When I explain to strangers what it means to be a Unitarian Universalist, they are usually puzzled at the thought of a church not based on a unifying belief. No, I tell them, some of us are Christians, and some of us are atheists, and some of us are Buddhists, and pagans, and agnostics, and so on. We are of different classes, and different races, and different backgrounds. But it’s not those differences that is most important; what we share is a deep and enduring belief in our ability to come together despite our differences. It is a powerful and challenging experience to be in covenant with other people, and we learn that there is a kinship that goes deeper than the labels we put upon ourselves.

I am very proud to be a Unitarian Universalist, to teach our message to our children and to one another, and to work for a future that is brighter than the present.

I continue to watch the news on Kosovo closely, and to grieve the damage that nationalism is wreaking upon the Balkans. I still support the bombing, but that support doesn’t come with any certainty, and is therefore not very comforting. I don’t believe that there are any solutions that will satisfy the Serbian leadership, the Albanian refugees, and the international community. Diplomatic settlements have been refused, and our passivity when human rights abuses have been committed in the past prevents us from allowing this to remain an internal conflict.

And so we are bombing, a terribly messy solution. We cannot simply destroy the “bad guys”, or their weapons, or their facilities. Bystanders have already died, and NATO bombs destroy munitions factories and hospitals with equal violence. And some of our own soldiers will likely die in the bombing as well.

Nursed on the stories of television and film, we are used to seeing every conflict resolved in an hour’s time to everyone’s satisfaction. We are not accustomed to the imperfect solution, or the drawn-out conflict. And yet the lack of a win-win settlement must not prevent us from intervening in the deportation and execution of ethnic Albanians. 18th-century Irish philosopher Edmund Burke said, “All that is necessary for evil to flourish is for good [people] to do nothing.”

Many of you heard the lectures at our District Annual Meeting last week, “Life Choices”. We are reminded that our lives require many difficult choices of us, and that some of those choices have serious consequences. To say that we can’t win them all is to forget that some of our imperfect choices are not as benign as betting on a losing horse, but about killing people to stop them from killing more people. Our choices do not always bring us peace, but we must choose, or have the choices made for us.

Is it just a difference in perception that leads the Serbian leadership to believe that our bombing must be based on anti-Serbian sentiment, and not because we cannot tolerate their policy of “ethnic cleansing”? How could they not understand our horror at the stories and pictures of hundreds of thousands of Albanians living in open fields?

These questions remind me of why I am a Unitarian Universalist, and why I give my time, money and passion to our principles. I want so badly to live in a world where such inhumanity is unacceptable without question. And I believe that our faith is helping to build a world in which we must see one another as humans, and not as problems to be erased.

The life choices of our journeys of faith are often paths dimly lit. And yet we must choose, or risk aiding the destruction of our world by our inaction. May we strive to make our choices wisely, and find the strength to bear even these imperfect solutions.

Yours in Faith –
Rev. Scott Gerard Prinster
Unitarian Universalist Community Church
Portage, Michigan