I was startled by a discussion over at Scott Well's blog about whether UU Christians can truly find a home in UU congregations.Since I've entered the blogosphere, I have discovered that this is a common subject, Christianity and Unitarian Universalism. Coming from a Muslim background, I found UU churches to be ... quite churchy. Masaajid (mosques) don't even tend to have chairs, nevermind pews. And let's not talk about choirs! Or the giant bouquet of fresh flowers next to the pulpit every week, something I find rather bewildering.
But when I first entered my local church, I accepted all of this. It was strange and unfamiliar to me, but I accepted it.
I was told by people that every church was independent ... polity and so on. I interpreted this to mean that every congregation could have its own personality - that truly, there were church homes for everyone. Somewhere, I imagined, there were congregations oriented towards paganism, buddhism, humanism, christianity, judaism, activism, sundayism. Some congregations had ministers, some didn't. Some had buildings and others met in rented rooms. Terrific!
Judging from the discussions I've been reading, however, this does not appear to be a reality. Is it?
My only preview to these repeated complaints of exclusion (from both Christians and atheists/humanists) has been the debate about language of reverence. The debate about language of reverence astounds me. I am not a Christian. I don’t even really believe in God. But what good does it do me when someone who does believe in God doesn’t feel permitted to use the word?
I didn't become a UU so that I could learn to tiptoe around everyone, or be tiptoed around. Is this the religion of Ralph Waldo Emerson? He did not tiptoe! Be offended if you want to be offended, but learn something. Be surprised, enjoy the experience of something unexpected, set aside Sunday morning to be the one unpredictable hour of your week.
I used to go to masjid on Fridays and be, at turns, shocked, motivated, ticked off, inspired, and determined-to-do-otherwise and it was just fine. I was engaged. This was my faith community. I would go home and study the traditions and the Qur'an. I read books about Islamic history and law so that I could agree or disagree with the Imam or other Muslims and have a basis for it. How is it that UUs want to strip UUism - a religion inspired by free thought – of all its challenge? Of all the work?
In the time between leaving Islam and finding UUism, I read much, felt much, wavered much, trying to figure out what Truth was, and how I could live with less fear in myself and more love and hope. I wanted to work towards a freer, fairer and more meaningful society. I joined UUism in the hopes of finding other people who were as serious about this as I was. People who had convictions, but were open to change and each other. Does all theology have to get in the way of this?
There is an advantage to having grown up a minority: a black muslim girl-child of converts, who ate tofu and homeschooled and wore hijab from the time she was two years old. I learned that it was all right to be the only person like myself in a room or in a building. I learned to take what I could from the mainstream, and leave the rest. To be uncomfortable. To be offended. To be told I was wrong on a regular basis. To be laughed at. To be ignored. To be thought strange. To be left out. To be told I supported terrorism. To be praised for my “courage.” To be approached with questions by complete strangers any time I walked out my front door. To prefer no representation over misrepresentation. This was my life growing up - it was a good life - and I can say that I have never been offended by a UU talking about Jesus. UUs who talk about Jesus are exciting to me because they are talking about something. They are talking about emotions, history and transformation. Anyone who talks about these things in any theological context with respect towards others is someone I want to listen to.
I personally don’t need to hear another Readers Digest sermon about appreciating the flowers in my garden. I want to hear from people who know and from people who believe. Even if I disagree with them, I will know more about myself after an hour with them, than a whole month of essays about 'celebrating spontaneity.'
Bottom line: When I think of people like Tamara, Lewis, and Stephen ... UUs with distinct spiritual practices and beliefs, my heart is lifted. I am encouraged and excited and looking forward to their study and (hopefully) their future ministries because these are people who are on a journey to someplace. I hate the thought of anyone restricting their movement. I want to see what happens next.
(Photo: Me in early 2005. By HSA)
16 comments:
Well said ...
Churches are free to build atop a foundational personality, be it Christian, Pagan, Humanism, etc. There really aren't, however, that many Christian UU's 'out there.' I have to honestly accredit this fact to be a source of much of the frustration from UU pastors and lay people who identify themselves as "Christian." Christian UU's could always set out and plant a church with a Christian foundation to relieve much of this frustration. In all honestly, this is probably the course they would have to take anyway, again, for lack of Christian numbers in our Association.
My own local UU congregation claims members who are Christians. These members have declared themselves to be Christians publicly and are embraced rather than persecuted. When these members speak during worship they even have the unspoken option of opening up the beautiful 'Last Supper' print which hangs directly behind the choir platform and chalice, if they so choose. They, however, would never try to make the whole church "Christian." They simply don't want too.
