I appreciate the depth of thought you’ve put into it, and I respect your opinion, Sally.
I’m concerned that, without context and with an over-literal reading, we could go through many lines of the document and infer possible misuse and weaponization.
“We work to be diverse multicultural Beloved Communities where all thrive.” Do we want all including the oppressors, and white supremacists etc. to thrive? (If there is no limit to diversity.)
“We covenant to freely and compassionately share our faith, presence, and resources.” With everyone including people who would exploit our resources and good will? Freely give our resources to anyone including those perpetuating oppressive systems?
“We declare that every person has the right to flourish with inherent dignity…” What if some people want to flourish by dominating others esp. the already marginalized?
The value statements (like the Principles) IMHO would be best read as aspirations for the relationships and communities we strive to be, not so much as contractual language that can be manipulated in bad faith.
@Meagan_F, thank you for these beautifully expressed ideas. I think it’s especially important to emphasize what you said at the end:
Equity calls us to listen, understand, respect, and respond to one another - INCLUDING OURSELVES!
or
Equity calls us to listen, understand, respect, and respond to OURSELVES AND one another.
It’s my impression that those who oppress others are deeply confused, often damaged people. They are not flourishing. Those who are flourishing are awakened to their capacity to love and to receive love. If they were flourishing they would want everyone to flourish. So actually I do want them to flourish, I’m just not sure how to help them do that.
Susan
I feel the pain expressed by delegates who have been harmed by words from other delegates. Their harmful words break our covenant with each other to create safe and brave space so we can learn from each other. Their inability to be in covenant is obvious, and that is the issue we need to address.
I wish healing to those who have been harmed.
Tolerant people do not need to tolerate people who break the covenant with each other. We covenant with each other so we can say “your words or actions are harmful to me, and thus not in accord with our covenant”.
We are building community. Everyone is not skilled in community building.
Values are aspirational. We want all UU’s to listen, understand, respect, and respond. We want people who have been marginalized to be heard and appropriate actions to be taken.
Our challenge is enforcing our covenant in Real Time with dozens of speakers and thousands of chat comments.
We need aspirational values in our covenant. This is our promise to each other. Some of us will fall short and break our promise. Our commitment to each other is to address the breech and to restore relations in beloved community.
I think that people who have left those spaces and mindsets have much we can learn from, such as Derek Black and Megan Phelps-Roper, and other former members of the KKK or other such groups.
Marshall Rosenberg, who created Nonviolent Communication (NVC), has a story about a young man who was part of the KKK attending one of his workshops. The workshop helped him realize that he embraced those views as a way to try to connect with his father. By the end of the weekend he was disavowing those beliefs and hoping to find other ways to connect with his dad. Just one example - I’m sure everyone’s story is unique.
There is a long tradition of generosity from religious community being transformative for those with pain manifesting as hatred. I am not saying to throw out discernment and healthy boundaries, but there’s a time and a place where extending love and welcoming even to those we are afraid of can be just what is needed.
I’m thinking of the Oscar-nominated short documentary “Stranger at the Gate” as one example.
I’ve been reflecting on this amendment and the whole GA process. Currently where I am at with it is that I would advocate for all principles to be expressed in terms of discernment and balance between ideas that seem to be in tension. In this context, it could be something like, “We aspire to grow our capacity to listen, understand, respect, and respond to the needs and experiences of others’, while tending to our own well-being and honoring our own limits.”