Peace, Liberty and Justice for All©
March 3, 2002
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Midland
Jane Thickstun, Celebrant

We, the peoples of the United Nations,

• Determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war,
• To reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women, and of nations large and small,
• To promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
• And for these ends to practice tolerance and to live together in peace as good neighbors,
• To unite our strength to maintain international peace and security,
• To insure that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest,
• To employ international machinery in the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all people,

Have resolved to combine our efforts to accomplish these aims.

Sermon

Today’s topic is the sixth principle of the Unitarian Universalist Association. I’ve been preaching a sermon a month on these principles, and doing this has helped me to learn them and understand them. I hope it has helped you too. Until I did this, I only knew the first, fourth, and seventh by heart; now I think I can recite them all. But if you can’t and you want to look them up, do you know where you can find them? This is the quiz I promised last month!

The sixth principle is: The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all. Wow! What a tall order! Or you might say, "But of course - who could argue with that?" I’ve heard it called the "Superman Principle." For me it evokes the pledge of allegiance, with its ending - "with liberty and justice for all." It almost sounds hoakey. Or at least cliche. But it is totally serious.

So what does it mean to "affirm and promote" the goal of world community? First of all, it is important to realize that it is a ‘goal.’ A goal isn’t necessarily something we think we can achieve–in our lifetime, or even at all. A goal is something to shoot for, something that gives us direction. The well-known Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hahn, says, "If I lose my direction, I have to look for the North Star, and I go to the north. That does not mean I expect to arrive at the North Star. I just want to go in that direction." (Being Peace, p. 98) It is important to have a vision of the ideal, so that we know what direction we are headed in.

What would this world community look like? It would be characterized by peace, liberty and justice for all. If we were to spell it out further, it might sound very much like the United Nations Charter, that Kathy read earlier. The United Nations is the closest we have come so far to creating a world community. Not surprisingly, Unitarian Universalists have a lot to do with it. Our most recent past president, John Buehrens writes, "Just as the drafters and signers of the original Declaration of Independence included many early Unitarians (John Adams, Thomas Jefferson) and Universalists (Dr. Benjamin Rush), twentieth-century work on behalf of the United Nations and other efforts toward a world community with peace, liberty, and justice has had strong Unitarian Universalist support." He continues, "Only twice has a UUA General Assembly gone beyond passing a simple resolution and promulgated a so-called ‘consensus statement.’ One was on racial equality and justice, passed in 1966. The second was a ‘Statement of Consensus on the United Nations,’ passed in June 1969.

"From the beginning of the association’s existence there has been a Unitarian Universalist United Nations Office. Along with the Unitarian Universalist Women’s Federation and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, the UU-UNO is one of only three continent-wide ‘Associate Member Organizations’ of the UUA. It has broad voluntary membership, a network of ‘UN envoys,’ funding from special UN Sunday collections, and programs that both represent us among Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) at the United Nations and help to keep us informed. Unitarian Universalists have chaired important NGO committees at the United Nations–on disarmament, religious liberty, and other justice issues." (With Purpose and Principle, p. 80-81)

What is spelled out in the UN Charter is summarized by our phrase: "Peace, liberty and justice for all." The Charter uses phrases like: "Determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war,. . . To reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women, and of nations large and small,. . . To promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,. . . And for these ends to practice tolerance and to live together in peace as good neighbors,. . . To unite our strength to maintain international peace and security." The fact that so many nations have already gotten together and affirmed these values, these goals, suggests that these are universal values. We have to be careful – as Unitarian Universalists, as Americans, we have quite a bit of power, and so we have to be careful of the tendency toward imperialism, imposing our values on others who don’t share them.

We can assume that peace, liberty and justice are universal values. What about the idea of world community? Just because many people see it as desirable, and have even formed an institution called the United Nations to work toward that end, is the concept of world community something everyone agrees is desirable?

America’s current administration often seems to think not. President Bush’s administration has been accused of unilateralism, of imposing our will upon the world. And look at the record - alone among industrial nations, the U.S. refused to sign the Kyoto treaty on climate change to control global warming; the U.S. also refused to sign the Land Mine treaty, banning land mines that 122 nations signed. I believe there was something else in there too, along those same lines. And yet in spite of that record, following September 11, nations all over the world rallied to us. But as many have pointed out, including Jason Carr of the Midland Daily News, our continued unilateralism may be erasing that good will. (2/21/02) Our administration is antagonizing allies with its cowboy mentality, insisting on doing things our way and, if need be, on our own.

It could be that Mr. Bush does feel that the goal of world community is worth striving for, but doesn’t feel it is worth the cost. Being in community has costs as well as benefits. Community is a balance between the interests of individuals and the interests of the group. Community is a balancing act that takes into account the fact that there will always be conflict, but also good will and means for managing conflict. Being in community can mean giving up some of our individualism, some of our interests, in the interest of the group. A powerful person, or a powerful nation, is able to be more self-sufficient and so has less need to belong to a larger group, and has more to lose, at least in terms of material self-interest. The gains are not as easily seen, but when we all work together to realize universal values of peace, liberty and justice in the world, we all win.

