9/24/06
UNEDITED
Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Milford, NH
Rev. Barbara McKusick Liscord
Multi-Faith Religion
It is great
to be gathered with you this morning- to
reflect with you who have been part of this congregation for a long time and
the friends you have brought with you and all of you who are newer among us… it
is good to have this opportunity to reflect with you… what we could possibly be
doing together in a faith… - a religion-…
that manages to survive with no fixed creed or theology.
I’ve
entitled this morning’s sermon “Multi-Faith Religion”. Admittedly, it is kind of a boring
title. But I picked it, because it is a
reasonably good short description of Unitarian Universalism. I also picked the title because the word
“Faith” and the word “religion” are loaded words, which create difficulty for
some. Last New Years Eve, there were ads
for Unitarian Universalism on the big screen at Times’ Square… with the words “Imagine
a Religion where people of different beliefs worship as one faith.” You can see that we have a range of semantics
here. In the ad… “belief” was used to
mean “faith” and the word “faith” was used to mean “religion.”
After our worship service this
morning, I will be meeting with the 7th and 8th grade circle
who are engaging our Neighboring Faiths curriculum. They will be visiting a wide range of other
religious communities. And as an
introduction, their leaders have asked me to talk with them about the fact that
they are ambassadors of our congregation.
They also want to find out what the role of their minister is in their
own Congregation, since that is one of the elements of other religious
communities they will be looking for.
Also, our 7th and 8th graders are wondering what
to say if someone asks “What is a Unitarian Universalist?” And I’ll tell them that my short answer is: We are a community where people have lots of
different thoughts and beliefs about God and the afterlife, but we are held
together by ethical principles.” Those principles are printed on the back of
your order of service for those of you who are new to us today. I invite you to take the order of service
with you when you leave today, … so you can spend some more time with them at
home.
As you
explore the world of Unitarian Universalism, you will find many expressions of
these principles… often as statements of belief. I’m particularly fond of the statements from the
continental Unitarian Universalist Youth conference… they came up with 4 simple
statements:
It’s a blessing each of us was
born.
It matters what we do with our
lives.
What each of us knows about god is
a piece of the truth. And,
We don’t have to do it alone.
The numbers of ways our faith is expressed around the core
principles is an indication that we do not have a static set of beliefs. We have the challenge, as Rev. Deane Starr
expressed in the portion of his sermon that I read to you today, … we have the
challenge to continually question and contemplate. Universalist minister, L.B. Fisher once
said, “Universalists are often asked to tell where they stand. The only true answer to give to this question
is that we do not stand at all, we move.”
Occasionally, I hear someone say
that they are not religious, but they are spiritual. I respect this distinction- the need to shed
the trappings of many organized religions with their oppression and top down
dogma and mandates. But I like the
broader definition of “religion” found in same the Latin root as the word
“ligament” – that part our anatomy denoting tough bands of tissue that hold our
extremities of bones together and our organs in place. That
which keeps each of us together and whole, as integrated human being. The leaning toward religion is a basic human
impulse… some call it the religious impulse.
That leaning is a yearning toward meaning and purpose. Unitarian, Ralph Waldo Emerson, said,
“A person
will worship something- have no doubt about that. We may think our tribute is paid in secret in
the dark recesses of our hearts- but it will out. That which dominates our imaginations and our
thoughts will determine our character.”
Yesterday morning, I attended
the open house at the Police Station… the Milford Police are our new neighbors-
you may have noticed the now completed building in our back yard. I want to thank Joan Jones and all the rest
of you, who made cookies and brought them to the open house to welcome our new
neighbors. I was struck by the
inspirational posters in many of the rooms… giving meaning to the sometimes
dreary, discouraging work of their public service – beautiful pictures and
wonderful quotes about Leadership, service and commitment to liberty.
What I hope we will find here in our
religious, or faith, or spiritual or whatever word you prefer to use- In this community… I hope we will find a
place where we don’t have to check our reason or our hearts or our bodies at
the door. You may have heard the joke about the man who arrives in heaven and
asks God, “What is it all about? Is it
true that it’s all about the Hokey Pokey?”
Well, here I hope it will be about “Putting Your Whole Self In.”
Last Sunday, Eric Soederberg brought in an Opus comic
strip that appeared in that morning’s paper.
Opus is saying to Auggie “Ol’ Buddy ever wonder how all of this came to
be?” Auggie answers, “You don’t believe
in God, Opus?” Opus says, “I’m a penguin. We’re not sure what we believe in… except
purpose. We believe in having
purpose. Also lots of squid.” Auggie responds, “That’s ridiculous. If you think this is all just a cosmic
accident, you’re left purposeless!” Opus
replies, “I’m not purposeless!” And
Auggie lies down on the ground, yawning, “Yeah, well, if we really are merely
atoms bumping around by chance, there’s little hope for finding meaning in
life.” (Yawn). Opus looks up as raindrops start to fall. He takes off his hat and puts it under
Auggie’s head for a pillow. He covers
the sleeping Auggie with his jacket and then Opus stands out in the rain
himself while he holds his umbrella over Auggie- protecting Auggie from the
rain. As he is doing all this, Opus
says… “Ah, life’s meaning… Maybe it’s not so much found... As it is … made.”
Check out the comic strip – it is on the bulletin board near the kitchen
door.
Together, we create a place where
we can explore and search and share our questions as well as our
convictions. A place where we can
affirm and fulfill our call to human connection and compassion for all of
life. We can make our purpose known by
our actions and how we treat one another.
