the hurdle
I was reading an article by Robert Bellah called "Unitarian Universalism in Societal Perspective" delivered at the UU general assembly in 1998. (http://www.robertbellah.com/lectures_7.htm)
He places UUism squarely in the mainstream of the American religion tradition, primarily by discussing how it is principally in line with America's cultural bias of individualism.
I find this argument compelling and I agree with the analysis, but for me it has highlighted what I believe to the the biggest hurdle standing between where we are and where we are headed (as a species).
Before I attempt to articulate the hurdle, another example: in the fouth season of the West Wing. The President is faced with a genocide in the fictional African nation of Kundu and asks one of his staffers, "Why is an American life worth more than a Kundunese one?" The staffer responds, "I don't know sir, it just is." The power of this dialogue, for me, is the clear acknowledgement of the fallacy that we continue to treat as real: that the members of our group are worth more than the non-members.
We don't have to look far to see how entrenched this fallacy is, for example the fact that civil liberties are only for citizens and that their formulation has no impact on the execution of our foreign policy. I would argue, however, that we would have to look very far to find any reasonable people who would argue that it is not a fallacy.
So, this isn't news. That all men and women are created equal. That we are all gods children. That the things that seperate us (creed, color, national origin, socioeconomic status, religion, etc.) pale in comparison to the things that unite us (humanity, our shared home on this planet, our shared history and future as a species, the blessing of our being alive and sentient).
So, what is the nature of the hurdle? In the case of UU's, I would argue that they have (at least attempted) to shed the bonds of creed, the bonds of traditional religiousity, and the bonds of the identity politics of group membership. It is therefore only the thin veil of radical individualism which separates them from directly witnessing the truth of radical human communitarianism.
The hurdle is this: acknowledging this truth and attempting to live up requires...
*interlude*
I am tempted to scrap this whole posting... I don't know what it requires, it requires faith, it requires us to trust in the humanity of our brothers and sisters, and in a world where reports of violence and hate and genocide are all over our television sets...
I don't know how we start loving Iraqi children as much as we love our own children, even learning to love them as much as we love American children or Christian children or our neighbor's children or our friends' children would be a start. I do know that these percieved differences in love are a part of the illusions of samsara that keep us prisoners in our own suffering.
thats all i can muster today...
He places UUism squarely in the mainstream of the American religion tradition, primarily by discussing how it is principally in line with America's cultural bias of individualism.
I find this argument compelling and I agree with the analysis, but for me it has highlighted what I believe to the the biggest hurdle standing between where we are and where we are headed (as a species).
Before I attempt to articulate the hurdle, another example: in the fouth season of the West Wing. The President is faced with a genocide in the fictional African nation of Kundu and asks one of his staffers, "Why is an American life worth more than a Kundunese one?" The staffer responds, "I don't know sir, it just is." The power of this dialogue, for me, is the clear acknowledgement of the fallacy that we continue to treat as real: that the members of our group are worth more than the non-members.
We don't have to look far to see how entrenched this fallacy is, for example the fact that civil liberties are only for citizens and that their formulation has no impact on the execution of our foreign policy. I would argue, however, that we would have to look very far to find any reasonable people who would argue that it is not a fallacy.
So, this isn't news. That all men and women are created equal. That we are all gods children. That the things that seperate us (creed, color, national origin, socioeconomic status, religion, etc.) pale in comparison to the things that unite us (humanity, our shared home on this planet, our shared history and future as a species, the blessing of our being alive and sentient).
So, what is the nature of the hurdle? In the case of UU's, I would argue that they have (at least attempted) to shed the bonds of creed, the bonds of traditional religiousity, and the bonds of the identity politics of group membership. It is therefore only the thin veil of radical individualism which separates them from directly witnessing the truth of radical human communitarianism.
The hurdle is this: acknowledging this truth and attempting to live up requires...
*interlude*
I am tempted to scrap this whole posting... I don't know what it requires, it requires faith, it requires us to trust in the humanity of our brothers and sisters, and in a world where reports of violence and hate and genocide are all over our television sets...
I don't know how we start loving Iraqi children as much as we love our own children, even learning to love them as much as we love American children or Christian children or our neighbor's children or our friends' children would be a start. I do know that these percieved differences in love are a part of the illusions of samsara that keep us prisoners in our own suffering.
thats all i can muster today...
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