Guest Post by Kathy Stevenson

In today’s Weekly Update you will find an invitation and sign up for a meeting about “Article 2: Our Principles, Values, and Purpose”. This blog is a historical perspective related to the current proposed draft of Article 2.

Introduction: I have been asked why the Article 2 Commission chose to remove the structure of the 7 Principles in their current draft proposal. This is my understanding of the evolution. I am not an expert, these are my own thoughts, interspersed with quotes from UUA articles and experiences. I have tried to be concise, but there is much history to include.

I have heard this statement several times: “UUA is taking away the 7 Principles.” For the Article 2 Commission, it isn’t a question of ‘taking away the 7 Principles.’ It is an attempt to put into words the growth and understanding of what we have learned in the last decades in this fast-changing society our religion is a part of. We are a living tradition, and the 7 Principles are not a creed. They are beautiful religious statements for a religion that vows not to be stagnant. The Article 2 Commission, with input from thousands of UUs, has presented us with a proposal with words that they have heard from UUs that many think ground us in UUism today and in the years to come. Does the proposed draft better define our UU values? It is up to each of us to explore the draft and have discussions about it. It is the spiritual work we are asked to do. The Article 2 Commission also asks us to consider these ‘three reading rules’:

1. First reading: Observe how this makes you feel.

2. Second reading: Observe what this makes you think.

3. Third reading: What responses or suggestions do you have for us?

You can find the current draft here.

History of the Principles: The 7 Unitarian Universalist Principles as we know them, were not chiseled in stone in ancient times. They are not a creed that people must adhere to if they want to be a Unitarian Universalist. They are statements we ‘covenant to affirm and promote.’ They did emerge from hundreds of years of liberal thought and ways to live in society, but they are not cast in stone.

Until the early 1960s there were two separate religions, Unitarianism and Universalism. They both had a rich liberal history within Protestant Christianity, and because they held many beliefs in common, they chose to merge. In 1961 the religion of Unitarian Universalism was born. At the time of the merger, there were Six Principles that were approved. Some of the language would be familiar to us today: ‘free and disciplined search for truth’, ‘the supreme worth of every personality,’ ’the use of the democratic method.’ Yet some of the language used then would make us cringe today. For example: ‘To encourage cooperation with men of good will in every land.’ ‘Affirm the Judeo-Christian heritage as love to God and love to man.’

In the 1970s, the UU Women’s Federation, finding the male-centric language inappropriate, began a multi-year effort to update the Principles. The 7 Principles we now have were adopted as part of Article 2 at the UUA General Assembly in 1985.  The 7^th Principle was added to recognize our deeper awareness of environmental issues. At that time, a bylaw requirement was included to ensure that Article 2 is reviewed every 15 years.

Ours is a living tradition. That means it changes. As we grow and learn and deepen our understanding of our place on this earth, our religion changes.

Racial Justice History, the Civil Rights Movement and UUs,  the 1960s: Unitarians, Universalists, and Unitarian Universalists have often been in the forefront of social and environmental justice. We have been leaders in the abolition movement, women’s rights, immigration reform, reproductive rights, anti-war, marriage equality, and more.  Yet when it came to racial justice we stepped up in the Civil Rights Movement, but then stepped back, causing many Black UUs to leave the faith. In 1966, Dr King delivered a speech to the General Assembly of UUs titled, “Don’t Sleep Through the Revolution.” It is pertinent today.

He said, “One of the great misfortunes of history is that all too many individuals and institutions find themselves in a great period of change and yet fail to achieve the new attitudes and outlooks that the new situation demands. There is nothing more tragic than to sleep through a revolution. And there can be no gainsaying of the fact that a social revolution is taking place in our world today. We see it in other nations in the demise of colonialism. We see it in our own nation, in the struggle against racial segregation and discrimination. And as we notice this struggle, we are aware of the fact that a social revolution is taking place in our midst. Victor Hugo once said that there is nothing more powerful in all the world than an idea whose time has come. The idea whose time has come today is the idea of freedom and human dignity, and so all over the world we see something of a freedom explosion, and this reveals to us that we are in the midst of revolutionary times. An older order is passing away and a new order is coming into being.

“The great question is, what do we do when we find ourselves in such a period? Certainly, the church has a great responsibility because when the church is true to its nature, it stands as a moral guardian of the community and of society. It has always been the role of the church to broaden horizons, to challenge the status quo, and to question and break mores if necessary. I’m sure that we all agree that the church has a major role to play in this period of social change. I would like to suggest some of the things that the church must continually do in order to remain awake through this revolution.”

~ Martin Luther King, Jr. from his 1966 Ware Lecture

But after engagement with Dr King’s movement, from 1967-1971 UUs stumbled badly over racial justice work.

This is what Jeanette Hopkins said in a 2015 UU World article, about what she considers the grea tragedy of that controversy:

“Obviously there was total racial injustice in our country, and still is. But we, who ought to have been the most sophisticated on matters related to racial justice, instead took a position that was both naïve and cynical. We were patronizing and paternalistic, betraying the blacks who had all along been members of our churches. They were treated like dirt, and that’s part of the reason we have never done what we should have to integrate our churches.

“The sore is still there and has never been lanced. As a denomination, we did not live up to our great tradition. We, who should have been a model in the fight against racial injustice, instead spent our energies fighting among ourselves.”

Black UUs left in droves, including The Rev. William Sinkford who received the Award for Distinguished Service to the Cause of Unitarian Universalism at General Assembly 2022.  “We are grateful he and others returned, giving this faith another chance.”

