Sermon

         I was shocked and dismayed this week to turn on the TV a bit too early for the 11 pm news and accidentally tune in to one of the horrendously bad reality TV shows. The scene was a “mother” talking to her son. She spoke to him of “The Lord.” He laughed derisively and said, “The Lord? There is no Lord! It just doesn’t exist!” She went on to say that she felt the presence… The son laughed and smirked and the mother ended up crying and leaving the room.

         This teen-ager was clearly not raised a Unitarian Universalist for our youth are taught to live out our principles and especially our Third Principle: Acceptance of one another... If we do not cultivate acceptance of one another’s beliefs, we could not possibly survive as a religion that encourages each of us to decide for ourselves what is true about our relationship to the universe. I hope that all of us here can rest assured that what we each believe to be true religiously is valid.

         The teen-ager on the TV show is what we call a secular humanist or an atheist, and a rude and arrogant one at that. But our UU HUUmanists could not possibly be so uncivilized, could they? No, not at all! Most UU humanists are religious humanists, which means that they are open to a sense of wonder about the universe, awe at the beauty of music, art, and literature, and perhaps the galaxies, but yet also believe that there is a rational explanation for all things. They look to the power of reason for inspiration. They usually believe that the world is self-created and sustaining and all phenomena can be rationally explained through the scientific method, even though science cannot explain all things at this time in our human development. They usually do not believe in a supernatural being that intercedes in history. (But then, as an aside, I say to you that many if not most UUs with a belief in a divine source also do not believe in divine intervention in history either.) Scripture and divine revelation will generally mean little to a humanist. (But, as another aside, I say to you that UUs generally believe that revelation is not sealed and certainly not restricted to the scripture of world religions.)

         They usually do not believe in heaven or hell or in any kind of afterlife. (As yet another aside, I say, many UUs who believe in a divine source also do not believe in an afterlife, but there are those who do.) Humanists who have a sense of awe call themselves religious humanists and if they feel great inspiration from that awe, they may call themselves mystical humanists.

         Some people think that the term “religious humanist” is an oxymoron (or contradiction in terms) since “humanist” implies that human beings are the center of the universe and “religious” implies that God is the center. Religious humanists generally see human beings in community as the center of the universe but religious humanists cannot be narrowly defined. In fact, it is better to ask a humanist to describe to you his or her beliefs for each one is likely to differ, even slightly, from the other. Don’t be surprised if, by the end of this sermon, you say to yourself, “I believe I’m a humanist or somewhat of a humanist, too.”

         In the 1950’s, a Baptist congregation bought a small Unitarian church building. Some workers were making repairs when they discovered a coffee pot in a niche. “It’s true,” one worker shouted. “They do worship the coffee pot!”

         How did humanism come to be a part of Unitarian Universalism? The fact is that it was the courage of nineteenth century Unitarians that opened the doors to their people being free to say what they really believed to be true and it was not an easy path for them or for those who wanted to hold back the forces of change, the forces that almost split forever the Unitarians into humanist and theist camps, which would have very likely been the end of Unitarianism if it were not for highly skilled negotiators in our ranks. (They could never have imagined there would be many different theological perspectives more than 150 years later!)

         We have two streams of thought to thank for humanism: the first is that of the New England Transcendentalists led by a Unitarian minister, Ralph Waldo Emerson in the 1830’s. This movement was inspired by German idealist philosophy. The second stream of thought was inspired less than a decade later in the mid-west by Darwin’s theory of evolution. The new ideas caused a great struggle in Unitarianism, which was then what we now call Channing Christianity; this was a liberal Christianity, with most Unitarians still believing that Jesus was a special incarnation of the divine but that began to question miracles, miracle birth and resurrection.

         In Unitarianism, the New England Transcendentalists expanded our religious ideas to include art, literature, music, beauty, nature, world religions, and above all, individual intuition and personal experience as the basis of religion. At the Harvard Divinity School address in 1838, Emerson caused an uproar amongst the faculty when he urged worship of the teachings of Jesus, not the person and that students should look to their own intuition to guide their religious life. Most of the faculty reviled him; the students adored him. Unitarian individuals and ministers were drawn to Transcendentalism but the times were not yet ripe for such radical ideas. Only one minister, the Reverend Theodore Parker carried the Transcendentalist ideas in his Unitarian ministry and he suffered ostracism by many of his colleagues, even Unitarian colleagues.

         Scientific discoveries were influencing the intellectuals in Unitarianism in the 1800’s. In 1838, Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, documented in his book Origins of the Species gave great impetus to an already blossoming turn towards “Free Religion” that sought embrace of all of Protestantism and would turn its attention towards serving humankind through social justice rather than focusing on doctrine or creed. After all, this was the example of Jesus’ life. It must have been an exciting time for free thinkers and a distressing time for those in Unitarianism who just wanted to have their worship services a bit more liberal than in the past but not too radical, please!

         These two streams of thought: Transcendentalism and Free Religion are an entire study in themselves but I just wanted to give you a sense of the roots of the humanist movement of today.

         I have called HUUmanists courageous because it did take a lot of courage for them to speak their minds on what they believed to be true and they certainly risked the discomfort of being in opposition to people in their congregation whom they loved and respected. No doubt some had to leave their religious homes. However, they did live in an age when all they lost was their religious friends, not their lives.

