Unitarian Universalism 101

You get on an elevator at the 30th floor, going down to the ground floor. You are wearing a Unitarian Universalist pin. Someone in the elevator asks you about it, and the inevitable question follows–“What is Unitarian Universalism?” You’ve got about 27 floors left to answer; what do you say?

This is actually an oral test question, asked of some Unitarian Universalist seminarians in their final exam, so to speak, before being approved for UU ministry. And it’s many UU’s worst nightmare–our faith is so pluralistic, and different from one person to another, one group to another, one church to another, that it’s hard to sum up at all, let alone in an elevator ride.

Here’s my answer: If religious truth and experience are like a diamond, most religions hold that you need to hold that diamond up and inspect it very closely, looking at one side of it with all kinds of lenses and lights, looking deep into it from that side and thus understanding as much as possible about the stone. Unitarian Universalism holds that if religious truth and experience are like a diamond, that we need to look at diamond closely, yes, but from lots of different angles, lots of different sides. Look at it from the top, the bottom, one side, the opposite side, into it with different lenses and also from far away to see what a different perspective tells us about it. That’s the way we explore and experience religion. Though choosing our path seems to imply a kind of value judgment, it’s not meant to. One way is more intimate and focused, the other is broader and more varied–and the latter is our way.

So how did Unitarian Universalism come to this path? We were not always so pluralistic. Our long name comes from the combination of two once very-distinct faiths: Universalism and Unitarianism. Both originally arose during the time of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. Universalism arose in opposition to John Calvin and his doctrine of predestination–that most people were condemned to hell before they were even born, and a few chosen to ascend to heaven, but there was nothing you could do about it if you weren’t chosen. Universalists held that this was untrue, that God was not so unjust and unloving as to organize humanity according to Calvin’s vision, that there was a perceptible spark of divine grace in all people, that no one was damned and evil from birth, and that potentially everyone was not damned but redeemed; one’s ultimate destination was dependent on how one lived.

Unitarians held that the doctrine of the trinity made no sense–that to organize a belief in the divine along such lines as the father, son and holy ghost, was both too restrictive and too prescriptive, and nowhere in the bible. They believed that the sacred operating in the world transcended such themes, and could not be divided; though there was much in the world shot through with wonder and a sense of the divine, howsoever different those things might be, the sacredness in them was the same–a unity. Hence: Unitarians.

Both these stances served to brand the Unitarians and Universalists as heretics. At that time in history, bucking the establishment was not fashionable and it was not safe, it was taking your life in your hands. Many Unitarians and Universalists suffered, some were even killed. Perhaps one of the most famous was Michael Servetus, who was killed at the condemnation of John Calvin himself. Servetus was burned at the stake with his heretical book, On The Errors of the Trinity, strapped to his thigh.

Our first reading, God Is One, is from another of our 16th c. Unitarian forebears, Francis David. He was an advisor to the one and only Unitarian King, John Sigismund the 1st, of (of all places) Transylvania in Romania. Under David’s leadership, King John Sigismund issued the Edict of Tolerance, whereby it was made a crime in his country for anyone to religiously persecute another. His short reign was one of peace and prosperity but when the king died, so did the reforms he and David had instituted. Ultimately David was convicted of “innovation” and executed by the state.

Unitarianism was brought to America not from Romania but actually from Britain, by men like Joseph Priestly, the discoverer of oxygen. Priestly’s laboratory was attacked by a mob that was infuriated by his unorthodox religion – and he escaped to America, bringing both his scientific brilliance and his faith with him.

Universalism also came to our shores from England – brought primarily by John Murray, who came to America in a state of despair brought on by the death of his beloved young wife and child. He was greeted, literally on landing, by Thomas Potter who had been waiting for a preacher to take up the post at a small chapel he had built on the shore of Barnegat Bay, New Jersey. Murray had been a Methodist, but had been converted to Universalism by an ardent Universalist in England, John Relly. In America, Murray began a new life, becoming a popular and very gifted preacher, who moved many to Universalism’s message.

