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Quote
Life is like that, full of words that are not worth saying, or that were worth saying once but not any more ....
~Jose Saramago, The Cave
Aug
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The Gods You Didn’t Choose
Filed Under books, questions, quotes, religion, sadness, spiritual practice, uuism
The recent conversation at Philocrites’ site about Isaac Newton’s anti-Trinitarianism in the news, really has me wondering what Religious Education (RE) will look like in, say, ten or fifteen years. Which way will the pendulum swing?
I’m not morally opposed to learning the history of Christianity’s evolution and its many sects, but at the same time, when I became a UU, I had no desire to identify as Christian in any way. Maybe I didn’t do my homework well enough.
I’m feeling guilty because, while I don’t mind that other people study these things, it’s not what I want to spend my time doing. Not only is it not my belief system, but it doesn’t feel like my history or legacy - at all. My parents converted to Islam, while one of my grandparents is Catholic and three others are Protestant. One grandmother practiced Santeria, and one of my grandfathers has no use for religion at all. I don’t know what my great-greats and beyond believed about God, or how they worshiped; I can only assume based on geographical location. The consequence is that I’ve got no sense of religious history or continuity.
Christianity doesn’t feel like a part of me - especially not when it becomes an academic exercise. Reading about my Christian “origins” as a UU makes me feel as though I’ve gone to deliver flowers at a nursing home, only to find some random occupant attaching themselves to me, claiming to be my parent. It’s neither a good nor bad experience, but what obligation do I have to this old stranger?
Is this part of my responsible search for truth and meaning? If I didn’t care to study Unitarian and Universalist history and soteriology (and the other -ologies) for a while because there are other things that feel more relevant to my life right now, am I perpetuating a lack of discipline within the UU community? Must I adopt this old stranger?
I have no enmity for this person; I just want to build relationships with those of the same consanguinity. Ideas focused on what to do now in order to travel where we need to go. I feel like Karen Armstrong when she wrote in her memoir, The Spiral Staircase:
Share ThisThe best theologians and teachers have never been afraid to admit that in the last resort, there may be Nothing out there. That is why they spoke of a God who in some sense did not exist. It is why the Buddha refused to comment on the metaphysical status of a Buddha after death, and why Confucius would not speak of the Tao. What is vital to all of the traditions, however, is that we have a duty to make the best of the only thing that remains to us - ourselves. Our task now is to mend our broken world; if religion cannot do that, it is worthless. And what our world needs now is not belief, not certainty, but compassionate action and practically expressed respect for the sacred value of all human beings ….
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16 Responses to “The Gods You Didn’t Choose”
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Hafidha Sofia
I love living my life and being who I am. These are selected thoughts about the way I see the world as a lifelong learner who embraces the gift of Unitarian Universalism. BookShelf
Planned books:
- Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics by bell hooks
Current books:
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Care of the Soul : A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life by Thomas Moore
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The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future by Riane Eisler
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What\\\’s Going on in There? : How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life by Lise Eliot
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The Double by Jose Saramago
Recent books:
- Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck
- What to Expect When You\\\’re Expecting, Third Edition by Heidi Murkoff
- Fighting Words: A Toolkit for Combating the Religious Right by Robin Morgan
- The Answers Are Inside the Mountains: Meditations on the Writing Life (Poets on Poetry) by William Stafford
- Territory by Emma Bull
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Badges
I think the burden is on the MDivs to convince you why you should care. I think they’ve got a good case to make, but they have yet to make it.
Regarding Christianity, the key is to reframe the argument in a context that has resonance to today. That has yet to be addressed properly, in my humble opinion, and it’s one of the reasons I chose to leave UUism behind.
The text you cite makes a very good point. It takes a very mature person to come to the conclusion that “I believe what I believe, but I could be wrong.
Indeed, one of the reasons I’ve found refuge in Christianity is because I don’t presume to know the ultimate truth or reality of God. And no longer do I seek it. I’m okay with not knowing it all.
And furthermore, if by chance I discovered the meaning of life or the meaning of ultimate reality, where would I go from there? Human beings are, I firmly believe, programmed to seek a means beyond themselves. The older I get, the more pieces of the puzzle I receive, but I see it as a fun exercise rather than a life-or-death struggle to find the most perfect theory imaginable.
I believe what I believe, but I could be wrong. And I’m okay with that, finally.
I am afraid that we cannot reinvent Unitarian Universalism for every single person that signs the membership book. It is what it is: the history books are there, the biographies of those who came before in the great chain of life are there, the miseries and greatnesses are there for better or worse. I just hope that one day this faith tradition that you call yours will no longer be a stranger for you.
