By Tom Hook
March 3, 2024
One of the Article II Revision’s Shared Values is:
Transformation. We adapt to the changing world.
We covenant to collectively transform and grow spiritually and ethically.
Openness to change is fundamental to our Unitarian and Universalist heritages, never complete and never perfect. (article II Revisions Shared Values)
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It doesn’t matter how old we are. We all need stories to believe in. If there’s no storyline, no integrating images that define who we are, or give our lives meaning or direction, we just won’t be happy. I long for us to embrace a better story. One with the power to change our hearts and minds and even enliven our imagination.
Thomas Kuhn in his book “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions”, introduced the term paradigm shift. Kuhn held that a paradigm shift becomes necessary when a previous paradigm becomes so full of holes and patchwork fixes that a complete overhaul is necessary. That shift in thinking, which might have felt threatening at one time in our lives, now appears as our only way forward. I believe we are at one of those critical junctures again. May we be willing to adopt A new story, a new set of beliefs and systems that could change and maybe even save humanity and our world.
The Seven Stories
- Domination (I will rule over you)
- Revolution (I will get peace by over-throwing you)
- Purification (I will get peace by expelling you)
- Isolation (I will get peace by withdrawing from this world)
- Victimization (My suffering is the most important thing about me)
- Accumulation (I will get peace by having more things)
- Reconciliation-Liberation (Partners in the Evolution of Goodness)
1. Domination (I will rule over you)
Looking back over my years, the whole introduction to history was told in terms of domination. The mighty empires that dominated sent explorers from their home countries to dominate the world. Even my religious background was deeply rooted in the domination story because we Christians believed that our religion should dominate. Theologically, my early understanding of God was that God was the ultimate, and universal dominating force. Of course, my beliefs have changed over the years, but this remains a central belief for many Christians.
I believe there is no possibility for right relationship if one powerful group protects and sustains itself over and against all others. From there, it’s just too easy to construct binaries and hierarchies of human existence. Our group is good. All of you are bad. Other members of the human family become objects and tools to be acquired, controlled, used and discarded.
Sadly, we see this story being retold repeatedly in our world today.
2. Revolution (I will get peace by over-throwing you)
Revolution might be better called the revenge story. Movements that overthrow repressive regimes have not always replaced them with something better. In fact, unless a restorative consciousness is engaged, revolutions run the risk of merely turning the tables, replacing one set of broken relationships with more domination. Perhaps a slightly less oppressive form of domination. But, domination, nonetheless.
These past few years, many of us have felt more concerned than ever about elected politics. It’s felt like we’ve been living in revolutionary times. But really, it’s revenge times. It’s a time where we pit ourselves against each other, and where we believe that the only way to have peace and security in the world is to totally defeat our opponent. I believe if we want a better world, we need to tell a better story. A story about the possibility of embodying justice without vengeance.
3. Purification (I will get peace by expelling you)
We see stories of purification going on in our politics, in our churches, in our businesses, and even in our families. When we’re really feeling guilty or tense about something, it really does help to find someone else, to project our anxieties upon and to make ourselves feel innocent, pure, and clean. But scapegoating others does not actually create peace and security. It becomes a destructive addiction.
There’s a scary tendency we find across nations, cultures, religions, and social classes. It’s called Coalitionary Aggression. There is this tendency of human beings, who form groups, to then find some minority within their in-group whom the majority can then begin to bully, pick on, or marginalize. The majority calls itself clean and they call the minority unclean. The majority eventually creates a kind of coalition aggression against the minority. And in doing so, they make themselves feel good because they’ve created a common enemy close at hand….
4. Isolation (I will get peace by withdrawing from this world)
The isolation story is ultimately a story of separation. Separation from each other, Separation from goodness, separation from the Earth and the ecosystem of which we are part. It’s a story of separation, even from ourselves.
