"What DO Unitarian Universalists Believe? "

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The Rev. Suzelle Lynch
August 22, 2004

When George Bernard Shaw was sixteen, a Unitarian visited his family, and young George asked his father what a Unitarian was. His father replied, "Unitarians are people who believe that Jesus did not die on the cross, but when last seen was running down the other side of the hill of Calvary." Until he was thirty years old, Shaw thought that that was what Unitarians believed. W. Somerset Maugham once wrote: "A Unitarian very earnestly disbelieves in almost everything that anybody else believes, and he has a very lively sustaining faith in he doesn't quite know what." (Thank you to my colleague the Rev. Fred Small for these examples.)

What do Unitarian Universalists believe? One Fourth of July many years ago, back when I was in my twenties and long before I became a minister, I was out with a large group of my church friends watching the fireworks display in Seattle. It was a lovely, warm evening, and the Seattle Symphony was playing, as they would for the whole glorious show. Just before the first skyrockets were launched, the orchestra burst into "The Star Spangled Banner," and as one, my friends and I jumped up and joined in singing -- with more gusto than grace, of course, but at least we knew the words.

When the anthem was over and we'd all sat back down, a genteel-looking, middle-aged woman sitting on the blanket next to us leaned over and beamed, "My, what a nice group of young people you are." And then she asked where we were from. I answered proudly that we were the young adult group from the Unitarian Universalist Church. "Oh," she said. "The Unitarian Universalist Church? What kind of church is that? What do you believe?"

Uh, oh. I thought. Now what? "Uh, well," I stuttered, "Um. That's a hard question to answer..." I was briefly tempted to tell her that we believed in singing The Star-Spangled Banner, but instead I quickly turned her over to my friend Barbara Wells, who was a minister! Surely she would have a good answer.

I don't remember exactly what Barbara said that night, but I do remember that she rummaged around in her purse and pulled out a little card with the UUA Principles & Purposes on it and handed it to the woman.

And that's one way to handle these situations, of course. For many of us the words of the principles and purposes that we read a moment ago are familiar and inspiring: "inherent worth and dignity of every person . . . justice, equity, and compassion . . . the interdependent web of all existence." We believe that those words inform our faith and empower our deeds. But it's important to remember that they're not a creed. They come from the UUA bylaws. Our congregations covenant to affirm and promote the values they proclaim, but no individual person is required to.

So what DO Unitarian Universalists believe? Not just anything, not everything, but certainly not nothing, as Tony Larsen reminds us. Indeed, we probably believe in more than most people do. My colleague Fred Small writes, "Belief is a subject of confusion, doubt, and even embarrassment among many Unitarian Universalists. People of other faiths can usually state with considerable certainty what they believe, or perhaps simply what they know they are supposed to believe about God or Jesus or Muhammad or Joseph Smith. And if they don't know, they know where to look it up or whom to ask.

Belief, it is generally assumed, is what separates the Christian from the Jew, the Muslim from the Hindu, the theist from the atheist. On the playground of life, belief sorts us out into competing religious teams, each with our own uniforms and mascots and cheers and rules. Being on a team bestows a certain comfort, a sense of identity and pride." (from "What Do Unitarian Universalists Believe?," 12-3-2000)

And so usually when someone asks us what we believe, the question is about those uniforms and mascots and cheers and rules. It's about whether we believe in God, the Bible, Jesus as Lord and Savior, heaven, hell, and so on.

Over the years I've developed some pretty good, easy answers to those kinds of questions. Take God, for example. The truth is that there isn't one unified UU belief about God - or about any of the other traditional Christian doctrines or practices. Diversity in belief and practice, based on individual experience, is our norm. We are, after all, the inheritors of the Radical Reformation, the left wing of the Protestant Reformation that began in 1517 with Martin Luther's 95 Theses. The Radical Reformation sought to break up not just ecclesiastical power, but also political and economic power in Europe. It sought, especially, to regain the power to dissent - which is essential to a democratic world view. It demanded the right of private judgment in matters of religion.

This was achieved - and in our nation, it is codified in the Constitution. Our 19th century Unitarian forebears took the point much further, of course - coming to reject any kind of creed or test of faith for membership in a church. (with credit to "Can Unitarian Universalists Believe Anything They Want?" a sermon given on 8-27-01 by my colleague the Rev. Susan Van Dreser.)

That's why we can speak with such certainty when we tell someone that UUs hold their beliefs as individuals, and that we affirm each person's private judgment and their power to figure out for themselves what is most true and right. But we don't have to stop there, of course. If someone asked you if UUs believe in God, you could say what you believe about God. Personally, while I don't think of God as a supernatural being, I do believe that there is something powerful and mysterious that is "present in each, yet greater than all."

