Reinventing Universalism (November 4, 2007 by James Montgomery Jackson)

Before we can reinvent Universalism it helps to have some idea of what we are reinventing. Herewith is a very short history of Universalism in the United States. In some sense, American Universalism washed ashore in 1770 in the personage of John Murray. Murray was born in England of an Anglican father and Presbyterian mother. As an adult he converted to Methodism and frequently preached. He was ex-communicated in 1770 for his Universalist views. His wife and only child died the same year and so he emigrated to America. His ship, the brig “Hand in Hand,” was bound for New York, but diverted first to Philadelphia. Coming up the New Jersey coast in fog it became stuck on a sandbar. Asked by the captain to command a skiff with some sailors into which a portion of the cargo was transferred, Murray and crew were left behind when the now lighter brig floated out to sea and the wind changed not allowing Murray to leave Barnegat Bay.

Landing, Murray was met by a local farmer, Thomas Potter, who a decade earlier had built a meeting house for a Universalist minister, but he had never found one. Murray had wanted to give up preaching, but Potter was convinced his prayers had been answered and told Murray the wind would not change until he had preached. That Sunday, with the wind still blowing in the wrong direction, Murray preached the first Universalist sermon in North America. Shortly after the service was complete, the wind changed directions and Murray led boat and crew to rendezvous with the “Hand in Hand.”

Four years later, in 1774, Murray founded the first Universalist congregation in North America and was instrumental in founding the Universalist denomination in 1793.

Universalism in America developed as a backlash to Puritan doctrine, starting in New England and moving gradually to the Mid-Atlantic and Southern states. In its earliest manifestation, Universalism was Trinitarian but emphasized that in due time, all humans would be redeemed. Very early the church had two factions: one believing due time meant some of us would need to spend up to 50,000 years in hell to atone for our sins while others believed our redemption had already occurred and there was to be no hell and damnation. This latter view soon won out.

In the early years of our Republic, Universalists were feared and discriminated against. They were for disestablishment (remember Massachusetts did not give up state religion until 1833), and were therefore against the power structure of early 19^th century America. Universalists were feared because they did not quake at the thought of eternal punishment – and consequently, how could they be trusted to do right? Attempts were made to keep them out of public office and off of juries. This attempted abrogation of fundamental democratic rights is one reason we continue to covenant to affirm and promote the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large.

As one of the early liberal religions, Universalism led the movement in America to relinquishing the religious perspective of God the angry Father and accepting the premise that the forgiveness inherent in his son, Jesus was more important. This promise of redemption became the central feature of Universalism.

In the middle third of the 1800s there were over twice as many Universalist congregations as there were Unitarian congregations. In comparing the two, the line went that to Universalists God was too good to damn them; whereas Unitarians believed they were too good to be damned by God. Another key difference was that Unitarians were centered in large Eastern seaboard cities and their close suburbs. Universalists were primarily located in small towns and rural areas. They were common folk. Universalism grew at the same time Baptist and Methodist ministries showed rampant growth.

In 1850 there were 530 Universalist churches, which grew over 1/3^rd in the ensuing 20 years to 719. At the same time the Baptists grew 54% to over 14,000 congregations and the Methodists grew more than 90% to over 25,000 congregations. If growth is your thing, the Mormons won, growing over 1000% to 180 congregations during that same twenty years.

In 1870, marking the centennial of Universalism in America, Rev. Dr. Samuel Fisk set out this key tenet for Universalism: “We are educators of the Christian Church universal upon this one point – that you can have all that is essential in the teachings and the life of Jesus Christ, and carry on his church, independent of the fear of hell or the hope of heaven as the chief incentive.”

In 1863, in the midst of the American Civil War, Olympia Brown became the first denominationally-ordained female minister (others had been earlier ordained by congregations). Yet in the aftermath of the civil war with its consequent abolition of slavery, Universalist as a denomination could never quite embrace women’s suffrage. Instead Universalists came together around the economic integration of freedman and on social-economic issues in mill towns, particularly around rights for child and women workers.

