\n Put on a look as hushed and stilled<\/em>
\n As if some ancient prophecy<\/em>
\n Grew close upon to be fulfilled?<\/em><\/p>\n
\u2014 \u201cHave I Not Seen\u201d, Don Marquis, UU Hymnal #337<\/p>\n
I recently came across the following passage from John Trevor\u2019s autobiography, My Quest for God<\/em>.\u00a0 In it, he critiques the Unitarianism of his day, and the passage resonated with my own experience.\u00a0 Now, I have only been exposed to Unitarian Universalism for about two years, I have only visited a couple of congregations, and I have not become an official member, so I am hardly an authority on UUism.\u00a0 Trevor studied at the Unitarian college at Meadville, so he could speak with a little more authority about the Unitarianism of his time (circa 1878):<\/p>\n It is not my intention to give any details of my student life at Meadville; but of the effect of it all I must say something; and I find it very difficult to know how to say it. From the day I went to Meadville until now I have been enormously indebted to Unitarians for the free opportunity their institutions have provided for my development, and for the greatest personal kindness and help, rendered in a manner which has made it doubly acceptable. My respect for individual Unitarians is unbounded. And yet their religious position as a denomination is one which I have always deeply regretted. For want of something, I know not what, all their freedom, all their knowledge, all their generosity, all their high personal character\u2014 everything which seems to mark them out as the one denomination to lead the van of religious and social emancipation\u2014never comes to the point of making them a great reforming power. People, with qualities in many respects far inferior to theirs, are moving the world to-day; while they, perplexed and pained as they are, and anxious to find the road by which they may march forward, are scarcely able to maintain the status of their own churches.<\/strong><\/p>\n It is with unspeakable sorrow that I write this. Again and again have I felt deeply depressed by the Unitarian situation. Long have I waited to see the passionate Reformer arise among them, who would sweep all hindrances away, and call them forth to follow him into the wilderness where the God of Progress always shrouds himself, save to that heroic faith which determines to find him at all hazards. To throw off the trammels of the past is not enough; there must be the prophetic insight into the future. But not even the trammels of the past are quite thrown off. Unitarianism does not mean Free Religion; it means Free Christianity. It is the last word of the Old Gospel, sifted small through the riddle of the Intellect; not the first word of the New Gospel, bursting up irresistibly from the Spirit.<\/p>\n Unitarians are often heard to say that the reason why they do not make more progress is that other Churches are coming to their position. What does this mean but the conception of a God who tired himself out when he made the Unitarian Church, and now cannot go any further? I should have thought that such a statement would have startled such an advanced body into calling upon God for marching orders to take up a more dangerous post, even if they had to leave their tents behind them. But the statement is repeated year after year, and nothing happens. There is one thing needful to Unitarians. God alone knows what it is, but he does not tell them. Is it for want of their asking?<\/strong><\/p>\n Yet they are so ready, individually, to help those who do go out into the wilderness, as I know well by my own experience, and as I am sure many another must know also. From the general tenor of their preaching you would suppose that living Faith might now give way to enlightened religious opinion\u2014that enthusiasm and personal abandonment were no longer characteristics of divine fellowship. From their practice you will find that men of no other denomination are so ready to give their money, not only to undenominational purposes, but to work which they admire because of its enthusiasm and yet cannot wholly agree with. Why God has given a Church so many virtues, and yet not chosen it to do the rough work at the front to-day, is to me a very perplexing mystery.<\/p>\n Even though Trevor was writing about Unitarianism 130 years ago, his observation about Unitarians being \u201cscarcely able to maintain the status of their own churches\u201d is still timely.\u00a0 A few months ago, The Wild Hunt blog posted an article on the shrinking numbers of UUs: currently 162,800 members, down\u00a01,400 from last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n Some things have changed though.\u00a0 Trevor felt that Unitarianism had not gone far enough in leaving behind its Christian roots.\u00a0 But that was before the humanist revolution in Unitarianism and the growth of Buddhism<\/a> and Paganism in UU congregations.\u00a0 Today, Christians seem to have a tougher time than Pagans in the UU<\/a>.<\/p>\n What struck me about Trevor\u2019s description of Unitarianism, though, was his observation that there seemed to be something missing from Unitarianism, something undefinable yet essential.