A bonus post for you today — there is a fascinating interview with author and theologian James Carse over on Salon.com, regarding his book The Religious Case Against Belief.

Here’s a brief excerpt:

From Salon.com’s interview with James Carse

I think the vast majority of people would say belief is at the very core of religion. How can you say religion does not involve belief?

It’s an odd thing. Scholars of religion are perfectly aware that belief and religion don’t perfectly overlap. It’s not that they’re completely indifferent to each other, but you can be religious without being a believer. And you can be a believer who’s not religious. Let’s say you want to know what it means to be Jewish. So you draw up a list of beliefs that you think Jews hold. You go down that list and say, “I think I believe all of these.” But does that make you a Jew? Obviously not. Being Jewish is far more and far richer than agreeing to a certain list of beliefs. Now, it is the case that Christians in particular are interested in proper belief and what they call orthodoxy. However, there’s a very uneven track of orthodoxy when you look at the history of Christianity. It’s not at all clear what exactly one should believe.

. . .

Are you religious yourself?

I would say yes, but in the sense that I am endlessly fascinated with the unknowability of what it means to be human, to exist at all. Or as Martin Heidegger asked, why is there something rather than nothing? There’s no answer to that. And yet it hovers behind all of our other answers as an enduring question. For me, it puts a kind of miraculous glow on the world and my experience of the world. So in that sense, I am religious.

What about God? If God is defined as some sort of transcendent reality, do you think God exists?

[Laughs] Frankly, no. But there are so many different conceptions of God. Take, for example, the medieval Christian, Jewish and Islamic mystics. It’s a very rich period from the 12th to the 15th centuries. They began to realize that in each of their traditions, it was impossible to say exactly who God was and what he wants and what he’s doing. In fact, human intelligence has a certain limitation that keeps it from being able to embrace the infinite or the whole. Therefore, every one of our statements about God and the universe is tinged with a degree of ignorance. I would say that I am deeply moved by the thought of an unnameable mystery. If you then ask me, exactly which mystery are you then referring to? I can’t answer. That’s as far as I can go. But it’s got its grip on me, for sure.

Source: Salon.com’s interview with James Carse, author of The Religious Case Against Belief.

For summer services last year, the Unitarian Universalist Society of Iowa City, Iowa invited lay members to reflect on their beliefs as Unitarian Universalists. This is excerpt by Karen Fox, delivered on July 22, 2007, shows the natural progression of personal beliefs to the saving message of our movement. Many of the talks presented in the series are also available on the UUSIC website.

from This I Believe, what inspires me

by Karen Fox

Through reading, asking, listening and observing I have forged my own belief system that honors the vastness and wonder of nature and the Universe. I believe in that which is greater than all and yet a part of each; but that, for me is not an external god. I believe that if there is a God it is the energy of life and all of creation. I believe that that energy is what I am –what each of us is, so we are all a part of that God. I believe that we each decide our own purpose in being here, in being alive. There is no god in the sky deciding what we should be doing with our lives. Our purpose is what we each decide it is within our own being and understanding. I also believe that we are all one — part of that independent web of existence, part of that all encompassing energy, and that what we do, say and think has an impact on all other begins. Therefore compassion, striving to understand, and kindness are essential to healing humanity.

(Read on … )

I was approached at church this week by a visitor who had one question: “How would you explain this religion to me in a nutshell?”

I’m ashamed to say that I punted — lucky for me that my minister husband was standing right there and could jump in. I struggle with brevity and yet clarity of language for explaining this faith, as I think many of us do. And so, today I bring us one take on “A Unitarian Universalist Catechism” that I find immensely helpful.

The Rev. Richard S. Gilbert has written many books that have enhanced our theological movement along with his long service to many churches, including the First Unitarian Church of Rochester, New York, where he preached this sermon on October 15, 2000.

While Standing On One Foot: A Unitarian Universalist Catechism

by the Rev. Richard S. Gilbert

There is an old story in the Jewish tradition of the man who asked Rabbi Shamai to teach him Judaism while standing on one foot. Shamai, notoriously impatient, chased the man away. Then he went to Rabbi Hillel and made the same request. While standing on one foot, Rabbi Hillel responded: “Don’t do to others what you wouldn’t have them do to you. That is all the Torah; all the rest is commentary. Now go and learn it.”

