The Religion for Our Time
by Rev. Colin Bossen, October 3, 2010
This morning across the United States hundreds of Unitarian Universalist congregations are joining together for the annual Association Sunday worship service. Association Sunday is an effort to build greater unity of purpose in our diverse movement. Many Unitarian Universalist congregations are notoriously insular, they focus more on the needs of their members than they do on their connection to either the larger Unitarian Universalist movement or the wider world. Association Sunday is an attempt to break this pattern. At least once a year, on or about the same Sunday, the majority of our congregations hold a service that challenges us to reflect upon what binds us to the Unitarian Universalist Association and the benefits we receive from that association.
This year I suspect that many of the sermons preached will touch upon two themes. The first is the fiftieth anniversary of the merger of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America, the celebration of which will take place in June at the General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association. Second, many ministers will lift up the claim by Peter Morales, the Association's current President, that "We can be the religion for our time."
These two themes can be collapsed into one. The hope at the time of the merger was that the newly consolidated movement would live into what a leading minister described as "our tremendous potential." That minister, Donald Szantho Harrington, preached a sermon at the worship service marking the merger entitled "Unitarian-Universalism: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow." In it he claimed, the world needs "a religion which is dynamic instead of static, unitive instead of divisive, universalistic instead of particularistic, history-making rather than history bound." In his mind Unitarian Universalism was that religion.
Statements similar to Harrington's can be found in the writings of Unitarians and Universalists of earlier eras. In the mid-20th century there were Universalists who envisioned their faith, in the words of one minister, as "a unifying universal religion." In the mid-19th century there were radical Unitarian and Universalist ministers who united in forming the short-lived Free Religious Association. The Free Religious Association promoted a vision of universal religion, in the words of its founders, "based on individual freedom of belief, the scientific study of religion and the conviction that a single universal spirit underlay all historic faiths."
Even as far back as the beginning of the 19th century there were those who were so confident in our liberal faith's future that they might proclaim, with Thomas Jefferson, "that there is not a young man now living in the United States who will not die a Unitarian." Yet despite nearly two centuries of optimism Unitarian Universalism and its liberal predecessors have never quite managed to be "the religion for our time."
Instead, over the years our tradition has waxed and waned. Look back through the past centuries it seems that our best days may be behind us. The reality is, we peaked intellectually and numerically in the mid-19th century when Unitarians like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne were at the forefront of the American literary scene and the Universalist Church of America was one of the largest denominations in the country. Politically we peaked in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Many of the nation's founders--including the Presidents John Adams, John Quincy Adams and Thomas Jefferson--were either Unitarians or Unitarian sympathizers. In the early 20th century we experienced a second, smaller, political peak. The President, William Howard Taft, was again a Unitarian and Unitarians such as Roger Baldwin and John Haynes Holmes played leading roles in founding progressive institutions like the NAACP and the American Civl Liberties Union.
Culturally we peaked in the 1960s and 1970s. In those years Unitarian Universalist clergy were at the forefront of integrating women and members of the BGLT community into the ministry. At the same time Unitarian Universalist youth, through the new defunct Liberal Religious Youth, played an outsized role in shaping the emerging counter-culture.
During each of those eras, and in between them, it is possible to find some leading advocate of liberal religion who proclaimed that the future is bright. And in each of those eras, and in between them, whether our movement grew or shrank, the future never quite lived up to its expectation. Unitarianism, Universalism and Unitarian Universalism all remained small religious movements with limited connection to the mass of Americans. What then, are we to make of this consistent dream to be "the religion of our time?" Does it contain within it a glimmer of the truth? Or is the dream no more than a flight of fancy?
There is almost a cottage industry seeking the answers to these questions. Generally I find that the answers break down into three, not mutually exclusive, categories.
First, there are those who believe that in order to become the religion for our time we must become a more multiracial and multicultural movement. The demographics of the United States are shifting rapidly. With each passing year the percentage of Americans who are people of color increases while the percentage who are white decreases. If Unitarian Universalism is to thrive in this environment then, in words of the theologian Paul Rasor, "We need to become a genuinely multiracial and multicultural faith, theologically and demographically."
