ENGAGING OUR THEOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

February 12, 2006

Richard Olson

“Sometimes I feel that we are SO tolerant of each other’s beliefs that we do not talk about them. And I’m so new to this theological freedom that I haven’t sorted it all out for myself yet.” - Betty Bradley, recent convert to Unitarian Universalism

He drew a circle that shut me out-

Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.

But Love and I had the wit to win:

We drew a circle that took him in! - Edwin Markham, American Poet

“We (UUs) offer the hope of a spiritual journey, and we offer no tools to do it with.” - Member of a focus group interviewed by The Commission on Appraisal

of the Unitarian Universalist Association

“Ours is a religion whose theology is Unitarian, its faith Universalist,

its worship creedless, its polity congregational.” - The Rev. Fredric Hohn Muir

OPENING WORDS The Free Mind by William Ellery Channing

I call that mind free which masters the senses, and

which recognizes its own reality and greatness:

Which passes life, not in asking what it shall eat or drink,

but in hungering, thirsting, and seeking after righteousness.

I call that mind free which jealously guards its intellectual rights and powers,

which does not content itself with a passive or hereditary faith:

Which opens itself to light whencesoever it may come;

which receives new truth as an angel from heaven.

I call that mind free which is not passively framed by outward circumstances,

and is not the creature of accidental impulse:

Which discovers everywhere the radiant signatures of the infinite spirit,

and in them finds help to its own spiritual enlargement.

I call that mind free which protects itself against the usurpations of society,

and which does not cower to human opinion:

Which refuses to be the slave or tool of the many or of the few,

and guards its empire over itself as nobler than the empire of the world.

I call that mind free which resists the bondage of habit,

which does not mechanically copy the past, nor live on its old virtues:

But which listens for new and higher monitions of conscience,

and rejoices to pour itself forth in fresh and higher exertions.

I call that mind free which sets no bounds to its love,

Which, wherever they are seen, delights in virtue and sympathizes with suffering:

Which recognizes in all human beings the image of God

and the right of God’s children,

And offers itself up a willing sacrifice to the cause of humankind.

I call that mind free which has cast off all fear but that of wrongdoing,

And which no menace or peril can enthrall:

Which is calm in the midst of tumults,

And possesses itself, though all else be lost.

CHILDREN’S FOCUS The New Friend adapted from El Amigo Nuevo by Maria Puncel

READING from The limits of Diversity: Class Barriers and Imperatives

by the Revs. John Parker Manwell and Phyllis LeNoir

Too easily we have confused the theology that most of us share in any generation with

the core of our heritage. Yet we must remember that we cannot reject UU Christians

without rejecting William Ellery Channing. We cannot reject humanists without re-

jecting Kenneth Patton. The core of our heritage is surely broader than where we are at

any one time. Our challenge today is to develop more fully our theology of hope, comfort,

and transformation so that, as a movement, we can open ourselves more fully to the poor

and the oppressed. In so doing, we may rediscover that we are the ones most in need of

such theology.

On reflection, we know that many paths lead to right living. Many paths lead to joy.

Many paths lead to hope. Many paths lead to transformation. What we too often lack is

the courage to call each other to depth in the paths we choose. What we too often lack is

confidence that paths other than our own really do contain pieces of the ultimate. We

need to encourage one another to develop serious prayer lives, or to sit in mediation daily,

or to bring a spiritual dimension to our acts of justice so that we may work with humility

and love.

Too often, too, we have confused particular rituals and music with the permanent core of

Unitarian Universalist. We do not mean to criticize either restraint or Beethoven. Yet we

are called to many paths, even at different times in our individual lives. Drums may not

feed the soul in need of silence. Silence may not feed the soul in need of wisdom.

Learning may not feed the soul in need of community.

MESSAGE

I’ve always been the cautious type. Careful about entering into contracts, careful about getting involved in things that really don’t interest me, and careful about entering into relationships, whether they are friendships, personal relationships or institutional relationships. Which is why

I was careful about joining this church. In fact, I visited this church for over two years before I joined. That might seem like a short time to some of you, or a long time for others.

I have to confess that sometimes my cautiousness borders on, or escalates to, skepticism. So when I discovered this church, a place where skepticism itself is a religion, I was intrigued.

But there was something else that intrigued me when I first starting coming here, and that was the notion that we all can come together without sharing a common theology. It intrigued me that on any given Sunday, no matter where I sat, the person on my right could be a theological Christian, the person on my left might be a Secular Humanist, the person in front of me could be an atheist and the person behind could have little or know idea where she stood theologically at the time.