         When the Dutch Desiderious Erasmus lived in the 1500’s on the brink of the Reformation and still some decades away from the Enlightenment, he risked his life by expressing doubt in such things as the necessity for priests to be celibate and he expressed confidence in humankind being able to live a moral life without prayers and the religious life. Whenever he got close to being called heretic, the timid Erasmus would retreat into fuzzy philosophical argument to confound his critics. It wasn’t so much that he was a coward (though some in history have said that) but that he valued peace, and he was extremely reluctant to cause controversy. Even Greek philosophers were accused of not believing in the Gods and were forced to recant and express beliefs in the Gods or face being exiled or being thrown off a cliff in sacrifice to the Gods.

         So far, I have talked only of the Unitarians and humanism. There were Universalist individuals and ministers who held humanist views and they were barely tolerated. Many jumped ship to the Unitarian camp. And some Unitarians went to the Universalist camp to escape humanism. Universalism’s radical stream was more oriented towards expanding the use of the term “universalism” from meaning that all human beings are saved to a universal religion embracing the entire world. When the Unitarians and Universalists merged in 1961, the Universalist humanists were very glad indeed but the believers in God amongst them were greatly concerned that there would be no place for them in the new merged religion. Little did they know that making a place for all beliefs was the greatest challenge to the combined Unitarians and Universalist of the twentieth century, which we did very well in the final decades of the last century.

         One essayist said, “Religious humanism offers an attractive package of beliefs to Americans in the search for truth and meaning. It provides a ready-made fit with what most Americans have long accepted to be social, intellectual, and spiritual truths. These include the fusing of faith with reason, reliance on an individual code of conscience rather than a group creed for the search for truth; and the application of democratic practice within religion.” (King, p. 88)

         Humanists are more interested in engaging beliefs and values that will herald in a more just world for all people and this is why many if not most Unitarian Universalists identify at least somewhat with humanism. How many of you identify as a Unitarian Universalist Humanists? (About half—50 people—raised their hands.) How many of you identify with humanism and yet also hold open the door for a source of divinity in the universe? (More than half raised their hands, which indicates that some raised their hands both times.)

         There is room here for people of all beliefs and we, unlike the teen-ager I described earlier, are accepting and respectful of our differences. I wanted you to know something of the scope of who we are now who attend our church. And I wanted us to see and feel that it is not necessary for you to be tied into a narrow religious view, whether humanist, theist, Christian, or Pagan or other. Unitarian Universalist humanists—we say H-U-U-manists—may have a preference for reason to govern their thoughts about religion, but I guarantee you that they will have love at the core of their beliefs, otherwise they would not be here today or at any time. It is love that is the common factor in all our UU beliefs.

         Let us take a look here at an important human situation. I believe that people have the beliefs they do because of their “inner structure”; that is, who they are as a person in their inner being. We are drawn to the religion that expresses that inner structure. For example, none of you here could go to a fundamentalist church! (Lots of heads were nodding.) It is simply not reflective of who you are or what you believe deep down. Now, perhaps you know a couple where one person is a humanist, perhaps an atheist, who has no time whatsoever for churches. The other is a very spiritual person whose natural inclination is to go to church. Let me say this: the person who has no time for spirituality is not deficient! The person who is deeply spiritual is not deficient! They are both simply differently structured. They both have to understand that about one another. And they both have to listen deeply to each other so they can stand in the other person’s shoes. Then, they will have to let one another be the person they are and respect that. I say this to you so you can pass it on for it causes no end of unnecessary difficulties in intimate relationships.

         A thoughtful person asked last week, “What is spiritual growth?” Part of the answer to that question is embracingthe big questions of religion, such us what is religious humanism and what part of me is a religious humanist, if any at all. Part of spiritual growth is pondering the themes of our Sunday services. I feel greatly privileged to ponder these themes myself and offer to you my thoughts on many subjects. But I hope you will always remember that these are my thoughts and yours are equally valid.

         Next week is Bring a Friend Sunday. I hope you have a friend or neighbor of whom you have thought, “Ah, he or she, sounds like a UU!” Or, “He or she would be liberal enough to like to be invited to my church.” And don’t forget that we will be back in the sanctuary next week, so if your friend or neighbor doesn’t like the sermon, they can at least look around our lovely sanctuary! Your friend or neighbor may well be honored to be invited to your church. Let us try to pack our sanctuary! And remember that we have a corned beef and cabbage lunch afterwards, cooked by our Men’s Fellowship, and there is a vegetarian option.

         Next week, we will say together our unison “confession” that begins “Love is the doctrine of this church, and service is its prayer….” There is a humanist version and a theist version and which one we’ll use, you’ll have to come back next week to find out! But this week, now, we’ll sing a humanist hymn about love, # 299 Make Channels for the Streams of Love.

References

The following has inspired and informed this sermon:

King, Margaret J. “Religious Humanism: A Preliminary Cultural Study. From Religious Humanism XXXI, numbers 1 & 2. (No date on the photocopied article.)

Robinson, David. The Unitarians and the Universalists, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1985.