WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A RELIGIOUS LIBERAL


What does it mean to be a religious liberal? 
 
It means to be a member or a friend or a supporter of a congregation like this 
one.

It means to be the target of religious fundamentalists who think of religious 
liberals as heretics and heathens.

It means to refuse to abandon a rich and inspiring word because critics on 
the right keep proclaiming, "liberalism is dead." 

To the contrary, the liberal perspective is dynamic and vital and a source of 
hope for our 21st century world.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, to be a liberal means to be  
"directed to a general broadening of mind...generous, open-handed, not 
sparing of, ample, abundant, not rigorous or literal, open-minded, candid, 
unprejudiced...favorable to democratic reform and individual liberty."

Liberal is a wonderful word and the words used to describe its meaning are 
likewise wonderful. They describe extremely important values that we 
hold dear and that the world needs. Indeed, knowing what liberal means, we 
can only ponder why everybody is not a liberal!

Obviously they are not, but that is their problem! We are, and it is worth 
spending a few minutes reflecting on what that means in a religious context.
It means at the very least three things.

One of the things that it means to be a religious liberal is that we use our 
heads. We think. 

That is certainly our heritage. Faustus Socinus was the first in our history to 
speak of the importance of thinking as opposed to simply accepting what the 
tradition handed down, following the leaders of the church, just going along 
with the emotions of the moment, or just doing what our neighbors do. 
Socinus said that the only way to read the Bible was with an open mind so 
that we might discern the truth that is there but also understand what cannot 
be taken as truth.

For example, in an age that regarded the tales of Genesis as historical, 
Socinus argued that they were plainly not historical but metaphorical. While 
Socinus believed in the authority of the Bible, he also thought that where the 
Bible violates reason, it is the Bible not reason that has to be corrected. It is 
not reasonable to think of these ancient tales as bearing the mark of true 
history, only the mark of true humanity.

The stories in Genesis are stories of what it means to be human: to be given 
a good life and then to be tempted to undermine that good life by doing 
things we should not (the Garden of Eden); the jealousy that arises between 
brothers (Cain and Abel) and sisters (Rachel and Leah) and the passion that 
erupts in violence; the way parents however well intentioned favor one child 
over another (Rebecca choosing Jacob over Esau); the way sexual desire 
makes us look silly (Judah and Tamar); the way the weak can become the 
strong and change the course of history in doing so (Joseph); the strength of 
family ties across many generations (the Patriarchs and Matriarchs).

Anyone who reads a newspaper or hears the news on tv or radio knows that 
these are the stories of the 21st century as much as they were the stories of  
the 16th century when Socinus lived as much as they were the stories of the 
ancient peoples who first told them.

Socinus also believed that each new generation must review the truths they 
have been handed to determine if these things are still true and to decide if 
the language of expressing the truths is still intelligible. The Racovian 
Catechism illustrates this principle that has become fundamental to our own 
Unitarian Universalist practices.

Socinus wanted before he died to write a comprehensive statement of his 
own theological ideas. He called a conference of religious leaders, teachers, 
and ministers in 1601 in Rakow. They met again the next year and wrote 
down the points of agreement and disagreement. In the year after Socinus 
died, three of his followers put together the Catechism, not as a final 
authority or a binding document on believers, but as a description of who the 
Socinians were. It was explicitly urged that new editions be thought out and 
published in each generation.

This Catechism was used for about 150 years, with periodic revisions, 
additions, and subtractions being made to it. It was attacked by Protestant 
theologians as late as the mid-19th century, indicating its continuing 
importance some two and one half centuries after its first being put together.

This idea of trying to describe what we hold dear and then making the effort 
to re-think what we believe  every 20-30 years has continued to influence 
both the Unitarian and the Universalist movements. 

Unitarians were first brought together in this country by the remarkable 
Baltimore Sermon of William Ellery Channing in 1819. This laid out a 
program of theology for a new religious denomination in this country, The 
American Unitarian Association. Though not bound by creeds, this new 
movement clearly espoused the ideas that Channing announced: no 
revelation that offends reason, use all resources available to understand 
religious truth, and the unity of God together with the moral perfection of 
God.

