Last February, as many of you may remember, the church held our annual auction as a major fund-raising activity. We asked members of the congregation to offer services for which other church members might bid. I made my usual offering: I promised to allow the high bidder to decide the topic for a sermon I would preach here in the church sometime during the church year. The purchaser and I would go to lunch, talk together. I would attempt to create from that conversation a sermon that would respond to the issues the bidder wished addressed.

Several people were kind enough to bid on the opportunity to pick a sermon topic. Eventually Peter Mathers made the highest bid.

Later in the spring I took the metro down to visit Peter and his wife Bonnie Beavers at their offices near Dupont Circle. We went to lunch at a wonderful Italian restaurant.

As the conversation progressed, Peter explained that he grew up in New Jersey where his mother took him to church. By high school he had become a closet atheist, but he continued to go to his church youth group. Now, he said, that he is just not a theistic kind of guy. Peter asked "Do Unitarian Universalists really mean it when they say they welcome people who do not believe in God?"

Over the twenty-five years I have served as a minister, people have often asked me questions about inclusion. Someone might say to me, "I am an atheist. Is there a place for me in this church?" Someone else might say, "I am a Christian. Am I welcome in this congregation?" Still another person might say "I work in the Republican White House. Am I welcome in this church?" These are very serious questions. We all have memories of times when we have heard the message that we are not welcome. Rejection can be very painful. It can make us angry. Rejection is something most of us never forget.

I answer these questions by saying, "Yes. You are welcome in this congregation. I say that about 20% of our membership are atheists. About 10% of Unitarian Universalists are Christian. Several key leaders in our congregation are republicans. We may even have an atheist republican or a Christian republican. One thing that makes this an interesting community is our diversity."

One way I try to encourage this variety is periodically to remind you that in a Unitarian Universalist church a minister’s view is only his or her opinion, not the official opinion of the congregation. You are free to agree or disagree with me. We have no creed or interpretation of scripture we require you to believe to be a member of this congregation. Therefore, a belief in God is not a requirement of membership.

Still being an atheist is not easy. They are a small minority in the United States. Every year researchers ask Americans whether they believe in God, and every year the same overwhelming majority ranging from 92 to 97 percent say yes. In one study 76 percent believe God is a heavenly being who pays attention to their prayers. Seventy-five percent proclaim a belief in religious miracles.

Atheists live in a nation filled with theist beliefs and theist declarations. In school the government expects their children to pledge allegiance to "one nation under God." Atheists must sit through invocations at public meetings or sit silently as grace is spoken before a meal. On their money are the words "In God We Trust." Only 49 percent of Americans say they would consider voting for an atheist for president. In other words, half the nation believes atheists are unpatriotic, morally unreliable and not fully trustworthy.

In contrast, I hope that people who do not believe in God feel welcome in this congregation. One of my favorite quotations from Thomas Jefferson appears in a letter that he wrote to his nephew in 1787. Jefferson said, "Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear."

This is how Unitarian Universalism is different from other religions. The application of reason, logic and the scientific method has been our major contribution to the world. Indeed some of our greatest religious leaders have also been scientists. Michael Servetus not only proved that the Trinity is not in the New Testament, he also discovered that the purpose of the human heart is to pump blood through the lungs and through the body. Joseph Priestly not only founded the first Unitarian Church in Philadelphia, he also discovered oxygen. Today some of our largest congregations are found next to universities, or next to major scientific institutions like the National Institute of Health. Unitarian Universalists get the highest scores on IQ tests and the SAT.

We are a creedless church. We do not require you to promise that you will always use reason, logic and the scientific method to be a member of this congregation. Still these tools are a strong part of our religious tradition and they are a strong part of whom we are today. Personally, I hope all of you follow Jefferson’s advice and question with boldness even the existence of God. I hope that whatever conclusion you come to at the end of your bold questions, you still feel welcome in this congregation.

Of course we could resolve this issue about God once and for all. We could call a congregational meeting and vote on whether God exists. If the majority voted that God does exist, we could create a statement of belief to that effect and require that everyone sign it to stay as a member of this church. Or, if the majority voted that God does not exist, we could encourage the theists to leave. Or perhaps the agnostics would win. We could chase out both the theists and the atheists and change our name to the First Agnostic Congregation of Bethesda.

We could do this, but in my role as one of your ministers, I advise against it. Not only is it inconsistent with the traditional practice of unitarian and universalist congregations, I think it would create a congregation that would be far less interesting. I find it more exciting and stimulating to have in this congregation of atheists, theists and agnostics. I learn from all three perspectives.

