April 12, 2026: A Theology of Interdependence

Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray

How does having interdependence as a core religious value shape our theology and world view and why is this so essential today?

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Sermon Text

A Theology of Interdependence

Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray

UU Church of Bloomington

April 12, 2026

READING

Our reading is from the great physicist Albert Einstein. There are a couple versions of his words as he used them on at least two occasions to comfort grieving friends who had recently lost loved ones.

“A human being is a part of the whole, called by us ‘Universe,’ a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. The quest for liberation from this bondage [or illusion] is the only object of true religion. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.”

SERMON A Theology of Interdependence

Three weeks ago, I was honored to be invited to a global conference called “Converging Futures: Where Gender Justice, Democracy and Faith Meet.” The conference was organized by the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, the international human rights organization of our UU tradition.

This conference brought together faith leaders, movement organizers, researchers, and funders from around the world who are committed to democracy, women's rights, and LGBTQ rights. There were people from Africa, India, South America, North America, and Europe present - people of all races, all genders. Together, both before and during the conference, our goal was to create a stronger shared understanding of anti-gender, anti-trans, anti-LGBTQ movements around the globe; how they are deeply intertwined with anti-democratic movements and how we can learn together to combat them and work to build genuine, equitable, pluralistic, multiracial, feminist democracies.

It was a powerful conference, and also somber, given the rise of authoritarianism around the globe. It also made clear, through people's stories, the devastating impacts for women and LGBTQ people, as well as efforts around the globe to have the U.S. embrace authoritarianism and promote anti-gender initiatives and ideologies here and around the globe.

Anti-gender is a broad term inclusive of all attacks on trans and non-binary people's rights and very existence, and attacks on women's rights and reproductive freedom, including access to abortion and contraception.

One of the biggest takeaways from the conference was the knowledge that every authoritarian movement, whether it is fascist, populist, nationalist, right wing or left wing, they all have something in common. They all promote an anti-gender ideology. Fundamentally, the preservation or restoration of cisheteropatriarchy is a common thread across the varied authoritarian efforts and regimes around the globe.

And here is where religion comes in - most authoritarian movements (not all - some are secular), but most either use religion or are supported fervently by religious movements that share this commitment to gender hierarchy, to patriarchy.

So many people wonder why the religious right has backed Donald Trump's political ambitions, when he is such a poor representation of traditional family values. Annie Wilkinson of Political Research Associates who compiled the pre-conference course work, offers this explanation: “opposition to gender equality, abortion and reproductive rights, and LGBTQ rights binds together otherwise disparate political actors. We see this clearly in the actors it unites: the Christian Right, for whom the (cishetero) patriarchal order is a divinely mandated total worldview ...; transactional authoritarian populists like Trump or Hungary's Viktor Orbán, who instrumentalize anti-gender panic to mobilize their bases and consolidate power; White nationalists and fascists, for whom control over women's reproduction is inseparable from the project of racial preservation; economic elites who benefit from the unpaid domestic labor that patriarchal family structures guarantee; and committed secular patriarchs who experience feminist and LGBTQ advances as personal dispossession and disdain for women dressed up as culture war.”

Patriarchy, homophobia, transphobia - these are all things that as Unitarian Universalists, we seek to undo within ourselves and work to combat and undo in our society. And one powerful tool in this work is our theology of interdependence, which is a powerful counter worldview and narrative to traditional religious patriarchy.

So, what is interdependence and what is a theology of interdependence? Interdependence reminds us we are not isolated individuals, solely reliant on just ourselves to survive and thrive. It also reminds us that we are not made to be just dependent - solely reliant on someone or something else. Interdependence refers to the mutual dependence between things that we are all connected not just to each other and humanity, but to the earth, to all living things - and as Einstein reminds us, to the whole, the Universe.

Interdependence came to prominence in our UU movement in the 1970s and 80s. It followed our involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, the Women's Movement, and environmental movement. Even though Unitarians and Universalists recognized women's ordination since the late 1800s, it wasn't until the 1970s and 80s that we had a significant number of women become UU ministers. This demographic change brought other changes. It led to the push to reimagine and re-articulate our core principles and purposes as Unitarian Universalists. This led to the adoption of what we call our Seven Principles, with the 7th being “respect for the interdependent web of existence of which we are a part.” Alongside this change, was the work to update the language of our hymns to create gender inclusive language for God and the holy. That may seem like a simple or obvious change, but it didn't happen without conflict, and its impact was profound in overturning normative patriarchy in our religious imagination. It was also in the 1970s that we began to take our first public affirmation of equality for gays and lesbians.

