Rev.
Ann C. Fox
(508) 992-7081
minister@uufairhaven.org
Unitarian Universalist
Society of Fairhaven
Blessings and Challenges of Diversity
with Japanese guests present from
Tosashimizu Sister City program
a sermon by Rev. Ann C. Fox
October 7, 2007
Note: A reading is attached, which you might like to read first.
I like sushi! I didn’t always like sushi. In the days that I didn’t like it, I actually had never tried it. I didn’t like the idea of eating raw fish. I had pre-judged sushi and presumed it tasted awful. It was my children who persuaded me to try sushi. They said, “Mum, it is an acquired taste!” Now, these were the two kids who used to never try unfamiliar food so here we were with our roles reversed. So I tried sushi.
Nowadays, on most Fridays, Leo and I buy a tray of sushi from our local Shaw’s Supermarket when it is freshly made by a local Japanese chef. The diversity of food in our society is a symbol of our openness to the foods and the people of other cultures. I have just returned from my native England where I was startled to see in the center of a small country town there a new and very large Turkish restaurant. I asked whether there was a Japanese restaurant as well. My sister said, “Not yet!” The people of the world are reaching out to one another through their cuisine. We have come a long way in a short time.
It was not so long ago when there was fear of what was not familiar. There was fear of the foreigner, especially those of a different race. The foreigner was the “other.” This fear was born of ignorance and prejudice, or pre-judgment. In 2003, I presented to you the story of Manjiro Nakahama, a teen-age boy who came to Fairhaven with a whaling captain, Captain Whitfield. You might know that Manjiro was one of five hungry 14-year old Japanese boys who were marooned on an island in 1841 because their fishing boat had broken up in a storm. Captain Whitfield found them and eventually took them to Hawaii as part of his whaling voyage. Four of the boys stayed in Hawaii but Manjiro, who had begun to learn English, chose to come to Fairhaven with Captain Whitfield who was becoming like a father to him. They arrived here in 1843. Manjiro, who must have been 16 years then, went to school and was a diligent and brilliant student. He endeared himself to everyone who had contact with him.
Because Manjiro was of a different race, he was denied entrance to two churches in this town. Captain Whitfield brought him to this church, which was not in this grand building but in a much simpler one around the corner on Washington Street (now a maritime institute) and Manjiro was accepted. In 1843, when so much of our country was fearful of strangers of other races, Manjiro Nakahama offered this congregation the opportunity to transcend their fear. He offered us the first experience of racial diversity. We cannot say there was no prejudice in the hearts of any of the members of that 1843 congregation, but if there was any, Manjiro’s gracious manner and personality would surely have quelled all fears and won their hearts. We know that eventually, he returned to Japan and was instrumental in opening up trade talks between America and the Japanese Emperor.
The seeds and spirit of friendship planted by Manjiro survived across more than 150 years of history. It is thanks to the determination of Manjiro’s family and the sister city relationship between his home town of Tosashimizu and Fairhaven and New Bedford that we continue our international friendship. I hope that many of you attended the wonderful festival in the center of Fairhaven yesterday for it was surely blessed by fabulous 80 degree F. weather! Also, you could have eaten lots of Sushi right here in the center of town. We are grateful today for the presence of guests from Tosashimizu and once more we bid you all a warm Welcome.
Modern day Unitarian Universalists love diversity in just about everything, including social justice and also in religious beliefs. This sometimes leads others to make fun of us and we also like to make fun of ourselves with our famous lightbulb jokes. Here is a lightbulb joke on how seriously we believe in diversity: How many members of a UUA committee does it take to change a light bulb? Ten, of whom at least, five must be women, one minister, one Canadian, one youth, two senior citizens, one person of color, two gay or lesbian, one Christian, one disabled, one Board member, and no more than three from any one standing committee. I leave it to you how ten people might share all those characteristics.
Now let us turn our attention to other kinds of diversity. Over the last century, our nation and our religion has overcome gender and racial prejudice to grant the right to vote for women and their equal rights and participation, and civil rights to black Americans, at last. Our religion, Unitarian Universalism, is the first and only one in the United States to fully accept gay, bisexual, and transgender people as wholesome human beings. This, too, has made us more truly diverse, more wholesomely diverse. We believe we are fully embracing the most important teaching of Jesus, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” This means all your neighbors, no exceptions. Nor does it mean that a neighbor has to become more like us, such as asking gay men and women to deny who they really are to be accepted. This diversity helps us on our journey to wholeness for we surely cannot be whole if we are holding prejudice in our hearts.