This diversity does, however, raise issues when it comes to leading worship. On the weeks that I am leading the Sunday service, I sit Thursday and select the readings. Besides the hymnal I have, on my computer, a collection of hundreds of readings for worship written by Unitarian and Universalist clergy. I use the "find" feature on my word processor to search for appropriate words. In the section called "call to worship" only one reading uses the word atheist. I used it for the opening words this morning. The word God is in twenty-four of the readings. However, 275 of the "calls to worship" do not mention God. Put another way, in an anthology of calls to worship written by more than 200 Unitarian and Universalist ministers, only 7 percent of the readings refer to God. I suspect this reflects the desire of our ministers to use language that is inclusive of all in the congregation both theist and non theist. We want theists, atheists and agnostics to feel welcome in our worship. Each week when I select a reading, I think of all of you and try to imagine how you will react to the words.

Finally, when I think about the word god, I remember an incident that occurred more than thirty-three years ago. I was a first-year student at Arizona State University back in May of 1970. The first week of that month national guard troops shot and killed four students at Kent State in Ohio, during protests against the us invasion of Cambodia. At Arizona State about ten thousand students took to the streets to protest the shootings. For several thousand students the focus of the protest became the campus flag pole. They surrounded the pole saying that it should be lowered to half-mast to honor the students who had been killed at Kent State. A small contingency of campus security police surrounded the flag. Finally, the head of campus security defused the tension by lowering the flag to half - mast. It stayed that way for a few hours until the governor intervened. He ordered the flag raised and he sent in state police to enforce his order and stand guard around the flag pole.

As the tension grew a friend of mine, who worked as a volunteer draft counselor, got a piece of poster board. With a marker he wrote in big letters "the flag is a trap." He then stood in the space between the police and the protesters and walked around the flag pole. He faced the shouting demonstrators with his sign so that people could read the words "the flag is a trap." The people in the front began to ask him what he meant. "The flag," he explained "is only a symbol. If you are successful in defeating the police and getting it lowered to half mast, you will have accomplished nothing of any value. You will not bring back the lives of the people who died at Kent State. You will not end the invasion of Cambodia or the war in Vietnam. By fighting with the police you will not change anyone’s opinion about the war. The flag is a trap because you have taken all your anger and all your rage about the war and focused it on moving a piece of cloth down a few feet on a metal pole. Walk away from this confrontation. Do something to end the war. Refuse to serve in Vietnam. Refuse to pay that part of your taxes that goes to support the war. Find one person who supports the war and sit with that person and try to convince them that the war is wrong. Find a political candidate who is against the war and support that candidate in the next election. Write a letter of protest to your elected officials. Do the hard work that needs to be done to end this terrible war." he walked around the circle saying stuff like that all afternoon until eventually his voice gave out.

I do not know whether it was because of my friend or because of the armed circle of the state police, but there was no violence that day. Eventually the students grew tired and headed back to their dorms or apartments.

Why do I think of this when I think about the issue of theism and atheism? I think the word "god" is also a trap. It is just a symbol, just a pattern of dried ink, or just some vibrations produced by our vocal cords. In the end we should not choose to be part of or to reject a religious community because of the pattern of ink on paper or the vibrations produced by our bodies.

When people say that they are atheists, all they are really saying is that they do not find the word god useful in describing life and the universe as they experience it. When a person uses the word god, they are simply saying that they still find the word god helpful in attempting to describe the nature of things.

To exclude someone from a community or to leave a community of friends because of a word is as foolish as it is to get into a fight over moving a piece of cloth a few feet up or down a metal pole.

What matters is the quality of the relationships that we have together. Far more important than whether we are comfortable with the word god, is where we are comfortable with the people in our religious community. Beyond our families, the most important organization in our lives should be a religious community. I define a religious community as a fellowship of people who cherish, practice and develop traditions concerning the purpose of human life. There may be a few persons who do not need such a community. However, most of us are too easily distracted from the values to which we want to devote ourselves. A religious community should give support and encouragement to us in living up to the ethical rules of honesty and of keeping our promises, and of being kind to others. It should support us in times of difficulty, such as illness. In a unitarian universalist church the community should support us in using the tools of reason, logic and scientific method in understanding the nature of the universe.

We gather here - as individual people -

Young and old;

Male and female;

Temporarily able and disabled;

Gay, lesbian, bisexual and straight people,

All the colors of the human race;

Theist, Atheist, Agnostic, Christian, Buddhist, Feminist, Humanist.

We gather here as a community of people who are more than categories.

We gather here—each ministering to the other, meeting one another's strength, encouraging wholeness.

We give thanks for this extraordinary blessing - the gathering together of separate, unique individuals as a whole, one body, our church.

Here may our minds stretch,

our hearts open,

our spirits deepen.

Here may we acknowledge our brokenness and be ever stirred by love's infinite possibilities.

Come, let us worship.

Closing by The Rev. Barbara Hamilton-Holway

Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church
9601 Cedar Lane, Bethesda, Maryland 20814-4099
Tel: 301-493-8300    Fax: 301-897-5713
e-mail: office@CedarLane.org
Sunday Services at 9 and 11 a.m.
© 1998-2008, Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church
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