Love is the core of Unitarian Universalism, as it is of other faith traditions. UUs are distinguished, however, by the space they put between their caring heart and their thoughts about it.  In other words, when UUs have a profound heart-opening experience, they separate what they emotionally feel from how they explain it.

Into that gap between feeling and thought, the UU faith leaves room for people to insert their own theological beliefs.  They might posit a psychological, a philosophical, an ethical, an evolutionary, a humanistic, a theological, a mystical, a panpsychic, or another kind of explanation.

Honoring this mental space for different beliefs is UU’s unique religious signature.  Love is their emotional common ground as a religious people, and so is their doctrinal freedom to make a personal explanatory claim about the source and meaning of their loving essence. They affirm a “non-creedal” religious tradition, which they call “loving beyond belief.”

Other religions tend not to allow for this mental space of doctrinal freedom that encourages diverse explanations regarding the cause of spiritual experiences.  UUs’ hearts are not restricted by belief.  They love beyond belief.

Their deeply felt personal experiences of open-heartedness and open-mindedness prompt UUs to work in the world for justice, equity, and freedom as moral agents.  They affirm human nature in positive terms, rather than condemn it as broken, sinful, or fallen from grace.

They nurture the redemptive capacity of the human heart to be transformed, for its own reasons. They pro-actively create human communities that encourage people to bond in ways that enhance their own wellbeing and that of the wider world.

[published Mar 24, 2023]