Peacebang on the Fourth Principle
Fellow blogger Peacebang, in a post called Fourth Principle: Free and Responsible Search For Truth and Meaning has a paragraph that paricularly struck me:It seems to me that UUs have yet to acknowledge the fact that while we have made it our "good news" to affirm and proclaim the essential harmony between world faith traditions, we have done so with little or no input or consultation with adherents of those faith traditions. We therefore operate on the assumption that religions "belong" to everyone and anyone who wants to claim them. I wish this was so, but it is not. Religions can only be responsibly understood in their time, place and cultural context. If we want to be a world religion religion, we must take the study of them far more seriously and make education in world religions a staple of our adult religious education offerings. I know that some congregations do this, but not many. Nor has the UUA provided curriculum to help with this knowledge deficit.Good question. For instance, how do Jews feel when UUs perform the non-Jewish equivalent of a Passover Seder (a Jewish ritual feast held on the first night of the Jewish holiday of Passover)? I'm not Jewish, but I've enjoyed the few times I've had a chance to be part of one. Do (at least some of) those who are Jewish think we're stealing one of their traditions and treating it lightly? I don't know.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 12:15 PM
1 Comments:
I'm not aware that we make an assumption that religions belong to everyone.
I think that assumption violates the first principle. It disrespects traditions of other by stealing what's not ours.
Further, spend only a few minutes in a new UU group, or at a UU coffee hour, and you'll here plenty on the shortcomings of all sorts of other religions.
My minister, Rev Lindsey Bates, delivered a sermon a few years ago that was pretty scathing about UUs -in decades past- who recreated Native American ceremonies. It's disrepectful to to mimic other's traditions.
Bahá'í's see Unity of God, Unity of religions, and Unity of mankind.
Unitarians past saw the Unity of God, but I don't think we all agree on that now because we covenant with those who only see God's absence.
I don't know if we've ever agreed on unity in religions or in mankind...
I don't see it in the seven principles as they stand now...
althoughsuch belief wouldn't be inconsistent with the principles; it's just hardly proclaimed there either...
The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.
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