Amendment 19 to Article II - Proposed by Bek Wheeler

General Assembly 2023 Prioritized Article II Amendments
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Bold underlining indicate insertion ; [brackets indicate deletion.]

40 Equity. We [declare that every person has the right to flourish with inherent dignity and

41 worthiness] affirm the inherent worth and dignity of each person.

42 We covenant [to use our time, wisdom, attention, and money] to defend, build, and sustain fully

43 accessible and inclusive communities. We work to create a just and peaceful world in which all can flourish.

(This is the final form of our amendment: Equity. We affirm the inherent worth and dignity of each person. We covenant to defend, build, and sustain fully accessible and inclusive communities. We work to create a just and peaceful world in which all can flourish.)

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This Amendment came from a large group from many congregations that met in the workshop. It was a great process I was proud to be part of. It adds a focus to the world around us to this important value.

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RATIONALE, Equity Amendment #19
Bek Wheeler, sponsor

Here, we make real our core commitment to Equity: “We affirm the inherent worth and dignity of each person.” Thus, we return ‘worthiness’ to ‘inherent worth.’ We understand that for some, the word ‘worth’ recalls that damnable time when human beings were assigned monetary value. Yet here, in our long-cherished UU context, we explicitly affirm the inherent worth and dignity of each person – what may be called the divine spark in all.

Then, to make Equity real, we commit to action: “We covenant to defend, build, and sustain fully accessible and inclusive communities.”

Finally, we extend our commitment outward: “We work to create a just and peaceful world in which all can flourish.” We collaborate, we work for equity for all.

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Here is our DELEGATE SUPPORT
For the Equity Amendment