Christianity is one of our UU roots. So what? You certainly don’t need to identify with it. UUism is about being in communities of faith where our responsible search for truth and meaning is supported. If that journey takes you nowhere near Jesus, so be it!
The previous comment implies that Christianity is your faith tradition. Bollocks!
Although I’m on vacation, here I am chiming in from the road! My interest in urging UUs to take theology more seriously is not about trying to urge UUs to think of themselves as Christians. I can’t roll back the clock, and I’m not really interested in trying.
What I’m really hoping is that we’ll develop tools for thinking more coherently and deeply about the meaning of and justification for our religious beliefs. For me, this means taking a serious look at the tools our religious cousins are developing. Liberal theology offers resources that our tradition should be adapting.
Chutney - That’s a succinct way of putting it. I understand the “historical context” argument, and I wouldn’t disagree with it. The question for me is, “is it necessary?” Or even, What if I want to go in an entirely different direction? I’m also comfortable with leaving that type of work to the people who feel called to do it.
Kevin - You’ve left UUism behind?
Jaume - Yes, it’s all there, but when I became a UU I didn’t realize I’d be expected to embrace it all. I think I wasn’t paying attention so well. Also, it may also be that at the time I wasn’t averse to taking a closer look at Christianity. Now I’m just not interested. (Though that could change.)
Andrew - support for our searches, yes! That is why I became a UU.
Philocrites - I hear you to be saying that UUs can make use of tools that are already out there, if they are seeking to understand why they are part of this religious community? I agree the work should happen for those who are excited by it. What I feel unsure about - especially if belief in the authority of tradition is central to it - is the suggestion that we should be moving in a direction of Christian-based theology.
Even if it’s liberal Christian-based theology. Admittedly, I’m unsure how I feel about theology. But right now I’m not trying to justify my religious beliefs; I’m more interested in figuring out how to be of service to my community.
Hafidha,
A few years ago, Rev. Rebecca Parker spoke at the annual Liberal Religious Educators Association (LREDA) annual meeting. The theme of her talk was theology of religious education and a good chunk of her time with us was looking at the various mostly implicit components of our theology. This talk looked at the various components of a house (foundation, walls, roof, windows, doors, etc) as being metaphors for various aspects of theology (theology, eccesiology, sotieriology, eschatology, etc).
A good summary of this talk can be found online in a UU young adult curriculum:
http://www25.uua.org/ya-cm/resources/pdf/UU_Identity-Erslev.pdf
One of the points that Rebecca Parker made during this talk was the need to examine the mostly implicit theology and the its associated historical roots to become critically aware of who we are today as part of our anti-racism / anti-oppression work.
The newsprint drawing that Rebecca made of this metaphorical theological house came out looking like a typical house that one would see in North America or Europe. This is a reflection of UU history but this history’s effects today may make us less welcoming to some.
Here’s a short quote about this from the young adult curriculum summary:
“We may have thought that our door was open, but the structure of the house (our Christian, Western heritage) may be in contradiction.”
[...] Sofia writes more about it over at her place, in a way that I think is beautiful and sad and that opens conversation rather than presenting the [...]
WOw - not sure what happened to my comment - some of it got dropped. Let me try again. I agree that those who wish to study UU Christian roots should do so, and those who do not wish to do so should be equally as free not to.
I left our local UU church because spirituality of any kind was met with ridicule and condescending remarks. I never tried to push my beliefs (which by the way are not Christian)on anyone - but if I “dared” to mention them in discussion the result was painful. I had to say goodbye to the UU community here where I live. We are searching for another UU church in hopes that it will have a healthier vision of inclusiveness.
Admin Note: Kim’s first comment didn’t come through as intended, so this is Kim’s 2nd attempt. I’ve removed the first comment.
The problem that UUs have now (and I feel sure that this will get worse in the future, is that we say we’re open to different faiths and views - but we (sometimes and someplace’s) dont act like it. You will find some folks just like you in UUs, but you’ll have to hear alot of stuff that isnt you. Is UU Christian, Pagan, Humanist, Buddhist, Atheist? Well actually no…..and yes - and if there is some of the above that one doesn’t like to hear, then one might have difficulty in UU…. (depending on what year in what congregation)
I am so saddened by this. Unitarian Universalism is the only denomination that is named specifically for its theological parents and yet far too many UUs act like adolescents and pretend that we don’t have the parents we have.
I’m probably going to be more strident than anybody else who will respond to this post and say that all UUs (including you) must engage Christianity. To not engage with it cuts you off from most of the culture that you inherited. As Marcus Garvey said “a people without knowledge of its history is like a tree without roots”.
