BLUU & DRUUMM Joint Statement co-signed by 25 UU congregations and organizations
June 23, 2025 | Peace Resources
We who are rooted in the sacred dignity of every person and the earth we share, reject America’s War on Iran. Our hearts ache and yet we must not be frozen in despair.
DRUUMM —Diverse & Revolutionary Unitarian Universalist Multicultural Ministries and BLUU – Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism speak with fierce clarity and love: We condemn the U.S. and Israeli governments’ military aggression in Iran and the broader war machine that fuels genocide, occupation, and domination across the globe. Escalating violence only moves us farther away from our humanity.
This is not peacekeeping. This is empire at work. We cannot bomb our way to a lasting peace; domination and control do not lead to self-determination and security. This is extraction, expansion, and extermination.
We are watching—again—as Western powers weaponize the language of democracy to justify indiscriminate devastation of families and cultures. Just like in 2003, during the U.S. invasion of Iraq, we are seeing the revival of fear tactics and falsehoods that pretend to be about diplomacy, but involve oil, supremacy, and control.
Too many governments, including our own, are entangled in a web of corruption and impunity—where war crimes are covered up; where revisionist history turns colonizers into victims; where solidarity is twisted to serve white supremacy. This catastrophe is a moral failure of Western civilization—built on stolen lands, stolen bodies, and dominance.
We Unitarian Universalists are a life-affirming people. We call for an end to war profiteering and greed. We call for healing the earth from the wounds of war.
The alignment of the United States with Zionist policies is not neutral—it is violent, and intertwines with white supremacy. It enables apartheid, occupation, and endless war. It is the foundation of neocolonialism and it leaves little room for the flourishing of pluralism, of democracy, and of life itself.
Black liberation and the freedom and safety of all is bound to the liberation of Palestine, Iran, Sudan, Congo, and so many other areas of the world in which the USA directly and indirectly occupies and oppresses Black, brown, and Indigenous communities. The world we want to see is grounded in love, care, and nourishment.
As people of faith and conscience, we hold fast to our deepest values:
- The worth and dignity of every person—Iranian, Israeli, Palestinian, Jewish, Muslim, Arab, Black, Indigenous, and all.
- The interconnected web of existence—which war unravels with every missile, every lie.
- The power of collective resistance—to speak truth to power, even when it is our own nation.
We refuse to be silent. We refuse to be complicit. Even in the face of fear and despair, we are called to act. Each of us has a role to play, in our own corners of the world, to stop this violence and build the world we know is possible:
- Read and reflect on the roots of imperialism, white supremacy, and militarism. Listen to those whose lives are most impacted.
- Deepen your engagement in a collective—organize, pray, protest, build. Show up for one another.
- Risk visible direct action—speak out, march, disrupt business as usual. Let your values be seen and heard.
Another world is not only possible—she is rising. And we are rising with her.
Signatories
- Church of the Larger Fellowship
- Diversity/Antiracism Transformation Team of Paint Branch Unitarian Universalist Church
- DRUUMM California
- DRUUMM Southwest Asian/North African Caucus
- Friends of Sabeel North America
- Human Rights Working Group of the First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco
- Texas UU Justice Ministry
- The First Unitarian Universalist Church of Berks County
- The Forum Committee of Third Unitarian Church in Chicago
- The Parish Committee of the First Parish UU Canton
- The Peace Education Center of the Hudson Valley
- Unitarian Church of Barnstable’s Justice for All Committee
- Unitarian Universalist College of Social Justice
- Unitarian Universalist EcoSocialist Network
- Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East
- Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association
- Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Earth
- Unitarian Universalist Refugee & Immigrant Services & Education
- UU Mass Action
- Virginia Unitarian Universalist State Action Network
- The JVP Central Ohio Chapter
- TUCKERMAN CREATIVE MINISTRIES FOR JUSTICE AND HEALING
- The Texas Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry
- Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Earth
- Wildflower UU Church in Austin, TX
