A
sermon for UU Congregations
By
Martin Bryant Sept 2001
Given
to Live Oak UU Church – Oct 21 & Wildflower Church Nov 25 2001
One
of the reasons I continue to go to Saudi is that for me at least, there is something to
this idea that their practices are religious. The
embargo against apartheid was able to work in part because the South Africans could be
shamed - they knew their system was wrong and the boycott served to accelerate the
inevitable. There is no sense in trying to
shame the Saudis - they believe they are right. They
believe their cultural practices to be part of a discipline which protects the moral and
religious character of their culture.
They
will be required to be persuaded. I believe a
boycott of the Saudis would only serve to isolate them and emphasize our differences. I've thought my visits in a small way, would show
them a moral, reasonable American and lover of freedom.
Of course I'm willing to entertain - in fact be told that - this is rationalization
for my business opportunity. I don't know...
In
the sixties and seventies, as the Kingdom used many Westerners and their expertise to
build their oil empire, the Saudi people endured or enjoyed a great influx of Western
ideas and practices. Women executives in high heels and skirted suits - western music -
western problems. In response, in the time
between the Iranian Revolution and the Gulf War, the monarchy instituted a cultural
revolution. The number of Western
professionals and their families were systematically reduced. The men and women returned to traditional Saudi
abayas and thobes. Women were marginalized
from the workforce. Islam was governmentally
affirmed and other religions became once again illegal.
As
of this most recent trip, I hadn't been to Saudi in five years and I was surprised - maybe
I shouldn't have been - our culture can be pretty persuasive. The West is back in Saudi - McDonalds, Starbucks,
TV shows including Dharma and Greg, Buffy, and Baywatch, Internet Cafes. The Rolling
stones and Led Zeppelin on the car radio. The
traditional dress is still there, but the culture is easier. However, business meetings, meals, television
shows, and shopping are still interrupted by prayer times - during which all other
activity in Saudi Arabia - stops. A daily
reminder of faith, for everyone, not just the faithful.
Just
a few hundred miles from Saudi is Israel. Now,
for a long time I had this opinion about Judaism, - Interesting
religion - maybe much more appealing than my cultural religion of Christianity. Deep heritage, interesting sacred texts -
especially the Psalms and Job. Great stories. Fundamental values - including gratitude,
humility, repentance without fear. Somewhat
abstract Deity. The only problem with Judaism
is that you cannot really merely adopt the Judaic religion
To be a Jew is as much a cultural identity as it is a religious one. The Jews, like the Saudis have entwined their
religion with their culture. It really
doesn't work to take one without the other. For
these faiths - religion is culture ....
Perhaps
it's just my degenerative incurable maturity, but I'm slowly coming around to this point
of view. The religions I'm coming to respect
the most are those which live in their followers. They
imply a deeper belief, a deeper commitment. The
UU minister Forrest Church said that when he first became a UU minister he could not say
that he believed in God, but he "believed in believers".
They
say, the only thing you need to do in order to become a Moslem is to say "There is no
God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet"
- and say it four times a day kneeling on a carpet with your nose on the ground. Most of us would recognize that to be a Moslem, or
a Jew, or even a Catholic is something that your heritage and lifestyle practice indicates
that you are - not just a set of facts you believe.
For
this reason we might look on these faiths a little differently than we do many
Presbyterians and Methodists, who seem to treat their religion as little more than a
collection of facts - facts that we can't seem to see the truth in and they don't seem to
reflect in their lifestyles. By example, how
many "mainline" protestants who worship weekly in a church celebrating "the
Prince of Peace" include peace in their daily lifestyle. Don't many gleefully pay taxes to support a
bloated military, carry a concealed weapon, curse traffic, and go home to watch
Scharzenegger blow things away on the tv?
Religious
practice, is just that, practice. It is a
discipline of repeated action which is intended to create "religious fitness". A reminder of fundamental values and morality -
humility, gratitude, compassion, peace, hope, faith, love.
