The second principle of the Unitarian Universalist church. This one can be tough, because it has 3 parts.
I believe in justice, but I also know from experience that it's really easy to treat people worse than maybe they deserve. I work in a jail, and although the law says these people are innocent until proven guilty, sometimes it's hard to remember that. Many of them, in fact, are guilty, and many of the inmates we house are repeat offenders... plus some of them like to brag. Still, they are receiving the community's currently agreed upon method of punishment.
Equity comes into play in the jail as well, and elsewhere in life. While life is not inherently equal, I think it's our duty as human beings to treat all people equally. To me, this is where race, class, culture, religion, etc. come into play. I don't think anyone's inherent worth is changed, damaged, or enhanced by factors like race or class. I don't think a random white Christian is any better or worse than some random Asian Buddhist or a Muslim, etc. Black, white, yellow, bronze, pink, whatever; we are all equal, no matter our color. At the same time: Christian, Protestant, Buddhist, Pagan, Wiccan, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, Humanist, Taoist, whatever; we are all equal. Poor, rich, middle class, working poor, impoverished; we are all equal as human beings.
Compassion is where empathy comes in for me. Compassion for other people, for the human condition, for your neighbors. The Christian principle "Love your neighbor as yourself" comes into play here: The Golden Rule. I find that even though compassion is probably the part of this UU principle that I most connected with at first, it's the one I have the least to say about it. I was taught the Golden Rule as a child and I try to live by it; that's what compassion means to me.
This was actually a much more difficult principle to write about than the first one. I sat down to explain this one and almost dreaded it. But now I have it out in words, and that makes it better. :)
