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Reproductive Choice and Our Association of Congregations

February 19, 2008

Religious beliefs and sexuality have been linked since the earliest beginnings of Unitarian Universalism, starting with the Hebrew Scriptures. As a small and constantly oppressed people, the ancient Israelites—as many groups did and do—regulated marriage and sexuality as an act of self-preservation. At the same time, as just a few lines from the Song of Solomon reminds us (Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine, 1:1-2), they could also celebrate the erotic and sensual.

In the Christian Scriptures, numerous references to sexuality can be found in the writing of Paul. Some, like the Song of Solomon, affirm sexuality as a part of human existence:

The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. (1 Cor 7:3).

Do not deprive one another except perhaps by agreement for a set time, to devote yourselves to prayer, and then come together again ... (1 Cor 7:5).

Despite the presence of relatively affirming passages like these, the church eventually adopted a largely negative view of human sexuality articulated by Saint Augustine. Drawing on passages from Paul and writings from Aristotle, and impassioned by his own personal journey from wayward youth to celibacy, Augustine established a powerful theological link between original sin and sexuality. Bodily pleasure became the leading example of human depravity, a view which profoundly influenced Western religious and social life for centuries, and continues to do so today.

The Unitarian and Universalist movements emerged as reactions to such views, espoused most widely by Calvinism. Both groups firmly rejected the Calvinist emphasis on human depravity, choosing instead—in their own ways—to affirm God as love. Although still subject to the strong influence of the dominant culture, rejecting the doctrine of original sin created space for a new theological interpretation of sexuality. In the early part of the twentieth century a growing emphasis on individual freedom of conscience, as well as increasing support for women's rights, created even more impetus for change.

What's this got to do with contemporary Unitarian Universalism?

The next article in this five-part series on reproductive health issues will look at recent and contemporary connections between Unitarian Universalism and sexuality, starting with the circumstances that led the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (UUA) to publish its own sexuality education curriculum in 1973 ("About Your Sexuality"). Other pieces in this series, "A Lifelong Commitment to Affirming Reproductive Choice" (January 23) and "Two Who Paved the Way for Reproductive Choice" (February 1) highlighted the contributions of individual Unitarian Universalists in the struggle for birth control and abortion rights, respectively. The remainder of this article will look at how the Association of Congregations as a denomination has been active in the struggle for reproductive choice.

Just two years after the 1961 merger of the American Unitarian Association and Universalist Church of America, the General Assembly of the new Association of Congregations approved a general resolution in 1963 calling for "reform of abortion statutes." Declaring that "laws which narrowly circumscribe or completely prohibit termination of pregnancy by qualified medical practitioners are an affront to human life and dignity" and lamenting the hardship and risk of death faced by women seeking abortions, the General Assembly called for "a uniform statute making abortion legal” when serious health concerns were present, when the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest, or if “there exists some other compelling reason — physical, psychological, mental, spiritual, or economic." The General Assembly has approved a total of 13 statements on reproductive choice and sexuality education since 1961.

In 1973, in response to the pledge by religious conservatives to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Unitarian Universalist Association joined with other religious groups to found the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights (RCAR). RCAR became the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice in 1993, just one year after an unprecedented number of people (including more than 1,000 Unitarian Universalists) demonstrated their support for reproductive freedom and related issues at a March for Women's Lives on the national mall in Washington, DC.

In 2003, thanks to a substantial gift from the Unitarian Universalist Women's Federation (UUWF), the Association endowed a Unitarian Universalist Women's Federation Clara Barton Internship for Women's Issues. Based in the UUA Washington Office for Advocacy, the UUWF Clara Barton Intern represents the Association to Congress and the Administration on a variety of issues of importance to women, typically in partnership with other religious and secular organizations.

Thanks to coordination made possible by the presence of the UUWF Clara Barton Intern, more than 2,000 Unitarian Universalists participated together in the April 2004 March for Women's Lives, including UUA President William G. Sinkford and Moderator Gini Courter. Some observers believe it was, and remains, the single largest demonstration ever held in the United States.

Today, 45 years after the first General Assembly resolution on abortion statutes, individual Unitarian Universalists, congregations, and Association staff continue to be leaders in the struggle for reproductive choice.

This is the third in a series of articles UUA.org will feature from January through March which lift up the critical reproductive health-related work of Unitarian Universalist individuals, congregations, and the Association.

For more information contact info @ uua.org.

Last updated on Monday, March 3, 2008.