Whether we believe in the Bible is another easy question. Here's the answer: "UUs view the Bible as one source of religious wisdom among many; we respect it along with the scriptures of other world religions, the words of philosophers and poets, the findings of science. But it isn't authoritative for us in the way it is for some other churches. It's not our law."

What about the question, "are Unitarian Universalists Christian?" Again, this is easy to answer. Our historical roots are in liberal Protestant Christianity, though many of our ideas have been around for centuries longer. Over the past 100 years we've grown away from our Christian roots to become a freer faith. Even so, about 20 percent of today's UUs find that the person of Jesus, the example of his life and teachings, are the central focus of their faith. (Statistic from my colleague the Rev. Steve Edington.)

If someone asks you if UUs pray, you can tell them, again, that some of us do and some of us don't.

Even though I have developed these good answers over the years to all the usual questions, as time goes on, I become more and more convinced that asking what we believe is the wrong question.

A better question might be to ask what it is that holds us together as a group, as a religious community, as a religious movement. What are the promises we've made to one another; promises about how we will be together, how we will live our lives, and about the ends for which we will use our much valued spiritual freedom.

Let me tell you a little story about this. On Friday, I went to visit Bob Overs, whom many of you know. He's a longtime member of our church who some time back had a stroke and lost his ability to speak. Bob is 91 now, and it's possible that he won't be with us for very many more months. He's bedridden and being fed with a stomach tube, but he's at home, not in a hospital. And his mind is still sharp and his sense of humor keen. Many of you knew him as a committed social activist here, a staunch Humanist who had a wonderful way with words. Bob is lovingly watched over by his son, Mark, and by hospice nurses and other caregivers, and I know Carolou Nelson and other members here visit him regularly, or send kindly notes. Bob's life will end on Bob's terms, and he'll go out knowing he is loved, thanks in no small part to our church.

Far away from here, in Connecticut, there's another UU man who is bedridden and possibly close to the end of his life. He's a fairly young man who had a sudden stroke nine days ago and slipped into a coma. His name is Christopher Wong. Chris is from Hong Kong, and has been working in the U.S., and while here, he hooked up with UU churches in New York, and then in San Francisco when his job took him there. He has no family in this country, and he had only moved to Connecticut recently. Chris's situation seems a stark contrast to Bob's. He's is in the hospital, unconscious, unable to speak or even to breathe on his own; he's all alone, far away from those who love him.

And yet, even as he lies alone in Intensive Care, Chris has a network of UU friends who are holding him in their hearts and minds. He has friends who are working to get in touch with his family so that decisions can be made about his care. They are members of the UU Asian/Pacific Islander Caucus - people from all over the U.S. and beyond - people who are Asian American, Asians living in America or Canada, and non-Asian spouses or partners like me.

The group mostly meets in Internet space via an email listserv, and thus I only met Chris once - this year, at General Assembly. And yet I am one of those friends who has been working hard to help him.

The reason I would do such a thing is the same reason I went to visit Bob Overs. It has to do with what I believe holds us Unitarian Universalists together.

For what makes our freedom to believe what we know is true and right powerful, is our commitment to live out our beliefs in community. We know that individualism is not enough, especially in a society that is stressed and fragmenting. We know community has a saving power - we know that we need one another. And we strive to participate in our church communities in such a way that the greater good is served in our wider world. We covenant to care for one another - to be ministers to one another - to comfort and challenge and companion one another.

And that's a religious calling. It's ultimately what the second part of the UUA Purposes and Principles reminds us "to be moved by the forces that uphold life; to challenge ourselves to confront structures of oppression with justice and love; to love our neighbors, and draw the circle of our neighborhoods ever more broadly; to use our minds well, and question; to live in harmony with nature." We are called to action by our congregations' commitment to the seven principles which must be affirmed and promoted, but we are called to community on a deeper level by the very sources from which we draw our religious wisdom.

Individual beliefs are important and good, but without the power of a community covenanted to walk through life together, caring for one another, taking action to shape our world for the better, mere beliefs are impotent.

What do Unitarian Universalists believe? We believe that human beings are inherently good, but not perfect. We believe that there is no one true faith - that all religious paths have merit for those who follow them. We believe in diversity and inclusiveness, and that intolerance is not to be tolerated. We believe that a good faith must go beyond conviction and into action - that we must be concerned for those around us and move toward the greater good. We believe that it is possible to have a good, solid church community where people disagree with each other. We believe that it is our responsibility to learn and grow throughout our lives. And we believe that covenantal community has a deep power to change our lives and our world for the better.

Some people have said that Unitarian Universalism is not a religion, but rather, that it is a way of being religious. An open-minded, open-hearted way of being faithful to what matters most in life.

"[T]he important thing about religious living," argues former UUA President John Buehrens, "is not what we profess with our lips but how we witness with our lives…. [R]eligious lives are lived when we open the mind to greater truth, the heart to greater compassion, and the conscience to the demand of justice."

And to that, and to you, I say, Amen.