Second, there are those who lay the blame for the lack significant growth at feet of our congregations. The current President of the Association epitomizes this position. In a recent issue of the UU World he wrote:
"Some congregations have it. Other don't. And it doesn't take long to figure out if a congregation has 'it' or not...The energy fills the room. The warmth is palpable... Alas, some congregations...don't have it. They feel lifeless, cold, moribund. Why is this? What makes the difference between being full of life and warmth versus being dead and cold?"
Answering his own question Morales responds:
"I think the difference is religion...The key to the future of every single congregation and for Unitarian Universalism as a movement is whether we can 'get religion.' If we 'get religion' we will thrive. We will touch lives and change the world. If we don't, we will decline."
Morales, echoing the thinking of many generations of liberal theologians, continues by reminding his readers that religion is less about "a set of beliefs" than about "what we love." The lifeless Unitarian Universalist congregations that he criticizes forget this by focusing on the mind over the heart. He says they "put forth...beliefs and then support...[their beliefs] with evidence and argument." Argument is not why people join religious communities. They join because they are seeking connection, with each other and with something larger than themselves. If Unitarian Universalism is to grow then our congregations need to be goaded into becoming places where the heart, not the mind, reigns supreme and where we are united not by our greatest thoughts but by our greatest loves.
The third explanation for why Unitarian Universalism has not lived up to its potential is far more simple. The problem is that our movement has simply not planted enough congregations. Proponents of this position point out that the average size of Unitarian Universalist congregations and the average size of those of other denominations or religious movements is the same. The difference is in the number of congregations. There are roughly a hundred times more United Methodist churches in this country than there are Unitarian Universalist congregations. Not surprisingly, there are roughly a hundred times more United Methodists than there are Unitarian Universalists. The key to growth is simply to increase the number of Unitarian Universalist congregations. The more congregations there are the more Unitarian Universalists there will be.
I suspect that there is merit in all three positions. Yet, none of them quite tap into the underlying reason why our movement has never managed to fulfill its promise. Ultimately the issue is one of theological identity. The scholar Gary Dorrien describes the liberal theology behind our movement as "mediating." For much of its history, it has, in his words, "sought to create a third way between the authority-based Christian orthodoxies of their time and rising tide of rationalistic deism and atheism."
Put another way, our liberal religious movement has long tried to be an alternative to religious fundamentalism on the one hand and secularism on the other. So much of who we are is wrapped in what we are not. We are not intolerant like the fundamentalists who condemn gays and lesbians, malign women and seek to tear down the wall between church and state. We are not narrow like those cling to the truth of a specific religious creed or scripture to the exclusion of other sources of truth. We are not alienated from the findings of science or the realities of contemporary life.
All of these statements may be true. For most people they do not matter. The truth is that the American religious landscape is changing. With each passing year less people are participating in religious institutions. Younger generations are growing up without formal religious affiliation. While fundamentalists may be skilled at making a lot of noise they suffer from the same prospects of long-term decline that plague the rest of the religious community. In the past ten years the fastest growing segment of the population has not been those who belong to fundamentalist communities--that segment has actually declined slightly--but those who belong to no religion. In such an environment the question before us is not: What differentiates us from the fundamentalists? It is instead: What differentiates us from the secular community?
It used to be that belonging to a religious community was the norm. For the younger generations this is no longer the case. Many of those under the age of 35 grew up without attending a church, mosque, temple or synagogue. When they come to our doors they are not seeking sanctuary from fundamentalism. They are seeking meaning in their lives and the possibility of being part of a community that helps them live ethically. If we want to be able to attract them then we must be able to demonstrate how being a Unitarian Universalist will improve someone's life for the better.
In the words of congregational growth expert Michael Durall:
"Those seeking church do so because they are lost or lonely, are hurting in body or soul, are searching for lives of greater meaning and purpose, are concerned about their finances or careers, wish to raise happy and healthy children, yearn to understand a world that is increasingly uncertain, wish to forgive or be forgiven, and desire to create a more equitable society."
