I never told my own religion nor scrutinized that of another. I never attempted to make a convert, nor wished to change another's creed. I am satisfied that yours must be an excellent religion to have produced a life of such exemplary virtue and correctness. For it is in our lives, and not from our words, that our religion must be judged.
- Thomas Jefferson, 1816, in a letter to Mrs. H. Harrison Smith
It matters what we believe. Some beliefs are like walled gardens. They encourage exclusiveness, and the feeling of being especially privileged. Other beliefs are expansive and lead the way into wider and deeper sympathies
Some beliefs are like shadows, clouding children's days with fears of unknown calamities. Other beliefs are bonds in a world community, where sincere differences beautify the pattern.
Some beliefs are divisive, separating the saved from the unsaved, friends from enemies. Other beliefs are bonds in a world community, where sincere differences beautify the pattern.
Some beliefs are like blinders, shutting off the power to choose one's own direction. Other beliefs are like gateways, opening wide vistas for exploration.
Some beliefs weaken a person's selfhood. They blight the growth of resourcefulness. Other beliefs nurture self-confidence and enrich the feeling of personal worth.
Some beliefs are rigid, like the body of death, impotent in a changing world. Other beliefs are pliable, like the young sapling, ever growing with the upward thrust of life.
- Sophia Lyon Fahs
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 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.
- William Schulz, World, January/February, 1990
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.
- L. B. Fisher
While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.
- Leonardo Da Vinci
It is the final proof of God's omnipotence that he need not exist in order to save us.
- Peter De Vries
Reality is that which, even when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.
- Phillip K. Dick
This whole Santa Claus thing just doesn't make sense.
Why all the secrecy? Why all the mystery?
If the guy exists, why doesn't he ever show himself and prove it?
And if he doesn't exist, what's the meaning of all of this?
I dunno.. Isn't this a religious holiday?
Yeah, but actually, I've got the same questions about God.
It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.
- Prof. Albus Dumbledore
Humiliated In The Shackles
By Sami al Hajj
When I heard pigeons cooing in the trees,
Hot tears covered my face.
When the lark chirped, my thoughts composed
A message for my son.
Mohammad, I am afflicted.
In my despair, I have no one but Allah for comfort.
The oppressors are playing with me,
As they move freely around the world.
They ask me to spy on my countrymen,
Claiming it would be a good deed.
They offer me money and land,
And freedom to go where I please.
Their temptations seize
My attention like lightning in the sky.
But their gift is an empty snake,
Carrying hypocrisy in its mouth like venom,
They have monuments to liberty
And freedom of opinion, which is well and good.
But I explained to them that
Architecture is not justice.
America, you ride on the backs of orphans,
And terrorize them daily.
Bush, beware.
The world recognizes an arrogant liar.
To Allah I direct my grievance and my tears.
I am homesick and oppressed.
Mohammad, do not forget me.
Support the cause of your father, a God-fearing man.
I was humiliated in the shackles.
How can I now compose verses? How can I now write?
After the shackles and the nights and the suffering and the tears,
How can I write poetry?
My soul is like a roiling sea, stirred by anguish,
Violent with passion.
I am a captive, but the crimes are my captors'.
I am overwhelmed with apprehension.
Lord, unite me with my son Mohammad.
Lord, grant success to the righteous.
An Al-Jazeera cameraman, Sami al Hajj, a Sudanese, was visiting his brother in Damascus after the 11 September attacks when he got a call asking him to go to Pakistan to cover the impending war in Afghanistan. Instead, he ended up in Guantanamo where he claims he has been severely and regularly beaten, scarring his face.
