I am
the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the
house of bondage.
Thou
shalt have no other gods before me
We,
the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist
Association, covenant to affirm and promote:
The
inherent worth and dignity of every person;
Thou
shalt not make unto thee any graven image
Thou
shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain
Justice,
equity, and compassion in human relations
Remember
the Sabbath day, to keep it holy
Acceptance
of one another and encouragement to
spiritual growth in our congregations;
Honor
thy father and thy mother
A
free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
Thou
shalt not kill
The
right of conscience and the use of the democratic process
within our
congregations and
in society at large;
Thou
shalt not commit adultery
Thou
shalt not steal
Thou
shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor
The
goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice
for all;
Thou
shalt not covet anything
Respect
for the interdependent web of all existence of which
we are a part.
How do we make decisions about what
is right or wrong, moral decisions? We
certainly could base our decisions on black and white, concrete rules like the
Ten Commandments. Don’t murder, don’t
steal, don’t covet. Those sound pretty
definitive and kind of simple to understand.
But haven’t we all experienced that life is not that black and
white? Often it is more gray, requiring
a more sophisticated decision-making process, one that not only assesses the
facts, but also factors in our personal values and philosophies, perhaps even
our Unitarian Universalist Principles.
Decisions informed by questions like: “what is the greater good in this
particular situation”, “what’s the power differential of this system”, “who has
the greater need.”
Applying Unitarian Universalist
Principles in our daily interactions, choosing to have our actions be guided by
them can be complicated. Answers to
questions are not simple; doing what’s right, consistent with our values, is
sometimes inconvenient, bothersome, difficult, even risky. I, personally, because I am a Unitarian
Universalist, choose to make my way through the chocolate aisle more slowly and
deliberately, because I don’t want to buy chocolate that was harvested by child
slaves. I don’t eat at Chick-Fil-a
because the owners of this franchise use their money to oppose LGBTQ
causes. I try not to buy items made in
China because of the poor working conditions of their factories. And I put considerable time and energy into
building relationships with people of color, with people who are from other
cultures, and with people who are marginalized by our culture. Do I, at least a few times a day, ask myself
“is this choice consistent with my UU Principles” as I go about my day, well
actually I do. Am I always consistent in
living my Unitarian Universalist Principle?
Well, as Sam Trumbore writes in our opening words, “Were perfection
required to be good all human existence would be a living hell.”
Each of you, I believe, make your
own choices in living out your morals and beliefs, or embodying our Unitarian
Universalist Principles. As you reflect
on our Principles, one thing you might notice is they are not as black and
white as the Ten Commandments. Captain
Barbossa in one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies said, “the [Pirate’s]
code is more what you’d call ‘guidelines’ than actual rules.” That’s how I see
our Unitarian Universalist Principles as more guidelines than actual
rules. We affirm and promote the goal of
world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all. We affirm and promote the inherent worth and
dignity of every person. Lofty ideals,
admirable goals, now, what does it really look like? Exactly? The point I want to make here is
that it could take a lifetime of discernment to decide what those Principles
mean to you and how you personally can live them out in your life. However I think sometimes that discernment
can be so captivating that we have to be careful not to become its captive, exploring,
considering, thinking too much about our Principles, that when we eventually
act on them our actions can be somewhat blunted and diffused.
Here
is an excerpt from a recent article on how video games are now considering how
to introduce morality into gaming:

Morality
is not a black-and-white concept. Reality is very seldom as simple as a choice
between good and evil; the spectrum of moral behaviors is as complicated and
consequential as our emotions. Instead of mirroring this complexity and
including moral choices that lead to genuine in-game consequences, video games
often do the opposite--they present a watered-down version of moral choice that
ultimately results in players having to choose between good or evil: to harvest
or not to harvest (BioShock), to be “paragon” or “renegade” (Mass Effect), to
kill innocents or to save them (inFamous), to have a halo or devil horns (Fable
II).
