Adlai Stevenson:
I think that one of our most important tasks is to convince others that there's nothing to fear in difference; that difference, in fact, is one of the healthiest and most invigorating of human characteristics without which life would become meaningless. Here lies the power of the liberal way: not in making the whole world Unitarian [Universalist], but in helping ourselves and others to see some of the possibilities inherent in viewpoints other than one's own; in encouraging the free interchange of ideas; in welcoming fresh approaches to the problems of life; in urging the fullest, most vigorous use of critical self-examination.
L. B. Fisher:
Universalists are often asked where they stand. The only true answer to give to this question is that we do not stand at all, we move.
William Schulz:
Unitarian Universalism affirms:
That Creation is too grand, complex, and mysterious to be captured in a narrow creed. That is why we cherish individual freedom of belief. At the same time our convictions lead us to other affirmations . . .
That Creation is too grand, complex, and mysterious to be captured in a narrow creed. That is why we cherish individual freedom of belief. At the same time our convictions lead us to other affirmations . . .
That the blessings of life are available to everyone, not just the Chosen or the Saved;
That Creation itself is Holy -- the earth and all its creatures, the stars in all their glory;
That the Sacred or Divine, the Precious and Profound, are made evident not in the miraculous or supernatural but in the simple and the everyday;
That human beings, joined in collaboration with the gifts of grace, are responsible for the planet and its future;
That every one of us is held in Creation's hand -- a part of the interdependent cosmic web -- and hence strangers need not be enemies;
That no one is saved until we All are saved, where All means the whole of Creation;
That the paradox of life is to love it all the more even though we ultimately lose it.
World January/February, 1990
