AboutJoyce D Expertise Religious Educator (former director for six years, lifelong Unitarian Universalist - "UU"). I`m familiar with UU history & resources on the internet. I belong to many UU forums, have attended many congregations, and have been a delegate at the UU General Assembly.
Expert: Joyce D Date: 1/20/2005 Subject: The nature of Sin
Question Hello:
I am currently working on a personal project about the nature of Sin. I am the artist and co-author of a religious, contemporary graphic novel focusing heavily on Sin. I want to include more than just the Christian viewpoint, though that will be the main focus, so am contacting experts of various different religions in order to gain a better understanding of the world view of Sin. I was hoping you could give me a rundown of Sin and your understanding of it, anything you have to offer me is helpful and much appreciated, I am open to absolutely any information concerning the subject, and I thank you in advance.
Alyssa Mogil
Answer Alyssa,
Thank you for offering to include Unitarian Universalists in your book. Unitarian Universalists (UUs) have no "official" stance on sin, but we do agree on seven principles and many UUs believe that going against our principles is about as close as you can get to the meaning of "sin" for us. Others don't adhere to the concept at all since it strikes of the concept of "original sin" which most of us don't believe in. You see, Unitarian Universalism comes from a Judeo-Christian heritage, with the majority having been raised Christian, so for some there is a backlash, but not for all.
My personal belief (and UUism embraces personal beliefs about such things) is that sin is to act in a manner that is counter to your beliefs. Part of my beliefs are worded in the UU principles, which includes the worth and dignity of every person and justice, equity and compassion in human relationships, so acts of hatred (racism, homophobia, etc.) are sinful. Another principle is to respect the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part, so supporting the destruction of a delicate ecosystem and pollution would be sinful.
Here are some links to other writings about sin in UUism (you can have this message sent to your email where the links may become clickable since this site doesn't do that).:
That's probably enough for this one small religious organization. I'd like to point out, though, that in a survey of religions, the number of people who self-identified as UUs was so high it ended up in the top ten list of religions.
So even though our official population is low, we are not insignificant in our influence in the United States.
I hope this is what you were looking for. Please let me know when your book is out. UUs are great readers as we don't believe in one official source for our beliefs and one of our principles is to engage in "a free and responsible search for truth and meaning." You can email me at dmuuc@dmuuc.org.
