It seems to me the word respect is used too often by Unitarian Universalists. It is used so often that it becomes synonymous with the word tolerance, which is a word that's beginning to bother me. Toleration is so fundamental in Unitarian Universalism that it begins to feel like Unitarian Universalists are all just a lot of misfits yearning to be tolerated. The whole church begins to take on a negative, reactive existence, or a non-existence even, as it begins to define itself as a church of the tolerated, a church that defines itself in response to society rather than beginning with a positive, empowering self-image.
Don't get me wrong: I think tolerance is critically important, but I don't believe it to be spiritually fundamental. I think tolerance ought to be seen as derivative; to a Christian, a derivative of love. I believe that when we focus too much on tolerance, it can become a political idol.
Rather than depicting the non-creedal character of the Unitarian Universalist Association as a matter of tolerance, I would rather have it seen as a first principle, grounded in a reverence for the capacity of the human soul to discern spiritual truth without the crutches of creed. This transcendental principle is well-represented in the Unitarian Universalist tradition, but it isn't represented in the UUA principles. The best recognition it gets is the following disclaimer:
Nothing herein shall be deemed to infringe upon the individual freedom of belief which is inherent in the Universalist and Unitarian heritages — The Purposes of the Unitarian Universalist Association
If this freedom of belief is so inherent, perhaps it ought to be brought to the fore. Maybe it is implied in a free and responsible search for truth and meaning, but I think freedom of belief deserves to be more than an implication. I'd like to take it further, with a bold statement like the following:
The transcendance, autonomy, and moral authority of the human soul.
Perhaps this would be threaten the non-creedal balance of Unitarian Universalism by admitting too much to Transcendentalism, hence threatening our Judeo-Christian heritage. This is understandable, but does this have to be a problem? Transcendentalism is just the belief that we have intuitive knowledge of Good and Evil, and that is fundamental to the Judeo-Christian tradition. Please see Eve: the First Transcendentalist for further discussion on this topic.
American Transcendentalism — Donna M. Campbell
What is Transcendentalism? — Jone Johnson Lewis
The Emergence of Transcendentalism — Ian Frederick Finseth