What the story of isolation answers poorly is the need for the inner life of mindfulness or contemplation. This can enable us to become what we might call Strong peace. We might become Strong peace through this mindfulness even in the face of roaring traffic, of people on the city street, or the bombardment of headline news on our screens. Instead of withdrawing from the world, whether as individuals or groups or nations, we are called to be fully immersed in the places we are, learning to discern light and shadow. Bringing what we have, and asking for what we need.
5. Victimization (My suffering is the most important thing about me)
Buddhist teacher, angel Kyodo Williams describes how clinging to harmful stories may increase our suffering: “We run these stories of victimization in our mind, over and over again. Thus, we go nowhere in our inner life development. As a result, we suffer as adults from the wounds of our childhood. Slowly, these toxic stories crowd out the potential for joy and ease that is the birthright of every human being. None of us can control all, if any, of these conditions. But we can change how we experience the conditions we find ourselves in through inner work and therapy. (3 min)
6. Accumulation (I will get peace by having more things)
We don’t have to look too far to find the accumulation story at work. It’s the story that says we will have more peace and security through having more things.
Author Lynne Twist names the malignant effects of buying into this story. “Money has the power that we assign to it, and we have assigned it immense power. We have given it almost final authority.” We all have engaged in actions we are not proud of – in order to get – or keep our “Stuff”.
We must stop counting. We must stop hoarding in order to let the flow of compassion and love flow through us.
7. Reconciliation-Liberation (Partners in the Evolution of Goodness)
And finally, the Seventh Story, asks us to recognize the reality that we can’t actually possess stuff for ours alone in the first place! Instead of building walls, we are invited to show the same kindness to our neighbor as we would want them to show us, to celebrate their joys, to grieve their sorrows and losses.
Love is the Protagonist (the central character)
Sikh activist Valerie Kaur describes what happens when Love becomes the ethic and the story by which we live:
“Love is a wellspring from which we all can drink. But we may be coming to the wellspring from different paths. You can come to it from different sources of inspiration, but the love ethic itself is what is available to all of us, no matter who we are. I describe love as sweet labor, the fierce and bloody and imperfect life-giving choice that we make. And if love is labor, then love can be taught. Love can be modeled. Love can be practiced.”
She continues. “I’m seeing people waking up, being in relationship, grieving together, raging together, marching together, reimagining their own area of public life, their own sphere of influence, in ways that I never imagined possible before. In those acts and those moments and those gatherings around fierce love, I feel like I see glimpses of the nation, the world, that is waiting to be born…”
And this is where I see great hope and transformation in Unitarian Universalists and here at HUU….
From the Article II Study Commission:
“We come from many paths, but we all put Love at the center”
“In these times, people need that creative joy and the hope that the Article II Revisions represents. It’s part of practicing skillful Love inside our congregations and Association, so that we can carry that Love out into a world that so desperately needs it.”
Interdependence
We honor the interdependent web of all existence. With reverence for the great web of life and with humility, we acknowledge our place in it.
We covenant to protect Earth and all beings from exploitation. We will create and nurture sustainable relationships of care and respect, mutuality and justice. We will work to repair harm and damaged relationships.
Pluralism
We celebrate that we are all sacred beings, diverse in culture, experience, and theology.
We covenant to learn from one another in our free and responsible search for truth and meaning. We embrace our differences and commonalities with Love, curiosity, and respect.
Justice
We work to be diverse multicultural Beloved Communities where all thrive.
We covenant to dismantle racism and all forms of systemic oppression. We support the use of inclusive democratic processes to make decisions within our congregations, our Association, and society at large.
Generosity
We cultivate a spirit of gratitude and hope. (2 min)
We covenant to freely and compassionately share our faith, presence, and resources. Our generosity connects us to one another in relationships of interdependence and mutuality.
Equity
We declare that every person has the right to flourish with inherent dignity and worthiness.
We covenant to use our time, wisdom, attention, and money to build and sustain fully accessible and inclusive communities.
Transformation. We adapt to the changing world.
We covenant to collectively transform and grow spiritually and ethically.
Openness to change is fundamental to our Unitarian and Universalist heritages,
never complete and never perfect.
May it be so….