Who has "moral authority"? . To the Orthodox/conservative, the organized church's heirarchy has moral authority. To the liberal, the individual has it. "Give me liberty or... well, gimme a powerful leader who can make the decisions I wuda, if I had my liberty." It's so much easier. To make all life's big and little decisions oneself is quite a task.
. . The orthodox/conservative tends to think that he who has political power has moral authority. This... in spite of all history to the contrary! Truly, politics has nothing to do with morality. A leader elected to represent us, does so only in the political realm. If you've half a mind to go into politics, that's more than enuf! Those with a fuller mind... don't do so well in the system. They don't just "go along" with the program.
. . We might think those with legal power have moral authority. Yes, I'd admit that laws somehow have a consensus of morals behind them --on the bottom line, they're both about fairness. But in America, I'd put it this way: no person has legal power, just legal responsibilities. The power is in the laws, not the people who write them or enforce them. All children are UUs --they question everything. It's horrible that they so often lose that ability! They are charged up the quest for fairness --perhaps there's a gene for that ("It's not FAIR!" . "I'd rather do it myself!" . Children have moral authority!
. . Do those with financial power have moral authority? With rare and delightful exceptions, we can't mention riches in the same paragraph with the word "moral".
. . Belief is not hereditary, tho you can get it by capitulation --giving up. (In religion-ruled times, you got your new beliefs by capitulation... or you lost your own beliefs by decapitation! Capitulate or decapitate!)
. . For REAL belief, ya gotta go thru all the details that make up the thing you might believe in... every factor. And do it all again when new ideas come to you, or occur to you. This is not to say that ideas cannot come to you from another person; just that, once there, it's your job to digest it. Brain-plaque is made of undigested ideas! (constipation! ...sorry.) . It's made difficult by the fact that there's seldom an objective "good vs bad" choice --or an "A" & "B". Actions & ideas are usually *good in a few ways and *bad in a few others. And, if you keep lookin', there's A thru *Z... and around again. It's impossible to do only one thing. Everything causes impinging factors that come back and impact against all other factors.

AUTONOMY. It's Latin. Auto- means "self". Nom means name. To have autonomy means to have named yourself. To soften that phrase up a bit, let's say it means that *you have made all the decisions that make up your character. (We won't go into the genetic factor, tho that's important too. ...more than we usta think.)

MORALS. Many people seem to think that ethics is [should be!] about business, & morals is about sex! I like this one better: Ethics is the study of morals --morals is the practice of ethics. Too circular, so let's throw in that both are concerned with fairness and proper action --"proper" being: the decisions that cause the most good and least harm. If we continued to define stuff, "good" and "harm" *really gets us into a brain exercize! I'll spare you that.
. . Putting "moral" and "autonomy" together makes it difficult. It means ya gotta do the right thing, and ya gotta learn all the factors that could go into making every possible decision... in every possible situation. Sounds exhausting! Well, so's running a kilometer, if you're not used to it.

An aside: Don't gimme that stale point about "fate". It's a cop-out! Fate is only that feeling of strong influence from our genes... those things and behaviors we are driven towards without our conscious decision. (eg: there is a person I am driven toward without my conscious decision. "SoulMate". I think I was born with her "image" in mind.)

"Moral obligation"? A contradiction. If you're obliged, where's the choice? Morals imply --& require-- a choice. A "committment" is a choice. Design your own set of moral committments. Do not blindly obey! (as if I hadda tell you that.)
. . SO: a person who exercizes free will is the only person who is subject to morality. --it takes free will to have a choice in matters, & without a choice, morality is moot --he's opted out of a chosen/examined life. So the more you take authority [autonomy] over your own life, the more you also choose to make all your own decisions about morality. Many chose to give that authority to others, and live simple lives without growth.
. . To simplify Emmanuel Kant's Universal Law Formula: "Do only what you'd have everybody do." It's close to the ancient Golden Rule (of ALL religions), but it's more... Would you want your actions to be required of everyone? Surprisingly, I'm saying yes. If you take free will, you are --in effect-- the Moses --the law-giver for all of humanity! I wish everybody would do that! You'd then receive all those laws, given by 6.25 billion people, & filter them down to YOUR LAWS!
. . A joke said that Unitarians have the "Ten Suggestions", not Commandments! . Thinking about that, I say: why not take that seriously? Take them as suggestions and examine them. See what yours are. Nine? Twelve? Rewrite a few? If you've the courage, it would be very curious if you'd not change something.
. . If you take free will, and accept that you must answer the question "Why should I?", it also helps give the answer to that common, very simple, yet most difficult question: "who are you?" I understand the word "Why". I understand the word "should". But what, exactly, do you mean by "I" ?
. . We choose growth. We'll do it the hard way --if only because it's the only way. UUs are smart folks. It's one of the 7 Principles: we search for the truth... not for what we want to be true. --not for what looks comfortable or rewarding-- but for what IS, regardless of what we'd rather it was.
. . But it's confusing: Aug 14, 02: A study found that consumers reading a brand name do not treat it like any other word --instead it activated parts of the brain normally used to process EMOTIONS. The advertisers get their messages past our thoughts --past the spot where we decide... what we think of that brand name.
. . I read a net article lately that quoted a study. It found that the people who have the least Altzheimers are those who had exercized their minds the most, all their lives. So it's true: "use it or lose it". Using it not only builds strength, like a muscle --it acts like dental floss for the mind --and the brain --literally. Here's the graphic: [show floss-string pull back/forth thru the ears]. Altzheimers is caused by plaques that grow in the brain. If ya sit on the couch and watch "Dumb and Dumber", you'll get that way! Pump iron... your body grows the muscle it thinks you need; if you use the Gaia Yahoo group or other places to discuss things, and gnash those neurons, you'll grow more of *them! ... Literally, literally true.
. . So... crossword puzzles can cure a disease. ...a little. It's no guarantee, of course. It just helps.
. . Don't let those stale old ideas sit up there and coagulate! We have the group to floss the gunk out! Gaians don't blindly accept authority --even the self-proclaimed variety. Even if it was proclaimed centuries ago. We wouldn't even blindly accept the authority of our own beloved founder! When we disagree, he will hear about it!
. . The future's coming faster'n ever! Would you believe: scientists say they can build an elevator to orbit?! . Hang a carbon-fiber cable from here to there and ride it up. Fantastic? . Impossible? . Nope. The numbers add up. You can see... it's gonna take some neurons to keep up with all this stuff.

"The future may require not so much having a new idea... as stopping having an old idea." ~Edwin Land
That's much harder than just accepting a new idea. Old, unexamined ideas are brain-plaque! ...not in a physical sense, but the exercize of removing old ideas does help prevent it. Old ideas are like an addiction: It's so much easier to keep sayin' X is true, than to make all the readjustments to your life if you find out X isn't true!
. . The side advantage to all this mental exercize: it helps you to learn "who you are". And it helps make who-you-are a better person. Over and over. A quote:
"The truth which makes 'men' free... is for the most part... the truth which men prefer not to hear." (--Herbert Agar)
. . Ayn Rand said: . "A 'moral commandment' is a contradiction in terms. The moral is the chosen, not the forced; the understood, not the obeyed. The moral is the rational, and reason accepts no commandments."
. . The free and moral person is the one who would be the author of the laws they live by. Those laws may not be the same as the ones on the books downtown. They might even be more strict, as easily as less.

So. Who has "moral autonomy"?
Only the brave --those willing to work at it with abandon. Abandonment of outside authority!

And who's the only one who has "moral authority"?

.

.

.

. . . . YOU!

.

.