In a
nutshell, morality refers to the codes of conduct that form the backbone of a
society. Generally, morality is concerned with how people should behave rather
than how they do behave. Morality can change over time and take on new meaning
as people and environments evolve--for example, slavery was once accepted as
morally permissible, whereas now it is accepted that enslaving another human
being is immoral. In philosophy, morality and ethics go hand in hand: morality
pertains to certain rules and codes of conduct while ethics pertains to the
application of these rules in society.” (Gamespot, Published by Laura Parker on
November 24, 2009)
How
many of you know what Call of Duty, Bioshock, Mass Effect, inFamous, and Fable
II are? Please raise your hands. For those of you who don’t, please talk to
those people after the service. So, I
want to explore this: “Morality pertains
to certain rules and codes of conduct while ethics pertains to the application
of these rules in society.” As members of this church, we’re like the game
makers. Individually and as a community
we have to develop rules, or codes of conduct, that offers a frame of reference
for moral decision-making as we live out our Principles in the wider
community. Living our values daily,
applying our Principles in society, becomes our Ethical Perspective.


I talked about this Wrought faith
model with the members of the Conscious Aging group on Thursday night and some
of them said this system speaks to them.
We were discussing what age the group members felt they were, mentally,
physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Some said they felt very young spirituality. They had just begun their spiritual journey,
their Wrought faith, only since they came here to this church or since finding
Unitarian Universalism. It is only now
that they are searching, struggling, discussing, discerning what their faith
is, both individually and in community.
Most of us consider our individual
morality, but we are also part of a faith community and thus are called upon to
reflect on our communal morals and ethics.
How are we going to live our communal morals and beliefs in the
world? One way is to decide communally
what moral statements we all agree on.
We have done this by twice in this church on two issues: Marital
equality and women’s reproductive choice.
These are issues members of this church can say that DuPage Unitarian
Universalist Church supports.
Another
way is making decisions to choose where our energy and resources should be
spent. We decided two years ago on a
social justice initiative: racial equity
and restorative justice. We want to make
a difference in this city and state in these areas through our actions. We cannot do everything, but we can do
something. So as a community, we have a
vision, a dream for a future with increased racial equity and with a justice
system that helps those who are incarcerated change their lives, so they can
return to our community with hope, with a job, with a support system. Your leadership and your social justice
committee ask things like “how are our resources supporting this dream, our
social justice initiative”, “what actions can we start making to make this
dream a reality”, “what will we pass on to those who come after us to continue
making this dream a reality”. We are
also considering what gifts people have and what each person is willing to do
to support this dream. Some people in
this church want to mentor disadvantaged and discriminated against youth. Some people in this church want to lobby for
laws to rid prisons of solitary confinement.
Some people in this church want to write letters to incarcerated people
to give them hope, to help them explore their spirituality, to offer a
connection to at least one person on the outside, a positive relationship that
might impact their future. As the Buddha
said: “Drop by drop is the water pot filled.
Likewise, the wise [one], gathering it little by little, fills up with
good.”
This
initiative is part of our communal Wrought faith, our communal morals and
ethics. We will continue to reflect on,
discuss, and figure out what works to live out this initiative today. And over time we will continue to reflect on,
change, adapt, find new ways that work—strengthening the effect of this
initiative. We might even reach a point
where we decide to change our social justice initiative. This is what people of a Wrought faith do.
My friends this is your covenanted
community to develop your Wrought faith; nothing is off limits for us to talk
about; all our faiths are Wrought faiths; all our faiths benefit from personal
reflection, strengthening, and community support. And as a community, we need a communal
Wrought faith to make our dreams for a better world come true, drop by
drop. We do not and will not have static
faiths here—individually or communally, we change, the world changes. We must be willing to explore, new and
different beliefs, new and different moral codes, always willing to find the
beliefs or codes that strengthen us and have a positive impact on our world.
That was such a nice and informative read. I must say, you have really amazing writing skills. Keep up the good work friend and good luck.
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