The New Massachusetts Universalist Convention

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Spring 2006

Two Little Words

In 1803, before the Unitarian denomination existed, the Universalist denomination began its self-description ("The Winchester Profession") as follows:

We believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments contain a revelation of the character of God and of the duty, interest and final destination of [hu]mankind.

Does that sound like anything you could identify with? I admit that it did not sound like anything I could identify with--not at first. But then I noticed two little words--two little words that said: Yes, indeed, this was written by a religious ancestor.

One of these words is the smallest one: "a." We believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments contain a revelation…. Not the (unique) revelation, but a revelation. One revelation among many. Our Judeo-Christian religious tradition isn't the only religious tradition. There are others, and they are valid, too. In some situations they may even be more valid. When I have a religious question that Judeo-Christianity doesn’t seem to answer very well, I might find an answer in Buddhism, or the spirituality of Native Americans, or in some other religious tradition.

Beginning to sound familiar?

The other word I noticed is inconspicuous, too: "contain." [T]he Holy Scriptures … contain a revelation…. The Bible itself is not a revelation, it contains a revelation. Some parts of the Bible are religiously important, but other parts are not. How can these parts be distinguished? By people, using their hearts and minds. It's we who are the final arbiters of what's religiously important and what is not.

Doesn't this sound like today's UUism?

Winter2006

The New "Flaming Birdbath"

We know a woman with a very Irish name--we'll call her Kerry O'Malley--who identifies strongly with her Irish heritage. She wears Celtic-knot jewelry. She has vacationed in County Kerry--her grandfather O'Malley's birthplace--several times, and has learned to speak a little Irish. She even has a small shamrock tattooed on one shoulder.

Kerry is three-quarters Hispanic! Yet she has never visited Puerto Rico, the birthplace of her other three grandparents. She speaks no Spanish.

We are reminded of Kerry by the new UUA logo. The flaming chalice--alas, still looking more like a birdbath than a drinking vessel--is now in the center and surrounded by rays. This, the logo says, represents our faith.

But the flaming chalice was used before the UUA was formed as a symbol of Unitarianism. The UUA's previous logo, for all its problems, at least made an attempt--by placing the chalice off-center--to acknowledge that our heritage is more than Unitarianism alone. The new logo says simply: we're Unitarian. It's like Kerry's shamrock saying: I'm Irish.

But Kerry is mostly something else, and UUism is too. In The Premise and the Promise, a history of UUism published in 2001 by the UUA, Warren Ross writes (p. 190),

Universalism won. Though the Universalists were the weaker partner at the beginning, Un versalism "won" in the long run--not in the sense of power, but because Unitarian Universalist values today are closer to historic Universalism than of Unitarianism.

It's true. Today's UUs are predominantly middle-class come-outers whose favorite principles are the first (the inherent worth of every person) and seventh (the interdependent web of all existence).

The analogy between the flaming chalice and Kerry's tattoo breaks down in that Kerry can explain why the shamrock is a symbol of Ireland in a way that is simple and easy to remember. But the explantion of the flaming chalice on the UUA website offers no fewer than ten possible meanings, then concludes that

There is no one offical meaning of the flaming chalice. Like our faith, it stands open to new and ongoing interpretation and significance.

It occurs to us that a symbol whose meaning is so varied and fluid actually might mean very little.

Winter 2006

"Denial Is Not Just a River in Egypt"

Why would smart people like UUs become devoted to a symbol of uncertain meaning that obscures what is apparently the more important part of their heritage?

Kerry looks Hispanic, not Irish. Hispanic genes "won." Yet she downplays her Puerto Rican heritage because of personal history--she grew up at a time, and in a place, where it was much more difficult to be proud of being Puerto Rican than of being Irish.

The UU movement is likewise affected by personal history--that of the majority of UUs who have unresolved conflicts with Christianity. UUs may like a lot of things about Universalism, but Universalism itself must be made to disappear because it makes a specific demand that most UUs can't abide: that the UU movement maintain contact with its Judeo-Christian roots.

The previous UUA logo can be understood as a combination of the flaming chalice and Universalism's off-center cross. The cross in the circle was replaced by the chalice, then moved to the other side. Though the resulting meaning was absurd--relativized Unitarianism?!--the important thing was to get rid of that cross.

Universalists agree that mainstream Christianity has been corrupted by theological nonsense, lust for power, sexism and anti-Semitism (to name only some of its problems). But--like it or not--Christianity is the only heritage UUism has, historically, and the only religious tradition that preserves (some of) the words and deeds of the world-class religious genius Jesus of Nazareth.

Most UUs who shun a Christian background do so because they don't know how to separate Christanity's toxic components from elements that could still nourish them. As a result they're always spiritually hungry, suckers for the latest spiritual fad--and then, still hungry, for the fad after that.

The 1780 Massachusetts Constitution, written by Unitarian John Adams, refers to ministers as "public Protestant teachers of piety, morality, and religion." We of the New Massachusetts Universalist Convention call on UU ministers--and, recognizing that it can be hard for old dogs to learn new tricks, we especially call on UU seminarians--to recommit themselves to their role as teachers. Teachers shape tastes and do not merely accomodate them ("God and Jesus make your neck crawl because of experience in another church? OK, we'll drop them"). It is not difficult to learn to disentangle our Judeo-Christian roots from the poison and nonsense that threaten to suffocate them, and we suggest that ministers owe it to the UU movement to learn to do this and to pass on their skill to their congregations.

Winter 2006

Suggestion to Persons Entering Heaven

--Mark Twain

Leave your dog outside. Heaven goes by favor.
If it went by merit, you would stay out
and the dog would go in.