By 1997 momentum, was building to once again address racial justice work as UUs. That year a Business Resolution was passed titled: Toward an Anti-Racist Unitarian Universalist Association. The years followed with workshops, initiatives, trainings, and deep study focusing on how to live the values stated in the Resolution, to create an Anti-Racist, Anti-Oppression, Multicultural institution (ARAOMC). Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) slowly found their way back  to Unitarian Universalism. Although still predominantly white, they resonated with the theology. Enough UUs had done work around antiracism, so more and more BIPOC people settled in.

Article 2

From the 2009 GA: “UUA bylaws state that the Purposes & Principles must be reviewed every 15 years. The last time changes were made was in the mid-80s. “The 15-year rule is there to ensure that nothing becomes accidentally creedal,” according to UUA moderator Gini Courter. The Commission on Appraisal explains their charge this way: “Those who instituted the bylaw mandating review every fifteen years clearly knew what they were doing. By 2006, when this review began, the world had changed, and Unitarian Universalism had changed. The Commission’s task has been to reflect these changes in ways that will sustain this Association of Congregations for at least the next fifteen years.”

The 2010 General Assembly did not pass the proposed revision of Article 2.

Current Racial Justice for UUs: In 2014, Michael Brown was murdered by police and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement surged. Some UUs embraced it, others prickled at it. Many congregations supported in actions such as hanging a BLM banner across their building. Congregants again were faced with addressing racial injustice. Many rose to it, many did not.

Our Statements of Conscience continued to be guideposts for our justice work. These statements begin in congregations, and grow by congregations agreeing to focus on the issue. Every 2 years they are voted on by the General Assembly.

• 2013 Immigration as a Moral Issue
• 2015 Reproductive Justice
• 2017 Escalating Economic Inequity
• 2019 Our Democracy Uncorrupted

People continued to experience UUism in whatever way they found most meaningful. Some engaged fully in social justice work. Others experienced UUism through worship, community, learning, spirit, personal growth. The UUA offered leadership and guidance in all these areas of our religious experiences.

But since 2017 a change had happened within UUism. In 2017, twenty years after the Resolution: Toward an Anti-Racist Unitarian Universalist Association, we awoke to the fact that 5 of the top staff members of the UUA were white men. This was when many realized that we were not living our values of ARAOMC. This is when the term White Supremacy Culture began to be explored within UUism. This is when some embraced the discomfort and new territory of understanding our white centric religion, and others did not. Some felt blamed for being white (and male), felt they were being called racist if they didn’t engage in the learning. Some felt defensive, because after all, they were good people, good liberal UUs.

Many UUs were learning about antiracism, a form of racial justice work that:

• Examines our place in white supremacy culture both personally and as UUs
• Acts on new understandings of systemic racism
• Centers marginalized voices – as an avenue to the first 2

As with the women’s movement, and caring for the Earth, it appeared racial equity needed focus within Unitarian Universalism.

By this time many BIPOC UUs were staying in the religion and successfully moving into leadership roles. The 2021 Statement of Conscience was passed by a 90% ‘yes’ vote of congregational delegates at the 2021 General Assembly:  Undoing Systemic White Supremacy: A Call to Prophetic Action.

From 2017 onward, there has been a sense of something missing from our Principles. A feeling that our principles spoke for any liberal minded person, but lacked grounding as a religious statement. That they didn’t speak to our desire to deepen our commitment to inclusion of people who aren’t older, white, economically advantaged, able-bodied, academically accomplished. The word ‘love’ was nowhere to be found in the principles. And they were all passive, not a hint of how to act on the principles. There was a feeling that the values the principles uphold are the heart of our religion, and those values needed to be spoken front and center. It was felt that we needed to clearly state what makes us a religion, rather than a social or political or justice club.

From the Fall 2020 Charge to Article II Study Commission:

“The Article II Study Commission is hereby charged to review Article II of the UUA Bylaws, and propose any revisions that will enable our UUA, our member congregations, and our covenanted communities to be a relevant and powerful force for spiritual and moral growth, healing, and justice. Proposed changes should articulate core UU theological values. The Board believes that one core theological value, shared widely among UUs, is love. The Commission on Appraisal, in its report “Engaging Our Theological Diversity” cites Robert Miller’s study of Unitarian Universalism, stating ‘UUs ranked loving as an instrumental value and mature love as a terminal value more highly than did respondents from other groups, religious and nonreligious.’ Dr. Cornel West says that ‘justice is what love looks like in public.’  Our commitment to personal, institutional and cultural change rooted in anti-oppression, anti-racism, and multiculturalism values and practices is love in action, and should be centered in any revision of Article II.

“The new Principles and Purposes should guide us in the transformation of ourselves, our communities and our faith into active networks of collective care, restoration, and justice. The Principles and Purposes you will prepare should be a living document that challenges Unitarian Universalists to place the liberation, in all its dimensions, of all, at the center of our lives. They should be honest about our past, name what we are facing, our aspirations, and where we hope to be not for just today, but looking out at the horizons. They should ask us to choose Love in Action as the path forward. Our commitment to anti-racism, anti-oppression, and multiculturalism is love in action, and should be centered in any revision of Article II. Finally, the Principles and Purposes should lead us into the second quarter of the 21st Century, while honoring the historic roots of our liberal, progressive faith.”

QUUF, along with many UU congregations around the country, are actively engaged in the examination of the current proposal for Article 2. We will continue to give feedback to the Commission when asked, and have open full conversations among congregants.

Our first two meetings,to discuss the Article 2 Draft will be:

• Dec 14,1:30-3:30pm in person
• Dec 15, 6:30-8:30pm on Zoom

See the Weekly Update for more details.