I'm not so sure that Christianity is actually as berated by UUism as it seems in the UU blogosphere. I personally would not want to mistake vocational frustration (a real and appropriate emotion), which is, again, a result of a lack of Christian numbers in the UUA itself, with actual denominational characteristics. I say this with all due respect to those UU ministers and laity who call themselves "Christian." There simply aren't a lot of Christians in the UUA.
Also, I will say this: As a Unitarian Universalist in a liberal Christian seminary, I would be careful to whom I presumptuously "hook my wagon." One might find that there never really was an invitation extended to do so. Now, don't get me wrong, this hesitation is not the product of any personal seminary relationships with professors and/or staff, but the general student body. Liberal Christianity does have its limits, most of them very theological (and often incoherent). I'm curious to see if the majority of UU's are prepared to accept and incorporate these limits into this sort of hypothetical liberal Christian/UU merger that occupies so much of our discussions in the blogosphere. I bet not ...
Shawn's comment is pretty comprehensive, so I'll try to keep this short. My main point is that the UU blogosphere is not representative of UUism as a whole, not by a long-shot.
UU bloggers are disproportinately represented by UU Christians, and like many people in cyberspace, some are posting because they're venting negative feelings they wouldn't say in real life. It was a UU Christian who drew my attention to the fact that percentage-wise there are many more disgruntled UU Christians posting online than exist in our denomination. Philocrites broke this down once, suggesting reasons for greater online liberal Christian representation.
You also get more disgruntled Humanists posting online. Cyberspace seems to be where we all go to exposure our demons these days, and people can get downright viscious. I've learned not to judge any community, be they Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, or UUs, by the online behavior of some of their co-religionists. It's just not a reliable view of the big picture.
As for local churches, you're right, they're really far more Protestant than most UUs themselves realize. But it tends to linger in terms of organization, ritual, and aesthetics, not explicit theology. Few UU churches are actually Christian in any way that a mainstream American Christian would accept. I grew up in a UU church laden with Christian symbols, but never turned out Christian myself.
Local churches can organize themselves however they want. There are in fact UU Christian churches and UU pagan fellowships. Many churches are de facto Humanist strongholds. I can imagine a day when we have one or more UU Buddhist churches. Theoretically, we could have UU masjids (I have no idea what this would look like in practice! Though then again, Muslims are unitarians after all. . . More so than our own Christian ancestors).
OK, I failed at keeping this short. Sorry! Anyway I'll just close by saying don't take online UU exchanges too seriously. UUism is an activist religion: you get out of it in proportion to what you actively seek and contribute. Some people just put in a bitter attitude--they don't reap much worth keeping. Others embrace UU values and use them to mine a vein of personal and meaningful spirituality for all its worth. It's both the beauty and the Achilles heel of UUism that we won't tell anyone which sort of UU you have to be.
In response to Jeff: My main point is that the UU blogosphere is not representative of UUism as a whole, not by a long-shot.
This is reassuring! It's difficult to gauge where we are as a denomination sometimes. Where exactly is the pulse of UUism? At the church? At the UUA? Online? Within the young adult community? At General Assembly?
Few UU churches are actually Christian in any way that a mainstream American Christian would accept.
I original mentioned this in my entry, but cut some things out for length. My church feels quite churchy to me, but after initially marvelling that I, indeed, was going to church!, I realized that to a Christian, it would look like a church (minus Jesus and minus the crosses), but it wouldn't feel like a church.
Muslims are unitarians after all. . .
This may be true, but they are not Unitarian Universalists! Imagining a UU Muslim is difficult for me, knowing what I know of Islam. It would take a lot of reinterpretation, but perhaps no more than it takes for a Christian. I would definitely pay a visit to a UU masjid if there was one. I'd have to make a special trip.
UUism is an activist religion: you get out of it in proportion to what you actively seek and contribute.
This was one of the things that most attracted me to UUism - the ability to have input and influence on the practice in your local congregation (even national); the capacity for change.
Not continuing the above conversation but in response to the original post...Thank you, Hafida. I have always believed that it is best that I live my faith by example...I am grateful that it has touched you.
There is a problem in UU culture of tip-toeing as you so rightly put it. UUs all too often want to please everybody by taking the path of least substance.
“I personally don’t need to hear another Readers Digest sermon about appreciating the flowers in my garden.”
You are so right…which is why my most recent attempt to rejoin the UU fold flopped. It was OK at first, but when I started to feel that getting to church by 10:30 AM on Sunday was a chore, I knew I wasn’t getting anything of depth. I don’t remember a single major point of any of the sermons I attended, and I attended probably 8 or 10 services. I remember general themes, but I never walked out thinking “gee that was really true/meaningful/inspiring.”
Hafida, there is a rich spirituality in our congreations, and while each congregation is unique, we have a common religious culture as well. Most of our congregations are pluralist, not one way of being religious. Even the Christian UU and Humanist UU congregations are plural theologically.