That story suggested a similar question: how might we respond if we are asked to define Unitarian Universalism? By the water cooler at work? At a dinner party with neighbors? Or speaking with our Unitarian Universalist friends here at church? What is the essence of our liberal religious faith — and more — how do we articulate it? Succinctly! We are likely to be embarrassed. It is almost as if we had been asked to undress in public.

(Read on … )

Today’s selection is really a treat. I went looking for Unitarian Universalist perspectives on the events in Pearl Harbor, the attack that happened on this day in 1941, and came across the writings of Rev. John B. Isom (December 2, 1909 - April 23, 2004), who served as an Army chaplain during World War II. He was a Baptist minister, who then underwent a theological crisis and became a Unitarian in 1955. He served churches in Spartanburg, South Carolina, Louisville, Kentucky, Wichita, Kansas, and the First Unitarian Church of Des Moines, Iowa, where he was named an emeritus in 1975.

Rev. Isom was quite a prolific writer, and his children and grandchildren have collected many of his works for the public to read. The excerpt I chose for today is from “As I Remember Me,” Rev. Isom’s memoir, specifically dealing with his theological crisis. His reading of Albert Schweitzer’s The Quest for the Historic Jesus was a major tipping point for him, which he describes here. What strikes me is the pain that is evident in Rev. Isom’s realizations that he can no longer believe what he was raised to believe, and his sense of loss as he comes to these realizations.

I hear echoes of the sermon I posted last Friday, in which the Rev. James Covington states, “No, my friends, you and I are not free to believe anything we choose. You and I believe what we must. The beauty and genius of a faith like ours is that we are not asked to pretend to believe things we do not believe. You and I are not free to choose what we believe, but we are free to stay with our religious community when we grow and when we change our minds.”

For consideration: Have you experienced a crisis of faith? Have you experienced a conversion to Unitarian Universalism, not just from another religion, but perhaps a moment of realization of your commitment to your faith?

From “As I Remember Me”

by Rev. John B. Isom

When I went to Spartanburg, as I have already confessed, I had some serious doubt about some things I was expected to believe and teach as a Baptist minister. I knew then that I had no hard evidence to justify me believing some of the very basic assumptions which were essential to the Christian faith of Baptists and most other Christian believers, such as the Bible being the holy word of a supernatural being called God, who created the heavens and the earth and all life therein; the supernatural events associated around the birth, life and death of Jesus; Heaven and Hell as places for the eternal abode of all human beings. By the time I read “The Quest for the Historic Jesus” I knew I had no evidence for believing such assumptions. All I had left was a very dim hope that such evidence might still be found. After reading “The Quest for the Historic Jesus” that dim hope was no longer possible. There are a number of reasons why that book made me face up to the truth of my disbelief in the basic essentials of the faith as taught in most Christian churches.

(Read on … )

Why do we gather in religious community? What is religious community? How do we tie our diverse religious beliefs and yearnings together into one community?

The Rev. James Covington, serving the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Briarton, Croton and Ossining, New York, takes a stab at answering some of these concerns in a sermon delivered last January.

For consideration: What binds you to your religious community? What values do you have in common with those who hold different beliefs than you?

What it Means to Be Religious

by Rev. James Covington

What does it mean to be religious? My, what a question! I wonder what your answer would be. I am certain we would have as many different answers as there are people sitting in front of me. It is a question always on my mind—not urgently so, but at least, somewhere peripheral. It has been on my mind more so recently. I wonder why. Well, we live in a time when the world about us is so rife with political and religious conflict, one cannot help but despair of it all. Sam Harris’s book, The End of Faith, certainly has been an evocative reading. And as an association, Unitarian Universalists are presently, it seems, attempting to address the question amongst ourselves—if we are a “liberal” religious movement, then what do we mean by that? What do we mean by “religious?”

(Read on … )

The First Unitarian Society of Madison, WI, is one of, if not the largest congregations belonging to the Unitarian Universalist Association. The congregation of more than 2000 members, friends, and children, worships in a Frank Lloyd Wright building, and supports three ministers.

The Rev. Kelly J. Crocker, Minister of Religious Education, preached this fine sermon (PDF) last summer. In it, she addresses the fundamental question–what is the point of Unitarian Universalism? Why are we here?

