Reading:
Unitarian Universalism is a religious liberalism precisely because at no point does it settle down into being a static faith, a building-block philosophy, but is a quest for values which each must develop for himself….a U U church is…where an individual comes to …develop a faith of his own. It may differ from that of the person next to him…but they will hold in common something infinitely more precious than conformity: they will be completely honest with one another….Faith will grow and change with new experiences. Hence it will have the capacity to always be adequate. When William Ellery Channing, the aged man who in his youth had been the flaming leader of the Unitarian revolt from Calvinism, met an old colleague, he noted a new danger that the younger men in the pulpit were “making orthodoxy of the liberalism of our youth.” Already Dr Channing had passed beyond the position of his youth, and he recognized that once liberalism became static and systematized, it, too would become an orthodoxy….Liberal religion must not…shut the door on new truths, must not rest, but rather must ‘submit to the inconvenience of suspense and imperfect opinion.’….The bible of tomorrow has not been written, is not completed.
(p. 23, Challenge of a Liberal Faith, by George Marshall)

“What is Liberal Religion”

December, 2005 - Rev. Kimi Riegel

The Challenge of a liberal faith. I have always felt that was an excellent title for a book about Unitarian Universalism for as George Marshall says it is a faith that never rests. It is a faith that is constantly challenging us and changing us.

What does it mean to be a religious liberal? To be a liberal according to my favorite scripture, Merriam-Webster, is be open minded, is to be free from the constraints of dogmatism and authority, is to be generous and to believe in the basic goodness of humankind. Religion is defined as that which binds us back or reconnects us to that which is ultimately important. Thus religious liberals are those that are connected, through generosity and openness, to the most important aspects of life. And there in lies the challenge. If we are open minded and not bound by authority who or what decides those matters of ultimate importance?

The Rev. William Sloan Coffin writes that,
On the religious side, liberals believe that the integrity of love is more important than the purity of dogma. Dogma is a sign post, love is a hitching post. Liberals contend that we should sharpen our minds, not narrow them. We understand that.... faith, far from clearing up uncertainty, makes it possible to live with uncertainty. Fundamentalists, on the other hand, cannot bear uncertainty. They indulge in what psychiatrists call 'premature closure." .... Liberals contend that one of the most wonderful things about life is to act wholeheartedly without absolute certainty. (World, Vol. V., No.1, p. 6)

He believes that one of the most wonderful parts about life is its hard to be certain about the most wonderful parts. Thanks Bill. So as religious liberals we are connected to that about which we are most uncertain. Yes and I agree with him whole heartedly. We religious liberals are connected to questions and mystery and love; those things about which we are most uncertain. We are dedicated to being uncertain about those things that mean the most to us.

It’s not easy being a liberal religious person. It’s so easy to slip into orthodoxy and that is the dangerous edge we walk. One of my favorite theologians, James Luther Adams, states that: “the moment a denomination or creed is taken as final…liberalism lapses into orthodoxy” (Adams, p. 333, An Examined Faith). The moment we know we have the final, true, right and real answer to life’s most persistent questions, as my friend Garrison Keler calls them, the moment we know we have the final answer to life’s most persistent questions, is the moment we cease to be a religious liberal.

So were does this leave us? It means we are a shrinking organization. In 1970 we Unitarian Universalists were .082% of the US population today we are .055% of the US population. If we had kept up with the increase in US population there would be 230,000 of us. We are about 100,000 short of that. It’s not easy to be uncertain all the time. Especially when there are so many uncertain parts of living that to be uncertain about the very ground we stand on takes a great deal of courage. Maybe the rest of the US just isn’t as brave as we are?

Actually I think it has a lot to do with that. Not that we are particularly brave but that it takes a lot of nerve to become a UU and to stay one. You have to be willing to say “we” don’t know. We have to be willing to say others might be right. Human beings really want to believe we have the right true answers to those questions. We tend to stop listening to the different ideas and solutions. We codify our message because it’s easier to sell that way. It’s easier to say “we” believe then to say “some of us” believe. It feels too wishy washy to not have definitive answers. The problem with having definitive answers is then we become hypocritical because we religious liberals don’t believe in codifying.

