What Happened to God in UUism?
Rev. Mark Stringer
First Unitarian Church of Des Moines
2/13/05

“Life is one long quarrel with God but we make up in the end.”
–Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish author, essayist, and historian

 

Call to Gather

Another morning to be together in this familiar hall
to ponder the unique journey that is our life…
to wonder, to question,
to think about our heritage
and take stock of what we believe.
As we begin,

know that regardless of your theology or religious background
there is space for you here.
No matter what you doubt, no matter what you trust
No matter how literally you may take words, or how metaphorically,

There is space for you here.
No matter how seriously you hold to your perception of the mystery, or how lightly,
No matter your gender, class, race or sexual orientation…
No matter the pain you have experienced in your life,
no matter the joy,
There is space for you here.

How wonderful to have a place such as this…

where there can be space for us all.

 

Meditation

By James Madison Barr, from his 1972 meditation collection entitled 73 Voices.

 

I do not pray; but if I did, here is what I would say:

Hear my prayer, O God, my fondest hopes and deepest longing:

To hurt as few persons as possible;

To resist the pestilences of fear, envy, bitterness and hate;

To come to terms with disappointment, failure and defeat;
To love with all my being:
         with my eyes
         with my hands
         with my heart
To love in every way I can;
To accept the fact that all causes are lost causes, and that
there are no victors under the heavens;

To live graciously in a Universe which at best is only
benignly indifferent to us;
To sometimes experience something other than myself;
To never turn my back to the sun;
To be free enough to celebrate another human being;

To have faith enough, to receive grace enough
         That I may sing,
         Experience Joy,
         Say Yes to life even as it destroys me…

O God be merciful to us, and help us be merciful to ourselves.

 

Amen.

 

 

Reading

This morning’s reading is by UU minister Richard Gilbert:

 

God is…

A three letter word,

Partner in profanity,

Companion of the sublime,

The deepest down darkness in me,

The rainbow wrapped around my shoulder,

The mystery beyond all knowing
or wanting to know,

The poet’s literary friend,

The justifier of a thousand horrible deeds
and the why of a million-billion acts of love.

The question as inescapable
as it is unanswerable,
The macro-cosmic mystery
and the micro-cosmic explanation,

The word when there is a desert
with nothing to say,

And the subject of a jungle of books.

The without which nothing
and with which what?

God is the theist’s joy,

The atheist’s foil,

The agnostics doubt.

God is a simple
  deep
         dark
                  light
                  bright
up-tight
  three letter word.

 

Sermon

I read recently that Henry David Thoreau, on his deathbed, was asked if he had made his peace with God, to which he replied, “I wasn’t aware that we had ever quarreled.”  While I admire his clever response, I’m not sure I believe it. After all, he was known to stretch the truth at times.  For example, he claimed in Walden that he was roughing it in the wilderness, while, rumor has it, he was sending his laundry off to be done by someone else.  So much for self-reliance!  Furthermore, the idea that any of us could go through life without at least one argument with God (either the concept or the reality) seems unlikely.  That’s why I appreciate the Thomas Carlyle quote I put at the top of the order of service: “Life is one long quarrel with God but we make up in the end.”  

 

When I first discovered Unitarian Universalism at the Community Church of New York in the mid-90s, I had the impression that, like Thoreau, the denomination had had no quarrels with God either.  God appeared to be mostly out of the picture and that seemed to be an acceptable arrangement, particularly to an agnostic newcomer like me.  After looking into UU history, though, and learning about the roots of our liberal religion, I realized that this newfound home for my religious journey, was actually a perpetual work-in-progress, a product of many theological progressions and transitions.  I learned that God language and belief had in fact once played a prominent, if not dominant, role in Unitarian and Universalist churches, and in some cases, still does.  So when a newer member asked in an adult education course here a while back “What happened to God in UUism?”—the same question I had asked when I was new—I figured there must be others wondering the same thing.  In the remainder of our time this morning, then, I will offer you an historical answer, as well as a more personal answer, since I believe that in many ways, what happened to God in UUism has been and will be impacted by what has happened to God in our individual lives.

 

I’ll start with some history.

 

Universalism and Unitarianism both grew out of Christian belief. Therefore God was not only present in both from the beginning; God was the focus…though not necessarily the same God described in more orthodox Christian churches.  For example, Unitarianism preached one God, as opposed to a triune God (or trinity), and Universalism celebrated a God that offered universal salvation instead of predestination, as preached by the Calvinists. 

