"Why I Am an
Evangelical Unitarian Universalist"
by Rev. Kimi Riegel
October 27, 2002
I have decided on a career change. Now
before any of you who served on the search committee that brought me to this
church faint dead away. Just listen! I have decided to become an evangelical
Unitarian Universalist. Not evangelical in the sense of being in agreement with
the four gospels or saved in the name of Jesus, but in the sense of personal
conversion and the importance of preaching the good world. That may not sound
like much of a change, but for most of us in the Unitarian Universalist ministry
it’s a big change. We are the quiet faith. The faith that doesn't go knocking
on people’s doors or shouting the good word from the rooftops. I am sure you
have heard the joke: "What do you get when you cross a Unitarian
Universalist with a Jehovah witness? Some one who knocks at your door for no
apparent reason." But that's not going to be me any more. I love being a
Unitarian Universalist and I'm not going to be quiet or shy about it any more.
As a kid I was a shy Unitarian Universalist. I guess I figured since we weren't
as big as the Presbyterian Church down the street we weren't as good. I didn't
tell my friends about our wonderful church, its exciting heritage or the
challenge it offers each of us. But after listening to several of my colleagues
who have been converted, I too have come to believe this is the faith of the
future, as well as the past, and its O.K. to be proud.
It is exciting to be a Unitarian Universalist. Some of the neatest people I know
are Unitarian Universalists. One summer, at a Unitarian Universalist summer camp
for families, I had what I think of as the quintessential Unitarian Universalist
experience. It was nearly dinner at the camp. The campers were winding their way
down the hill from a social hour (how many church camps do you know where there
is a
That camp evening was the perfect example of religion come to life in a caring
theologically diverse group. It’s always been this way with Unitarians and
Universalists. From the beginning of our history right up to the present day
there have been many streams of thought and action within our tradition, all
these streams mixing into one lively ever-growing community. It’s an adventure
to be a Unitarian Universalist.
Unitarian Universalism is exciting because of where we come from, our grand and
adventurous history. Sometimes it’s been an adventure like rock climbing or
sailing in heavy wind. But sometimes it’s one of anticipation, one of quiet
waiting for the moment of truth. Its always been that way. Unitarians and
Universalists have always been the ones who are braving the storms, like Joseph
Priestly, the man who discovered oxygen; or who are quietly walking in the woods
thinking deep thoughts and waiting ala David Thoreau.
This faith tradition started out centuries ago as Unitarians and Universalists
in separate movements in separate parts of the world, but as free thinkers,
always as the free thinkers.
Early on, these free thinkers were people who had read the Bible and believed
what it said, but not what it didn't say. The people that came to be known as
Unitarians asserted that nowhere in the Bible did it say that there was a holy
trinity. Or that Jesus was other than God’s most perfect example of humanity.
Although their ideas were rejected at the council of Nicaea in 325 and their
leaders burned at the stake, they continued to depend on reason in their reading
of the scriptures. Through centuries of persecution in Europe,
England
and the United
States,
these ministers and churches were spiritual reformers, believing that
individuals must have freedom of belief, religion must be a way of life and
human beings and their welfare must be central to the practice of our faith.
In another part of the world, in a slightly different time, there were those who
demanded that their religion be consistent with human behavior. They believed it
made no sense to have a theology based on a god who condemned some even before
they were born. Surely all of creation would eventually be forgiven. These ideas
of universal salvation had been around and repeatedly rejected by church
councils since 544. But like the Unitarians, this Universalist movement wouldn't
disappear. They knew a human parent would forgive his/her children rather than
condemn them to burn forever in hell for their transgressions. The Universalists
couldn't imagine a superior being who would do any less. They rejected the
notion that humanity was the incarnation of evil and at constant peril with the
potential of eternal damnation.
In 1791 the Universalist Benjamin Rush, a physician and signer of the
Declaration of Independence, described Universalism as "A belief in God's
universal love to all his creatures." But Rush went further and declared
that the belief in God's universal love "leads to truth upon all subjects.
It establishes the equality of mankind - it abolishes the punishment of death
for any crime and converts jails into houses of repentance and reformation”
These early Universalists saw their social policy and action as an essential
part of their theology.
So, together in much of their theology and certainly together in the struggle
for human justice and well being, but separated by socio-economic factors of the
time the Unitarians and Universalists continued for centuries building their
ministry and questioning the mainstream religion.
But our history doesn't stop there. It just gets more inspiring. The Unitarians
and Universalists continued to be influenced by the changing society and its
thought. Ours is not a static faith but one that has changed and changed again
through out time. A faith that is flexible, and open. One Universalist minister
L.B. Fisher put it this way "Universalists (he could have been talking
about Unitarians too) are often asked to tell where we stand. The only true
answer is that we do not stand at all, we move” I don't agree that we don't
stand at all, as there are some very basic principles that we agree on and over
the years we have stood with a good many great causes, but it is true we move.
And we continue to do so.
In the mid nineteen hundreds, adding to this stream of what was at the time very
liberal Christians, were the transcendentalists. This group contained familiar
names like William Elery Channing, Theodore Parker, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Bronson
Allcott and his daughter Lousia May, and Margaret Fuller. The transcendentalists
believed in direct experience. For them, as Channing put it, what mattered was
not just reading what great people said but it was also important what one had
experienced personally. For the Transcendentalists it was our human interactions
and actions, not the amount of praying or giving to a church, which determined
our destiny for eternity. The Transcendentalists believed the bible was a human
creation and that Jesus was a perfect example of humanity, and they furthered
the notion that humanity in the here and now mattered. These transcendentalists
recognized the divine in all of creation and sought to experience it at every
turn.
