MIRACLE

by Malvina Reynolds

 O what a piece of work are we, how marvelously wrought;

The quick contrivance of the hand, the onder of the thought.

Why need we look for miracles out side of nature’s law?

Humanity we wonder at with every breath we draw!

But give us room to move and grow, but give our spirits play

And we can make a world of light out of the common clay.”

  SERMON

When Rev. Julie asked me what subjects I’d like to address during her sabbatical   I chose two: “Religious Atheists: Oxymoron?” for this week  and for next week “Can You Love your Inner Ape based on Frans De Waal’s 2004 book Your Inner Ape.   At the time  I  saw no  connection between the two topics , but  a few days after  our  newsletter went to press, I came across a new book by Frans De Waal titled “The Bonobo and the Atheist:In search of Humanism Among The Primates.”

The second  event  that occurred in the interim between the printing of the description and writing  of sermon was the introduction at our annual Congregational meeting of a resolution that this  congregation join the Gulf Coast Coalition of Reason, the local chapter of United Coalition of Reason,  a national organization whose mission, according to the notice in THE LIGHT, our newsletter,  is to

“increase the visibility and  help generate national dialogue on the legitimacy of religious skepticism.”

If you go to the website of the United Coalition of Reason you find this:

“ ‘Community of reason’ is a generic term that includes all self identified nontheistic organizations, whether they call themselves atheist, agnostic, bright, Ethical Culture, freethought, humanist, Pastafarian, rationalist, realist, skeptic, secularist, Unitarian Universalist, or whatever else.”

 

Though I myself am a non-theist,  I spoke against the motion .Why?   Because a UU congregation, is not an association of atheists and other non Theists. To join an association devoted exclusively to defending the civil rights of non-theists would seem to imply, it seems to me, that  we are all non-theists.  WE ARE NOT.

This congregation  includes Theists, Deists, Polytheists, Hindus, Pantheists, Buddhists, Jews, Christians and many others .  Because there was no time to discuss the motion it was tabled for a future congregational meeting.  I’m sure  it  will not be an acrimonious debate for we do promise each other every Sunday to  “seek the truth in love” .

In The Bonobo and the Atheist Frans De Waal writes:

 “Over the last few years we have gotten used to a strident atheism arguing that God is not Great (Christopher Hitchens) or is delusion (Richard Dawkins.) .  The neo-atheists call themselves “brights “ [Daniel Dennett] thus implying that believers are not as bright.   They have replaced Saint Paul’s view that NON-believers live in darkness by It’s opposite: [that] NON believers are the only ones who have seen the light.   … What possible good could possibly come from insulting the many people who find value in religion?”

 I couldn’t have said it better myself.

The books Waal is referring to are:   

The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason by Sam Harris published in  2004;

 The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins published in 2006;:

 Breaking the Spell : Religion as Natural Phenomenon by  Daniel Dennett also published in 2906

 God is not Great : How Religion Poisons Everything by  Christopher Hutchens,  published in  2007.

  Hitchens’  subtitle expresses the theme common to most of the new Atheists. “Religion Poisons Everything.”  Does it?  I don’t think so.

To lump all religions in one basket is surely an intellectual sin of the highest order.  And since, according to the UUA website , UUism  IS  a religion   are we not condemning ourselves  if we say “Religion Spoils Everything ?

However,  t if you go to UUA website here’s what you’ll see:

“Welcome to Unitarian Universalism, a religion that celebrates diversity of belief and is guided by seven principles. Our congregations are places where we gather to nurture our spirits and put our faith into action through social justice work in our communities and the wider world.”

 Newcomers are always welcome in Unitarian Universalist congregations. There is no formal conversion process, so becoming a Unitarian Universalist is simply a matter of self-identification. Membership is voluntary and does not require renouncing other religious affiliations or practices.

http://www.uua.org/beliefs/index.shtml

Are we a religion?  I think not. Am I be offended by attacks on generic religion?  Not really.  Because I maintain  that  UU  is  NOT a Religion.

To my way of thinking, UU is not even an ism.

For me  UU is

“a way for diverse persons

to be  honestly religious in community.”

What do I mean when I use the term  religious in that sentence?  Here’s what I mean:

“Religious persons are persons who live by conviction rather than by convenience.”

Most congregations that meet in buildings labeled Churches, Mosques, Synagogues, Temples are united by common  beliefs.  UU’s are not united  by common beliefs. We are united by a set of common values which are called “The Principles and Purposes of the Unitarian Universalist association,  NOT  the beliefs of Unitarian Universalists.  Those “Principles and Purposes” are  printed on the back of your Order of Service every Sunday because this congregation voted long ago to adopt them:  Not because be were bound to agree with them .   They are values we  “affirm and promote” in Pensacola as do  most of our congregations in North America.  Those “Principles and Purposes  are not a religious creed !

