Last month, I answered the call to participate in the reading of Martin Luther King's Breaking Silence speech. The public reading was held at Monroe United Methodist Church. Many local organizations participated in this reading. Many organizations across the nation, called by the National Council of Elders participated...including...Rev. Dr. William Barber.
The significance of the speech is that as a Civil rights leader, King was compelled to speak out about the Vietnam War and the many ways the United States had acted inconsistently in dealing with foreign powers.
I was happy to do my part reading the section of King's Speech where he calls for a revolution in values.
A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies. (Source: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm)
This part affirmed for me the reasons I seek a mature understanding of Unitarian Universalism. While King came to his conclusions from the Christian faith, I have come to this conclusion based on my direct experience in change making efforts in low-moderate income neighborhoods in Toledo, Ohio as well as that principle that states that we are- all beings interconnected. . . and that as Rev. Barber says, we need a fusion movement that unites people of faith with people of no faith, with LGBTQ people with women, with the poor....everybody.
Because we are a free faith, we have the freedom to accept and choose to ally with those folks whose rights are constantly in question. If UU's have a gospel, I would say that it is in the responsibility we have to take in information and take practical action about it. John Buehrens writes in A Chosen Faith, that we are responsible for shaping our destiny and capable of making it better (p. 158).
As a liberal religion, revelation is not sealed.
This idea can be welcoming and freeing to people who fear being told that they must refrain from their own thinking in making moral decisions in the world. If you carry the burdens of being socialized in any orthodox religion and have felt a tightening grip on your heart when that right teaching has pounded your mind into a headache of cognitive dissonance, this UU good news is that we are open, free thinkers.
David Bumbaugh in his Unitarian Universalism: A Narrative History says that in the early movement following Jesus... this movement later known as Christianity .....there was a shift from from an ethical movement to a creedal movement. This shift happened in 325 c.e. when the Council of Nicaea came down with the authoritative decision that answered two questions:
- Who was Jesus; and
- What should the movement believe about Jesus as it related to his human and or divine nature (Bumbaugh, p.8)
The answer was the doctrine of the trinity.
However, there were those who did not fully accept this doctrine of Trinity and the power of Rome.
If you can imagine this is at a time, when most people could not read. It was in 1440 that the printing press was developed and thus forever initiated the change in our relationships with authorities as information in the form of books could be standardized and disseminated.
Still, there was resistance to ideas that were in contrast to authorities. In Spain, the prevailing position of Ferdinand and Isabella was One Nation, One Monarchy, One Faith.
This sounds familiar. . . .
The 1478 Spanish Inquisition marked a time period of prejudice and intolerance. Eight- hundred thousand Muslims and Jews left Spain.
People were literally being killed for what they professed to believe.
Did you know that the word for the place of worship for those who practice Islam is derived from this time? The dread of Muslims in Spain were compared to the dread of mosquitos. Mosque. Mosque is a misnomer. The word is actually Masjid. I learned this at an FBI Hate Crimes meeting in Cleveland around the 2000’s, while I was working for a local civil rights agency.
So, just a reference point, in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue. . . .to the New World.
If we examine the early history of 16th century free thinkers we claim as Unitarians and Universalists of Europe and then in America, plus studying the Unitarian Universalists in the 1960's, then you could become emboldened. Emboldened, because women and men paid with their lives in exchange for their religious ideas.
While in high school, I wrote a report about the Reformation. I recall using a typewriter to write about how in 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to Wittenberg and started the Reformation.
That was 6 years after Michael Servetus was born.
As I have recently read in Unitarians Universalism: A Narrative History, Michael Servetus was very concerned about the doctrine of the trinity. He later met another reformer in the movement, John Calvin. Calvin was not so interested in revising doctrine so much as church politics.. . . polity.
This relationship reminded me of a relationship of a graduate student and a university professor.
Because it seems to me- and this is my interpretation- that Calvin felt like, hey let me take this kid under my wing . . maybe impress him with my thoughts.. . But Servetus was adamant about his anti-trinitarian position. . . In short. . very short, Calvin sold Servetus out to the church authorities and Servetus fled. He was caught though and burned at the stake.
That’s the really short version of one person who spoke out. There are more. . . Do you want a list? You know this, right?
I’m still reading this narrative of Unitarian Universalism, but I can tell you that later freethinkers fared as well as Servetus. Many of those free thinkers, anti-trinitarians, were jailed, left to die or just plain executed.
And you think we have issues with tolerating a change in the set-up in coffee hour? How would you like to be sold out to John Calvin, arrested and burned at the stake just for forcing your point?
Emboldened. Emboldened by the fact that since the Spanish Inquisition, free thinkers, though having a poverty of societal support, still put forth their thoughts and arguments. So with this kind of legacy, how can you stay quiet?
We have UU Good News! Why aren’t we shouting and praising. . . wait, what now? who?
Humanists have stated that science and economic changes have disrupted old beliefs (Buehren's, p.157). I surely abdicate a condition of filiopiety.
Filopiety- I like this word. Bell hooks used it in one of the books she wrote talking race, sex and class--intersectionality. What I mean by using that word is that I have no love for the old ways of doing them just because that’s the way it has always been done.
I don’t do church the way I was socialized to do church. In fact, I’m not sure I did that as a kid, now that I think about it. I was trying to sit outside and commune with the breeze and the trees and divine the future by scavenging through a junk drawer and interpreting the items I found there. . . . But wait. . . That’s irrational, right?
And we UU’s are rational, right?Rational, logical, scientific, cold and unfeeling, dispassionate. . . say what, now?
The culture of our association has been one where we don’t evangelize and we may refrain from making too many joyful noises during a sermon. . maybe a few giggles at own expense.
The origins of how we worship are derived from the founding culture of Unitarian Universalism (Rolenz, p. 23) I am mostly reserved in my spiritual practice, though, there have been times when I have wanted to get up and sing Praise Song by Hall Walker of the Kent UU church or I’m Gonna Lift My Sister Up. I also imagine myself being carried out by in a white straight jacket afterwards. . .
My point is our faith allows us to merge new ideas with old ideas- letting go of that which encourages intolerance and opening ourselves to inquire. And Inquiry requires humility and curiosity and a willingness assume good intentions.
Humanists are saying that that revelation is not sealed. It is okay and necessary to inquire, ask questions, make mistakes and empathize. So where is our revelation of me too?
Empathy.
I can see how that could be harmful. . I wouldn’t want something like that to happen to me. . wow, I can relate to that. . you know. . I’ve been a position where I have have been scapegoated.
Empathy.
Because, I know what it feels like to be thirsty, how can I not be Defending the right to water; how can I accept a Water Crisis any where.
Emapthy.
Because I have learned new information about the indignities that my fellow human beings have suffered for seeking a better life, so I stand up and speak out for their rights, knowing that injustice there means it could affect me too.
Empathy.
Empathy.
We must refrain from sinking into helplessness but rise to responsibility. I think this is an important part of telling people who we are and more important in terms of how we behave our way into communicating to the world the values of Unitarian Universalists. Unitarian Universalism is a cause for hope.
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