#59 | Kara Stebbins | Freedom of Belief

2023 Article II Amendment Idea Submissions Amendment Ideas
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Submission 59
Kara Stebbins
UUFMC (UU Fellowship of Madison County)

What is your suggestion or idea?

Section
C-2.1. Purposes.

The Unitarian Universalist Association will devote its resources to and use its
organizational powers for religious, educational, and humanitarian purposes.
Its primary purposes are to assist congregations in their vital ministries,
support and train leaders both lay and professional, to foster lifelong faith
formation, to heal historic injustices, and to advance our Unitarian
Universalist values in the world.

The purpose of the Unitarian Universalist Association is to actively foster freedom of belief and engage its members in the transformation of the world transforming life through liberating Love.

What is the reason for your amendment idea?

With this Amendment, I am trying
(1) to make “freedom of belief” more prominent/primary, (2) to remove an
objection to making UUA an activist organization for the world - to the
exclusion of its role in fostering “lifelong faith formation” for individuals (and
(3) to be poetic through alliteration).

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

I wrote this amendment in response to my congregation’s input while reviewing the Proposed Revision during our Sunday Service. Someone suggested that the Freedom of Belief Section should either be moved before the Purpose Section, or should be included and/or repeated in the Purpose Section. Also for me personally, the only reason I am a UU is because there is freedom of belief, so I can’t imagine not having that mentioned in the purposes.

Others objected to the idea that transformation of the WORLD was being made more primary than transformation of the INDIVIDUAL.

I later shared my suggested amendment with our congregational work group. There was general support and no objection.

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Yes. Freedom of belief is key. Transforming the world is unrealistic.

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I agree because the only thing you can transform is yourself, if that. If enough people do that, then the world may be transformed.

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Also, freedom of belief is what makes us unique? almost unique? among religions. It is a key part of our identity and hence needs more emphasis.

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I’m responding to my own post to ask folks to please respond about whether or not you would support this as an Amendment if I revise it a little. I want to get a sense of which Amendment I should focus on.

On the one hand, my Values and Covenants Section in #486 seems to have some support. On the other hand, the issue of Freedom of Belief is so central to UU (at least for me), that I want to see whether others might support it if I revise it a little - or maybe you have ideas of how to change it so you would support it?

I think freedom of belief is what makes UU unique! Even though there’s a whole Section on freedom of belief, I think it’s important to mention it in the FIRST Section about our PURPOSE. And even though I believe in “deeds not creeds,” I don’t want us to be an activist organization - because it feels like it means all agreeing on the same actions or the same priorities. Freedom of belief comes FIRST, then we use our individual conscience to transform our beliefs into our own individually chosen loving actions (and democratic votes).

So whether we start from the Current Purposes or the Proposed Revision, I want the final sentence to say: The Association fosters freedom of belief and actively supports its members to transform their beliefs into loving actions.

Here it is in the context of the Current Purposes Section:

Section C-2.1. Purposes. The Unitarian Universalist Association shall devote its resources to and exercise its organizational powers for religious, educational, and humanitarian purposes. The primary purpose of the Association is to serve the needs of its member congregations, organize new congregations, extend and strengthen Unitarian Universalist institutions and implement its principles. The Association fosters freedom of belief and actively supports its members to transform their beliefs into loving actions.

And here it is in the context of the Proposed Revision:

Section C-2.1. Purposes. The Unitarian Universalist Association will devote its resources to and use its organizational powers for religious, educational, and humanitarian purposes. Its primary purposes are to serve congregations in their vital ministries, to support and train leaders both lay and professional, to foster lifelong spiritual growth, to work to heal injustices, and to advance our Unitarian Universalist values in the world. The Association fosters freedom of belief and actively supports its members to transform their beliefs into loving actions.

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FYI, I will be submitting #59 as 1 or 2 official amendments my congregation is allowed.

FYI, my congregation will NOT be submitting #486.

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Hi Kara-
I oppose this proposal. I believe that we already have freedom of belief, plenty of it, and emphasizing it further does not serve us – quite the opposite. It emphasizes the individual at the expense of community and we need to shift the other way, from I to We. I believe this is a key ailment of our country as well as our churches. It’s all about me, my rights, my freedom. At this stage I feel quite strongly that we need to emphasize community-- church community, local community, world community.

I saw your other entry- #486. I’ll leave a note there.

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So many different perspectives!

I try to think about yin yang, “both and.”

I don’t know why I would be a UU without freedom of belief. I also value interdependence and coming together to act.

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Thank you, this is crucial so that we don’t open the door to a prescrbied path in how to live our values. We could probably all benefit from a little humility and respect divergent ways to reach shared goals.

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Would you consider adding “governed by democratic principles” as in post #62?

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Thanks Rayna.

I have already submitted the official version.

Also, I’m not sure I think “governed by democratic principles” belongs in the Purpose section. In my mind what is most distinctive about UU as a religion is freedom of belief. I do agree that in order to manage a religion defined by freedom of belief, you have to run things democratically!

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