Many protestants including most UUs limit their "religious practice" to
attending church once per week.
Now
behind a rigid and frequent practice may be a less hopeful or optimistic view of the
"human" than most humanists hold. Maybe
it does reflect a view of the world as full of temptations for our weak vessel - a world
we must be "prepared" and fit for. Most
humanists feel we are so inherently good that we don't need so much practice at it.
But
today, doesn't our culture and world present many temptations and challenges to our
goodness? Are we really so far above some
kind of discipline to provide us with more than weekly reminders? The point of physical exercise is often to create
definition in our bodies. For many in the
nineteenth century who ate necessarily organic vegetables everyday and worked with their
backs in the field this was unnecessary, but in today's world of tv remotes and fast food
- many need a trip to the gym. Is not
the part of the point of religious exercise to create definition in our character? Do we need this less now?
The
Saudis and, and to a lesser extent, the Israelis have so closely bundled their religions
and cultures that they've joined their faiths and their governments. In some ways this seems logical - the state is
both an expression and shaper of culture.
For
those of us in this room there is hardly anything more holy than separation of church and
state. How do we reconcile this - that
religion is culture and the state is culture - but the two can't mix?
In
some ways, in America, we, and I mean UUs, have already done this. More than any other, our religion is pluralistic -
to each his own... UUs were integral in the
founding of this country. Unitarians Thomas
Jefferson, John Adams, and UniversalistS Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush who had
unique religious views and believed not just in freedom among religions, but personal
religious freedom, founded a state with this as one if it's guiding principles.
Subsequently,
every religion which came to these United States has subjugated itself to this principle.
Freedom of religion is virtually unquestioned in the United States. As I noted with regard to our relations with the
Saudis - it even extends to our foreign policy. We
have a very pluralist culture that in macrocosm looks a lot like a UU church. Because religion is culture we sometimes have to
work things out, but holding tolerance and freedom as high standards - we carry on.
So
hey, we've won! Why don't we feel like it? Our numbers are small - almost inconsequential. Many among us are constantly expressing worry
about the influence of this or that minority fundamentalist group. Thomas Jefferson believed that Unitarianism would
become a defacto national faith. For such a
smart guy, he seems to have missed that bet.
We've
all heard that the mainline Protestant denominations are collapsing. Fifty thousand leave
these church pews every Sunday. The
Methodists lose more each year than we have. To
try and stop this hemmorhage, some are using their amassed capital to open new churches,
but it isn't working. At the same time,
churches that actually expect something of their followers are increasing in numbers.
An
analogy can be seen in civic organizations. Many
of these too are declining in membership. Cultural
heterogeny and the distractions of more complex workplaces and family life are taking
their toll. An exception is the Rotarians. Rotarians are expected to attend the breakfast
meeting - every week - wherever they are. Participation
in public service projects is expected - a requirement of membership. The Rotary Club grows because membership requires
something more than just saying you are a member and paying your dues - it requires being
a Rotarian - it requires practice - devotion.
Devotion. An interesting idea. Devotion is more than belief. If you have a religion that is a collection of
facts you say you believe in - is that a "whole" religion? Doesn't this collection of facts need to guide
your life - to "live" in you? Doesn't
this imply spiritual discipline, a practice. We
say we want to be a faith of head and heart. To
hold a collection of facts as "true" or maybe true is all about our heads. If that is the search for truth then it is not
enough. I believe to have a true religion of
head and heart we need to go beyond the search for truth
- beyond belief.
So
how can I remain a UU? It seems like this
faith requires the least life practice, devotion if you will, of any religion...
Recently,
a Christian website weaver on the internet, found something about me on UU websites and
asked me comment on "rewards and punishments in the afterlife" from the
perspective of Unitarian Universalism. I gave
him what I think he might have considered a surprising answer. I wrote him back - "I'm not too sure
about the afterlife - as a Taoist/American Transcendentalist I would say there could be
"degrees" of afterlife..., but I'm pretty sure there isn't such a thing as
Unitarian Universalism."