 

Regardless of the differences between the early Unitarian and Universalist ideas of God and the theistic perspectives of others, we still cannot deny that God was an integral part of Unitarian and Universalist practice and belief.  So, if God were present in Unitarian and Universalist churches back then, where did He, She, or It go? 

 

Unitarianism is where most of the transitions took place, and these transitions became a part of Universalist history when the two faiths merged in the 1960s.  The transitions began with the emergence of Transcendentalism, the first major theological development within American Unitarianism.  Transcendentalists such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Theodore Parker wrote and preached of a God that could be accessed through direct intuition, thereby foreshadowing the radical individualism that would continue to emerge throughout Unitarian history.  In the mid-19^th century, Unitarian denominational leaders sought to better organize the movement but were fought by the spiritual descendants of the Transcendentalists who feared the next step would be the development of a dogma.   These folks wanted to ensure what they called “free” religion, or religion without creed.  Influenced by Darwinism and the application of the scientific method to religious beliefs, they also preferred a religious outlook that might go beyond Christianity.  So in 1867, they founded the Free Religious Association.  Octavious Brooks Frothingham was a spokesperson and articulated their perspective by describing religious ideals as ever-emerging throughout the evolution of humanity, and by contending that God worked not as a supernatural force, but “in and through human nature.”[1].  

 

Meanwhile Unitarian churches, once primarily found in New England, were sprouting in the Midwest.  These churches tended toward a lessened emphasis on more traditional Christian concepts as found in Unitarian churches on the East coast, and placed a greater focus upon ethics as the exclusive grounding for religion.  Incidentally, the theological differences exhibited in these different churches all but insured that the Unitarian denomination would remain creedless, setting the stage for the 20^th century development and rise of religious humanism, which was an even more intentionally non-theistic and less speculative expression of liberal theology than the previous movements within Unitarianism.

 

One of the leaders of the religious humanism movement was Curtis Reese, who served as minister of this church from 1915-1919. In fact in a sermon he delivered here in Des Moines in 1916 entitled “A Democratic View of Religion,” Reese articulated his humanism by making it clear that an emphasis on God was a distraction from the “chief end of…[humanity]” which he saw as the necessity to do all we can to “live in the ‘eternal now,’ for the ‘eternal tomorrow’ never is.”[2]

In general, the humanists of his time were not antagonistic towards the idea of God; they just thought the emphasis on a supernatural God was misplaced.  Reese preached that liberal religion should, in fact, remain open to the idea of God.  However, he was in pursuit of a religion “that would not be shaken even if the very thought of God were to pass away.” Another early leader of the religious humanists, Minneapolis Unitarian minister John Dietrich, summed up the humanist perspective well when he wrote (in the male-centered language of his day): “The kind of world we live in depends not upon some God outside of man, but upon man himself, or, as some of us would put it, upon the God that dwells in humanity.  It matters not which way you put it, the responsibility clearly rests upon man….”[3]

 

That there were several prominent Unitarian ministers preaching humanism did not of course persuade everyone in the denomination to abandon their more traditional theistic beliefs and a humanist-theist controversy ensued, which, some could argue, still rages even today.  Here in the Midwest, however, it seems that the legacy of being the birthing ground for humanism has made it possible for many modern day Unitarian Universalists to incorrectly believe that a UU perspective is virtually synonymous with humanism…to the exclusion of most, if not all, references to God.

 

But what really happened to God in UUism?  Well, not much, depending on which church you are in.  On the East coast, particularly in New England, you can find UU churches that are so “high church” in their worship services, you might think you have wandered accidentally into an Episcopal service.   Meanwhile, in many of the Midwest and Western congregations (oftentimes not even called churches, but societies or fellowships), you may be more apt to find God mentioned rarely, if at all.

 

While a 1998 survey indicated that 46 percent of UUs align themselves with a theologically humanist perspective (more than twice the number of the next most common theology—nature-centered spirituality), we should also note that more than half of the entire UU population is aligned with something other than humanism as their primary descriptor. Furthermore, chances are good that the percentage of humanists has decreased in the seven years since the survey was done because the results showed that those most likely to label themselves as humanists were the older members.

 

One important thing to remember about the rise of religious humanism in Unitarian churches was that, for the most part, the early humanists did not want to convert the entire denomination into a humanist movement.  They just wanted to be allowed at the table until they could form their own religious body…which for the most part did not happen.  As William Schulz points out in his book about the creation of the Humanist Manifesto that our Sunday morning adult religious education is studying this month, the American Humanist Association today has “but a few thousand members” nationwide.[4]  That’s why I have to chuckle when I see the occasional letter to the editor of the denominational magazine UU World by some irate humanist claiming that UUism is a humanist religion that is being over-run with theists.