People join Unitarian Universalist congregations seeking transformation and healing. They join because they hope that by becoming part of a religious community their lives will be different than before.
The extent to which Unitarian Universalism grows over the next decades will be the extent to which we lift up the messages of love and transformation inherent within our movement. We have a religious message that saves lives not from the metaphorical fires of hell but from the real torments of isolation, fear, self-doubt and hate.
Imagine if that message had reached the gay youth who killed themselves in the last week. These victims of cyber-bullying most likely felt alone, different and trapped in their personal hells. Imagine the difference participation in a Unitarian Universalist congregation could have made in their lives. The constant messages of hate and fear directed at them would have been countered by love and support. Instead of experiencing isolation they would have connected with older members of the BLGT community who could serve as their role models and advocates. The knowledge that life gets better after their teenage years would be something that they could witness first hand.
I know a little bit about the life saving power of Unitarian Universalism. As a teenager, like the gay youth who killed themselves, I was the subject of significant bullying. In middle school I was locked in lockers, called names and beaten severely enough that I lost several of my teeth. Throughout this time it was my Unitarian Universalist youth group and congregation that kept me anchored to reality. Instead of hate my religious community sustained me with love, with the knowledge that despite messages to the contrary who I was was good enough and older positive role models. It is probably fair to credit Unitarian Universalism with the fact that I never seriously considered taking my life.
In those days Unitarian Universalism provided me with a network of friends and support that helped sustain me through hard times. I was enthusiastic about inviting my non-Unitarian Universalist friends to youth group meetings and events. My testimony about the vibrance and warmth of our faith, and its transformative effect on my life, meant that most of my close friends at least visited youth group once or twice and several joined.
In inviting my friends to come with me I did not share about how intellectually stimulating youth group was. I did not focus on my beliefs as a Unitarian Universalist. Instead, I talked about how fun youth group was, how welcoming our religious community is and how Unitarian Universalism gave me space to safely explore my identity. Such a message was very attractive to many of my peers.
I suspect that it still is. Today almost all of my non-Unitarian Universalist friends fall into the spiritual but not religious category. Having not been raised religious they often do not feel a particular need for religion in their lives. Indeed, to the extent they are interested in religion it is because they are searching for a community and for something to give their lives a greater sense of meaning.
I was reminded of this this past week when Sara and I took a trip to Columbus. We were only there for one night, and I was there for a meeting, but we somehow managed to squeeze two coffee dates with friends into our visit. Our friends are both remarkably and remarkably different individuals. Both are women in their thirties, raised without significant connection to a religious community. One is a first generation immigrant, successful attorney and dedicated activist. The other is a native Ohioan and a college dropout who, after a career in fashion, has returned to school to finish her degree.
Despite the differences in their personalities, life experiences and interests I found that Sara and my conversations with both these women ended up taking similar turns. At some point in each of our conversations the topic turned to Unitarian Universalism and my career in the ministry. My friends wanted to know what I gained from my faith and what difference it made in my life. And so I told them.
I told them about how it sustained me in my work for social justice, how it grounded me in an appreciation for the mystery and wonder of the universe and how it challenged me to be a better person--someone who loves, support and accepts the full breadth of human diversity. Afterwards both of my friends told me that they wanted to visit the Unitarian Universalist congregations in their communities. I did not push or even ask them, they volunteered that they felt inspired to learn more about our religious community. It seemed that they thought it might help them find a greater sense of meaning and connection in their lives.
If Unitarian Universalism does then it might just have a shot at being the religion for our time. Both my friends represent the people we need to reach over the next generations if our movement is to grow and thrive--people who have no particular axe to grind with fundamentalist religion but are instead seeking something more than the secular world has to offer them.
I know that we do. Unitarian Universalism has changed my life for the better. I am sure that has changed most of yours too. This Association Sunday lets resolve, together, to go out and spread that message. That is what will allow us to become not only the religion for our time but the religion for generations to come.
May it be so, Amen and Blessed Be.