Within a quarter century, Ralph Waldo Emerson in his Divinity School 
Address had moved Unitarians in a more individual direction, arguing 
against institutional authority, the authority of ancient texts, and the notion 
of God as a Being. He spoke for a direct relationship with the Divine.

A bare three years later, Theodore Parker proclaimed that the only truth that 
really matters in religion is the love of God and the love of one's fellow 
human beings. Christianity is not the highest religion but one of many 
expressions of a primary religious impulse in human beings.

In the last half century, much of our focus has been on the Principles of 
UUism and how we might express those principles. Several times we have 
changed the Principles as they appear in the By-Laws of the UUA, one time 
adding the significant contribution we are receiving from earth-based 
religions.

It is very hard to be a UU without thinking. Jews have had for 2500 years or 
more the Shema-"Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one." This 
is similar to the Muslim's statement of fundamental belief about Allah being 
One. Christians have creeds-the Apostles Creed, the Nicean Creed-that 
go back some 1600 years and others, like the Westminster Confession, that 
are a few hundred years old.

What we have is freedom to explore, to experience, to wonder, to build our 
own theology, which every year hundreds of UU's do in courses offered in 
our 1200 congregations, while thousands of others work out the 
philosophical cartography of their lives on their own or with friends. 

New knowledge, new understandings, new expressions of old truths all help 
us individually to a clearer sense of what it is we believe. 

One of the slogans of the Protestant Reformation was each man his own 
priest. Ours is each person her own theologian.

Thoughtfulness is part of what it means to be a religious liberal.

It takes only a little thought to know the importance of today's theme, the 
Pledge Drive for 2004. In a society where mostly we pay money to get 
things done, this religious community has need of generous pledgers if we 
are to be the kind of community and do the kinds of things that our values 
call on us to be and to do.

Religious liberals use their heads.

And their hearts.

Religious liberals are compassionate. 

This is shown in our commitment to universalism.

Universalism began as a theological understanding about the destiny of 
human beings, a deep conviction that all human beings would be saved. 
Every single person would ultimately go to God in glory, get into heaven, 
find blessedness in the afterlife.

Universalists believed that God Is Love and that Love Is God, and therefore 
no person and no part of the whole creation could fall outside the enormous 
breadth of that Love.

This belief inspired people in this country to hold to that faith even though 
they were physically assaulted, verbally attacked, and sometimes even jailed 
for such notions. 

Love was the guide, insisted our ancestors, the sine qua non of a good life. 
"If we agree in ...love, there is no disagreement that can do us any injury; 
but if we do not, no other agreement can do us any good," said Hosea 
Ballou, the great 19th century Universalist preacher.

That is the spirit, the heart of our religious movement.

That is why a man who disagreed with the vast majority of the members on 
the question of adult baptism could nonetheless be the leader of the 
Socinians for more than 25 years. These people made their decisions out of 
love.

That is why, though John Haynes Holmes submitted undated resignation 
letters to the congregation of Community Church in New York City at the 
beginning of both of last century's world wars, the dates on those resignation 
letters were never filled in. Love was the bond between Holmes and the 
congregants and love held them together despite a profoundly important 
disagreement.

The church I served in Canton, Massachusetts dismissed one of their 
ministers in the early 19th century for reasons I do not know, but a dozen or 
so years later called him once again to come and serve as their religious 
leader.

The impulse of universalism is to begin with love and sort out everything 
else in the light of that love.

By beginning with love, we became an association of congregations that are 
welcoming and affirming, first to gay males and lesbians, later to bisexuals, 
transgendered persons and those involved in polyamorous relations. Specific 
dates are not known, but there were resolutions in our General Assemblies in 
the 1960's passed by overwhelming majorities that offered support to people 
whose sexual orientations were different from the majority.

That support began in congregations like one I knew in New England. In 
that small congregation there were two brothers who were gay. They were 
well known figures in the town. They came from a family that had lived in 
town for several centuries. Everybody knew them. Everybody liked them. 
Everybody knew they were good men, just different in being attracted not to 
the opposite sex but to their own.

When it came time to vote to support homosexuals, how could anyone in 
that church or town not cast an affirming vote? Gary had helped out with the 
town fair for years and was one of its best aldermen. Walter was known for 
his generosity, lending financial aid to every institution in trouble and every 
wandering beggar. These are our people and we know their goodness. We 
will stand with them against the whole world if necessary.

