Board Reflections: Social Action Implications of Love

Submitted by Fred Foster-Clark

Reflections On The Spiritual Aspects And Social Action Implications Of Love

Now that we are past Valentine’s day and its commercialized, romanticized views about love, I want to reflect on the spiritual aspects and social action implications of love and what it means to “Side With Love” as the UU catchphrase goes. As part of my Wellspring journey (the UU program of spiritual inquiry and exploration that UUCL is offering for the first time this year) that I share with nine other UUCL folk, I was moved by Bill Sinkford’s 2016 sermon at General Assembly where he calls us to become communities of resistance to the injustices that surround us. He states that “resistance is what love looks like in the face of hate.” And in reflecting upon the UUA’s institutional failings in the face of the Black Empowerment movement of the late 1960s and beyond, he stated that “it is only together that we can find the courage and the will not to look away this time.” So I look to UUCL, its people and its programs, to provide the togetherness, the community, the love to support me on my journey as I seek to find communities of resistance so that I can answer Sinkford’s call and fight the injustices and hate that still surrounds us in today’s world. Love is what motivates us to action, and love is what must support us in the struggle. May it be so.