Part of the reason that modern UUism has continued on its downward spiral towards irrelevance is that instead of constructive conversation and engagement with the broader culture in which it exists, some people decided that the conversation wasn’t worth having. It disengaged from the grander conversation of “intimacy” and “ultimacy” and instead became a liberal social/political club that occasionally might say a prayer.
I don’t think that one has become a Christian in order to engage with it (one of the people I most admire is a Rabbi who has a degree in New Testament Studies); but engage with it you must.
I’m pondering the many different needs people bring to their involvement in a UU (or any other) congregation. Although I think the church needs theologians and careful thinking about our religious ideas, that doesn’t mean that everyone needs to be a theologian or even to care about the work that theologians do. I’d be frustrated by people who actively oppose the work that theologians do, but that’s not the same as people who don’t get it or don’t care about it.
But other people care more about practical aspects of congregational life: how to care about each other, how to run a good meeting, how to welcome people, how to mobilize other people toward a social or political goal, etc. All those things are great, too. In one sense, none is more important than any other, and each one is worth a lot of people’s serious thought and commitment. (And other people care only about their own personal involvement in a congregation and would rather not get involved in any organizational work. Their personal and spiritual concerns deserve some dedicated thought, too, although our tradition tends to encourage even these people to learn to think covenantally about getting more involved in groups; we tend to discourage simply being a religious soloist.)
When it comes to developing ways that our religious community can interact with or represent itself in relationship to other religious traditions, however, we need to be able to think and speak theologically — or we’re simply a community group that just happens to use a handful of unconsidered religious words to describe ourselves. We’re trying to find ways to be related to traditions that aren’t Christian as well as to traditions that are — which complicates our theological task — but we can’t get by without some theological interpretations of our relationship to Christianity. Coming up with those interpretations isn’t everyone’s job, but it sure better be someone’s! And that’s all that I think I’m trying to say.
[...] UU history relevant?” seems to be the question of the hour. I want to add a word of [...]
“What I feel unsure about - especially if belief in the authority of tradition is central to it - is the suggestion that we should be moving in a direction of Christian-based theology.”
Me too. Or it would be, were I persuaded that there’s any traction to the suggestion that We (capitalization intentional) are, or should be moving in such a direction. Christians of any stripe are a minority of UUs, and so the idea that we should be moving in that specific “direction” because our old roots are Christian is silly. It’s akin to suggesting that we ought to rejoin Britain because the US was once British colonies.
To quote a great cartoon philosopher, “You’ve got to put your past into your behind.”
It wouldn’t change things if, for some reason, many more UUs became UU Christians. We’ve moved, we’ve grown, we’ve evolved. We’re not about liberal Christianity, we’re about liberal religion (inclusive of Christianity), having grown from liberal Christianity.
Does that mean that we should engage Christianity, as Kim H proposes above? Well, yes. But I don’t see that we have more need to engage Christianity than we need to engage Islam or Buddhism or Humanism. They all, in part at least, fall within the wide embrace of liberal religion.
I think it’s good, wise, and useful to engage Christianity, as a UU. But necessary? No, not necessary, not critical. I’d encourage it (and do!), because I see its value, and because I think people need to know more history, particularly their own. But UU theology isn’t going to be distinctly Christian, nor should it be. It should be distinctly its own thing, and should be open to Christian interpretation and understanding–and as a result, I don’t think that any UU theologian (amateur or professional) would be wise to ignore Christianity. But not everyone is a theologian. Nor should they be; there’s not enough room on the head of the pin for us all to dance, already.
I think it is curious that Unitarian Universalism is largely neither unitarian nor universalist. I suppose it is kind of like American “football” having evolved so much away from its origins that it now has almost nothing to do with the feet but it still retains the old name. But that creates a bit of a problem for those people who are lower-case unitarians and lower-case universalists. The lower-case “u” people are the legitimate heirs of unitarianism and universalism; the upper-case “U”s are not.
What I have observed in the UU churches I have visited was an openness to every faith tradition under the sun except for Christianity. You can be a UU Buddhist or a UU Pagan, but God forbid you actually mention Jesus. How odd for a religion whose roots come from Christianity and which still uses Christian-derived words in the very name of its denomination. It is a double standard, and it shows how many people embrace the UU faith more as a refuge from religions they don’t like than as a mutually respectful path for religious seekers.
Steve - you reminded me that about a year or so ago I attended a UU young adult “building a UU theology” series. It was actually really good; I enjoyed it immensely, even though it wasn’t very well attended. I’ll have to review the links you included; I had notes from those classes and enjoyed the house metaphor.