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By Rev. John T. Crestwell, Jr.
October 1, 2005
What are we to make of the comments by William Bennett, the talk
show host and former Secretary of Education? He said, and I quote,
"If you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole
purpose -- you could abort every black baby in this country and your
crime rate would go down. That would be an impossibly ridiculous and
morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go
down."
What are we to make of these comments from a man considered to be a
close friend of the president? If he and Bush are close friends, is
it no wonder now why the rapper Kanye West said, “President Bush
doesn’t care about Black people?” This is a common belief many
African Americans have about Republicans in general and our current
administration. It is a generalization, I must admit. And now in the
midst of Hurricane Katrina which pulled the cover off of our
heads—and we witnessed degradation and poverty at unprecedented
levels that many of us have never seen in this country; in the midst
of that, we hear these very untimely and racist remarks… Sure there
are crime and poverty problems in the Black community but are not
those problems, many of them, from a long history of racism and
discrimination in America? You have to ask yourself, was 30% of New
Orleans impoverished because of an ignorant bunch of people who are
a “lost cause” or are people impoverished, disenfranchised and
marginalized because of laws, policies and systems past and present
that do not lift people up and lift folk out of their squalor to
give them a real chance at living the American Dream? Are we not
dealing with an issue in this country of systemic injustice!
And the other part is that Bennett looked at one group as less than
another and his generalization was way off the mark because there
are crime problems among all the races. Where there’s poverty,
there’s crime, and it hasn’t a thing to do with skin color. It is
not exclusive to one particular community.
You know, we find this same exclusive, insensitive and ignorant
attitude in religion, unfortunately. We separate into various groups
and call ourselves by different names and look at others (not all
us, but many of us do)--we look at others who are not a part of the
“in group” or what we think is the “in group” or what we think is
“righteous” and we pass all kinds of judgments against others. You
know the language—“You are not saved”, “You are not sanctified”,
“You are not chosen”, “You are an infidel”, “You are a heathen”,
“You don’t look and smell like us and therefore, you are
insignificant and why don’t we take your life, abort your existence
because you do not fit in and the world would be better without
you!” Look at the world today—Christians fighting Christians,
Muslims fighting Christians, Muslims fighting Muslims. It’s no
wonder why some Atheists have said to me, “John, tell me a problem
in the world that religion solved that it didn’t first start?” Think
about it… This cynicism is warranted indeed… But this is why the UUA
President William Sinkford, who graced our pulpit last week said,
regarding marriage rights, “We are not standing on the side of hate
and partiality but if there is a side to stand on let us all stand
on the side of love!” And as the song says, “Sometimes we build a
barrier to keep love tightly bound. Corrupted by fear, unwilling to
hear, denying the beauty we’ve found! But we’re standing on the side
of love!” Amen to that!
This religious segmentation problem is pervasive in religion and it
is shocking that in a day when we can learn so much about other
cultures and religions, we find that “us versus them” mentality
ever-present in many churches, mosques, temples and synagogues
across the world. Perhaps this is why Blaise Pascal said, “People
never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from
religious conviction.” Or Jonathan Swift who said, “We have just
enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one
another.” Somebody hears me this morning!
So, what in the world does this have to do with my title this
morning: Authentic Unitarian Universalism? It says to us that we’ve
got to be extremely careful of the trap religion pulls us into if we
are not aware of the subtleties it inspires.
Religion, if we are not careful can lead to exclusive theologies
that spring forth out of us---and of course the only exclusive
theology should be the theology of love, but that is not what we see
and hear. You know, it was said that “Where I receive the wholly
other I am fundamentally changed.” That is, my deep spiritual
awakening changes me at the very core of who I am. It is a dramatic
change, whether a Pentecostal, Methodist or Unitarian Universalist,
and you get excited about it and you want to talk about it. You have
to be careful you see because as you become better you have to
remember that this change is personal. It is your conversion not
everybody else’s. Your diagnosis should not become a universal
prescription for all; rather you found medicine for your soul. There
are gems we can share with others from our experience, but our shift
in consciousness, our change in awareness is not the “be all and end
all” understanding. All have a “free and responsible search for
their own truth” in life and we must be sure that our enlightenment
does not lead to someone else’s Dark Age (hello)! We have to be
careful that we don’tbecome “self-righteous no it alls!”
So as much as I do not agree with the teachings of modern
Christianity, I should not spend my time brow-beating it day after
day… As a Unitarian Universalist, I have found my path. I have my
own story. So instead of focusing on what Christianity isn’t I
should focus on what my religion is for me. Remember, you are surely
on the path of being an “us against them” no-it-all if you
constantly preach a message of why your religion is better than
theirs. Okay, it could be true :), but that’s not the point. You
see my story can clearly say that this is the religion for me but it
is wrong to make fun or incessantly dissect another faith with harsh
words. It goes against UU principle #1 and isn’t this the way most
religions function today--a theology of negation? There’s a better
way!
The Authentic Unitarian Universalism springs forth with an inclusive
identity and preaches to the world what A. Powell Davies said well,
“An end to all exclusions!” It preaches togetherness, hope, and love
for all humanity. It preaches that we love you the way you are, you
are a human being, a child of the Universe—a child of God and
therefore you have worth and dignity. It preaches there is room for
different people with different beliefs; preaches acceptance;
preaches a message that is proactive not reactive. It preaches that
the true Beloved Community is what I call, “The church without walls
reality” where we all work to make the church disappear. Where I
work to work myself out of a job! I don’t want to do that too
quickly—I just got here :). Authentic Unitarian Universalism as a
religion works to eliminate the “us against them” mentality by
promoting the “we are together reality”.