What does diversity mean for us in our religious beliefs? It means that we can each hold our own perspective on what we believe about God, death, afterlife, truth, and the meaning of life and many other aspects of religious ponderings. As this morning’s reading said: “Religious authority, for us, is not vested in statements of doctrine, religious hierarchy, or sacred texts. Religious authority, rather, comes from within each individual who chooses to live as best he or she can by the truth he or she determines. Religious authority is centered in conscience and therefore is shared among the congregation. In the promise we make to create a congregation is an affirmation that we all have access to religious truth.” (Marshall, p.104) This does not mean that our conscience cannot be informed and inspired by sacred scripture; of course it can. But it may mean that we might have to look to the spirit of scriptural urgings rather than the literal interpretation.
The liberal religionist believes that as humankind evolves to be more righteous, he or she must look to the human heart and reason to guide us and recall that the biblical prophet Ezekiel said, “A new heart I will give you and a new spirit I will put within you…and cause you to walk in my statutes.” (Ezekiel 36:26-27) And we recall that later Jesus was to say that “All that is in heaven is within you.”(Luke 17:21) We look within ourselves as our own authority for truth in this world. What we ask of you is that you do the difficult work of pondering life’s big questions, such as: What is God for me or what authority, if any, is greater than mine? What is the purpose of life? What is death and beyond? What part should social justice issues play in my life?
This diversity of belief can be viewed as a drawback for us in the eyes of others. First of all, it makes it hard for us to respond to such questions as, “Well, what do Unitarian Universalists believe?” One UU says that her mother taught her to say, "Tell them that in our church, we don't think alike, we walk together." (Rev. Jane Rzepka, from “What Holds Us Together?” Quest.) Like our Puritan ancestors, we are a people who covenant to walk together in the spirit of love.
In this sanctuary, there are believers in a divine being; there are people who do not believe in a divine being. There are those for whom God is a creative force in the process of life and love. There are as many diverse beliefs here as you can imagine. Particular beliefs simply do not matter to us in the whole scope of who we are. What matters are the values we share, So that we can articulate these values, we have seven principles, which are printed in our Order of Service each Sunday. This Sunday, I see that they have a box around them. We like to recall the words of our famous sixteenth century theologian hero, Francis David, who said, “We don’t have to think alike to love alike” and this we believe whole-heartedly.
What is important for me in a religion is: whether it will help make this world a more just and loving place; whether it will bring greater prosperity to be shared by all; whether it will help us to transcend our differences so that we may cultivate peace and friendship at home, in the cities, in the nations, and across the world so that one day we will be One. Diversity of culture, race, sexual orientation, beliefs, and so on, will simply be part of the richness of our world to be celebrated, as we have done today. May we celebrate our diversity often.
Reading from A Holy Curiosity: Stories of a Liberal Religious Faith
by Bruce T. Marshall
Huntington, N.Y.: UU Fellowship of Huntington, 1990
A congregation that affirms human worth and dignity must also be a congregation that values diversity. People enter Unitarian Universalism with a variety of backgrounds and life experiences. Thus we create a religious community from a diverse membership. We also provide a place where differences may be bridged, and the walls that keep people apart may be lowered. . . .(p. 102)
In a diverse congregation, power must be shared and authority extended throughout the membership. Thus our congregations are guided by democratic principles…. [and] bound together by a commitment we make to each other. Our promise is that we will together—without creedal requirement or submission to external authority—create a religious community….
Religious authority, for us, is not vested in statements of doctrine, religious hierarchy, or sacred texts. Religious authority, rather, comes from within each individual who chooses to live as best he or she can by the truth he or she finds. Religious authority is centered in conscience and therefore is shared among the congregation. In the promise we make to create a congregation is an affirmation that we all have access to religious truth. (p.104)
Another characteristic of liberal religious congregations is an insistence that the holy is greater than any of the forms that confine it….I find the holy scattered throughout life, in ordinary and extraordinary times….Thus another of our roles within the wider religious community is to affirm an attitude of wonder and gratitude toward life; and to present alternatives when the holy becomes captive of a particular story or time or place. (pp 106-107)
© The Rev. Ann C. Fox