What gives me the right to contradict the dictum of the UUA as expressed on their website?  Well, history for one thing.   Since the term Unitarian was first chosen by our Transylvanian ancestors, we have been debating among ourselves who we are.  And it  keeps changing!  As it should!

Since the term “Unitarian” was first used in the 16^th century in Transylvania Unitarian  and Universalist and UU congregations have  included people of diverse  deep convictions –  religions as I am using the term.   The range of these religious beliefs within our congregations has increased exponentially over the centuries. Our Hymnal reflects that diversity of belief as I pointed out earlier.

When I became a UU minister, fifty years ago, the in-joke, which Garison Keeler is still repeating, was

“UU’s are Atheists who can’t break the Church Going Habit.”

Fifty years ago there  was an element of truth in that quip, but it was not the whole truth.   A large  percentage of folks joining our congregations in 1963 were  non-Theists.  They had been raised in conventional churches  or synagogues where they were not able to express their differences with or even to question the dogma’s of their predecessors.  Finding a group of people who encouraged freethought and expression was an ecstatic experience for them.  It still is here in the Bible belt.  But there  were others in our congregations who had not been traumatized by their religious upbringing; people like me.  We saw UU congregation as a place where we could continue to search and grow spiritually –  beautifully expressed in our Ingathering Hymn by Shelley Jackson Denham.  If we had time I’d suggest we sing it again.  We don’t have time but I’d recommend that if anyone asks you why a freethinker like you goes to a “Church” give them a copy of the those words!     A more accurate statement of who were in 1963 and who we are today would be,  “We UU’s are  freethinkers who see no reason to  break the Church going habit.”

That was the spirit of my first UU Church.  But not of my second, a much larger church.

After  six  years as minister of the  Universalist Unitarian Church of Farmington, MI. I was called in 1969 to the First Unitarian SOCIETY of Schenectady, NY.

The    congregation was made up predominantly   of non-theistic  Humanists and proud of it – and loud about it. Schenectady UU’s vehemently rejected the use of the term “Church.

There are many people in many of our congregations who would like to see UU congregations become Non Theistic Humanist Societies where everyone is a non-theistic Humanist.

That is not my vision of what a UU Congregation should be.

One of my passions is history, especially the history of the ancestors of today’s Unitarian and/or Universalist congregations and associations.   The UUA has just produced three D.V.D.’s on our history which has the very un-academic title:  “Long Strange Trip:” no doubt a sly reference to the popular 1960’s description of an L. S. D. experience:   “What a long Strange Trip It’s Been”    Here’s my relic from that time;  purchased in Katmadoo, Nepal.  But the UU history series is not about a psychedelic trip.   The full title is Long Strange Trip: A Journey through Two Thousand Years of UU History.   While giving a generally favorable review of the project,  UU Historian Philip Hewitt writes,

“Some would argue that ‘UU history,’ as such, began with the merger of 1961, followed by a long search for an identity’ resolved by the adoption of the Principles and Purposes in 1985.”

What UUism is today may be only 52 years old. New wine poured into old bottles labled Unitarian Universalist.    Perhaps the  new wine should be labled “Radical Inclusivity” – a term Rev. Julie has used often.  Perhaps not;  for what we are now grew out of  roots that go back much farther back than 1961.

In 1994 I spent 13 weeks as Interim Minister of the Unitarian Church in Adelaide Australia.   In November 1878, over a century earlier,  Catherine Helen Spence, perhaps Australia’s most famous Unitarian, delivered  a sermon in that, her church.  In her sermon  Spence analyzed the various shades of Unitarian belief found in her congregation.  Here’s some of what she said:

 

“The sense of the Infinite which is the basis of all religion, is felt by the worshipers here.

Part of our number may be properly called Unitarian Christians, for it is through the words and works of Jesus Christ, through obedience to his precepts and the inspiration of his example that they draw near to God …. a smaller body  who may be found here may be called Theists, for it is to the All-Father Himself that they look for ever present grace and help …. [A] smaller body still, who may be found here, may be called Secularists  , and in them the conception of the Infinite fills the soul with the sense of inexorable law, shutting out prayer and scarcely admitting of worship….”

 Secularists.  Not quite Atheists but getting there.

Every religious community has its doubters, its heretics. What distinguishes our way of being religious from most others is that we do not expel our heretics. That is a most significant difference. That is what has made us what we are today: fellowships of tolerant seekers who practice their diverse religions honestly in community. We have kept our heretics and learned to cherish them.  That is our history from the beginning.

As the song we sang earlier ends,

We believe in Life, and in the strength of love

and we have found a joy being together

/And in our search for peace, maybe we’ll finally find,

That to question, truly, is an answer.”

 

Please join me in a few moments of quiet contemplation after which I’ll respond to your questions and comments.