The Olympics, that recently ended in Salt Lake City, are actively creating world community. Even these games are not without conflict, but the net result is increased understanding and good will.

Who makes up the world community? Nations? Corporations? Ethnic groups? Individuals? The world community needs to include everybody. People of every race, gender and economic circumstance. And there is nothing in the statement of the principle to limit our concern to strictly human community. Animals, plants, rivers, mountains – they all belong to the world community. They are all deserving of peace, liberty and justice.

My own concern is that in creating world community, much of the diversity of languages and cultures that exist in the world will disappear. It is already happening, as less populous or poorer cultures get assimilated into the larger populations around them. But this doesn’t have to be the case. It is possible for people and populations to be in community without merging into a common identity. We can work to create a world community that embraces and honors the diversity of world populations. How would this work? Democracy!!! Remember our 5^th principle I spoke about last month? –the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large. Democracy works because it allows every voice to be heard, at least in principle.

What about the globalization we hear so much about these days? Is it the world community being realized?

UU minister Ricky Hoyt, says, "There are elements of globalization that are extraordinarily positive. The standard of living worldwide steadily increases. Democracy flourishes. Rule of law within countries is supported. People have access to worldwide information that makes it difficult for a totalitarian government to deceive its people. Global citizens are not limited economically to the natural resources of their physical location, but can invest in and communicate instantly with economic resources anywhere in the world. We're developing a single global community. Instead of setting nation against nation, often expressing itself in violent conflict, now we are forming real links among nations that force us into cooperative modes." Yet Hoyt also notes that "Globalization has taken away good jobs, created a lot of bad jobs, and drastically degraded the environment." ("Globalization," 2000)

Globalization may help build world community, by giving people an incentive to work together. But globalization is not characterized by peace, liberty and justice for all. Its reason for existence is economic gain, and it doesn’t even spread that economic gain equally. Far from it. Rev. Hoyt also points out that:

"World trade laws make it easy for capital to move around the world, but labor doesn't move as easily so those with money have an advantage over those who have only their own work to invest. Poor countries without capital scramble for something else to invest and that usually means consuming their natural resources, destroying the environment, or as Thomas Friedman puts it, "eating the rain forest." Technological advances in agricultural make it possible for fewer and fewer people to produce food more and more cheaply. That's good for the price of corn but the farmers thus put out of work can not be expected to instantly learn the skills necessary to work in another industry. Multi-national companies locate factories where labor is cheap, which forces the countries offering cheap labor to compete with each other to provide the cheapest labor. Cheap labor means low wages, no benefits, and deplorable working conditions for those who are already the poorest of the world." ("Globalization," 2000)

Globalization is not something that can be stopped, and not something we would want to stop. To the extent that it respects the universal values we affirm, we can applaud it. Where it fails to respect those values, we need to work to see that it does.

So if we accept the goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all, how can we work toward achieving it? It feels a bit overwhelming. Remember that it is a direction to aim at, not something we can expect to realize completely. There are many Unitarian Universalist organizations that focus our efforts – organizations like the UU Service Committee, or our own social justice committee. There are plenty of non-UU organizations as well that are working toward this goal. Amnesty International, Planned Parenthood, the Heifer Project - these are a few that come to mind. You probably know of more.

I think it helps to remember the maxim: "Think globally, act locally." Envisioning the goal on a global level can direct our local efforts. But global change will occur only by the accumulated efforts of many people working locally to achieve change. What can we do locally? We can be in touch with our representatives in government. We can make our voices heard through letters to the editor in the local paper, something this congregation excels at.

Creating world community is religious work, it is spiritual work. Ultimately, it depends on a movement within individual hearts. After the 1993 Centennial Parliament of the World’s Religions, a document was produced by interfaith dialogue among religious leaders representing nearly every religious tradition in the world. The document is called "Towards a Global Ethic," and describes what they consider "a fundamental consensus on binding values." The values are essentially what we call peace, liberty and justice. This document states that "A better global order cannot be created or enforced by laws alone. . . . Both the minds and hearts of women and men must be addressed. . . . .Earth cannot be changed for the better unless the consciousness of individuals is changed also." (Buehrens, With Purpose and Principle, p. 84)

Long, long ago, the Chinese philosopher Lao-Tse said it best when he wrote:

If there is to be peace in the world,
there must be peace in the nations.
If there is to be peace in the nations,
there must be peace in the cities.
If there is to be peace in the cities,
there must be peace between neighbors.
If there is to be peace between neighbors,
there must be peace in the home.
If there is to be peace in the home,
there must be peace in the heart.

The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Midland is recognized by the Unitarian Universalist Association as a Welcoming Congregation. We welcome, affirm, promote and celebrate the full participation of all persons in all of our activities without regard to age, gender, sexual orientation, race or any other such category of exclusion.

Please feel free to contact us with any feedback, corrections or questions at jaham@delta.edu