For instance: in some of our churches its hard to be a Christian because “we” have already decided how we feel about Christianity, in some of our churches its hard to be pro-life because “we” have already decided that to be a religious liberal you need to be a social liberal as well, in some of our churches its hard to say you vote for Republicans because “we” have decided that to be a religious liberal you must be a political liberal as well…. I am sure you can insert your own. Or maybe not maybe the reason you are here is because you agree with what has become an almost orthodoxy of liberalism. Although those two words can’t go together orthodoxy and liberalism you get my point.

While in Divinity School Alex happened across an anonymous two or three sentence parable that he eventually stretched into a brief story. He calls this the story of "The Double Seeing Son."

Once a young lad and his father were wandering their country garden late in the evening, enjoying the light of the myriad stars decorating the heavens. The lad was particularly fond of the night sky and happened to remark that night of the beautiful moons just above the distant mountains. He said to his father, "Look at the beautiful glow of the two moons just above the distant mountains." His father looked toward the mountains but saw only one moon, small and pale, relinquishing hardly any glow at all. "Two moons?" remarked the father. "I see only one moon in the night sky." "But father," said the lad, "right there, over the mountains, two moons rise and decorate the horizon with a rosy glow. Can you not see them?" The father glanced toward the mountains again, and again he saw only one moon. His frustration rose within him. He turned toward the son and exclaimed, "My son! You are relentless in your erroneous ways. In time you must learn to take upon yourself the mind and character of a man. Or else you shall be declared a fool in your prime and suffer the fate of an idiot." Then the son replied, "Father, I err not when I declare the sight of two moons in the heavens." The father bellowed, "No more of your bantering! Now look again at the night sky and declare to me the truth of what you see!" Peering again into the night sky the son said, "Father, I am ashamed of it now, but still two moons appear to me in the heavens, so two moons I declare to you. Be angry as you will. But it is the truth." With this an exasperated countenance fell upon the father's face. Turning to walk away he could be heard to mumble, "To have been cursed with a double seeing son. What in the name of the gods am I to do?" Seeing his father's disappointment, the young lad fell upon his knees and began to sob, exclaiming, "What, in the name of Truth, am I to declare to my father?!"

Ours is a faith that accepts the son and the father as each believing in a truth. Ours is a faith that puts the love of son and father above answers about ultimate reality. Ours is a faith that affirms that different perspectives can easily be held by honest, rational, intelligent people. Ours is a faith that is willing to say both could be true.

The trick for us is to not fall into the trap of the father. We can become like the puritans, whose holiday we just celebrated, who came here for religious freedom and then destroyed all that did not fit their notion of truth. Our principles state that we believe in the right of conscience. In my newsletter article last week I talked about the right of conscience being the importance of striving to do good. In other words it is proper for us to use our own sense of what is right and wrong in our decision making. The right of conscience also means that we are entitled to follow our own principles and change them as we see fit.

Because we are liberals we believe in the basic underlying goodness of each person, we believe each of us has a right to our own ethics and principles. Because we are liberals we believe that we need to stay open. Thus for Unitarian Universalists to continue to be liberal we have to continue to be brave enough to listen to all points of view. We have to be willing to be changed. We have to be able to see the value of another’s point of view even if we don’t believe it. There is value even if we don’t see it as true. That is the difference between being a liberal and not. We believe in the right of conscience AND we consider on a continuing basis that we might be wrong. We have our beliefs; and with an open hand we hold them up for others to examine, question and accept as ours.

That’s not an easy message to sell. Who likes to join a group of people who might be wrong? Me for one! I like being a religious liberal. I like being surrounded by people who have different perspectives on the questions of life. I like being surrounded by people who are going to question what they believe, listen to my ideas and then question those too. I like being challenged and changed. I would hope we can continue to work hard at being religious liberals. I hope we can continue offering our beliefs with an open hand.

This obviously presents challenges in a community. There are times when a community must take steps forward together. There are decisions that we must make as a group. It is in those moments of collective action and decision that our liberalism is most tested. Our place in the world is to show that we can do what Edwin Markham writes about in "Outwitted":
He drew a circle that shut me out--
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in!