Today at church we were all assigned to come up with an "elevator speech" about the Unitarian-Universalist church, how you would describe it to a stranger in the time it took an elevator to go from the sixth floor to the first floor. Over the next few Sundays we will all get our chance to come up to the pulpit and give our speech. Getting up in front of everyone is the easy part. The hard part is how to describe a faith that has no set creed, no set beliefs, no set holy books, a faith in which you can believe in one God, many Gods (or Goddesses) or no God at all. "There are some churches that don't teach the Bible", a man from my former church said at Bible study last week, not realizing he was sitting next to a member of one of "those churches."
Anyway I thought I'd practice out my "elevator speech" even though I haven't really had much of an opportunity to explain just what Unitarian-Universalism is. We're not really big on evangelizing, for one thing, and there doesn't seem to be that much curiosity about it, for another. I have a feeling if my friends from my old church really knew what UU-ism is all about I would not be as welcome at their Sunday night Bible studies as I am now. "Don't ask, don't tell" doesn't just apply to gays in the military.
First of all, what Unitarian-Universalism is not. We are not Unity (that's an offshoot of Christian Science). We are not Reverend Moon's Unification Church. The Unitarian movement traces its roots to the Reformation, when Michael Servetus and others challenged traditional Christianity's interpretation of the Trinity. So, according to First John 2:22-23, we are liars and antichrists because we don't believe Jesus is God (well, some of us might, you can never say all Unitarians). So that is the first big dividing line. We are called Unitarians because the first Unitarians believed God is one. Although the area once known as Transylvania (yes, Dracula's Transylvania!) played an important role in the development of the Unitarian faith, most historians agree that it wasn't until around the time of the American Revolution that Unitarianism really took off. At the same time the Unitarian faith was evolving, another group of Protestant Christians emerged calling themselves Universalists. Like Pastor Rob Bell, whom my former pastor liked to put down, they believed everyone would be saved, not just a certain few. In 1961 the two groups merged to become the Unitarian-Universalists.
There is no requirement to believe anything to become a Unitarian. The closest thing we have to a creed are these principles which were adopted in 1984 to affirm and promote:
"The inherent worth and dignity of every person.
"Justice, equity and compassion in human relations.
"Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations.
"A free and responsible search for truth and meaning.
"The rights of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large.
"The goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all.
"Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part."
As you can see, these really horrible principles say nothing at all about God and the Bible. That's because we get our wisdom from many different sources, from other religions, from art, from poetry, from nature, from science, as well as the Bible (but we don't take it literally). Many of us are religious misfits. In fact one person today likened themselves to one of the toys from the Island of Misfit Toys in a popular Christmas special. We are open to all beliefs, but we say that it most definitely does matter what one believes, for oneself as well as society, and that there are beliefs that are harmful.
Anyway I thought I'd practice out my "elevator speech" even though I haven't really had much of an opportunity to explain just what Unitarian-Universalism is. We're not really big on evangelizing, for one thing, and there doesn't seem to be that much curiosity about it, for another. I have a feeling if my friends from my old church really knew what UU-ism is all about I would not be as welcome at their Sunday night Bible studies as I am now. "Don't ask, don't tell" doesn't just apply to gays in the military.
First of all, what Unitarian-Universalism is not. We are not Unity (that's an offshoot of Christian Science). We are not Reverend Moon's Unification Church. The Unitarian movement traces its roots to the Reformation, when Michael Servetus and others challenged traditional Christianity's interpretation of the Trinity. So, according to First John 2:22-23, we are liars and antichrists because we don't believe Jesus is God (well, some of us might, you can never say all Unitarians). So that is the first big dividing line. We are called Unitarians because the first Unitarians believed God is one. Although the area once known as Transylvania (yes, Dracula's Transylvania!) played an important role in the development of the Unitarian faith, most historians agree that it wasn't until around the time of the American Revolution that Unitarianism really took off. At the same time the Unitarian faith was evolving, another group of Protestant Christians emerged calling themselves Universalists. Like Pastor Rob Bell, whom my former pastor liked to put down, they believed everyone would be saved, not just a certain few. In 1961 the two groups merged to become the Unitarian-Universalists.
There is no requirement to believe anything to become a Unitarian. The closest thing we have to a creed are these principles which were adopted in 1984 to affirm and promote:
"The inherent worth and dignity of every person.
"Justice, equity and compassion in human relations.
"Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations.
"A free and responsible search for truth and meaning.
"The rights of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large.
"The goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all.
"Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part."
As you can see, these really horrible principles say nothing at all about God and the Bible. That's because we get our wisdom from many different sources, from other religions, from art, from poetry, from nature, from science, as well as the Bible (but we don't take it literally). Many of us are religious misfits. In fact one person today likened themselves to one of the toys from the Island of Misfit Toys in a popular Christmas special. We are open to all beliefs, but we say that it most definitely does matter what one believes, for oneself as well as society, and that there are beliefs that are harmful.
