Our World is One World

Given by James Covington on November 6th, 2005

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in his address to Congress on January 6, 1941, memorably and lastingly sketched out a global vision based on the attainment of four essential freedoms.[1]

The first is freedom of speech and expression everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants-everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear which, translated into world terms, originally meant a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor-anywhere in the world…. But would also include today the cessation of all terrorist mass murders.

Roosevelt wrote: “This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and heads and hearts of its millions of free men and women; and its faith in freedom. Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere in the world. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights and keep them. Our strength is in our unity of purpose.”

When Roosevelt finished dictating this passage, he invited comments from the staff members present in the Oval Office. Harry Hopkins, one of the president’s principal advisors, questioned the phrase “everywhere in the world.”

“That covers an awful lot of territory, Mr. President,” he said. “I don’t know how interested Americans are going to be in the people of Java.”

Roosevelt’s reply proved prescient. “I’m afraid they’ll have to be some day, Harry. The world is getting so small that even the people in Java are getting to be our neighbors now.” Our world is one world.

In 1945, rising from the ashes of World War II, representatives from around the globe met in San Francisco to begin working on a charter for a new international peace organization, the United Nations. Among them was another famous liberal, Franklin Roosevelt’s wife, Eleanor. Tireless champion for the poor during her husband’s thirteen years as president, she went on to serve as a delegate to the United Nations, chaired its Human Rights Commission, and coauthored the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For her, the United Nations represented “the greatest hope for a peaceful world…. We must use all the knowledge we possess all the avenues for seeking agreement and international understanding not only for our own good, but for the good of all human beings.” Our world is one world.

The UN was established on October 24, 1945. On that day its Charter was signed by 51 member countries. The UN Charter specifies four purposes: to maintain international peace and security; to encourage nations to be just in their actions toward one another; to help nations to cooperate in solving their problems and in promoting respect for human rights; and to serve as an agency through which nations can work toward these goals. Our world is one world.

Both a small and a large “d” Democrat, Eleanor Roosevelt also possessed a liberal Christian temperament. An Episcopalian in the tradition of George Washington, in following Jesus she centered her practical faith on the second great commandment, to love thy neighbor as thyself “Denominations mean little to me,” she said in an interview shortly before she died. “If we pattern our lives on the life of Christ and sincerely try to follow His creed of compassion and love as expressed in the Sermon on the Mount we will find that sectarianism means less and less…. To me, the way your personal religion makes you live is the only thing that really matters.” Her favorite passage in the Bible was I Corinthians 13: “Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three, but the greatest of these is charity.”

Hard-headed pundits argue that one cannot cobble together a program for society on the basis of charity, compassion and neighborliness. I can appreciate their skepticism. But, today, as Franklin Roosevelt predicted, we are challenged by a new paradigm, Its symbol is the shrinking globe. Forrest Church, author of The American Creed, informs us that for the first time in history, all who live on mother earth are united in four ways.[2]

We share a common nuclear threat, common environmental threat, global economy, and global communications system. One world is no longer only a vision; it is a reality. Our world is one world. The goal of world peace among all the nations and all people is more important today than ever.

Today, we see in the United Nations a great mix of nobility and failure. There are those who criticize it out of hand: it is too weak; it is ineffective, indecisive, corrupt, misguided, too under-funded to be effective… Sadly, all of these charges have some truth to them. Changes and reform are desperately needed, in my opinion. I nevertheless believe the UN remains our last best hope for saving the planet.

And yet, a1999 study reveal that US citizens have almost no understanding of the work of the UN. Their peace-keeping operations have helped uphold ceasefires, conduct free and fair elections, monitor troops withdrawals, and aid political stability around the world. They have advanced arms control through international agreements such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Chemical Weapons Convention. The World Health Organization, a UN body, eradicated smallpox and helped wipe out polio from the Western Hemisphere. UNICEF sponsored immunizations against polio, tetanus, measles, whooping cough, diphtheria and tuberculosis that have saved the lives of 3 million children each year. The U.N. leads efforts to protect the ozone layer and our forests and to curb global warming. They have provided safe drinking water for 1.3 billion people in rural areas, and have on-going efforts to help prevent over-fishing and clean up pollution. Millions of refugees, mostly women and children, receive food, shelter, medical aid, education and repatriation assistance from the UN.