The problem is, that after attending this church for some 15 years, and with many of the same people, I still know very little about the theology of most of you here.

Is _(insert name of someone in attendance)__ an atheist or a theist? Is ____________ a Buddhist or is ______ into new age spirituality? Is ___________ a Religious Humanist or a Secular Humanist?. Who at this church is what? But an even bigger question is, why does it seem that a denomination that prides itself on theological diversity, rarely, if at all, engages each other to explore and discuss this theological diversity?

One reason we avoid engaging ourselves in our theological diversity could be that we are not fluent in the language necessary to do so. Or, we know the language but have an aversion to it. Or, we believe that when we use the language of theology, it might appear that we are trying to push our theology onto someone else.

For some, the word theology itself, literally the “study of God”, might be a hurdle. It may sound too academic. It may also remind us of the strict theologies that were forced upon in earlier years. So instead of “study of God” let’s consider this definition from Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary: theology, “the study of religious faith, practices and experiences”. This offers a broader and more inclusive definition and makes room for the diversity we celebrate.

Saying that we UUs grapple with language is clearly an understatement, especially when we deal with religious language, or should I say language of reverence, or, um, sacred language or, God talk, er um ..... Why is it that words such as religious, reverence and sacred, or words like God, redemption and sin have become taboo in our church, while exotic words such as dharma, nirvana, and karma are acceptable?

We need to remember that every aspect of life has its own language and vocabulary, and so does religion. When we try to avoid religious language we deny ourselves the opportunity to share our diverse theologies, both within our denomination and with other denominations. While we have stood by, grappling with language, the fundamentalist have taken this language, applied definitions that fit their agenda, and convinced our nation that their definitions are correct.

Today we mark the birthday of a famous Unitarian, Charles Darwin, whose thesis that species evolve in response to changes in their habitats, is as debated today as it was years ago. The diversity and evolution that Darwin found, and that we still find, in nature reminds me of our UU faith. We certainly are a diverse group. And we certainly have evolved, are evolving, both as individuals and as a denomination.

Let’s consider for a moment the evolution of our denomination. And in order to do I will offer a brief history of American Unitarian Universalism, starting in the mid to late 18th Century and ending with current times.

Universalism and Unitarianism both have strong Christian roots. They both began as Christian movements questioning the prevailing Calvinistic thinking of the time.

The Universalists arose as a grass roots Trinitarian based faith. It started in small rural communities in New England among people of middle income status. In the early stages of the movement the prevailing thought, as put forth by John Murray, was that salvation is available to all, as long as you atone for your sins. Another key leader in the Universalist movement at that time was Hosea Ballou, who embraced universal salvation but rejected the need to atone; no sooner did the movement began and it was already shooting off in different directions.

Universalism, which began as a small populist movement, eventually became a popular denomination. In fact, in the mid-nineteenth century, it was ranked as one of the top six or seven denominations in the U.S. The movement had attracted many from the mainstream denominations by offering a clear doctrine of a loving and merciful God and of universal salvation. As more and more people with diverse theology joined, however, the once clear and easily expressed doctrine became convoluted and muddy, causing some to leave.

Also, a move by mainstream Protestant church to “soften” their fire and brimstone, caused numbers in the Universalist churches to dwindle as people returned to their previous churches. By the time the Unitarians and Universalist merged in 1961, the Universalist had gone from being one of the major denominations to only some 36,000 members. A side comment here: Since the methods of keeping track of the number of members was not entirely accurate, this number of 36,000 should be considered only an estimate, but you get the idea. At the time of that merger the Unitarians numbered some 100,000. Today there are about 218,000 UUs in the United States, which is less than one percent of our total population.

Unlike the Universalist movement, the Unitarian movement was not intent on establishing a separate church. It began, instead, as an association of like minded ministers who rejected Calvinism. They saw themselves as liberal Christians and sought to promote their ideas within the established churches in New England. One defining and unifying moment in Unitarian history came when William Ellery Channing gave his famous sermon called “Unitarian Christianity” in 1819.

Not long after achieving a sense of identity, a new movement arose within the Unitarian ranks. This movement, known as Transcendentalism, took hold during the mid 1800, and was promoted by Unitarians Ralph Waldo Emerson and Theodore Parker.

