Faith in freedom. (Reflections On Tolerance).

FREEDOM IS A BASIC, FOUNDATIONAL principle of our nation. Our beginnings are rooted in a struggle against coercion, the coercion of another government over a people who longed to be free. We won that freedom. Now, across the world, we do our best to deny other people theirs in the areas of reproductive freedom and family planning.

The tight restrictions imposed upon family planning programs, collectively known as the "Global Gag Rule", are nothing less than coercion and repression. They represent the successful imposition of a single (and, I would add, narrow) perspective of morality, culture, and religious belief upon others. This does not reflect the ideals upon which our nation is based, nor does it represent us well in the world.

Freedom is a basic, foundational principle of my faith. As a Unitarian Universalist, a faith without coercion is the heart of my religion. It is the heart because we value choice--informed, deliberative choice. Thus, as one's faith necessarily informs one's ethics, choice becomes a critical factor. As a colleague once said, "In as many instances as possible, choice is favored over coercion in order to preserve the greatest possible range for uncoerced ethical behavior, coerced ethical behavior being a contradiction in terms." Uncoerced ethical behavior, like democracy, depends upon the free availability of information and a variety of available options.

As an area in which the exercise of ethical decision-making is critical, family planning requires that there be such availability of information and options. Without them, there is no planning, but rather the imposition of a pre-planned and pre-decided program without regard to individual integrity, variance in cultural and religious norms, or any number of other personal and/or local factors that should be included in the planning process. The fact that our country uses coercion to exclude some of the information and options available for family planning is, from my perspective, unethical, as it circumvents the decision-making process and prevents informed and ethical decisions from being made.

Another value I hold as a Unitarian Universalist is a deep respect for the religious beliefs and values of others. As such, I believe that the family planning programs we support throughout the world need to be sensitive and respectful of the religious beliefs and values of the people who we serve. This means assisting them with the best that is available in ways that are congruent with their beliefs and values, and not imposing our own upon them. We should neither withhold, nor exclusively promote, any one course of family planning, but rather assist them in choosing a course that is in their best interests.

Finally, in light of our world's growing population, it just makes practical sense to promote all the options of comprehensive family planning, both for ourselves as well as those we aid. If we truly respect each human soul, then part of that respect is to plan responsibly so that we can properly nurture and support that individual in a manner that reflects such respect. Thus may we contribute creatively to the future, not just for ourselves or even just for human beings, but for the entire planet.

REV. DANIEL BUDD is a Unitarian Universalist minister in Cleveland, Ohio.