#358 | Beki Halpin | Change "accountable" to "support"

2023 Article II Amendment Idea Submissions Amendment Ideas
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Submission 358
Beki Halpin
First UU Church of Austin (Austin, TX) 7713

What is your suggestion or idea?

Section

C-2.2. Values and Covenant.
Replace accountable to one another with support one another

We
are accountable to support one another one another for in doing
the work of living our shared values through the spiritual discipline of Love.

What is the reason for your amendment idea?

Unitarian Universalism should not be a religion where members hold one another to account for how well they live their values.

I think most Unitarians join a UU church because of the freedom to follow their own individual conscience. Our current principles serve as aspirational glue, but no one is holding us accountable for whether or not we are sufficiently living up to the principles. I don’t think most Unitarians would welcome this. I think we all appreciate support on our path, however.

Also, holding one another accountable ““in doing the work of living our shared
values through the spiritual discipline of Love,”” smacks a bit of Christian piety where people are disciplined through ““love””.

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

Yes. In part in a meeting with our minister about the Article II update. Definite support for adding supporting one another.

I don’t think we discussed dropping ““accountable to one another””.

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I too am concerned about the accountability language, and that it infringes on our right to follow our own conscience. See post #245: perhaps "Love connects us to each other, and it keeps us accountable to our values.”