This movement asserted the existence of an ideal spiritual reality that transcends our human physical experience and science and is knowable through intuition. That movement, which in essence questioned the source of religious authority, served as the Unitarians first major theological controversy. It also laid the ground work for the subsequent movement of Humanism, a movement that has had a profound impact our denomination. There are various types of Humanism, such as Secular, Modern, Christian and Religious. It is my understanding that many UUs today describe themselves as Religious Humanists. I found this brief definition of Humanism: “a philosophy that usually rejects supernaturalism and stresses an individual’s dignity and worth and capacity for self-realization through reason”. That does sound like us.

More recently, our denomination seems to be embracing Eastern religions or philosophies and the so-called “new-age” spirituality. As I have already mentioned, we embrace these exotic and trendy ideas with open hearts while at the same time we are skeptical of the language and ideas of our Christian roots. It is time we made peace with our Christian heritage. I am not suggesting that we become a Christian denomination per se. But I am suggesting that we stop avoiding Christian scriptures and metaphors just because it might cause suspicion, discomfort or anger.

I decided to include this brief history to show you how we have evolved from a Christian denomination which actively engaged in theological discussions to a rational humanistic one that avoids it. Those formative years of our denomination, with its theological disputes, sound like exciting times to me.

Recently I purchased the book “Engaging Our Theological Diversity”. The book, which has a 2005 copyright, is the result of a study of our denomination by The Commission on Appraisal of the Unitarian Universalist Association. This commission is comprised of nine members, both lay and clergy. In order to gather information for their study they held several hearings in a wide variety of geographical locations in North America. They held hearings at General Assembly in Quebec City in 2002 and Boston in 2003. They also met with instructors and students from both the Meadville Lombard Theological School and the Starr King School for the Ministry. The Commission also met with young adult groups, UU Pagans, UU Humanists, called HUUmanists, UU Buddhists, etc. If you are interested in more details of the methodology they used, I urge you to read the book. But the main message of the book, and I fully agree, is that we need to actively engage ourselves in a discussion of our theological diversity.

The book contains a great deal of information on who, what and why we UUs are. It also contains many quotes from those who were interviewed for the study. However, there is one quote that sticks with me. The quote is from a participant in one of the UU Pagans focus groups and is printed in today’s order of service. She said, “We offer the hope of a spiritual journey, and we offer no tools to do it with” (repeat).

As you may have notice in the order of service and the Circuit Writer the Adult Enrichment Program Committee is offering two workshops to begin the process of engaging each other is a discussion of our theological diversity. Last year, when I facilitated a two-session workshop on Jesus, I was surprised, and inspired, by the interest there was in discussing Jesus and how he fits into our personal theology. I even remember one break-out group getting completely off task and discussing theology in general. The teacher in me wanted to get them back on the specific focus questions, but I let it slide. Last summer I lead two services, one called “If There is a God Am I Screwed” and the other “Jesus: Many Faces, Many Fables”. The interest in the two services, and the subsequent discussion, has lead me to believe there is interest in discussing our theologies. Maybe you don’t have a definable theology. Maybe your current theology is static and could use some energy. Maybe your theology is set in stone. But if we come together to share our theology we can have a symbiotic relationship.

Our first workshop is next Saturday, Feb 18 and the second is March 11. Both are from 10-11:30. The workshops will be a combination of guided questions from the book as well as informal conversation. If you are interest in one or both of the workshops please contact me.

We pride ourselves on being theologically diverse, and we should. We go out of our way to include everyone. But we have drawn a circle that is “a mile wide but only an inch deep”. To continue our evolution, both individually and institutionally, we do not need to make the circle smaller, but we do need to “call each other to depths”. And in order to do so, we need to learn, or resuscitate, a common language of reverence. What greater tool for a spiritual journey than language itself. We need to come together as a congregation and in small groups to actively engage our theological diversity, and not in an effort to seek uniformity, but instead in an effort to seek unity.

We come together as atheists, theists, Buddhists, Buddhatarians, Humanists, Pagans, Christians, and so on. We are seekers, we are wanderers and we are finders. We are as beautifully diverse as the red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet strands of the rainbow. And we must always remain so. But we can, at the same time, and without losing our individual identities (properties), unite our vibrant colors of theological diversity into a communal light. And the more we engage our individual colors, the more we really get to know each other theologically, the brighter our communal light will shine.

HYMN: Let There Be Peace on Earth

BENEDICTION:

May the beautiful and new things we get to know about each other every day be precisely our cup of tea.

POSTLUDE: Getting to Know You