#89 | Roland Siebeke | Replace "Love is" with "Dignity and Respect"

2023 Article II Amendment Idea Submissions Amendment Ideas
1

Submission 89
Roland Siebeke
EUU at Large

What is your suggestion or idea?

My humble suggestion is to replace the text “Love is … at the center of our shared
values” with “Dignity and respect are at the center of our shared values.”

What is the reason for your amendment idea?

“Love” is widely perceived as a central Christian value or injunction. With “love” as our central value we riska) to be perceived as "just another Christian sect"b) to weaken our umbrella role for non-Christian (Jewish, Buddhist, Confucianists, …) religious liberalsc) to abandon our “unique position among the world’s faiths” (Forrest Church).“Dignity” is a value mentioned in Art. 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations. In order not to limit our values to human beings, a complement of dignity should be “respect” to be extended towards human beings AND nature.

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

I will discuss this idea at the upcoming EUU retreat.

2

Love is living our shared values through action. We model Beloved Community through peace, compassion and dignity for all beings.

(To me, love is not a feeling, it is how we ACT. We can live according to our principles or values even when facing others who are behaving deplorably. We can choose to live with love, compassion, nonviolence even in the presence of hate, fear and violence.)