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The Core of Us
A Sermon Given
by Rev. Douglas Taylor
on March 9, 2003
at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church
Bethesda, Maryland
Over the few years during which I have been a minister I have ardently
strived to hone an answer to the persistent question: "What is Unitarian
Universalism?" I have particularly tried to articulate an answer that is
concise. I have sought an answer which can be given while standing on one foot
or in the brief duration of an elevator ride. And until recently my attempts
have focused around the concept of "covenanting." By this I mean, the central
facet around which we Unitarian Universalists gather is the way in
which we gather, the set of promises we’ve made as to how we will be together.
That is "covenanting" and that is what is at our center. What binds us
together as a faith community is the way we do religion rather that any
particular belief statement. At least that is what I have been saying all
along. I want to let you all know that I have recently changed my mind.
It’s not that I no longer think we are covenanting communities. I still see
that to be the case. Instead, what I’m digging at now is an attempt to
articulate the theological core of who we are. "Well, Douglas," you might say,
"Covenant is a theological concept. Why are you discounting it?" Because the
concept of covenant describes how we are together, not what we are together.
Covenant is the vessel, the container, I want to be able to describe what is
in that container. I believe we have an enduring and clearly definable core
theological identity.
Now, some say there is not a particular shared core of that sort in our
denomination. We are non-creedal, we do not have a doctrine around which we
all must adhere, we do not have a single belief which we are compelled to hold
in common. We’re all over the map, theologically speaking. And this is quite
true. There are folks among us who find the holy in nature and in rituals and
call themselves pagans. There are others among us who believe in God and
perhaps even call themselves Christian-UUs or Jewish-UUs. There are those here
who do not believe in God and call themselves atheists or humanists. Then
there are folks among us who don’t know how to define the holy from one day to
the next, if ever, and they call themselves mystics or agnostics or simply
seekers. And within each of these are nuances that spread us quite wide. There
are as many ways to approach the holy as there are people to approach it.
Our theological diversity has been referred to as "cafeteria-style"
theology. "Take what you like, but believe what you take." Another description
portrays us as the safe harbor for any soul disillusioned and/or abused by the
mainstream religions, the catch-all alternative religion. One colleague told
me Unitarian Universalism is technically not even a religion, it is simply an
interfaith group because it has no core theological identity of it’s own,
according to that colleague.
Unfortunately, when we start talking about having a core and a center, the
implication here is that we then have fringes and boundaries. We don’t like to
talk about that implication! It almost seems like diversity and tolerance are
the only common values around which we can root out a core theology. Freedom
of belief, or as previous generations put it, freedom of conscience, is one
possibility. Again, however, that does not quite define what we believe, only
that we are free to believe in. David Bumbaugh several years back had an
article in our " UU World" magazine in which he wrote that our denomination is
. . . much clearer about wanting to attract more people than we are about
what we want to attract them to . . . [I]t is easier to embrace diversity
than to define who we are and what we stand for. I fear we are attempting to
put diversity at the center of our religious life . . . because we fear the
consequences of defining too precisely the core . . . blind to the fact that
diversity can only flourish with a strong, clearly defined faith. (World,
March/April 1995, p.26)
It wasn’t always this way. We didn’t always have this wide a spread.
Originally, both Unitarianism and Universalism here in America were quite
specific about their theological core identities. They each had a very clear
message which distinguished them each from other denominations of the time.
When I look back at documents from those founding times, the "Ames Covenant"
and the "Preamble to the National Conference of Unitarian Churches", as well
as the "Winchester Profession" and the "Boston Declaration," I find faith
statements fraught with phrases like: "We believe in one God, infinite in all
his perfections," and "We unite for the worship of God and the service of
man." A big one from the Universalists in 1803 was: "We believe that there is
one God, whose nature is Love, revealed in one Lord Jesus Christ, by one Holy
Spirit of Grace, who will finally restore the whole family of mankind to
holiness and happiness."(Winchester Profession) And the Unitarians wrote this
one in 1853: "We desire openly to declare our belief as a denomination, so far
as it can be officially represented by the American Unitarian Association,
that God, moved by his love, did raise up Jesus to aid in our redemption from
sin..." (AUA, Twenty Eight Annual Report)
Now, I’m not suggesting we should go back to those days, even if we could.
Some have tried. I just want us to see that who we were back then is very
different from who we are now. And more to my point, they were quite clear
about it. Sure there was that hedging moment in the Unitarian statement: "so
far as it can be officially represented." And the Universalist often had in
their statements something called a "Liberty Clause" which allowed for the
freedom of conscience.
Over the years both Unitarianism and Universalism underwent several
significant theological shifts. Unitarianism broadened beyond Christianity and
then even beyond Theism, though continuing to include all that it had held
before. Universalism broadened in these ways as well, and developed a focus on
the here-and-now rather than the here-after. And then, interestingly, the two
groups joined together. And according to Gordon McKeeman, the author of the
meditation we had this morning, it was at this point in which we suddenly
stopped talking about beliefs being at our core and instead started referring
to our plurality of beliefs. And further, the values we lifted up as central
to our newly merged religion, were instrumental values, not terminal values,
according to McKeeman.
