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What Does IPPA Seek To Accomplish |
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We wish to provide resources that Democrats, Independents, and moderate Republicans can use to help establish a new positive vision for an America rooted in our core values of equality and respect for life. IPPA’s “Common Guiding Principles” affirm that moral values apply not only to individuals and families, but also to political policies.
We anchor our principles not in any specific religious or sacred texts. Rather, our principles represent a consensus of our core values about which people of different spiritual backgrounds can agree. Individuals may have divergent views on the origins of these principles, some finding them in sacred texts, some in religious instruction, some in intuition, and others in what biology reveals about human nature. We believe that spiritual values drawn from these various origins have an important place in our secular lives, and that they should provide moral imperatives for our political actions.
IPPA welcomes the opportunity to contact congregations and religious leaders, but they are not our exclusive audience. A number of our members are Christians. However, our consensus on moral values is interdenominational, yet easily accessible to any religious tradition.
We affirm these social principles as most sacred:
- The equal worth of every individual, both in our country and abroad. From equal worth we derive the imperatives of equal protection under the law and equal opportunity for all. Reversing the widening gap between rich and poor under which these inequities flourish is essential to the healthy future of our democracy.
- Equal human worth implies the principle of respect for human life, which creates obligations to promote ;
- Physical health for all as the vehicle for sustaining individual lives. We support access to adequate health care for all, so they may derive its benefits. Our most immediate responsibility is health care for the neediest and most vulnerable
- b) Cooperation among sovereign nations, reducing harm to the weakest and opening the door to benefits for all. Our tools should be diplomacy and shared economic interest.
- We recognize the importance of intergenerational responsibility for the health of the planet Earth.
- We cherish tolerance and privacy that promote pluralism. The best solutions to questions about the well-being of human life emerge from a full discussion of diverse alternatives.
- The pursuit of knowledge promotes individual well-being and encourages independent thought and action. It can foster healthy lives for all through what we learn about our bodies, our physical environments, and social behavior.
- Democracy, unlike dictatorship, promotes a largely non-coercive society. Its stability, efficiency and strength depend on the existence of trust between citizens and their government. That trust is established when leaders govern according to these fundamental social principles we have listed.
America is a powerful country whose borders people want to cross-- to enter, rather than flee. We honor those who defend our land, but we are also mindful that our strength issues from the traditional moral standards drawn from the many spiritual faiths and traditions that guide our actions. Because we are inclusive in deriving those standards, we are unified on what we revere and to what we dedicate ourselves. |