Beyond the preached message, we must live what we preach. We must
“walk the walk and talk the talk.” This is true religion! But don’t
take my word for it. Listen to the great minds of history… Albert
Einstein: “True religion is real living; living with all one's soul,
with all one's goodness and righteousness”. Abraham Lincoln: “When I
do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad. That's my
religion.” Thomas Jefferson: “It is in our lives and not our words
that our religion must be read.” Or Unitarian Ralph Waldo Emerson:
“Religion is to do right. It is to love, it is to serve, it is to
think, it is to be humble.” Or Thomas Paine who said, “My country is
the world, and my religion is to do good.” Finally, the author James
Baldwin sums it up: “If the concept of God has any validity or any
use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If
God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him.”
I tell you this day, in my humble opinion, that it is time that
religion change or die! It is said that insanity is doing the same
thing over and over and expecting a different result. Well, to me,
religion is failing in many ways and has caused more harm than good
in many situations. I may be contradicting myself but in this case,
I am making a statement about religion in general. How can these
great faiths point us toward that greater day of freedom and justice
and then be the very antithesis to it? Why is that? The simple
answer is we each want to get there separately and we don’t want to
work together. It is an issue of power and control.
The Methodists have been trying to figure out how to get back
united. You have millions of Black Methodists who broke away
hundreds of years ago and the United Methodists are saying, “Hey,
let us all be Methodists again.” The problem is racial where the
Black and White bishops can’t figure how to share the power. And of
course there are apprehensions on both sides because of the history
of this country around race. In the midst of that, the Methodists
are close to splitting over the issue of gay clergy. As you can
tell, they are no where near uniting.
The reality they do not want to see is the inevitability of time and
evolution. As they grapple, the world is getting smaller and people
are growing tired of being fragmented by religious ideologies that
have led to world wars in many of our lifetimes. The cycle is
getting “played out” so to speak and people are going further and
further away from traditional religion. You hear many say, “I’m not
religious but I’m spiritual” a direct statement to the fact that
folk want to express their individual spirituality separate from
institutional religion. Carl Jung said that “private religion” not
“collectivized religion” would rule the day over time and that the
future belonged to “…the formation of religions of an individual
nature.” He said that people of “high moral and intellectual
standards no longer want to follow rigid dogma” but rather would
want first hand knowledge or experience for themselves. They want to
“plunge down into the soul and get to know its powers.” For Jung,
people would eventually grow tired of “spoon fed” theology and want
to BUILD THEIR OWN THEOLOGY (my shameless plug for the class today).
And I add that I, like Jung, believe people will get fed-up with the
dichotomy—me against you, seeing its endless path of destruction and
begin to go inward to better understand the SELF as a reflection of
God, or a reflection of life, or a reflection of that creative
sustaining force.
This change is happening in many places today but it does not help
that when we turn on the television or radio we see and hear that
this country is at war, or we hear the comments of Bennett or see
the images of Katrina; we wonder if the world is going back toward
some time when people really did live in ignorance. How can we
“speed up the day” toward that new heaven, new earth reality when
the world seems so disjointed?
I say to you that preaching and living an authentic Unitarian
Universalist life would help. That is, live a religion-less life!
“The preacher done lost his mind! What in the world are you talking
about?” If you missed my point perhaps John Lennon can help:
IMAGINE
Imagine there's no heaven,
It's easy if you try,
No hell below us,
Above us only sky,
Imagine all the people
living for today...
Imagine there's no countries,
It isn't hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
living life in peace...
Imagine no possessions,
I wonder if you can,
No need for greed or hunger,
A brotherhood of man,
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...
You may say I’m dreamer but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you
will join us, and the world will live as one!
Yes, a religion-less life! A world where every day we rise and say
this day is blessed and every one around me is my neighbor. Imagine
this reality, dream it, live it, see it, breathe it and somehow,
perhaps with our effort, we can speed up the day when humans will
not kill humans, when race will not matter, when religion will not
matter, when all that will matter is that WE ARE ONE as humans on
this third rock from the sun. Imagine like Algernon Black who saw a
day when people would “…be safe to differ about their answers to the
great mysteries of the Universe; when people could seek their own
way to the highest; to find their own sense of supreme loyalty in
life—to their ideal in life; when their philosophy and others’
world-views would bring forth truth and beauty to a larger
perspective, so that people could grow in vision, stature and
dedication.” Yes, keep this sort of vision on your heart and always
fight for the rights of all people no matter whom they are! Yes, let
the principles of this faith live inside of you. Let them live in
such a way that when people see you they understand your religion
and you need not say a word. But, if they ask, tell them you are a
part of the religion-less religion. And let them see by watching you
“how strange and foolish” those walls are that we put up! Also, when
you leave this place and you find yourself in a peculiar situation
wondering how to decide on a particular issue regarding human
rights, look at it, think about it and remember STAND ON THE SIDE OF
LOVE because love binds and unites, hate and tears a part. That is
the simple answer.
We have come from a long night of hatred. But morning has come. A
new day has dawned. It’s hard to wake up sometimes but arise and
meet the day! The light of love here shines and may it bring faith
to guide our journey home. Amen.
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