Submission 93
Lee Baldwin
UUCCWC
What is your suggestion or idea?
In the Article II report, Dr. Cornel West is quoted that “justice is what love looks like in public.”
This reads like, “Work is love made visible,” from poet Kahlil Gibran.
The proposal’s language includes this: ““Our commitment to personal, institutional and cultural change rooted in anti-oppression, anti-racism, and multiculturalism values and practices is love in action, and should be centered in any revision of Article II.””
This alone carries powerful meaning, and creates a sensational mission statement in few words.
I feel strongly that love cannot be taught or measured, and that no one can be held accountable for how much or how well they love. Each of us feels they somehow ““own”” love, and understands it well. However, love comes with a great deal of baggage and cannot convey a solid foundation of meaning for the most people.
We cannot dictate love any more than we can tell people not to hate.
I aver that the emotional center of justice is love, but that love alone is unwieldy.
Justice is much different. The teachability of justice is a matter of fact and accountability is easy to assess through the law.
But justice is the most broken thing in America today. It is at the center of a racially skewed legal system, and on it rests the uneven application of punishments across demographic and economic classes.
I feel it more reasonable for love to be centered in the revised bylaws in the form of ""love in action” as a base for the urgency of Justice.
In this aspect, I feel that the charging document is too specific about placing ““love”” at the center. If not for that element of the charge, would the Committee have centered on love in the way it has?
Thank you for your kind attention.
What is the reason for your amendment idea?
That should be clear from my post. Thank you.
Have you discussed this idea with your congregation or other UUs?
Yes. The jury is out.