#146 | Sabrina Louise | Cannot Have Interdependence withouth Equity and Justice

2023 Article II Amendment Idea Submissions Amendment Ideas
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Submission 146
Sabrina Louise
First Unitarian Church of Portland

What is your suggestion or idea?

Original revision following Jun 2022 comments:

Interdependence. We honor the sacred interdependent web of all existence.

With humility we understand our place in the web. We covenant to care
for and respect the earth and all beings by fostering relationships of
mutuality. We work to repair the bonds we have broken.

Current revision following Jan 2023 UUA Board meeting:

Interdependence. We honor the sacred interdependent web of all existence.

We covenant to cherish Earth and all beings by creating
relationships of care and respect. With humility and reverence, we
acknowledge our place in the great web of life, and we work to repair
harm and damaged relationships.

Proposed revision as of 4/13/23:
Interdependence. We honor the sacred interdependent web of all existence. We covenant to care for and respect Earth and all beings by fostering relationships of mutuality, equity and justice. We work to repair harm, and the bonds we have broken.

What is the reason for your amendment idea?

Proposed revision as of 4/13/23:
Interdependence.
We honor the sacred interdependent web of all existence. We covenant to
care for and respect Earth and all beings by fostering relationships of
mutuality, equity and justice. We work to repair harm, and the bonds we
have broken.

The language was weakened in the most recent revision. As the Rev. Dr. Sofia Betancourt stated in last night’s 8th Principle Community event, you cannot have interdependence without equity and justice, just as you cannot ““cherish Earth and all beings””, without equity and justice.

Have you discussed this idea with your congregation or other UUs?

Board, staff and constituents of the UU Animal Ministry, and the UU Ministry for Earth.

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I liked that the “relationships of mutuality” invoked Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s words, " Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." To me, hearing the echo of the Rev. Dr. King’s words gave it greater resonance.

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I like this restatement. I suggest “harm humans have done and the bonds we have broken.”

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Hi Cindy
I think this proposal keeps the phrase “relationships of mutuality.”
We honor the sacred interdependent web of all existence. We covenant to
care for and respect Earth and all beings by fostering relationships of
mutuality, equity and justice. We work to repair harm, and the bonds we
have broken.
But maybe it doesn’t stand out as much.
cheers - Janet

5

Yes, the proposal makes it stand out more (as did the earlier version) and I’m in favor of that part of this proposal for the reason I was saying.

6

Ideally, I would like to see this value reworked completely. There is so much emphasis already on interdependence, community, covenants, working together etc. in the Revisions as a whole that it is, in my opinion, overkill to have a whole value devoted to it.

On the other hand, I believe we need a value that takes our dependence on (not interdependence with, but dependence on) the biosphere seriously. This value would acknowledge that harms to the environment that can never be repaired and at the same time would have us commit to patiently, intelligently, and creatively starting from where we are now and building communities which interact with the natural world in a more sustainable, balanced manner.

It would place ecology-mindedness front and center and help us “get real” about necessary trade-offs and conflicts. Unfortunately, lifting millions in the third world out of poverty will probably not help with climate change, but will do the opposite. (I mention this because I saw ending poverty world-wide as part of a UUA climate justice program.)

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Janet, I share your perspective that this value should be reworked and we should have a value focused on the biosphere/environment. Because it is so important. The current 7th principle, if you read the essay in “The Seven Principles in Word and Worship” is intended to have a more general meaning. It includes respect for the biosphere and environment, but also has a focus on the importance of community and the sense of belonging to something greater than yourself individually. I think those concepts should be broken out in a separate value. I don’t have any proposal to offer on that, but I’ve put together a proposal for a value focused on the environment and biosphere. I’ve included a “background” comprised of my thoughts and rationale on this. Here is my proposal:

Interdependence. We covenant to protect and revere the interdependent web of life on Earth.

We recognize and affirm that the Earth’s lifeforms, inanimate resources, and the myriad interactions and relationships between them form an interdependent web of existence, which encompasses an interdependent web of life. We covenant to understand and acknowledge humanities dependence on this interdependent web of life, the impact of human activity on it, and the harm human activity has caused to it. We covenant to work to protect its’ abundance, sustainability, adaptability and resilience, and to work to repair it when damaged.

The same, with some explanatory comments:

Interdependence. We covenant to protect and revere the interdependent web of life on Earth.