 

The American Unitarian Association (forerunner of our own UUA) published a pamphlet 50 years ago entitled “Why the Humanism-Theism Controversy Is out of Date” that is still pertinent today.  The author of the pamphlet makes the case that both humanists and theists have the same evidence.  For example the Humanist might say “You cannot know that God exists; therefore, he does not exist.”  Meanwhile, the theist might offer, “You cannot know that God does not exist; therefore he, [she or it] does exist.”  Both positions, the author points out, “have the same support from knowledge—none at all.  Belief in God and denial of God are alike matters of faith, not of knowledge.”[5]

 

That’s why one way to answer the question “What happened to God in UUism?” is to say “Nothing.  God has been there all along.  UUism just gives us the freedom as individuals to ignore, deny or rename it.”  I think this is a great strength of our liberal approach to religion, this notion that we have the freedom, if not the expectation, to develop our own theology…our own ideas about who or what God might or might not be.  But I should also point out that it can also be the greatest weakness of our liberal religion, too…at least when we may feel as though we can’t mention God here at all, for fear of offending those who do not believe.  Avoiding God in this way not only limits the number of people who might find a home with us; it becomes a kind of UU theological “correctness” that actually inhibits the free and responsible search for truth and meaning our principles claim we promote.

 

A member shared with me the other day that three times in the past month he has been at church gatherings where different people, in this member’s view, bashed Christians.  As this member is relatively new to UUism, he came to me with concern.  Incidentally, this is not the first time this has happened in my time with you, nor do I expect it to be the last.  After all, people carry lots of wounds and baggage here—personal and theological—and old habits/injuries die hard.  I shared with this member who felt under fire that our UU faith (or if you prefer something more tangible than faith, you could say our UU principles) clearly implies that it is inappropriate for any of us to be bashing any other religious perspective.  We can certainly disagree with other religions or not hold their tenets equal to our own.  But we are limiting our chance to learn from others if we belittle their belief systems with blanket statements of our own theological or intellectual superiority.  Remember, we both have the same support from knowledge when it comes to theology—none at all.

 

Reminds me of a joke:

 

In a town not all that unlike this one, there is an elderly woman who every morning for years has gone out onto her porch, raised her arms to the sky and shouted “Praise God!”  One day an atheist moves in next door to the woman, sees her morning ritual, and is predictably irritated.  So every morning he waits for the woman to shout her praises, so that he can shout back at her “There is no God!”  This daily exchange goes on for years.  One winter, though, the woman experiences some hardships and this time goes out onto her porch to holler “Praise God!  I spent the food money on heat and now I am going hungry.  Provide for me, God!”  The next morning she steps out onto her porch and discovers two full bags of groceries have been left by the door.  “Praise God!” she proclaims.  “God has provided me with groceries!”  Just then the atheist neighbor jumps out and shouts back “There is no God!  I bought those groceries!”  The woman throws her arms into the air and shouts “Praise God! Who provided me with groceries and made the devil pay for them!”

 

I think this joke teaches an important lesson:  The more defensive we are about our own belief systems, no matter what they might be, the more likely our companions will be defensive about theirs.  That’s why when that member shared with me his concern about the Christian bashing, I encouraged him to respond in the future by modeling the UUism he wants to see—by staying at the table and clearly stating his objections, but with mercy and sympathy toward those who have been wounded enough to feel the need to bash others, showing in the process that none of us has the corner on truth and that we can each learn from the other.

 

Let’s face it, our very humanity and the nature of the mystery we seek to understand make it almost inevitable that we will compare and judge the belief systems of others.  How else can we determine what it is we believe?  However, it should not be acceptable for any of us to denigrate the non-violent, non-coercive views of others, or imply that those views don’t belong in a church like ours…in fact, doing so only limits our own understanding and threatens to minimize this liberal religious faith to the point of total insignificance.

 

One of the reasons I stayed away from religion in my young adulthood was that I didn’t believe there was a church were people could not only hold different beliefs, but could express them without fear of reprisal.  When I discovered UUism, I believed I had found the church I had been looking for.  However I have come to see in my ten years as a UU that we still have a long way to go as a denomination.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love this church and I love this liberal religion.  But I love it more for its potential than for its reality.  I don’t love it when we are so anxious to wrangle with the semantics of religious language that we keep ourselves from the deeper meanings and possibilities beneath the metaphors.  I don’t love it when we believe that our liberal approach makes us somehow superior to those holding more traditional beliefs.  And I don’t love it when we get so caught up in our own vision of “the truth” that we will not listen to others. 

