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations.” … Continue reading Collaboration at UU [#38]
While Sedona Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (SUUF) members value individuality and respect everyone’s inherent worth and uniqueness, they also recognize their membership in and interdependence with their wider community. The Unitarian tradition certainly has a vertical dimension, a connection with Ultimate Reality. However, it also gives great importance to the horizontal dimension, how we deal with … Continue reading Human Relations at UU [#37]
Individual members of the Sedona Unitarian Universalist Fellowship believe in their own deeply held “credo.” They aren’t expected to adopt a common “creed.” A credo is a personal philosophy that completes sentence stems like: “I believe…” or “I value…” In contrast, a creed is an official doctrine, created long ago by professional theologians, that is … Continue reading We Have a Credo, Not a Creed [#36]
Unitarians believe in the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Recently, a Sedona Unitarian Universalist Fellowship member shared this related story, originally told by Rama-Krishna, a 19th century Hindu mystic: Tapobana was a spiritual master, who employed a devoted, hard-working disciple to assist him. Tapobana valued the disciple’s caring service, but thought him rather stupid. One … Continue reading Our View of Human Nature [#35]