We recognize and affirm that the Earth’s lifeforms, inanimate resources, and the myriad interactions and relationships between them form an interdependent web of existence, which encompasses an interdependent web of life. *(This is “definitional” and in part educational. It may be unnecessary for many people, but I think it is important to set the background and I wanted to be clear what is meant by the interdependent web of existence and the interdependent web of life. The value focuses on the interdependent web of life, because that is what we are so severely damaging. *) We covenant to understand and acknowledge humanities dependence on this interdependent web of life, the impact of human activity on it, and the harm human activity has caused to it. (I included this because I think it is so, so important to work to understand our dependence and impact on the biosphere.) We covenant to work to protect its’ abundance, sustainability, adaptability and resilience, and to work to repair it when damaged.

Here is the background including my views and rationale -

  1. Life on our planet Earth can be characterized as a global ecosystem, or biosphere. It is a global interdependent web involving all organisms. And there is not only interaction of living organisms with other living organisms, but also interaction with inanimate resources, e.g., minerals, water, air, etc… So, the Earth’s lifeforms, inanimate resources and the myriad interactions and relationships between them can be considered to form an interdependent web of existence.

  2. The interdependent web of life on Earth is amazing, great, and wonderful in its’ complexity, resiliency, abundance, vitality, beauty and longevity. It is truly awesome. Because of this, and because we are so, so dependent on it, it deserves that we hold it in deep respect (reverence) and awe.

  3. Within this interdependent web of existence, there exists a very large set of complex relationships between its components. Relationships of many different types, running the spectrum from fiercely antagonistic, to neutral, to cooperative.

  4. There are innumerable repeatable patterns of activity of innumerable types in the global ecosystem. Birds build nests in the same way each year, most species feed on the same food year over year, deciduous trees renew themselves each spring. But there is also change. Change from weather variations from year to year, migration of species to new locales, evolution of species, population cycles from disease, etc… From a long-term perspective, the historical state is not of perfect balance and equilibrium. Equally as prominent is the pattern of constant change it is undergoing, and historically has undergone.

  5. The interdependent web of life on Earth has a high degree of adaptability, renewability and resilience because of factors such as biodiversity, the adaptability of individual species, natural selection and evolution. It has the ability to change over time, and thrive.

  6. But human activity has, in many instances, overwhelmed this adaptability, renewability and resilience. The type, rate and magnitude of changes we have made in the environment are unprecedented. (1) Alteration of the atmosphere’s composition and the resultant global warming and all of it’s consequences including the accompanying rise in severe weather events, (2) decimation of forest and other plant cover and (3) pollution from mining and manufacturing,are three prominent examples. And so human activity has adversely affected it’s abundance, sustainability, adaptability and resiliancy. It has caused negative impacts on local ecosystems, including species loss and death at the individual and ecosystem level at a magnitude rarely experienced in the Earth’s history.

  7. For the reasons in the paragraph directly above, it is imperative that we work to reduce humanities negative impacts on the environment and repair what we can. With the goal of restoring the biosphere’s abundance, sustainability, adaptability and resilience.

A couple of things that I have not included, which have surfaced in the forum entries:

a) Any explicit reference to respecting, cherishing, etc. “all beings”. I wanted to avoid implying that each and every being should have longevity. What is important is the biosphere and local ecosystems are healthy as a whole; that is the form of cherishing that is desirable. Death from predation, etc., is an integral part of a healthy biosphere.

b) I did not include any mention of justice. Others may disagree, but I consider justice as a concept which is applicable in the realm of human interactions. To be sure, climate change and other negative impacts of human activity tend to affect the more vulnerable in our society to a greater extent, and so that is an injustice. But, to me, this value should focus on maintaining a healthy interdependent web of life.

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Sabrina and all,

As to justice, as I understand it here it has a general meaning as well as a more particular meaning. The more general meaning relates to respecting the rights of nature, which is a whole field of philosophy involving the integrity of natural systems (e.g. promotion of clean water, clean air, etc.) as well as respect for the rights of animals in human care to be free from abusive treatment, neglect, etc. The more specific meaning relates to “environmental justice,” which is more human-centered in its focus, and involves people’s rights to be protected from environmental pollution, to live in and enjoy a clean and healthful environment, and to have environmental burdens distributed fairly across race, class, etc. BIPOC communities are disproportionately affected by environmental pollution and climate change, for example, and the movement for environmental justice works to rectify those disparities.

The following amendment has now been submitted. I hope that you and others in this conversation might be able to support it when it is posted here on discuss.uua.org.

John

Interdependence. We honor the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. With humility and reverence, we covenant to protect Earth and all beings from exploitation, creating and nurturing sustainable relationships of repair, mutuality and justice.

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