Amendment 19 to Article II - Proposed by Bek Wheeler

General Assembly 2023 Prioritized Article II Amendments
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Kara, pardon but is UUFMC the name of your fellowship? (UUFMC Board | Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Madison County). Seems so. Just checking.

And did you see the earlier replies to both these points about “worth” (Amendment 19 to Article II - Proposed by Bek Wheeler - #17 by uurockrev). And “defend” (Amendment 19 to Article II - Proposed by Bek Wheeler - #28 by BekWheeler)?

I would say that we don’t “go back to” the word “worth.” Instead, we affirm and own it in its own dignity of the divine spark in each person. Proudly so.

Thank you for articulating your position. This is a deeply meritorious process of discernment in which we are all engaging.

In community,
Bek

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On the subject of the term, “worth”: While I find myself significantly moved by statements that the actual experience of some people is one of harm, I’m also strongly persuaded by current and historic usage of the phrase “inherent worth” in civil rights and social equity contexts. Here are just a few quotations, selected from the many that can easily be found:

From: Shirley Chisholm, “Speech at Howard University,” American RadioWorks, April 21, 1969, http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/blackspeech/schisholm-2.html:
“We need a liberated and developing black community in America that once it has fully discovered it’s inherent worth and power, turns to the even greater task of protecting and enlarging upon it’s triumphs by further enriching an American culture that already has drawn so much from the black life stream.”

From: “Xernona Clayton on Civil Rights and the Power of Conversations,” on On Second Thought, by Virginia Prescott and Pria Mahadevan, Georgia Public Broadcasting, January 16, 2020, Xernona Clayton On Civil Rights And The Power Of Conversations | Georgia Public Broadcasting):
“The Reverend Dr. Bernice King, CEO of The King Center, says her father’s message of the ‘beloved community’ operates out of unconditional love, adding, ‘it’s not about who deserves anything…it’s about all human beings having this inherent worth and value.’”

From: Colonial Area Anti-Racism and Social Equity Alliance, FaceBook, April 23, 2021, https://www.facebook.com/CAARSEA/posts/george-floyd-was-murdered-at-the-hands-of-police-on-tuesday-his-murderer-was-fou/215330000352826/:
“George Floyd was murdered at the hands of police. On Tuesday, his murderer was found guilty. This accountability is a step in the right direction, but it’s just the beginning. True justice can only be realized when our policies, laws, and practices reflect the inherent worth and dignity of every human being”

From: Aswad Walker, “Top 7 Most Sanctified Moments in Black Church History.” Defender Network, February 9, 2022, https://defendernetwork.com/news/opinion/top-7-most-sanctified-moments-in-black-church-history/"
“… [R]isking their lives and well-being, …enslaved sisters and brothers began sneaking away on Sunday afternoons and evenings to go out to the forests and swamps and hold worship services of their own….These acts reflected the fact that even though we heard constant messages meant to blind us to our inherent worth and connection to God during those ‘massa-led’ services, we fought to reject that nonsense, and to nurture our own relationship with the Great I AM.”

From: Marissa Jackson Sow, “(Re)Building the Master’s House: Dismantling America’s Colonial Politics of Extraction and Exclusion,” in Michigan Law Review, April 2023, https://michiganlawreview.org/rebuilding-the-masters-house-dismantling-americas-colonial-politics-of-extraction-and-exclusion/:
“Understanding that race is neither a personal birthright nor a curse, but a designation reflecting a society’s arrangement of capital—that it reflects society’s decisions about how to delegate labor and resources and not a person’s inherent worth—is also personally empowering for anyone willing commit to antiracism.”

From the publisher’s description of Michael Phillips’ Wrong Lanes Have Right Turns: A Pardoned Man’s Escape from the School-to-Prison Pipeline and What We Can Do to Dismantle It, WaterBrook, 2022, https://waterbrookmultnomah.com/books/673913/wrong-lanes-have-right-turns-by-michael-phillips/:
“[Phillips] explores ways in which the readers can help advocate and provide resources for students, and points us to the one thing anyone can start doing, no matter who we are or what our role is: speak into young kids’ lives. Tell them of their inherent worth and purpose.”

