Thoughts to prompt discussion of Unitarian Universalism’s Sixth Principle—

We affirm and promote:

The Goal of World Community with Peace, Liberty and Justice for All

This principle, sixth of seven, is perhaps the easiest to read right through without savoring —thegoalofworldcommunitywithpeacelibertyandjusticeforall—

a seedless grape rather than a pomegranate.

Toward the end of the day Friday, I got into a discussion with a woman I work with about pomegranates.  She and her husband grow food for the farmer’s market, and she was listing off all the fruit trees they’d just planted. I wanted to know if you could grow pomegranates here. She thought yes, but she had no idea what you do with a pomegranate.

“I’ve seen the containers at the store, but I don’t know what you do with it.”

I’ve seen those containers too, little plastic cups filled with pomegranate seeds—all neat and tidy.

That’s no way to eat a pomegranate!

First you find your pomegranate. You can’t tell what’s inside, so you need to go by feel. You hold it in the palm of your hand and feel for the heaviness, for the juice full to bursting in each seed.

Then you’ve got some work to do. You need to get inside and pull it all apart, separate the seeds from the bitter membranes. Your fingers get stained red, as does everything else if you let the seeds escape the bowl.

Makes the little containers of seeds sound promising, doesn’t it?

The Goal of World Community with Peace, Liberty and Justice for All

It’s just a goal after all. We’re not saying we’re going to bring about world community, we’re not promising to grant peace, liberty and justice. Just pull off the lid and sprinkle the seeds on a salad and enjoy—let’s move on to number seven.

For Unitarian Universalists, this principle can even feel a little disingenuous—in the beauty pageants of religion, it our pat answer to the personal question at the end of the pageant.

I want to help bring about world peace.

Do you remember those questions? I haven’t watched a pageant in years, but when I did, when I was a little girl, in between bouts of walking with a book on my head to improve my posture, I remember waiting for it. Yep, now she’s going to talk about loving children and wanting world peace.

Then there was a pageant that changed everything. It was a Miss Universe pageant, and instead of a lovely evening gown—how I loved the evening gown competition—Miss Israel walked out in a tight-fitting black jumpsuit, with a machine gun slung over her shoulder.

I was stunned.

Sitting on the floor in front of the black-and-white television, alone, I cried—as devastated by the sight of a woman with a gun as I was by the notion that fire power was the answer to the question—how do you plan to contribute to the world community?

But then, hasn’t that always been the answer? The country with the most weapons, the biggest, baddest weapons, dictates what the world community looks like, feels like, tastes like. Toss that pomegranate in the air, and shoot it. Yes. Just like skeet shooting.

Everything ends up stained red.

We affirm and promote:

The Goal of World Community with Peace, Liberty and Justice for All

As we enter this new week, with the loudest shout out for women’s rights being that American women are cleared for combat, with Walmart fending off a run on ammunition, and with so many parents burying their lost, blood-stained children—that’s no seedless grape of a principle, no neat little package of seeds either—isn’t this principle asking us to put the pomegranate back together?

Where do we start—overseas, in Washington or Chicago, or just a few blocks away from here? How in a world of so many different faiths, beliefs, and philosophies? How in a world with child soldiers and gang warfare? When do we start? When everyone is armed alike, or when we see who is left standing? What can we do?

I don’t have the answer, perhaps no one does. But I do know this…if I take your hand…and your hand…and you take the hand next to you…we’ll have all the arms we need.