Evangelism. Not a word we UUs are comfortable with, much less something we tend to promote ourselves. In order to be clear about what I'm referring to, I want to start out this morning with two testaments to Evangelism.
Scott taught an Adult Ed class a couple of years ago on current topics in Unitarian Universalism - one month their topic was Evangelism. One participant - Ed - had followed how many times a week Christianity had seeped into his life. He monitored things for five days, but one day in particular proved significant. He called it - Ed's Hit List. A list of how many times he was on the receiving end of the promotion of a Christian message.
Ed wakes up in the morning, showers, dresses and shuffles into the living room. The television is still on the local cable station from the night before. In the early morning hours, a conservative Christian group is bashing the pro-choice movement as being messengers of Satan. Ed stands still and gazes as the minister admonishes those without the loving hands of Jesus to soothe one's way in life. He turns off the TV and heads to work.
In the car, he turns on the radio and pushes the scanner button. He listens carefully to the stations as they switch every 10 seconds. As he relays, the Jesus talk comes about every three stations, Rock, Country, Christ, Rock, Country, Christ.
Ed then pulls into a Dunkin' Donuts to get some coffee and two young men in black suits approach him with pamphlets promoting the new-family values. They ask how his day is going and if he would like to come to talk on Tuesday at the Community Center to hear more about the topic. He glances over the material, asks the folks if they are Mormon; they appear shocked that he has them figured out. Nowhere on their material does it say who they are, just that they are interested in the betterment of American values.
He gets into his car, and is almost to work. He spots a billboard on the side of the interstate, all black with white lettering. It reads:
We Need to Talk! |
At work, he counts a smattering of religious imagery on his co-workers' necks, crosses, crucifixes, and fish images on cars in the parking lot.
On his way home, another billboard catches his attention, same black background with white lettering. This one says:
Don't make me come down there. |
He ends his day with watching C-span and Clinton testifying to his faith. In total: 17 hits in one day.
2nd testament to Evangelical witness:
Julie is a friend of mine who travels back to Iowa for her best friend's wedding from high school. Julie is the maid of honor. She says her girlfriend lived on the wild side in high school, but now has given her life, as she says, "to the Lord." As Julie is helping her friend get into the wedding gown, trying to avoid crumpling the dress, her friend is visibly shaking and nervous. The mother of the bride asks the wedding party to stand in a circle around her daughter, hold hands and to follow her lead. She takes one enormous breath, and says, "All right, here we go: breathe in Jesus, breathe out Tami's fear; once again, breathe in Jesus, breathe out Tami's fear." The wedding party participates, albeit some of them reluctantly. The bride is now calm. They enter the church, walk through the processional and stand in formation at the head of the church. The minister begins the service with an introduction.
He says: "Welcome to all of you gathered. We are here today to join Tami and John in holy matrimony. It is an honor and a privilege to this couple, that all of you are here to bear witness to their love and commitment. There is no doubt that you have a deep and abiding love for this couple. However, there is someone who has been invited who loves this couple more than any of you do, whose love will never waiver, test or judge. And that person invited is: Jesus!" 'Amens' fill the room.
Everywhere we look, people are evangelizing-being public about and promoting their faith. People, that is, except Unitarian Universalists. We UUs don't hesitate to tell others about our favorite vegetarian restaurant or used bookstore-but when it comes to our favorite house of worship-suddenly we're tight-lipped. Simply put, evangelism for us is a bad thing.
So why is that? Why don't we spread the good news of Unitarian Universalism? Well, on the top of our list is the idea that we don't want to bias others.
I found the words of Rev. Minot-Judson Savage, a 19th century Unitarian minister, a helpful place to start thinking about this. He wrote: "Parents tell me continuously that they do not give their children any religious training, from the feeling that it is giving unfair advantage to the child. They say, 'I propose to let my children grow up, as far as possible, unbiased.' But if you do not bias your children, the first one they meet on the street, or in school, or among their companions, will begin the work of biasing, of the impression of education, for this is a continuous process. Whether you will or not is something of which you have no choice. It is something that will be done either wisely and well, or unwisely and ill."
A friend of mine understands this so well. He figures he's biased by everybody. So he puts his trust in the Nation - the leftist news journal, to bias him more than anybody else. He's being rhetorical of course, but he understands that the messages we receive of not only political ideologies or policies, but also things like religious convictions and faith come at us all the time from every which way and every day. And it is our choice, we can either respond by turning our head and inculcating a message of Christ-accepting this as the vernacular; or we can be evangelical of our own faith, of our own values and principles.
The second reason: we often equate evangelism with proselytizing. In other words, we fall prey to the idea that one can't promote one's faith-can't be evangelical without being in defense or against another faith. We are afraid frankly that our message will get tied up in telling folks that ours is the only true religious option. And in the name of tolerance, we end up not saying anything. But my colleague, Al Boyce, gets at this so well: "UU evangelism is not about converting people. It's not about saying that someone must join our church or they're doomed. It's about letting people know we exist."
The third and most common reason we UUs don't evangelize is: Unitarian Universalism is not always easy to explain. Often folks are new to the tradition themselves, and they struggle with how to define and articulate what it means to be Unitarian Universalist. We are sometimes like the children Tony Larsen tells of. Tony says that there was a preschool child in his congregation who was meeting some kids on her block. "What religion are you?" the girls asked each other. Everyone else seemed to know but the UU girl kept silent for a long time. Finally, she answered, "Well, I'm not sure, but I think we're League of Women Voters." Now, tell the truth, sometimes haven't some of us felt confused as well. But in reality this isn't a true barrier because we can work on this.