Eventually, both Universalism took hold mostly in the Northeast, especially through the Connecticut River Valley. Unitarianism also became most popular there, particularly in Massachusetts, where it eventually inspired the likes of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Louisa May Alcott’s family and others of the famous Concord Transcendentalists.

Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of the pivotal contributors in starting Unitarianism on its path towards it modern pluralism. He wrote, then radically, that insight came not only from considering the lessons of Jesus’ ministry, but also that of Buddha and of Hinduism.

UU’ism evolved to the point that it really now has fully embraced Emerson’s vision, and become a pluralistic faith. Though many of us are Christian, in that Jesus’ model and ministry are primary sources of inspiration, many of us are not, in that we ascribe to other visions: Judaism or Buddhism, Daoism or Humanism or Agnosticism. Like the Unitarian Universalist vision of centuries ago, we ourselves are a unity comprised of diversity, believing that there is sacredness in each of us, and that the meaning and judgment of our lives depends on how each of us lives. In this spirit, less than 20 year ago, we established the purposes and principles of our faith, which are on an insert in your order of service:

We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote

• The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
• Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
• Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
• A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
• The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
• The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
• Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

The living tradition which we share draws from many sources:

• Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life;
• Words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love;
• Wisdom from the world's religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life;
• Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves;
• Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit;
• Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.

Grateful for the religious pluralism which enriches and ennobles our faith, we are inspired to deepen our understanding and expand our vision. As free congregations we enter into this covenant, promising to one another our mutual trust and support.

Our purposes and principles reveal us as a liberal faith, one very focused on religious living in this world, on working to make this world more compassionate, more mindful, more just. We strive not merely to be tolerant of difference, but understanding. We aim not merely to live well, but deeply. We seek peace not only for our spirits, but in the world.

I was with Michael Feshbach, a colleague of mine earlier this week and he told me that he went on the website Belief.net recently and took their test which asks you a bunch of questions about what you believe and then tells you what religion you are. Michael is a reform Jewish rabbi. He took the test and connecting most highly not with reform Judaism, not with any kind of Judaism, but, yes, Unitarian Universalism.

When he got over his shock, he realized that the reason he got this result was that the Belief.net test asks only about theology, not about identity or heritage or the role of community in your faith. So, when it comes right down to what he believes, he’s a Unitarian-Universalist, or as we commonly say it, UU…but when it comes down to how he believes, and why he believes, he’s a Jew, through and through.

He told me this story and then gave me permission to share it with all of you–on the condition that I stress that last point about community. And I told him, no problem, I would stress it anyway. Because community is essential in any faith tradition. There is no religion that exists on a purely individual basis. There are individuals who exist on a faith basis, but not the other way around. Without others, no faith can live.

Without each other, here at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Silver Spring, we would have no building, no grounds, no religious education, no staff, no minister, no congregation. All these things are essential, part of how we live our creed in the world. Without each other, in very real ways, we have no faith. This is a foundation even for our belief in the democratic process, which is how we make decisions, changes and commitments with each other. Important decisions are voted on and what the majority deems best, we all abide by. Even our larger faith, Unitarian Universalism itself, is an association of these free congregations–our denominational decisions are made at an annual convention, to which all congregations send delegates.

One’s journey, as a UU, is never done because life and the world are never done with offering lessons to enlighten and expand us. Part of what sustains us on our journeys is that we make them together. As James Luther Adams wrote, Unitarian Universalists are joined in caring congregations, founded on integrity and spiritual freedom, open to insight and the promptings of conscience, ever-growing and thus ever-relevant; our goal is the prophethood and priesthood of all believers, the liberty of prophesying, the ministry of healing. Together Unitarian Universalists are a tapestry; alone we are each only a thread–perhaps beautiful, perhaps shining, but still, Unitarian Universalism’s very structure, as well as its purposes and principles, all affirm that to be alone is not what we were meant for and it is not enough. Members and visitors alike this morning, I invite us all to reflect on how we are living, whether we are living as we believe, how we may more fully live as we wish. I invite us all to commit or recommit ourselves to that vision we each carry within us for a life of engagement, of joy, of love, of justice, of compassion. May we each renew our commitment to that vision and to the ways that sustain us in making that vision reality. Amen.