\u00a0 I have the same impression, although for a different reason.\u00a0 I know I am not alone.\u00a0 If you asked 10 Unitarians what that missing thing was, probably they would all know what you were talking about, but they would all have different answers. Trevor bemoaned the failure of the Unitarian church to take an active role in social action.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know that the same could be said today.\u00a0 In fact, in my congregation at least, social action seems to be emphasized over other things, like spirituality.\u00a0 For me, this is what is missing from UUism: spirituality.<\/p>\n I would tentatively define spirituality in David Tacey\u2019s terms: a \u201ctransformative relationship with the sacred\u201d [The Spirituality Revolution <\/em>(2004)].\u00a0 Tacey goes on to contrast spirituality with fundamentalism.\u00a0 The former can tolerate ambiguity and uncertainty in the experience of the sacred.\u00a0 It is born out of a respect for mystery and a desire for relationship.\u00a0 The latter seeks certainty and absolutes, and is born out of fear and the need to possess.\u00a0 It is a good distinction to draw, but I think Tacey should also have contrasted spirituality with secularism, which I tentatively define here as the rejection of the sacred as a valid category of experience.<\/p>\n Now, UUs are certainly not fundamentalists.\u00a0 In fact, much of what UUism is today seems to me to be a reaction to fundamentalism.\u00a0 But in the process of rejecting fundamentalism, UUism seems to have thrown the baby out with the bathwater.\u00a0 This need not be so.\u00a0 What I hoped to find in my UU congregation was an alternative, not only to fundamentalism, but also to secularism.\u00a0 What I have found is the promise of an alternative, but nothing concrete.<\/p>\n The first of the \u201cSix Sources\u201d that UUism draws upon is:<\/p>\n Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life.\u201d<\/p>\n I think it is significant that this is the first Source, before \u201cwisdom from the world\u2019s religions\u201d and \u201chumanist teachings\u201d.\u00a0 And yet, I find very little affirmation of that \u201ctranscending mystery\u201d in my UU congregation.\u00a0 In fact, when it is spoken of, it seems to be with a little bit of embarrassment and hesitation.\u00a0 I was raised in a religion (LDS) is which it was normal and expected for one to \u201ctestify\u201d and to share spiritual experiences (so long as they were \u201cfaith promoting\u201d \u2014 that is, promoting of the LDS faith).\u00a0 Neither the absence of reference to deity nor the absence of prayer seem so strange to me as the absence of expressions of personal experience of the sacred in UU services.<\/p>\n I recently attended a UU service where the speaker observed that Unitarian can\u2019t really sing their hymns, because they are too busy reading ahead to make sure they can intellectually assent to all of the lyrics before they sing them.\u00a0 That got some laugh\u2019s, but I admit I\u2019ve done it myself.<\/p>\n That joke reminded me of a scene in Chaim Potok\u2019s book The Promise <\/em>which I read years ago.\u00a0 In his books, Potok writes about the Hasidic Jewish community in New York after the second world war.\u00a0 The Promise<\/em> is about a young rabbinical student, Reuven, who feels torn between the traditionalism of the Hasidics and his liberal academic studies.\u00a0 He struggles to reinterpret the scriptures in a way that is \u201crelevant\u201d for the modern world without destroying the tradition which he loves.\u00a0 He does love Judaism, and he even continues to observe the rituals, which he says have some intrinsic value for him, even though he does not believe in the theology.<\/p>\n At one point, near the end of the book, Reuven and his professor father return from a Hasidic wedding of Reuven\u2019s best friend.\u00a0 Reuven laments the closed-mindedness of the Hasidics.\u00a0 And then the father responds: \u201cCan you see them listening with joy to the critical method? \u2026 Will new ideas enable them to go on singing an dancing.\u201d\u00a0 Reuven responds, \u201cWe cannot ignore the truth, father.\u201d\u00a0 And Reuven\u2019s father replies, \u201cNo, we cannot ignore the truth.\u00a0 At the same time, we cannot quite sing and dance as they do.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n Those words stuck with me profoundly.\u00a0 Reuven\u2019s father went on: \u201cThat is the dilemma of our time, Reuven.\u00a0 I do not know what the answer is.\u201d\u00a0 At the time I read this, I was leaving the Mormon church<\/a> and I was feeling quite acutely how I could no longer \u201csing and dance\u201d with the Mormons<\/a>.\u00a0 Perhaps I was more intellectually honest, but what had I given up in the process?<\/p>\n I feel the same way about UUism.\u00a0 They can\u2019t dance.\u00a0 They can barely sing.\u00a0 And this is what draws me to Paganism.\u00a0 Pagans can dance!\u00a0 But at the same time, I struggle with some of the same intellectual problems in Paganism that I struggled with in Mormonism (i.e., magic).<\/p>\n
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