Tony Larsen who was raised Catholic, never had this problem growing up. He went to parochial schools and attended catechism classes, where students were drilled on the important questions of their religion: Who made you? What is God? What is a sacrament? Larsen learned the right answers to such questions, he says, and how to defend his beliefs.
Obviously, there are fewer right answers in Unitarian Universalist congregations, but Larsen believes UU kids need something to grab on to.
Larsen has developed a UU catechism and provides all the kids in this church with an answer to the question - "What do you believe?" It goes like this: "We believe in loving your neighbor as yourself, working to make the world a better place, and searching for truth with an open mind."
That may sound overly simplistic, but it gives children the means to articulate their faith. We need something as clean for adults. For an adult Christian that would be-that Jesus is the light, the way and the truth. And if you believe he died to save your sins, you are saved. That, my friends, is a redemptive, salvific message. But our faith too is transformative, redemptive, salvific. I think we need to think about how to articulate our faith, so we can explain it in 2,000 words or less.
The final hindrance to evangelical witness is perhaps the greatest. To be open about UUism is scary. Time Magazine, a couple of years ago, did a poll on religious views, and according to their statistics, 88% of Americans believe that God exists. 80% equate a belief in God with morality. Now our message of Unitarian Universalism proclaimed in the town square, I guarantee you, will create some sort of backlash - no matter how kindly, or gently, or carefully we present our message. And that is scary.
An example: Imagine what it would be like for you to stand up in a group, proclaiming rightfully, that we are a religion where Atheism and Theism are equally legitimate and wonderful ways of being religious and human. Our society now talks a good game of tolerance and diversity; but let's be honest, we've not yet evolved enough to handle this level of diversity. Atheism is a dirty word in our world, often equated with immorality. Try to defend it as a spiritual option and you won't simply shoot your chances at public office, you may very likely be shunned at the office as well.
Like our support for Atheists in our midst, being open about our celebration of gays and lesbians will create a backlash as well. And, least you think we have moved beyond such considerations, one of the only other liberal religious traditions that is on the same page as us about this is the United Church of Christ (or UCC - Unitarian Considering Christ). Anyway, they recently produced an ad for network television promoting their faith. One of the bylines in the beginning said, never put a period where God has placed a comma. The script had a bouncer letting in fans to an event that seemed all the rage. But when two men holding hands approached, the bouncer sent them away. The final tag went something like; Jesus didn't turn people away, neither do we. A great ad. One that is inclusive, and celebratory. Neither NBC nor CBS would air it. They said it was too controversial. CNN picked it up. But the major networks wouldn't touch it. Having a message of the celebration of all people, no matter their sexual orientation, is our message as well-one that is worth talking about and promoting.
Finally, we are a tradition that proclaims when religious texts clash with human compassion, when religious texts hurt people, then by all means throw them out the window. We do not try to justify or uphold laws and texts written that don't speak to modernity, that jar us in the face of compassion and integrity. Yes, we throw them out.
Now, I'm not up here this morning to tell you those three things are easy to sell-that that message for many people is easy to hear; that we promote Atheism and Theism equally as a legitimate and wonderful way to be human and religious; that we go beyond toleration of those who are lesbian and gay but in fact celebrate their humanity; and that we throw out religious texts when they clash with our reason and compassion. That is a hard message. A backlash will follow. But who among you doesn't believe that the world wouldn't be a better place if more people believed in these things.
One way to find the courage for our evangelical message is to imagine a world that we might dare to commit ourselves to-one that might reflect more of who we are and who we want to become because I think we can find the courage to be heretical.
So imagine what a Unitarian Universalist hit list might look like.
You wake up early in the morning, the television has been left on from the previous night. There during the breakfast hours, a Unitarian Universalist minister is preaching on the dangers of fundamentalism of belief.
You stop at the gym before work, and get on the bikes. You slip on your calming chalice baseball cap, and the person behind you on the bike asks, "Hey, I see the back of your cap says: www.rochesterunitarian.org. What is Unitarian by the way? You pedal on and say, "Ah, glad you asked," and proceed to tell them the good news. There are fellow gym mates on treadmills and lifting weights with the same t-shirt on, just like your own-the front says, "UUreka," and on the back, "I've discovered Unitarian Universalism."
When you get to work, your boss passes out a new policy on same-sex partnership benefits to all of its employees, with a sideline of websites that might help folks wrestle with the moral and ethical implications of such a viewpoint. They list the UUA. You sit down with your new mite you just bought from the church that says on one side: "Something missing from your life? Truth, justice, equity, religious freedom, spiritual exploration-all the words that have the U missing from them, the other side of the mug says, "UU fill in the blanks. The Unitarian Universalists." A few of your colleagues even have flaming chalices around their necks.
On your drive home, you pass a billboard that reads:
|
That night, after a long day, you fall asleep to a recently elected senator rejoicing in her Atheism, discussing her religious faith as a Unitarian Universalist and how her beliefs impact and inform her political and ethical decisions.
A Unitarian Universalist Hit List. May we be brave enough to imagine such a day-brave enough to just share our good news!
Can I hear an - Amen.
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