1 Bek Wheeler Delegate, sponsor UU Fellowship of the Peninsula Newport News, VA

|2|Laurie Albright|Delegate|UU Congregation of Cleveland|Cleveland, OH|

|3|David Marshall|Delegate|BuxMont UU
Fellowship|Warrington, PA|

|4|Rev. Dr. Matthew Johnson|Delegate|The UU Church|Rockford, IL|

|5|Suzanne Zilber|Delegate|UU Congregation of Cleveland|Cleveland, OH|

|6|Rev. Alice Diebel|Delegate|UU Congregation of Petoskey|Petoskey, MI|

|7|Carolyn Chaney|Delegate|Live Oak UU Congregation|Goleta, CA|

|8|Alicia Burkle|Delegate|UU Congregation of Cleveland|Cleveland, OH|

|9|Patricia Solomon|Delegate|UU Congregation of Cleveland|Cleveland, Ohio|

|10|Michael Richardson|Delegate|UU Fellowship of the Peninsula|Newport News, VA|

|11|David Sheh|Delegate|Valley UU|Chandler AZ|

|12|Julie Welch|Delegate|Eno River UU Fellowship|Durham, NC|

|13|Bay Gaillard|Delegate|UU Church of Akron|Fairlawn, OH|

|14|Beth Eggers|Delegate|UUFRC|Redwood City, CA|

|15|Marianna Raymond|Delegate|UUFRC|Redwood City, CA|

|16|Howard Tolley|Delegate|UU Church of Tucson|Tucson, AZ|

|17|Russ Araujo|Delegate|Heritage Universalist Unitarian Church|Cincinnati, OH|

|18|Audrey McMullen|Delegate|UU Congregation of Petoskey|Petoskey, MI|

|19|Janet Leavens|Delegate|University UU Fellowship|Orlando, FL|

|20|Mac Goekler|Delegate|UUs of Southern Delaware|Lewes DE|

|21|Kathleen Adams|Delegate|UU Church of Long Beach|Long Beach, CA|

|22|Les Solomon|Delegate|Williamsburg UU|Williamsburg, VA|

|23|Janet Hemming|Delegate|UU Fellowship of the Rappahannock|White Stone, VA|

|24|Susan Moseley|Delegate|UU Fellowship of the Rappahannock|White Stone, VA|

|25|Mimi Gephart-Seeley|Delegate|UU Church of Long Beach|Long Beach, CA|

|26|Scott Steward|Delegate|UU Church of Davis|Davis, CA|

|27|Melissa Egbertson|Delegate|BuxMont UU Fellowship|Warrington, PA|

|28|Don Manning-Miller|Delegate|UU Congregation of Oxford|Oxford, MS|

|29|Cynthia Townsend|Delegate|Westside UU|Seattle, WA|

|30|Rick Holmgren|Delegate|UU Church of Meadville|Meadville, PA|

|31|Gena Wade|Delegate|UU Fellowship of Southern MD|Lexington Park, MD|

|32|Sally Jane Gellert|Delegate|Central Unitarian|Paramus, N.J.|

|33|Rev. Dr. Cynthia Landrum|Delegate|First Parish Church of Stow & Acton|Stow, MA|

|34|Jonathan Tweet|Delegate|University Unitarian|Seattle, WA|

|35|Deborah Johnson|Delegate|Durham UU Fellowship|Durham, NH|

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If we want to truly work to be antiracist/antioppressive we need to work toward equity. This statement highlights the actions. I support it!

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@LaurieJ @Cchaney @Betheggers @tolleyhb @Janet @MacG @Steward @CSTownsend @rholmgren

TEAM, our Equity Amendment has, as you now know, made the short list released Friday 6/17. (Only allows me to tag 10 names)

Please, I hope you will COMMENT now, here, on WHY you find the EQUITY AMENDMENT IMPORTANT.

Thank you Rev. Alice @diebela for your cogent and powerful statement on the centrality of this equity focus.

Let’s keep working and expressing all,

In community,
Bek Wheeler

(P.s. I am at a family reunion so less available this weekend). Ball to y’all…

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YES, yes, and yes again. Exactly, Rev. Alice @diebela

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In my view, inherent worth and dignity exists whether or not we declare it so. I believe our role as UUs is to affirm this strong and life sustaining statement. Then further, as a covenant, is to be active in the verbs: defend, build, and sustain what equity is: fully accessible and inclusive communities.

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For me as a delegate, “We declare that every person has the right to flourish with inherent dignity and worthiness” sound really weak- like something observed from the outside. We hope people flourish, because have a right to. Actively affirming EVERY person’s worth and dignity is a baseline from which our commitment to the action of building a just world sound credible.

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I love this amendment and fully support it. It promotes the value of equity with clarity and conviction!

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I find this version concise, powerful, readable, and memorable.

I also appreciate the way it progresses:

  • The first sentence affirms the foundational truth from which the value of equity, and the covenant to work for it, spring.
  • The second sentence declares the covenant with verbs that are strong and active, but also broad enough to make it clear that congregations and individuals freely choose where to put their weight in their work.
  • The third puts forward the vision of a world in which true equity is possible, and asserts our pledge to work for it.
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I like that this amendment includes the goal of peace concisely, making another amendment to add peace explicitely not necessary.

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Peace is a very important value to my congregation, and I very much like adding the sentence " We work to create a just and peaceful world in which all can flourish." I would support this amendment for that reason.

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As a delegate, I feel that if we are revising the principles, we need to state clearly and concisely what actions we are committed to take. The amendment focuses our attention on the covenant to defend, build, and sustain fully accessible and inclusive communities. We need to be able to tell the world what actions we are committed to taking
David Marshall

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The fact that great-grandparents of my friends were proclaimed to be worth some dollar figure makes maintaining the use of the word ‘worth’ seems hurtful. I know that’s not what you intend, but that’s how it feels.

And even now, most of the time in our society what we mean when we say that something has worth is a dollar figure.

Worthiness, on the other hand, is not quantifiable. The shift from ‘affirming the inherent worth’ of every person to ‘declaring the inherent worthiness’ of every person, seems to be both a simple and a necessary change.

However much it may be true in our long-cherished UU context that we explicitly affirm the inherent worth of each person – and that is not something we should be taking for granted, much less patting ourselves on the back for – our call as UU’s is to do more than that. Within and beyond our UU context, more than affirm, we must actively declare, i.e., advocate and fight for a world in which every person has the right to flourish with inherent dignity and worthiness because all too often, both within and beyond our UU context, that flourishing and even the right to flourish is denied.