And so their stream of thought was added to the liberal Christian beliefs in the
way a stream feeds into a larger river, sometimes slightly changing its course
or the color of its water. These liberal Christians who believed that god was
one, that good humans could and should make a difference, and all humanity would
be saved, were now joined by a faith grounded in nature and the love of life
here on this earth.
You see to me all of this is exciting. It doesn't say to me that this is a faith
that started yesterday, or one that lets people believe as they will, but it is
one that requires a great deal of its followers and among the things it demands
is to listen to yourself and those around you.
Much of what happened in those early days stayed within the confines of what
today we describe as Christianity, but with the growth of the faith and the
country there were many more experiences these congregations and individuals
bumped up against. Many more experiences they had to sort out. And with that
came new challenges and new ways of viewing the faith. While those on the
frontier clearly held to the tenets of the Christian faith there was a new
emphasis on the human role in the divine process.
Eventually there was a new stream that joined this river of the liberal religion
that of the humanists. Ethical living became the cry of many of the religious
leaders on the frontier in the early part of this century. WWI brought a need
for a religious response to the horror of war. Many began to question the
existence of god, as it was hard to believe how god could allow the horrific
violence of war. There began to be a shift from religion as creedal belief to
religion as represented by how one lives their life. In many ways this shift is
a natural extension of the early Christian care for each other and living
one’s faith.
In 1933 the Humanist Manifesto was signed. It contained the signatures of one
Universalist clergy, Clinton Lee Scott and three Unitarians, Charles Potter,
John Dietrich and Curtis Reese. In a sermon delivered to
"people are capable of so ordering human relations that life shall
be preserved, not denied; that justice shall be established, not denied; that
love shall be the rule, not the exception. It but remains for religion to place
responsibility at the heart of its gospel. When this is done, science and
democracy and religion will have formed an alliance of wisdom, vision and
power."
While the liberals Christians believed that humans were responsible to one
another the humanist movement took another turn and offered the notion that
people are all there is to be responsible for and to. Many in the
humanist movement and in our association were and continue to be atheist,
agnostic or otherwise ambiguous about the existence of god.
The Unitarian and Universalist religions, still at that time separate,
incorporated many of the humanist values. This challenged us to view each other
with openness and encouraged us to listen. Here were new ideas that weren't
thrown out as a matter of course, but instead were held in high esteem and
allowed to develop and ferment. Humanism has been changed by its encounter with
the Unitarians and the Universalists as there are now religious humanists and
even a few of us who call ourselves mystic humanists, and Unitarianism and
Universalism has been changed and challenged at the core belief that all are
free to worship based on their individual conscience. We have many churches
today that are more humanist than not just as we have many that are more
Christian than not. In the Unitarian Universalist Pocket guide Joan Goodwing
says our congregations are as unique as fingerprints and as similar.
By the time the Association of Unitarian and Universalists was formed in 1961 we
were a diverse groups of Christians, Buddhists, agnostics, humanists, and any
number of combinations of these and several other streams of religious thought.
To me that is exciting. A gathered religious community that agrees together to
be diverse, to listen to each other and to seek some truth in their midst is a
very exceptional and exciting community. In this wonderful mix of thought and
belief comes genuine care for each other and the planet. Our history has brought
us to a varied and rich present.
It continues to be exciting, not only because of where we come from, but also
because of where we are going. It is not a faith that has come to its winter of
rest and opted out of spring. There is always new growth and new ideas. There is
the goddess movement and women's spirituality as well as the Unitarian
Universalist pagan society. There are those who are returning to the study of
the Bible and other sacred scriptures with a new interest and enthusiasm. There
are churches across the country that have meditation rooms and ritual is a
bigger part of many of our Sunday celebrations of Life. Each time I come upon a
new idea or concept or the new consideration of an old idea, I can consider it
and still be a Unitarian Universalist. In fact, to be true to my tradition, it
is my responsibility to respond to all those voices with careful consideration.
Listen to the ideas; develop them for my church and myself in new and
exhilarating ways.
We have to continue to try our new ideas and new ways of being. Not haphazardly
but with thought and care. This is not a time for us to stop and close our doors
and try to codify what all Unitarian Universalists belief. Ours is a free
church. Ours is a church for the future. What better example of what societal
structures could and should be than the Unitarian Universalist church community.
So our meetings are a bit long, but everyone feels listen to. So it isn't
initially apparent what we all have in common, but isn't it just that tapestry
that gives us our beauty and strength.
You see, it’s true I am beginning to sound a bit
evangelical. And I like it. It has been fun for me to explore the possibility of
becoming an evangelical Unitarian Universalist. It may sound like a
contradiction in terms. But why not spread the good word of a community of
freedom and honest truth seeking?
Our tradition and our modern religion ask us to
listen inside, but not always in the quiet contemplative way. We are also asked
to listen to that voice that seeks adventure and action; that voice that asks us
to climb religious cliffs, and to risk falling. The voice that says be proud to
be a Unitarian Universalist and act like it.
I am really glad to be a Unitarian Universalist!