Despite our relatively small numbers, Universalists were at the forefront of many social fracases of the time. Susan B. Anthony, Olympia Brown, Mary and David Livermore, Clara Barton are but a few of the names we might know from this era.

By the early 20^th century much of mainstream Protestantism had taken as their own the percepts of Universalism. Fire and brimstone was left to the most conservative wing of Christianity. Because of this success in changing the message of Christianity in the United States and in part because Universalists came to think of themselves as the precursor of a World Religion, much of the fervor left the Universalist fold.

Universalists began to decline in number, but their message still rang through. The United States continued its imperialist expansion with the so-called Spanish-American war and the subsequent Philippines Insurrection. Rev. Levi Posers compared the Republic of the United States with the Republic of God this way:

The Republic of the United States believes that three hundred thousand men should ask another man for the right to live and work…The Republic of the Unites States seems now to believe that the people of the Islands of the Seas must ask us to give them whatever measure of liberty we think wise. In the Republic of God, which it is our business to establish here, the very thought of one nation being subject to another or of one person living upon the labor of another will be impossible.

And during World War I, Clarence R. Skinner, Chair of Applied Christianity at Tufts Crane Theological School expressed Universalist views of the unjust social and economic conditions inherent in the policies of Social Darwinism: “…While cooperating to the fullest extent possible with the various forms of charity, relief, and correction, we recognize that they do not eradicate fundamental causes.”

By the end of World War II, Universalist thinkers expressed the view that Universalism was a forerunner of a world religion. Dr. Tracy Pullman, a minister in Detroit and descendent of the Universalist founder of the Pullman company said, “It is greater than Christianity because it is an evolutionary religion, because it is universal rather than partial, because it is one with the spirit of science and is primarily interested in bringing out that which is God-like in man.”

With a message so powerful how is it that Unitarian Universalists have essentially the same number of congregations in 2007 (1040) as we had as Unitarians and Universalists in 1870 (1050)?

In part the answer is that the liberal religious ideas first embodied by Universalist teachings were incorporated into the more liberal forms of the protestant churches. A Universalist in 1870 would not feel too out-of-place in today’s Presbyterian or Methodist church. In fact most Christians can not theologically differentiate between many of the denominations, making their choice based on pastor, or religious education or birth religion.

The second major factor is that while individual Universalists have been active and known as justice seekers whether in civil rights for freedman shortly after the Civil War, for child labor laws, or for women’s suffrage, these issues were often not uniformly accepted by the Universalist Association leadership – as evidenced by the example I spoke of earlier where the Association never voted to endorse Women’s suffrage.

What remains from our tradition is less about congregational history and more about the central Universalist message: Love and acceptance is the answer. Not hate. Not Fear. Love and acceptance is the answer – whatever the question.

Since the merger of the Unitarian and Universalist Associations in 1961 our collective theology has continued to change. We come to this congregation with many backgrounds and beliefs; with much more diversity than any church in the 1870s had. It is this wonderful diversity that causes me to say we need to embrace and reinvent Universalism.

The fastest growing churches today throughout the world are fundamentalist in nature. In the United States it is Christian fundamentalists; elsewhere Moslem fundamentalists are making great inroads. Any fundamentalist religion has two main messages: We are the chosen people and we have the only true message.

We are antidote to this false belief of a single chosen people. Our steadfast belief in the basic goodness of humankind insists that no people or nation could possibly be chosen over any other. We are in this small blue Earth together. Love and acceptance is the answer.
 

But we need to look deep into our hearts and recognize we share the second component of the fundamentalist’s belief: We have the only true message.

Holy mackerel, I hear you say. Is there no end to the violence you are willing to do to our cherished beliefs? We say in our literature that the living tradition which we share comes from many sources – and now you say we have the only true message?

Yep – that’s exactly what I mean to say. Many sources; many faiths; one message – the one true message.

Let me ask this question: if all world leaders and all local leaders shared our faith, the seven tenets we covenant to affirm, and they promoted those tenants as we covenant to do, would the world be a better place? Unquestionably yes. Perfect? A Unitarian Universalist utopia? Unquestionably no – humans are not perfect beings.