Presently, the UN is actively pressuring governments, including our own to intervene in Sudan to stop the genocide that is still taking place in Darfur. Unfortunately it has been agonizingly slow and difficult because of political shenanigans within the Security Council and in our own government. I am outraged and heartbroken about our inept response.

In addition In September 2000 the member states of the United Nations unanimously adopted the Millennium Declaration from which 8 Millennium Development Goals have been agreed upon. The goals include eradicated extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education for all children, promoting gender equality and empowering women. You will find more information in the packets available to you today. These goals are intended to be met by the year 2015.

James Ishmael Ford, minister of UU congregation in Newton, MA, says, “The list of United Nations activities for the advancement of the human condition among nations is a litany of justice and love in human affairs…. This is really a spiritual enterprise.” Our world is one world.

The United Nations has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize five times. An additional six Nobel Peace Prizes have been awarded to UN mediators, plus Secretary General – Dag Hammarskjold and most recently the current Secretary-General, Kofi Annan.

Unitarian Universalists have been attracted to the UN since its inception. Back in ’45, the Unitarians and the Universalists, then separate denominations, both closely monitored its creation. Both adopted resolutions in support of the UN in the 50’s. Our denomination opened an office at the UN in 1962. This happened at the urging of the US Ambassador to the United Nations, Adlai Stevenson, who was a Unitarian. He wrote to UUA President Dana McLean Greeley, saying:

In this disastrous and shrinking world it is no longer possible - if it ever was - for local communities to be more secure than the surrounding world. Our ultimate security therefore lies in making the world more and more into a community . . . . All of you have the opportunity to share in the answer, and thus help us build a peaceful world.

In recent years the UUA has been granted special consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council. This means we can send six delegates to attend public meetings of ECOSOC bodies, and we can submit position papers on relevant issues. In this way, we have the power to express our ethical beliefs at the world forum. Last September, when Kofi Annan inaugurated the International Criminal Court, UUA President, the Rev. William Sinkford, and UUA Director of International Affairs, the Rev. Olivia Holmes, were there – the first religious leaders to attend.

Yes, the UN is imperfect. Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Henry Cabot Lodge said: “This organization is created to prevent you from going to hell. It isn’t created to take you to heaven.” In our world it is the United Nations that remains the imperfect embodiment of imperfect nations in an imperfect world of imperfect people seeking an imperfect peace. WE need what William James called “a moral equivalent to war,” as strenuous a plan for peace as for war. We need the work of those religious communities who symbolize allegiance to human solidarity above national interest. That is what Universalism means. Our world is one world.

Universalism grounds us theologically in our First Principle: “We believe in the inherent worth and dignity of all people.” That would be all people: people of all colors, of all nationalities, of all sexual orientations; people who are wealthy and people who are walking the streets with only the clothes on their back; young people and people bent with age; people who work with their hands for a living, like my parents, and people with multiple degrees who mainly talk for a living, like me.

It seems to me that Unitarian Universalism is one community which symbolizes allegiance to human solidarity and can help lead us away from violence and war. As Universalists, we can take a “God’s eye view of the world,” think of ourselves as citizens of the world; consider all wars to be civil wars because all people are members of one Beloved Community of Earth. Our world is one world.

There is a garden outside the United Nations which contains several sculptures that have been donated by countries from around the world. There is a Japanese Peace Bell which has been cast from coins collected by children from 60 different countries, a gift from the UN Association of Japan. Traditionally, this bell is rung twice a year: on the first day of Spring and on the opening day of the General Assembly.

In 1994, there was a special ceremony marking the fortieth anniversary of the Bell. On that occasion, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said: “whenever it has sounded, this Japanese Peace Bell has sent a clear message. The message is addressed to all humanity. Peace is precious. It is not enough to yearn for peace. Peace requires work — long, hard, difficult work.”

It is not enough to yearn for peace. The peace bell rings for us all – the peoples of the world and all of us here in this sanctuary. It calls for us to stay in dialogue. We cannot afford the luxury of being blind to the fact that there are enormous issues in the world which can only be solved peacefully through world cooperation.

I hope we will believe in and support the United Nations and its good work – its constant reaching out to the needs of suffering humanity and our beautiful planet. As we sit together in this small sanctuary, let us recognize that its ideals are the same to which we have been called throughout our history. The goals of love and justice that imbue our UU insight into the preciousness of the individual and the wonder of community have a real and visible manifestation in this extraordinary gathering of nations. It has always been true, but now we must truly believe it, if we are to survive: Our world is one world.