 

I am not recommending that we start using God language indiscriminately.  To be sure, I have been sensitive to the use of religious language because when I first walked through the doors of a UU church, I was so limited in my ability to process and translate some religious terms that, if there had been too many overt references to God in the service without acknowledgement that I didn’t have to believe in this God, I doubt that I would have felt as comfortable as I did.  In fact, it’s possible that I may not have returned.  Of course, as luck or providence would have it, I wasn’t over-exposed to God language in that church and I’m glad that was the case since not only did I discover in that community a calling that led me to end up as your minister, but upon giving myself more fully to the UU approach to religion, I discovered, much to my surprise, a god that I do believe in…a god that offers me direction and the ever-present possibility of transformation…a god that enables me to not only accept others’ ideas about the divine, but that by necessity requires that I try to understand and integrate these ideas into my own understanding.  My god might not have too much in common with the God of Jerry Falwell, or President Bush, or even some of my colleagues in UU ministry.  And, by nature of our creedless faith, my god certainly doesn’t have to be the same as yours, if you even use the term.

 

The god I discovered is what liberal theologian Henry Nelson Wieman called the “source of human good” found in the “creative event” or the free and open interchange that occurs between individuals when they both expect to be transformed by the interaction.  Perhaps then you will understand when I say that I believe a church…especially our church…should be a place where differences of opinion, particularly on matters of theology, should not merely be tolerated, but encouraged, respected, and mined for what they have to teach us about ourselves, each other, and the universe we share.  If this can’t happen here, then I contend our liberal approach to religion is nothing more than a sham that exists to keep us locked in our own always-limited perceptions and understandings of a mystery too big to comprehend. 

 

Let me be clear.  I am not suggesting that we need to believe in God…we just need to leave room for those who do…and to not only accept that their beliefs are just as valid as our own, but that we might just grow a little ourselves from trying to understand them.

 

This morning I chose some hymns heavy with God language.  Perhaps you noticed.  There is historical significance to these hymns…and theological significance as well, even if you may have had difficulty singing words like “temple,” “Lord,” and “worship thee.”  Trust me, there was a time when these hymns would have pushed my buttons, too.  In fact, this is why I tend to avoid them in our services.  (Who knows…I might scare away a future minister!) These days, though, I see that one of my roles is to compassionately and humbly suggest that we get down into the dirt of our theological differences, singing not as though we have to literally believe every word in a hymn, but with gratitude that our religious forebears carried us to a place where we could gather amidst our differences and potentially find in that gathering something transformational.  A church that refuses to push us in our journey, a church that doesn’t encourage us to see beyond the limitations of our own thought…no matter where we find ourselves located in the spectrum of religious belief…is a church that is actually negating the possibility of creative events.  Not much of a church if you ask me.

 

In the end, then I guess my final answer to the original question, “What happened to God in UUism?” is “It all depends on where we are looking and how we are looking.”  After the service last week, someone who has been gathering with us for a few months, someone who has also shared with me her concern that theistic ideas may not be welcome here, told me that she had mistakenly come to the service expecting to hear today’s sermon.  Instead she was treated to an intergenerational extravaganza featuring music, dance and a minister literally bouncing off the walls as he told a story encouraging us to seek adventure, without one word of traditionally religious language.  The church was alive that morning with laughter and joy across the generations.  Perhaps that was why she told me, “I know what happened to God.  God was in the room today.”  I was grateful to not only understand what she meant, but to agree.

 

My hope is that each Sunday in this church can be a time when God is present…the god that emerges when we reach out to better understand our neighbors, and by so doing, we better understand ourselves.  Perhaps this familiar passage that a friend shared with me this week sums up my hopes for this church, its members and friends, and for UUism in general:

 

 “I sought my God,
my God eluded me.
I sought myself,
Myself I could not find.
I sought my neighbor,
and found all three:
My God, my neighbor and me.”

 

 

Closing Words (from a 1948 Christian Register article entitled “Humanism, Theism and Unitarianism”)

“So long as our differences do not result in bitter and personal controversy, we should rejoice that we have the opportunity in our free fellowship to exchange viewpoints and to have some part in exploring this mysterious and fathomless universe….  Unitarians of every variety of belief may unite in their concern for those values open to inspection to all….”