Frankly, we will never become a dominant religion. We are currently a whopping 3/10ths of 1% of the United States adult population. The good news is that leaves 99.97% of the population as potential converts. There are roughly 50,000 adults in Marquette County and I would wager 49,500 or more of them have never entered our doors.

In the movie “Field of Dreams” the line was “If you build it, he will come.” For Thomas Potter it took ten years before John Murray walked ashore to preach the first service at the meeting house he built. I don’t know about you, but I’m just a tad more impatient than that. We’ve acquired (with the help of the bank who holds our mortgage) this Meeting House. Over the last year we have indeed made it our home. We’ve put out our welcome sign and it has attracted visitors.

Perhaps the UUA’s national campaign will bring some other folks to our door. Previously, I have told my story of finding Unitarian Universalism and how many knocks on my door it took before I finally answered. The UUA’s campaign may very well be one of those knocks for many people. For some it may be the last knock they will need. For the rest it is up to us.

The 19^th and early 20^th century Universalists sponsored a few missions to foreign lands, notably Japan. What they weren’t very good at doing was individual mission work here at home. Our works are our voice, they said and we, a hundred years hence, echo that sentiment. I suspect if there is one thing we are less comfortable talking about than money, it is our religion; we are much more comfortable talking about their religion.

Here we differ from fundamentalists, and not to our advantage. They are forthright in telling of their beliefs and encouraging you to share them. In the middle of October the Jehovah Witnesses found our camp. Granted they were lost and looking for somewhere else, but they left literature on our cabin door and talked with Jan at the house when they discovered she was home. They were as interested in Jan telling them about MUUC as she was about hearing their spiel, but when the conversation was over – they were no longer lost and Jan still knew where she lived. A minor triumph for Unitarian Universalism.

When faced with a situation where we are called on to express our faith, in other than social action, we often choose to flourish a red cape and hope the bull passes by to let us live our lives less dangerously. We confuse the description of religious beliefs, which we cringe at when someone tries to force them down our throats, with the basis of our faith.

We need to reinvent our Universalist understanding of the common worth and dignity of all humankind into a message for today. Why do we come to the Meeting House when each of us carries slightly different religious beliefs?

Community.

That is what we need to hold out to those we meet. We are an open community, a caring community brought together not by the fear of hellfire and damnation, but by our commonality of spirit.

We cannot afford to wait to ask others to join us until we are a finished product. We are always a work-in-process. Because we are open to new ideas, we continue to expand our spirituality in ways many of us would never have guessed when we first attended a UU event.

If you agree with me that love and acceptance is the answer, and you find comfort, support, challenge and growth in our congregation, why would you not want to invite others to share what we have? Beloved community is not a zero-sum game where if you give some away you have less for yourself. Just the opposite: Beloved Community grows as there is more for all to share.

In today’s society we are bombarded with us versus them messages: We won’t be safe because of them. They are trying to kill us. They want to leave our children motherless. They want special rights, not equal rights. They want to bring World War III to our country. They don’t respect family values.

When you don’t have a winning message, cloak it in us versus them rhetoric; use ad hominem attacks. Portray dissent as unpatriotic, as sectarian, as unreligious.

Which is where we need to return to our Universalist roots:  Love and acceptance is the answer. Not hate. Not Fear. Love and acceptance is the answer – whatever the question. As we have before, we 3/10ths of 1% can change world views. We can stand steadfast against all comers with our message. Unlike the fundamentalists, we are willing to engage in discussion with those who have not yet seen our light. And this is our overwhelmingly powerful advantage.

Could each of us do this alone? Probably, but for me this community we seek to strengthen and build is necessary to provide spiritual sustenance to see us through. It is here we receive the hugs of thanks, tears of joy and sorrow over our shared lives. Individually we can make our stand, and individually we come to our own spiritual path, but together we build community where we embody our Universalist message: Love and acceptance is the answer – whatever the question.

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