From the publisher’s description of Colin Kaepernick’s I Color Myself Different, Scholastic, 2022, Errors | Scholastic Canada
“What young Colin does next with his brown crayon changes his whole world and worldview, providing a valuable lesson on embracing and celebrating his Black identity through the power of radical self-love and knowing your inherent worth.”

I’m also persuaded by a rationale for an amendment idea (#98) put forward by Sheri Thomas, who addresses the significance of the phrase “inherent worth and dignity” from a disabilities standpoint.

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44

Yes, Bek, UUFMC is UU Fellowship of Madison County, and we have seen the discussions about “worth” and “defend.” The word “worth” is ok with us (maybe even preferable), but we wanted to point out the controversy. We are less comfortable with the word “defend.”

As I said before, otherwise we support the changes in line 43.

Thanks for all your hard work!

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Ostara, thank you for these beautiful quotations that exemplify the importance of our long-held belief: That we respect (and hold dear) every person’s INHERENT WORTH and DIGNITY.” I hope that you will stand at the microphone and read these for 90 seconds, just to remind us all why we stand for our first principle.

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46

Clearly we have a different take on the 2nd line of Equity. That’s fine.

As to the “money” argument:
(1) This is a commitment we make as a community, each of us as individuals giving what we can weather that’s in time, wisdom, attention, &/or money." If you have time to give, give time. If you have money to give, give money. If you have wisdom to give, give wisdom.
(2) Also, people with less money tend to give more (per capita) so I don’t see this as excluding people with less money to give. In contrast, studies show that on average people with less money give more: [https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/poor-americans-are-country-s-most-charitable-demographic]

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Ostara, this is a powerful collection of quotes. Thank you for gathering these together. I signed the Delegate Support letter for this amendment, and have enjoyed the ongoing discussion and consideration of the many ways words can be interpreted and understood. I continue to support this amendment wholeheartedly.

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48

It’s not about who gives more proportionally, it’s about who has a comfort level with seeing ‘we commit to use our money’ written into our purposes and bylaws. I’ve been a member of a range of churches, and my experience is that it would read very differently in an affluent community than it would in a financially struggling community. I don’t feel an acclaiming our values should ever have that kind of stratification.

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I just don’t agree that it has that kind of stratification, or that we can or should assume to know how anyone with less economic means will interpret the inclusion of “money.” Some with limited economic means will object to including money, others will celebrate its inclusion, many will likely not feel strongly one way or another. If you have limited economic means and object to the inclusion of “money” then by all means share that as your perspective but let’s not put words in other people’s mouths.

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Thank you for supporting the amendment, and for the kudos about the quotations!

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I don’t know why you assume I am not someone with ‘less economic means.’
Without getting too personal, I am a delegate from an urban church in an economically distressed community, with some members experiencing food or housing insecurity. I feel urban UU spaces are so valuable and needed - and special care should be taken to be inclusive.

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52

Three things on the worth or worthiness question:

  1. A dear friend told me her sister had been doing some genealogical research and had found an advertisement that mentioned their 4 or 5 time great grandparent. He had escaped from enslavement and the ad said that the bounty being offered for his recapture was $50 but that his worth was $350. My friend asked me to please use “worthiness” rather than “worth” when expressing this UU value. It seemed the least I could do! For me, it sealed the deal.

  2. At a UUMA gathering this morning, it was pointed out that the language we use — “inherent worth and dignity” — comes from Immanuel Kant and is part of the groundwork laid for modern supremacy culture. The preservation of that legacy is not something I want to participate in any more.

  3. At the opening worship of this year’s UUMA Ministry Days, the rev. Mary Katherine Morn shared that when she began as President of the UUSC, she thought of her work and ministry as promoting the inherent worth and dignity of every person. But now, she knows that what her ministry and the work of the UUSC is about is affirming, promoting, advocating for “the inherent dignity and power of every person.” Now there’s language that’s inspiring!