Some thoughts on Shawn's estimate of the Christians in the UUA. I think we might want to distinquish between ethical Christians, and theological Christians. We have survey information on that, many congregations ask members to identify according to certain theological definitions in preparation for the search for a new minister. Most of those surveys in congregations all around the country come back reporting 25-45% ethical Christian. And 2-4% theological Christian!
I have served seven congregations, and was a lay person in one for twenty years. Based on conversations with lay folk I think the survey reflects what is on the ground. What is the difference?Ethical Christian means being interested in the ethics of love and peacemaking and the traditional Unitarian idea of Jesus as a teacher. Theological Christian was defined "Jesus as a unique revelation of the divine"
By orthodox definitions few UUs are Christians, by old fashioned Unitarian standards it may be a largest single self definition. (Humanist scores second in many of these congregational surveys.)
Why are folks desgruntled? My view is that UU congregations are "inclusive pluralistic communities." It is a very challenging for new ministers to learn to serve so many different ways of being religious. Those who would perfer to see Unitarian Universalism the way it was, (either in the Christian past or the Humanist past) blame our diversity and label it "un UU' and reject the opportunities for what is a very challenging way of being religious community (pluralist)
The survey info. is interesting Clyde. Is this coming from the same compiled survey info. that paints our more theistic seminarians/candidates as ones who will face difficulty in their congregational candidating, for a lack of like-minded theistic congregations? There's a statistical tension there I just can't get around, but that isn't the point of this thread, so please forgive me for bringing it up. Carry on wonderful people ...
Shawn, i think you unnecessarily apologize here for continuing the conversation!
No Shawn it isn't.
I think you are refering to a conclusion printed in Engaging Our Theological Diversity by the Commission on Appraisal...that the seminarians were more theistic than the congregations...I have no idea how they came to that conclusion.
Candidates get into trouble with congregations when their theology is not inclusive of the members of the congregation. A "theist' must be able to minister to both theists and non theists, and vice versa. Some of our ministers think their personal theology is more important than ministering to the diversity that is UU congregations, and they declare that UUism doesn't welcome Christians, or Humanists or Pagans or etc. UUism does, but it expects a welcoming response in return.
Just dropping by, or in...to say great discussion, good points. Well said, Brother Clyde. If anyone wants a free six month subscription to the UUCF's "Good News" publication and an intro packet from the UU Christian Fellowship, drop me an email with your contact info. Thanks. Blog On! Rev. Ron Robinson, Executive Director, UUCF, RevRonRobinson@aol.com, www.uuchristian.org and church planter, www.epiphanyspirit.org
This is a wonderful, rare perspective and you're cool.
Hafida, thanks for these very very perceptive comments. I feel like what we need to develop is the spiritual practice of dialogue where we can challenge one another without getting personally hurt and offended. I want to be challenged on my beliefs - that's why I'm a Unitarian. I feel like we say we allow people to find their own spiritual paths but we never actually do that. We don't have one-on-one and group fascilitated spiritual direction, when that should be primarily what we should be doing.
I wish we could drop a lot more of the Christian/Protestant church culture - and engage more theologically with the Christian tradition. I don't think people realise how 'Christian' our churches look, but of course like you say - they don't look like Mosques. I'm tempted to say we've kept all the wrong bits of our Christian heritage. All the 'church' none of the radical political liberationist stuff from Jesus.
I'd love to see us develop the UU - Islam stuff more. I know one UU Muslim, and I think there's a lot we could develop in that direction - especially with the Sufi tradition. But I'll keep my thoughts about that for another time.
Stephen - you are the third person or so I've met who says they know a Muslim UU, but I've never met one myself!
Maybe one day I will have to try to find them all (okay, some of them) and see if we can't talk about how that would work. I'm not really interested in being a Muslim again - I want to focus on developing a UU identity - but in the last year I've started to become much more cognizant of how much my Muslim upbringing has affected the way I am becoming a UU.
When we say we allow people to embark on their own search for truth and meaning and spirituality, I think that's true - we allow it, but we don't give very much support. People are left to search alone ... so very alone.
I didn't think to mention this before, but there was a Muslim guy in the UU church that I grew up in. He was a prominent church member: taught Sunday School, served on various committees, etc. His background was Middle Eastern but I was way too young to know specifics. Since he was a regular part of the church when I was growing up I just always assumed being a UU Muslim wasn't a big deal; for that matter, I grew up with a fairly healthy attitude toward Islam, I'm sure his presence had something to do with it.
I trust that you are planning to be a UU minister!!!!!!
I would happily be a member of any convregation that you would preach to.
Do YOU fealize what a gift you have? How intelligent you are? What tremendous insight you have?
Thank you, Anonymous, for the kind words. I currently have no interest in becoming a minister, though the idea of studying religion or going to seminary does appeal to my curiosity.
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