I cannot support this amendment and urge those putting it forward to please reconsider.

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Thank you for that perspective. Is there some term that does not use “worth” as its basis that might work better for all of us, as both worth and worthiness have objectors? merit? goodness? value? Maybe just dignity?

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Hi Joe! Hope you are well.

Can you point me to a place - an article, etc - where this argument about “worth” is made? The article 2 convos are the first I’ve heard of this, and I’m extraordinarily connected to this literature and work. I’m open to being persuaded.

But, at first glace, I find it less than compelling. Most importantly, it seems to me that claiming “inherent worth” is an explicit counter to the oppressive/capitalistic ideology of variable worth. When we say each person has worth inherently, in the context of the value of equity, it seems to me that this would deny the proposition that a persons worth depends on their production. And using the same word seems to me more powerful than ceding the word.

I’ll also note that the word “worthiness” has three connotations when we do a quick search, only one of which is good – and the other two are real bad. The good one is Brene Brown, who uses it to say you are good enough. Another is “credit worthiness” - a concept opposite to what we are arguing.

But more troubling is the LDS doctrine – which argues that while “worth” belongs to each person, “worthiness” comes from your obedience to the church and God. It seems like if we want to appeal to ex-Mormons (which we do), we should steer clear of worthiness.

Again, if you have an article or post I’m open to learning. But we’ve used “worth” since 1961 in this section, and I think “inherent worth and dignity” remains a powerful anti-oppressive phrase. I could be wrong, so do post what you got.

In faith,
Matthew

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I had forgotten the idea of being credit-worthy and hence credit-worthiness; thanks!
A few random links based on a search for “inherent worth slavery”
Inherent Worth - Someone To Tell It To argues for the inherent worth of every individual
Slavery and the Dignity of Human Beings | Dr. Claude Mariottini – Professor of Old Testament search summary uses the phrase “inherent worth and dignity”
https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/2021/03/udhr.pdf The UN Declaration of Hman Rights includes in its first sentence “ inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights” and later in the preamble includes the phrase “ in the dignity and worth of the human person”

However, what we are hearing is our members saying that using the word “worth” applied to a person brings up negative associations, which we certainly do not want to do, so I think we really do need to find an alternative. I also think “worthiness” is not a good choice, as others here (including me) dislike it, and you have researched and found some substantial problems.

I went to a thesaurus, and found some synonyms, not necessarily idea, for both worth and worthinessl: merit, value, stature, significance

Unfortunately, inherent in the process of discussing worth, inherent or otherwise, ranking is in the background; maybe we should just stick with inherent dignity and equality?

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Sally, please remember that this amendment and its wording is the result of the work, thought, and discernment of many, many, MANY people. It was THE most commented on and viewed amendment in the Values/Covenant section over the April/May workshop arena.

Then, before submission June 1-5, as Rev. Matthew says: “This Amendment came from a large group from many congregations that met in the workshop. It was a great process [he] was proud to be part of.”

35 delegates from nearly as many congregations signed on in support.

Further quoting from Rev. Matthew: “ Most importantly, it seems to me that claiming “inherent worth” is an explicit counter to the oppressive/capitalistic ideology of variable worth. When we say each person has worth inherently, in the context of the value of equity, it seems to me that this would deny the proposition that a persons worth depends on their production. And using the same word seems to me more powerful than ceding the word.”

Finally, reference to ‘inherent worth and dignity’ of each person harkens back to language used longstandingly as UU ministers participated signally in the civil rights work in America in the 1950s and 1960s. Thus, the language of ‘inherent worth and dignity’ indexes our deep and long UU commitment to equity.

I am grateful the depth of our UU discernment…

In community

Bek

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I support this amendment for several reasons already mentioned here. I am particularly pleased that this amendment, like the Article II proposal for Equity, includes the word “flourish”. For me it brings the description closer to my hopes for equity.

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