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Rev. Joe, I’m grieved to learn of your friend’s sister’s experience with the egregious assignment of monetary worth to an ancestor. The assignment of monetary worth to a person is clearly not the inherent worth referred to by Shirley Chisholm, et al., in the quotations above. I hear you when you say that it’s a sealed deal for you. I respect that and I won’t try to convince you. At the same time, I continue to hold the view that, as Matthew Johnson put it so eloquently, above, “claiming ‘inherent worth’ is an explicit counter to the oppressive/capitalistic ideology of variable worth.”

It’s interesting that you bring up the phrase “inherent dignity and power of every person,” as this is the second time I’m reading a variation of that phrase today. The other person who communicated with me around that concept quoted someone else who had said, “inherent worth and dignity - no inherent power and dignity.” That’s a way of saying that, in that case, this phrase was not put forward in a positive light.

As for Kant, I certainly wouldn’t make any excuses for the obvious contradictions in his philosophy around human beings any more than I would for others of his era who held similar views. Regardless of whether Unitarian Universalists say, “We affirm the inherent worth and dignity of each person” or, “We affirm the inherent dignity and worthiness of each person,” we need to actually mean it, just as we need to actually mean it when we say, “All humans are created equal.”

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54

Ostara, thank you for the extensive examples of how ‘inherent worth’ features prominently in the civil rights and social justice arenas – indeed, all the way from the times of slavery, through the formation of our denomination, and consistently, into the present. I hope you don’t mind – I wanted to extract an illustrative few to make the point memorably:

  1. From 1969, Shirley Chisholm at Howard University asserted:

“We need a liberated and developing black community in America that once it has fully discovered its inherent worth and power, turns to the even greater task of protecting and enlarging upon its triumphs….”

  1. From the time of George Floyd, A Facebook page on Anti-Racism and Social Equity (2021):

“George Floyd[’s] murderer was found guilty…. ‘[B]ut … [t]rue justice can only be realized when our policies, laws, and practices reflect the inherent worth and dignity of every human being[.]”

  1. Of Colin Kaepernick’s children’s book, I Color Myself Different, his publisher comments:

“What young Colin does … with his brown crayon changes his whole world and worldview, providing a valuable lesson on embracing and celebrating his Black identity through the power of radical self-love and knowing your inherent worth.”

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At the end of the previous post, I made reference to, and linked to, an idea submitted by Sheri Thomas, and her rationale that speaks to the phrase, “inherent worth and dignity” from a disabilities perspective. I ‘d like to quote her a selection of her words directly here, as I think they have a place in this thread. She writes:

“As a person with a physical disability and a mental health condition, and as someone who speaks to UU congregations about why it is so important to actively promote ‘the inherent worth and dignity of every person,’ the precise-ness of these words matter.

These words showcase a religion that is strong and proactive. They, for me and many others, are a call to action.

I would much rather be part of a religion that actively promotes the inherent worth and dignity of every person, than one that passively accepts that ‘every person has the right to flourish with inherent dignity and worthiness.’

Her proposal centered around restoring the 1st principle, as a principle, so the thrust of it is different from this proposal, but I think her thoughts about “inherent worth and dignity” are in line with some of what’s been said here, and she addresses the matter from a perspective that I think has been missing here.

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I believe we can move forward with new and clearer vision without declaring past UUs wrong and without denying our history. Our history is not where we stay, but the ground from which we move forward. People are expressing that the term worth brings up painful feelings based on the history of enslaved people in our country. The past authors of Article II were not wrong, but we can do better.

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Equity. We declare that every person has inherent dignity and wholeness. 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.

Overall I appreciate this amendment. If the A2SC purposely used Worthiness instead of Worth, perhaps there was a reason. Dignity seems to imply worth in it’s English definition. UU theology declares that we are all whole. Perhaps the above would work? Thoughts?

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Dignity and power would be great!

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59

I am coming around to that perspective, but think we can also do better than worthiness; I like power as the alternative.

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or “dignity and agency”? Although maybe the word agency is not familiar enough.

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Agency over one’s body, certainly!
But for this UU Value I think “wholeness” speaks more to our shared theology.