That church became one of many that began with love in dealing with what 
was for many a vexed issue. Leading with their hearts, the congregants 
extended affirmation and welcome and helped to change the culture of our 
movement to one of opening wide its arms to members and to ministers of 
differing sexual orientations and perspectives.

It began with love.

The compassionate heart is what inspires this and other UU congregations to 
care for one another in times of distress. We always have far more members 
of our caring committee than we have people for them to help. When I have 
asked for people to send cards to someone hospitalized, what happens is a 
wondrous flood of cards pouring in to that ailing person.

We have an opportunity to extend help to some fellow UU's in southern 
California whose churches and homes have been damaged or destroyed by 
the terrible fires raging there. There is information about where to send  
money-and money is what they need from us who are distant from them-
on the Announcements page in your program. I am sending $100 on behalf 
of the congregation from my Discretionary Account.

Leading with love is part of what it means to be a religious liberal. We use 
our hearts as well as our heads.

We use our hands as well.

Early in our history we recognized that creeds-right belief-are not enough 
for a worthy life. Early in our history we began to welcome people of 
divergent beliefs into our congregations. 

We began with the welcome of those who did not share the majority view on 
baptism. We then embraced people with different Biblical interpretations. 
We said that Christians of any kind would be included, then theists of any 
kind, and finally people of beliefs ranging from atheism to polytheism. 

What mattered and what matters today is what we do with our beliefs. Do 
we engage the world on behalf of justice and peace? It does not make any 
difference whether we do that as an agnostic or a pagan or a theist. 

Likewise with good feelings, our practice has been to live those feelings not 
merely to speak them or to hold them tight to ourselves. Love must express 
itself or it is not truly love, just sentimentality.

Thought and feeling matter a great deal, but religious liberals have never 
believed that they are enough. We must act. We must do the work of the 
world. There is no one else. 

The Socinians built churches and homes and schools. They welcomed 
people from the several varieties of Christianity then living in Poland, the 
only religious group to do so.

The Unitarians of Transylvania, during the brief three years time when the 
king was one of them, began that period with a Decree of Toleration and 
lived those years without oppressing other religions. Instead they were busy 
building churches and homes and schools and working to find ways of 
carrying out the king's decree in their daily lives.

One of the earliest Universalists was Georges de Benneville, most of whose 
90 years were spent in Pennsylvania among varying Indian tribes, yes 
preaching the gospel of universalism, but more importantly living it as well. 
He did not try to destroy the ways of the tribes with whom he lived, only 
help them in the ways he could as a medical doctor. 

Clara Barton's nursing skills saved lives during the Civil War. The Unitarian 
Service Committee saved lives from the Nazis during the Second World 
War. Unitarian Universalists were at the forefront of the civil rights 
movement 40 years ago. Some, like Jim Reed and Viola Liuzzo, gave their 
lives for that cause.

Joining with people of other faiths, members of this congregation have built 
houses with Habitat For Humanity, helped to house and feed the homeless 
with the Interfaith Hospitality Network, worked against the injustices 
perpetrated against Rabih Haddad with time and money and caring, rallied 
for non-violent and international solutions to the problems in the Middle 
East, and so much more.

This is a typical UU congregation, full of people who do what they can, and 
often even more than that, to make this world a better place for everyone.

Part of the work of our hands is the building we are in and the wing we see 
now being constructed. These are the hands that signed checks and reached 
into wallets to pull out more dollars. These are the hands that understood we 
have no angels in this congregation who will save us with their wealth, no 
vastly rich people who will pay for our new buildings. Only we can do that.

As only we can pay for the regular expenses of our congregation by the 
generous pledges we have made and will make. We know that thinking 
freely and loving dearly are not enough. We must also be generous with our 
time and our energies and our money.

What does it mean to be a religious liberal?

It means that with head and heart and hands we will be directed to a general 
broadening of mind, that we will be generous and open-handed, not sparing 
of ourselves. It means that we will give amply and abundantly of ourselves 
and our treasure. It means that we will not be closed-minded or dogmatic but 
open-minded and candid. It means that we will be free of prejudice and 
favorable to democratic reform and individual liberty.

That's the way we religious liberals try to live. It is a very good way indeed!











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