The very thorough Unitarian
historian Earle Morse Wilbur wrote that
the basis of Unitarianism is freedom, reason and tolerance. And others have added conscience. You should not have to check your conscience
at the door either. There is something
wrong if you have to do that. The conflict between conscience and religion was
highlighted in a film I saw recently. I
recommend it. Water, directed by Deepa
Mehta, presents the despairing plight of Hindu widows in India. When a husband died, the widows were sent to
an ashram where they were to live lives of poverty and chastity. They were conveniently sent away, so that
they could be deprived of inheritance rights.
The story takes place in 1938 at the time of Gandhi’s leadership about
the time Gandhi said “I used to believe
that God is truth, but now I know that truth is God.” In the film, we watch one
of the main characters- an abandoned widow herself- finding solace in her Hindu
faith. She serves a guru and indeed
serves all the women of the ashram. She
appears to be the most compassionate and intelligent of the group of women- a
natural leader. In the course of the
movie her faith is shattered by her observation of the terrible injustices
toward younger widows- as young as age 7.
She comes to know the truth of the comment of a sympathetic man, who
says “you are treated this way in the name of religion, but it is really about
money.” So this woman, transformed by experience and truth, does what she can
to save a younger widow. The purpose of
conscience is to power our action toward relieving suffering.
Mehta’s shooting of the movie was
halted by vicious demonstrations, where demonstrators were incited by the idea
that Mehta’s film was anti-Hindu. They burned her in effigy and stopped the
shooting of the film in India.
Some time later, Mehta picked up the project again, but moved the location to Sri Lanka. Deepa Mehta’s story of the injustices toward
Hindu widows depicts the damage caused to the world by unquestioning religious
belief.
Damaging human lives in the name of
religion leads neuroscientist, Sam Harris, to say that religion – far from
redeeming the world—actually puts the world at risk. He calls into question another basic value of
Unitarian Universalism- that of religious tolerance. And this, my friends, is a big enough topic
for another whole sermon…perhaps a series of them. But for now Harris’ thoughts have so much
engaged me recently and I expect to be grappling with these ideas for awhile so
I want to begin to share some of them with you this morning.
In the September issue of The Sun
Magazine, Sam Harris was interviewed by Bethany Saltman about his new book,
“The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason.” Many thanks to Dana Forsman and Dana Marangi
for bringing it to my attention.
The “central tenet (of Harris’
book) is that religion- and religious tolerance- perpetuates and protects
unjustifiable (not to mention just plain silly) beliefs. In an age of nuclear proliferation and jihad,
Harris says religion paves the way for violent destruction on a terrifying
scale.”
Harris says that divisions caused
by religious dogma are worse than tribal identity clashes. He says, “The problem with religion is that
it is the only type of us/them thinking in which we posit a transcendental difference
between the in-group and the out-group. So the difference isn’t just the color
of your skin or your political affiliation.
It’s that your neighbor believes something that is so metaphysically
incorrect, he’s going to spend eternity in hell for it. And if he convinces your children that his
beliefs are valid, your children will spend eternity in hell. Muslim parents are genuinely concerned that
their children’s faith is going to be eroded, either by materialism and
secularism of the West or by Christianity.
And obviously, our own fundamentalist communities in the West are
similarly concerned. So if you really
believe that it matters what name you call God, religion provides far more
significant reasons for you to fear and despise your neighbor.” Harris is not taking powerful religious
leaders to task, but rather is critiquing the damage done by the religious teachings
themselves.
In the interview, Harris is asked,
“Is religious identity always destructive?” and he answers, “Yes, insofar as people
believe that such identities matter.” He
goes on to say, “I think the human urge to identify with a subset of population
is something we should be skeptical of in all its forms.”
Harris has alienated atheists as
well as fundamentalists. Again, he
suggests that we should not endorse divisive identities. He says, “we don’t have names for someone who
doesn’t believe in astrology or alchemy.
I don’t think believing in God should brand someone with a new
identity. …We need to speak only about
reason and common sense and compassion.”
I think that Harris has caught by
attention despite his harsh language about religions because as a contemplative
who regularly practices meditation, he offers some positive clues to how we
might live in what I would call, a religious way… although he would probably
balk at the term “religious”.
He says, “Traditionally, religion
has been the receptacle of some good and ennobling features of our psychology.
It’s the arena in which people talk about contemplative experience and
ethics. And I do think contemplative
experience and ethics are absolutely essential to human happiness. I just think now we need to speak about them
without endorsing any divisive mythology.”
Harris says all we need to be
concerned with is “what the human mind is like, what the potential for human
happiness is, and what are some reasonable approaches to seeking happiness in
this world.”
Harris points out that “no culture
in human history ever suffered because its people became too reasonable or too
desirous of having evidence in defense of their core beliefs.”
“…It is possible to come up with other bases
for morality that are objective and not relativistic. In Buddhism for example, there is the
proposition that it matters how you behave and what kinds of intentions you
form in your relationships to other human beings, because these things affect
your mind, and your mind is the true locus of your happiness or suffering. If you’re interested in being as happy as
possible, you will be interested in overcoming you fear and hatred of other
human beings and maximizing your love and compassion.”
So while we may enjoy our identity
as Unitarian Universalists… and I for one feel at home in my UU identity and I
hope you do to… let us not be so identified that we let our religion further
divide us from others. Let us live our
tradition as Deane Star described it… “a fellowship that shall unite persons,
not in the bonds of Confucian, or Moslem or Christian love, but in the holier
bonds of human love. Going down beneath
all that separates and estranges, to principles of freedom and understanding,
below religions to religion, beneath all sacraments to the universal impulses
that bend the soul in reverence and awe…(so that we may help each other) by whatsoever
deeper insights may reveal- a union , not of religious systems, but of free
souls, united to build, on the basis of truth, justice and love, a commonwealth
of (all living things).”
Welcome to this journey. It is so good to have your company. Amen.
Unitarian Universalist
Congregation
in Milford