The Point of It All

by Rev. Kelly J. Crocker, preached August 13, 2006 at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, WI

A few months ago, I found myself in the middle of that conversation many of us dread. I was talking with a friend about work and she suddenly said, “what is that UU all about again? I know we’ve had this conversation before but I just don’t get it.” So I went into my standard answer about our long history dating back to the Reformation and even before and how we had evolved as a movement throughout the years, and how now we were theologically diverse, non creedal, social justice minded, focused on the here and now, finding salvation here on earth, seekers together on a common journey of exploration and so on and so on. I thought I had actually done a pretty good job when she turned to me and said “Well, what’s the point of that? You don’t give people the right answers to those big life questions; you don’t guarantee them entrance into some heavenly place when they die; you don’t even tell them the “right” path to follow or what to believe. So why bother?”

(Read on … )

A frequent question in Unitarian Universalist churches is, “Well, if you don’t all believe in God, what do you go to church for?” The Rev. Dr. Matthew Tittle, from the Bay Area Unitarian Universalist Church in Houston, Texas, addresses this question in a sermon from last summer, “Why Atheists Go to Church.” This piece is also the title sermon of his forthcoming book, due out this fall.

You can find out more about Rev. Dr. Tittle at his website, and he also blogs for the Houston Chronicle at Keep the Faith.

Why Atheists Go to Church

by Rev. Dr. Matthew Tittle, June 11, 2006

Why would an atheist go to church? I know that this looks like just another catchy title for our marquee sign, but I have often been asked this question when people learn that we have a significant number of professed atheists in our congregations. I have an overly simplistic answer to this question: For the same reason everyone else goes to church.

Perhaps you’ve heard the story of Sam and the Rabbi. The Rabbi is talking to Sam, a regular attendee at temple, but an avowed atheist. The Rabbi says, “Sam, everybody knows you don’t believe in God, but I see you here every Sabbath. Why do you come to temple?” Sam says, “You know my friend Bernie? He comes to temple to talk to God. I come to talk to Bernie.”

I recently heard about an informal study of why people joined a particular church. They joined because the church was in the neighborhood, because a friend invited them, because they liked the windows, because they enjoyed the music, because the people were friendly, because the sermons were interesting, and so on. None said they joined because of their particular belief or disbelief in God or anything else. Some people do go to church to talk to God. Some people go to talk to each other.

(Read on … )

Today, a short newsletter column from the newly called minister of the Universalist National Memorial Church in Washington, D.C., Rev. Lillie Mae Henley.

UNMC is slightly unusual in the Unitarian Universalist Association, in that the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth are central to the worship life of the church, though there is no creedal “test” for membership in the congregation. The church itself was built as the “headquarters” of the Universalist Church of America, before that organization merged with the American Unitarian Association to form the Unitarian Universalist Association in 1961.

Enjoy:

Words from Rev. Lillie, June 1, 2007

Newsletter article by Rev. Lillie Mae Henley, Universalist National Memorial Church in Washington, D.C.

My father said, more than once, “Never argue about religion.”

I don’t know whether it was my father’s wise words, or my own nature, but I’ve never been inclined to debate or argue religion. I have had discussions about religion, but when the other person(s) become argumentative, I find a way to extricate myself from the discussion.

I won’t argue, because my father was correct. Beliefs and religion are highly-invested and internalized, and it takes more than words to change personal beliefs.

What people believe are their experiences, and what changes their minds and their lives, is living out the stories of their lives.

Perhaps you remember the news story of the rabbi and the skin heads surrounding a synagogue on the west coast a few years ago. The details for me are vague, but the story is clear. There was a group of skin heads who routinely desecrated a synagogue with graffiti and threatened the lives of the rabbi and his family.

It happened that one of the skin heads became chronically and critically ill. He had no one to take care of him, and the rabbi and his congregation became his constant support system. It was not very long before the skin head changed his mind about his “enemies.”

Reaching out, caring for, forgiving, and reconciling are the actions that changed the lives of everyone involved. It was not words; it was behavior that changed their lives.

When we think about making a difference in the world, it is not necessarily what we say, but who we are and what we do that changes people and conditions.

Making a difference is about how we involve ourselves in relationship with others, and how we involve ourselves in the stories of others’ lives. Because we all realize, eventually, it comes down to our shared existence.

Living out our religion changes not only others’ lives, it changes our own lives, too. If our lives are a witness to our beliefs, then we never have to argue with anyone about religion.

Source: Rev. Lillie Mae Henley, Universalist National Memorial Church, Washington, D.C., June 1, 2007 newsletter.