Real moral values
What are moral values? The country has been consumed by this question
since the election because exit polls suggested that more Americans cast
their November votes based on "moral values" than on the economy,
terrorism, or the war in Iraq.
The right has hailed this as the verdict of the American people against
marriage equality, abortion, and stem-cell research. Others have responded
that this question was too vague to be useful, that moral values are much
broader than the right's hot-button issues, extending to questions
of war and bearing false witness.
As religious people, we should welcome the renewed focus on morality.
I believe a liberal religious moral vision would resonate with many in
this country. Articulating one clearly, however, will require expanding
the discussion beyond the religious right's narrow, rules-based
sexuality-and-reproduction debate: pro-life vs. pro-choice, marriage only
for a man and a woman vs. marriage equality, comprehensive sexuality education
vs. abstinence-only education. We need to expand the focus from rigid
rules to encompass more complicated realities.
Let me try an example: abortion. The pro-life/pro-choice debate rarely
acknowledges the critical point that nobody is in favor of abortion: Women
have abortions because of complicated and competing realities in their
lives. So a conversation about the morality of abortion isn't meaningful
unless it includes comprehensive sexuality education and the equitable
provision of birth control, which people need so they can have the knowledge
and the tools to make and to act on informed and responsible decisions.
Nor can the abortion conversation be morally complete without including
adequate support for families struggling to make ends meet, including
available and affordable childcare.
The moral values of our liberal religion call us to work toward the beloved
community. They encourage us to love our neighbors as ourselves, always
widening the circle of who we mean by "neighbor." Morality,
in the words of my ministerial colleague the Rev. Galen Guengerich of
the Unitarian Church of All Souls in New York City, is about "holding
up the best experiences that we know, recognizing the relationships that
make them possible, and then choosing to live in a way that will extend
those experiences to everyone."
From values derived in this way comes the moral obligation to care for
people where they are and as they are, living the reality of their complicated
lives, understanding that we are all in this together: real people struggling
with real issues, all of us deserving equal rights, enough to live on,
and the opportunity to become most fully ourselves-an opportunity
too many do not have, and which the rest of us need to continue to work
for. That's what the most fundamental moral value-the individual
worth and dignity of every person-requires.
Unitarian Universalists have been consistent in our support for those
among us who lack rights and opportunity. We strive to support people
and families in the reality of their lives. We have for decades welcomed
real families of all sorts into our congregations, and we have the lived
experience that being inclusive and openhearted enriches and blesses us.
Our liberal religious sense and our lived experience need to be part
of the national conversation. Clearly we will not persuade everyone, and
I know that the effort to communicate with people whose religious beliefs
rule out genuine conversation on topics such as marriage equality and
abortion has been painful for many of you who have tried. But I believe
that if we offer our moral vision clearly, it will resonate with many
who, in enduring our nation's polarized shouting match, have yet
to hear their own values voiced. Perhaps this can prevent the phrase "moral
values" from being again wielded by the few to divide the many,
the way it was used in last year's election. Perhaps it will help
this country to heal. It is a conversation worth having, and I urge all
of us to participate.
In faith,
THE REV. WILLIAM G. SINKFORD
President, Unitarian Universalist Association
UU World
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