We call our Unitarian Universalist tradition a living tradition, because we recognize that our faith and how we understand and describe it can and should change as our understanding changes. Recently, our work in congregations and on the national level to deepen our anti-racism work and trans inclusion work led to another re-imagining and re-articulation from the Seven Principles to Six Core Values centered in love. Interdependence remains one of the Six Core Values.

Yet interdependence is not just a value - like justice, equity, pluralism, generosity. No, it's theological - it describes how we understand humanity and its relationship to all of life. It's how we understand the way the world is - existentially or fundamentally. We are all interconnected, a fundamental part of all of life. This is not just a value. It is a theological understanding.

And this theology is transformative. It is a refreshing contrast to theologies and ideologies rooted in hierarchical dualities - which have and continue to dominate the Western mind and culture in ways that have fostered tremendous exploitation and destruction.

Hierarchical dualities is a big term for how philosophers and theologians broke the world down into binary pairs, with one higher or better than the other. God and man; man and woman; white and black; heaven and earth; sacred and profane; subject and object. These binaries reinforce systems of domination and authoritarianism. They also give license to exploit human beings, the earth, and its resources. That is why religion can become such a powerful tool for autocrats seeking to consolidate power.

This is also why feminist men and women, and all people not confined to the gender binary, are such a threat. After all, if there are only two genders and man is superior to woman - and this is all ordained by God, then these genders and roles become fixed and there is only one type of marriage - man with woman; and only one type of family. And anything that goes against this - same sex couples, trans and nonbinary people, women who don't want to get married, don't want to be subservient or don't want to have children - all of this is an affront to that system. That is why women, trans and non-binary people, gay people, feminist men - we need to stick together and organize together! Because our liberation and our democracy is all bound together.

And interestingly, studies have shown that women's participation in movements make them more likely to succeed and to produce a more egalitarian democracy. The challenge is building on wins because history has shown the backlash to progressive change for women and people of color can be extreme.

While focusing on patriarchy today, let's be clear that in the U.S, racism and white supremacy have always been part of anti-democratic movements and a primary force in preventing a truly equitable, multiracial, pluralistic democracy here. This racial dynamic is different within authoritarian projects in other places, including some African countries, India, the Middle East. Yet, anti-gender efforts remain a common thread.

But here is good news. A theology of interdependence explodes these binary relationships to reveal a much more dynamic and pluralistic web of connections that are not hierarchical but based in mutuality. And in contrast to a framework that justifies domination and control, interdependence requires practices of mutual care and compassion. Unitarian Universalists are not the only ones who hold an understanding of the fundamental interdependence and interconnection of all life. Many Native cultures do as well, exemplified in how many speak of the earth and all creation as “all my relatives.” Again, the relationship is not one of hierarchy and dominance, but family and kin.

Einstein reminds us that each of us, every human being, is a part of the whole - what we call the Universe. Limited in time and space, yes, but connected nonetheless. And our imagining ourselves as separate from one another or from the plants, the trees, the rocks, the stars - that is all illusion, even delusion. The fundamental work of religion is to help us see beyond that delusion, to liberate us from that prison of our thinking, to understand how deeply we are connected. The way to do this, according to Einstein, is to expand our capacity for compassion and care beyond just those in our immediate family and community. He writes, “Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

He adds, “Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.”

Einstein's assessment that achieving compassion that knows no bounds is impossible, is helpful; perhaps especially for those of us here last week listening to Jesus's challenge in the Good Samaritan to love not just our neighbor, not just the stranger, but also our enemy. It may not be possible, but Einstein also says the work to expand our capacity, to strive for that fullness of compassion, to understand ourselves as fully and deeply connected and a part of the web of existence is that path to achieving peace in our spirits and liberation for our minds.

It echoes our UU articulation of our core values - remembering that love is at the center of all of our values - a key to understanding and responding to our fundamental interdependence.

Similar to Einstein, Naomi Shahib Nye's poem, “Shoulders,” also places care at the center of how we must live in the world differently. She takes one image, a father with his son sleeping on his shoulder, crossing the street in the rain. He protects him knowing his son's life depends on him, knowing how much his life, his heart, is dependent on his son. At the end Shahib Nye tells us:

“We're not going to be able to live in this world

if we're not willing to do what he's doing

with one another.

The road will only be wide.

The rain will never stop falling.”

She is saying to us, we must be able to do this with one another, to understand the preciousness of each life, of all life; how deeply we are connected. The well-being in our hearts, peace and justice in our world will not come without understanding that care and compassion must come to define our relationships with one another and with the “whole of nature.” This is a revolution in our thinking, nurtured by a theology of interdependence.