UU Theology of Social Justice

At the heart of a Unitarian Universalist theology of social justice is our First Principle.  We affirm and promote "the inherent worth and dignity of every person." From this it goes without saying that every person has the right to be free from oppressions that violate his or her dignity and worth - torture, wrongful incarceration, discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, orientation, age, and ability.  It also follows from our First Principle that Unitarian Universalists support what we think of as our civil liberties - freedom of speech and religion.

But a Unitarian Universalist theology of social justice does not stop there. If it did, all UUs would be libertarians. Our First Principle, the inherent worth and dignity of every person, is based upon something older - what William Ellery Channing called our "Likeness to God."  In traditional Judeo-Christian terms, we are made in God's image.  Generally speaking, we do not take this to mean that God is a humanoid, but rather that humans have the innate ability to discern right from wrong, to recognize the Divine, and an innate tendency to reflect/create Divine Goodness.  This doesn't mean, of course, that what we do is always right/good.  Obviously not.  But embedded in our theology is the belief that if humans are given the right, nurturing conditions, our natural tendency is to express those qualities we generally think of as goodness - love, empathy, kindness, creativity, genius...  To put it in UU terms, each of us has a divine spark with a potential to grow if given the proper environment.

The social justice implications of this are that we owe more to each other than mere libertarianism, to each his own, live and let live.  We owe it to each other to create a community where the environment is as positive and nurturing as it can be, where every person is given the chance to reach their full divine potential. To do any less is to stunt Divinity itself.

Another way to approach a UU theology of social justice is through our Seventh Principle.  UUs often use the Seventh Principle to justify our pro-environmental stances, and indeed it does.  But affirming and promoting "the interdependent web of existence of which we are a part" reminds us that we are an integral part of existence. We are as connected to each other as we are to the rest of creation. If we could really see how what happens to our sisters and brothers affects us as well as them, then the biblical injunction to love our neighbors as we love ourselves takes on a whole new meaning.  Far from a commandment handed down by a sovereign deity, it is common sense analysis of our situation. As we are interconnected, anything done to "someone else" is done to us, and vice versa.

Again, as Channing said in The Father's Love for Persons:

I am a living member of the great Family of All Souls; and I cannot improve or suffer myself, without diffusing good or evil around me through an ever-enlarging sphere.

Unitarian Universalist theology traditinally comes out of liberal Christianity. From nearly the beginning there were Eastern influences. Ralph Waldo Emerson and the other Transcendentalists were clearly familiar with Hinduism. And the guy who coined our Seventh Principle is a practicing Buddhist. In recent years, particularly with respect to social justice, we've been heavily influenced by liberation theology. Coming out of but transcending the Catholic tradition, liberation theology recognizes that the oppressed have different viewpoints than those in power and that too often those viewpoints are ignored while the viewpoint of those in power are made normative. Liberation theology seeks to express the viewpoints of the oppressed.

The social justice implications of this are that work is done in cooperation with groups in need, in relationship with and kept accountable to them, as opposed to doing things because we think we know what others need.