Of
course, I'm serious. We have these seven
principles - but we may not even have those in some ways - the principles are agreements
between congregations they are not expected of members.
Even in the principles, although some of the core values I would expect of a
religion are there: compassion, peace (mentioned in passing), respect.. Other things, like gratitude, family, and charity
are not. Of course there is nothing about
devotion or spiritual practice. Really the
only thing holding us together is tolerance, and
maybe something else...
So
I assert that Unitarian Universalism is not a religion.
There isn't enough there. Here we have
Sarahism and Davidism and ....ism but we don't have a shared religion. We have a place, a structure, a community where
that community provides nurturing to our own spirituality.
Community which every spirituality badly needs.
Because religion is cultural and to have culture you have to have a community.
Religion
as culture can be frustrating for UUs. UUs
want to be more inclusive... we want to have more ethnic minorities - we'd like to have
religious minorities in our discourse. But
America is more divided on Sunday morning by race and class than at any other time during
the week and the reason is simple. Religion is about culture and on Sunday morning people
turn to their cultural heritage to find assurance and direction. We here, mostly share a cultural heritage of
courageous application of freedom and confidence in intellectual rigor. We find assurance and direction from what we find
here.
Now
those of you that know me know me to be a vegetarian and somewhat of a pacifist and
sometimes it seems that it would be great to belong to a religious group that reinforced
these values. One that was willing to oppose
American governmental and cultural violence from the pulpit - and expect a peaceful
discipline of it's followers. In fact, this
place can be frustrating, because in our pluralistic devotion to freedom we seem to expect
nothing of each other. But at least
here I'm free to hold my values without a bunch of other doctrine - and of course, it
isn't boring here.
Actually,
we are not as free from this religion as culture thing as we might think. And we are not completely free of devotion...
Firstly,
many UUs are dedicated to social change and work for it.
This "Faith in Action" recognizes that if we are not to just hold
beliefs, but to live them. It recognizes that
talking about religion is not faith - that we must reflect our values in our lives and try
to imprint them, if only by example, on our collective life - our culture.
Secondly,
if there is one thing that unifies UUs - it is that they are moral. Everyone here.
Even though we don't have morality codified, there is simply no reason in heritage,
logic, or fear to be a hypocritical UU, it isn't worth it.
I'm not trying to be a big back-patter, but the folks we find here are remarkably
honest and well-intentioned.
The
truth is, in a faith criticized because it does not ask you to believe anything - We are here because we believe
We
believe in something that a skeptic - a non-believer - might find hard to believe..
We
believe that participating in this makes our lives better - that it helps our children,
that it can improve our communities - even make our world a little better place. We don't have any other reason to be here - not
fear - or eternal reward - our even habit of heritage.
It is this faith alone. And we come
together because it is not just personal - it is cultural work we do here. We come here to be reminded every week that
freedom can be moral, that people can be trusted, that hope is reasonable and beyond
reason.
But
I have asserted here that our religion may not be able to be whole without devotion. Devotion -
how can we act based on belief when our eternal struggle for truth questions everything?
The
answer, of course, is Faith. Faith is to act,
or at least hope, anyway - even when we are unsure. Not
just to act heroically to save a baby in a runaway carriage or the planet from a colliding
meteor - but more, to risk being the
rationalist who turns out to be the cosmic fool by acting everyday to recycle, vote, say
hello - even though we are not sure one person can do any good
to
show gratitude and say "grace" even though we do not know that our blessings
might not be accidental
to
trust another - even though you don't know them - to trust enough to form a community of
dependence - economic dependence, political dependence, emotional dependence - even
spiritual dependence.
to
love - yes love is an act of faith we do not fully understand and yet we all do...
to
adopt a discipline of devotion - to live our religion - even though it is incomplete...
And
if in our pluralistic way we are patient, we can find a devoted practice that defines each
of us. Maybe together, we can find a way
beyond
belief....