Terminal values are values we hold for there own sake. Truth and meaning,
for example, are terminal values. Reason, on the other hand, is a tool we use
to discern truth and meaning. Reason is an instrumental value. Instrumental
values are those values which are instruments with which we use to reach
terminal values. Diversity and tolerance are not terminal values, they are
instrumental values. Freedom of conscience is not a terminal value, it is an
instrumental value. These values lead us toward, and allow us to get to, the
deeper values. Why would we want to allow for diverse religious perspectives?
Why should we tolerate other’s views? Because there is something deeper which
we are after.
For whatever reason, we have not been jumping up and down in front of the
rest of the world, or with each other, about that something deeper. We’ve been
getting very hot, however, about our diversity and our tolerance! I’m not
knocking tolerance or diversity! Indeed, I have really only been speaking of
theological tolerance and diversity, but I fully support all our efforts to
further our racial diversity, our economic diversity, our cultural diversity,
and our theological diversity. I just don’t want to put that cart before the
horse. I am not interested in diversity for diversity’s sake. I am in favor of
diversity because it helps us arrive at that something deeper, that essential
principle behind our Principles and Purposes, that core theological identity.
It is hard to articulate what is at our core, not because it is vague, or
contrived, or non-existent, but because it is complex. Ours is an evolving
faith. We grow as a people and who we are grows with us. We do, however, have
a core theological belief that binds us together. It is more that simply
agreeing to disagree, or covenanting to walk together but on different paths.
Yes, there are many paths found among us, but all of them, Pagan, Theist,
Humanist, Agnostic, they all hold the core belief that human beings have a
basic worth, an essential and innate value.
The enduring theological core of our evolving Unitarian Universalist faith
tradition is our radical understanding of human nature.
Roberta Finkelstein a colleague from across the river, has said,
"We broke away from the liberal Protestant wing of American
congregationalism, but the break wasn’t over what many people think. It
wasn’t really over the doctrine of the trinity, though it is true that our
first name, Unitarian, refers to the belief in the unity rather than the
trinity of God. And it wasn’t really over the question of salvation,
although our second name, Universalism, refers to the belief that a
benevolent God saves all. It was really over the doctrine of human nature
that we declared our independence."
(From her sermon Enlarging the Possible; delivered at the JPD Annual
Meeting, 2001)
It was true then and it is true now. We cast a resounding opposition of the
old doctrine of Original Sin. Human beings are not born with some cosmic
divinely ordained flaw. We don’t need to be fixed. Sure, we have flaws, we’ve
got problems. But by addressing them we can learn from them and we grow.
That’s what it means to be human. I’m not saying all human beings are always
displaying their innate worth and goodness: witness world events and we can
all see how untrue that statement would be. Humanity has got problems, to be
sure, but they are our problems. Unitarian Universalism has at its core a
belief that every person has worth and value. That makes a big difference.
When early Unitarians and Universalists declared their understanding of
human nature, it was radical. It is radical still today. Deep down, we are all
Humanists. It’s just that some of us also believe in God or the Goddess or an
Eternal Spirit. Look, for example, at what we do when it comes time to bless
our babies. We do not baptize them in the sense of cleansing them of sin and
bestowing a membership upon them. We have Child Dedication services in which
we name the child, recognize the blessing, and dedicate the parents and the
supporting community to the task of creating a healthy environment in which
the child can grow. In our services we do not make the child change from
inherently depraved to suddenly blessed by God. If anyone changes as a result
of our Child Dedication services it is the parents and the supporting
community! And we do it this way because we have a core belief that every
human being has a basic worth, an essential and innate value.
Does this mean we have some how been able to have a core without those
isolating fringes and onerous boundaries? No. We are still a non-creedal
community. What is at our core as an organization is not necessarily what is
at the core of every individual’s personal belief structure. As there is a
core, there will certainly be many who are closer to the center and some
others who are further out. But then it is better to recognize that we have
a fringe than to continue to consider ourselves to be a fringe! That’s
okay. And as much as we don’t like to talk about it, Unitarian Universalism
has boundaries. They are fairly indistinct, but they do exist. (And as we get
to this point, I suppose I will need to deliver a companion sermon entitled
‘The Boundaries of Us’. We’ll get to that in due time.)
Our emphasis on social justice, our commitment to diversity, our love of
the environment and our natural place in its intricate web, our dedication to
the education of our children, our fondness for the democratic process, our
loyalty to civil liberties and the freedom of belief, our appreciation of good
music and elegant flowers; all these strong values arise from our core faith
statement that each human being matters and is of inherent value.
In a world without end,
may it be so.
Office@CedarLane.org
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