At our most recent meeting, one of our committee members offered a summary of the many facets of poverty in Rhode Island. She did this as part of an investigation into how we might use the funds the late Margit Baum gave our church to help the poor in Newport. While many committee members were well-acquainted with what our friend presented, the overall picture she painted was still sobering. It reminded us that poverty is injustice made manifest. It reminded us that poverty destroys human freedom and dignity. Finally it reminded us, as the Rev. Richard S. Gilbert has said, that we, as UU’s, live under an imperative to confront this injustice, promote freedom and human dignity, and work for the elimination of poverty as a fundamental component of building the Beloved Community on Earth.
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The Rev. James Luther Adams in his 1946 treatise “A Faith for Free Men,” wrote that human freedom was not so much about individual rights and privileges but about communities of people working, “...in free, cooperative effort for the common good. In other words, this reality fulfills man’s life only when men stand in right relation to each other. Man, the historical being, comes most fully to terms with this reality in the exercise of freedom that works for justice in the human community. Only what creates freedom in a community of justice is dependable...Only the society that gives every man the opportunity to share in the process whereby human potentiality is realizable, only the society that creates social forms of freedom in a community of justice (where every man is given his due), only the freedom that respects the divine image and dignity in every man are dependable.” Rev. Gilbert, in his book The Prophetic Imperative: Social Gospel in Theory and Practice, expands Adams’ theme by articulating an obligation on the part of UU’s to promote freedom in these terms through social action, “I contend that the Unitarian Universalist movement lives under a prophetic imperative, a religious mandate for the corporate address of the church to the systemic problems of society... The imperative to be stressed is that which emerges from the disciplines of freedom. Freedom is not merely the absence of restraint, but the will and capacity to act on one’s environment. It is a freedom that implies responsibility to enrich and expand freedom in the social order. Freedom, a central value of Unitarian Universalism, is a social concept, and, if it is to be preserved, an obligation is placed on the free person. I believe we are not free to desist from struggling for freedom for self and others. Freedom, by its very nature, places an imperative claim on the free person to expand that freedom to all.”
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Over the weekend of March 27th – 28th, Channing Memorial Church and the Ballou Channing District of the Unitarian Universalist Association will co-sponsor a program and worship at Channing led by the Rev. Richard S. Gilbert, one of the leading voices in the UU movement calling for social action on our part to promote social justice. His books, The Prophetic Imperative and How Much Do We Deserve? provide a meaningful framework for the collective action for which he, Adams, and others have advocated since our church was founded. Mark your calendars and watch for more information on this important program. In the meantime, please join us at our next meeting, Wednesday, November 11th, 7PM, Channing Library.
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Tom Beall, Social Action Co-Chair
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The Rev. James Luther Adams in his 1946 treatise “A Faith for Free Men,” wrote that human freedom was not so much about individual rights and privileges but about communities of people working, “...in free, cooperative effort for the common good. In other words, this reality fulfills man’s life only when men stand in right relation to each other. Man, the historical being, comes most fully to terms with this reality in the exercise of freedom that works for justice in the human community. Only what creates freedom in a community of justice is dependable...Only the society that gives every man the opportunity to share in the process whereby human potentiality is realizable, only the society that creates social forms of freedom in a community of justice (where every man is given his due), only the freedom that respects the divine image and dignity in every man are dependable.” Rev. Gilbert, in his book The Prophetic Imperative: Social Gospel in Theory and Practice, expands Adams’ theme by articulating an obligation on the part of UU’s to promote freedom in these terms through social action, “I contend that the Unitarian Universalist movement lives under a prophetic imperative, a religious mandate for the corporate address of the church to the systemic problems of society... The imperative to be stressed is that which emerges from the disciplines of freedom. Freedom is not merely the absence of restraint, but the will and capacity to act on one’s environment. It is a freedom that implies responsibility to enrich and expand freedom in the social order. Freedom, a central value of Unitarian Universalism, is a social concept, and, if it is to be preserved, an obligation is placed on the free person. I believe we are not free to desist from struggling for freedom for self and others. Freedom, by its very nature, places an imperative claim on the free person to expand that freedom to all.”
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Over the weekend of March 27th – 28th, Channing Memorial Church and the Ballou Channing District of the Unitarian Universalist Association will co-sponsor a program and worship at Channing led by the Rev. Richard S. Gilbert, one of the leading voices in the UU movement calling for social action on our part to promote social justice. His books, The Prophetic Imperative and How Much Do We Deserve? provide a meaningful framework for the collective action for which he, Adams, and others have advocated since our church was founded. Mark your calendars and watch for more information on this important program. In the meantime, please join us at our next meeting, Wednesday, November 11th, 7PM, Channing Library.
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Tom Beall, Social Action Co-Chair
