Just Jane: A Spiritual Odyssey

In the Beginning….

I was born on October 9 1950 at 5:12 a.m. in the Bulloch County Hospital in Statesboro, the second child of J.G. Altman and Christine Rogers Altman.

My parents were truly working class folks who were among those people in the post war years who strived hard to move up in the world.  They had both grown up relatively poor – and both were determined to work hard enough, smart enough, and long enough to BE somebody in town and reach that next level of folks whose children had it better than they did.  And, indeed, we did.

Not that there weren’t difficulties.  My very earliest memories were of the Bulloch County Hospital where I was taken after a tragic accident that left me with a critical head injury.  I was supposed to have died, but the doctors and “the good Lord” saved me.  I had lots of attention at the hospital – and gradually began to talk again and walk again.  The first book that I remember was one that I received in the hospital -- Digger Dan.  Digger Dan was a steam shovel and there was one just like him outside the hospital window, for they were building a new wing at the time.  Perhaps being able to connect that story of Digger Dan with the real life “goings on” at the hospital encouraged me to understand the importance that books could have in my life.  In any case, I did fall in love with books – and it’s been a lifelong love affair. 

When I was taken home, my parents were told that I could not hit my head and I should not get hot.  So we got window units for my bedroom and the main room that I would be in – and that MAIN room was my mom’s little home beauty shop. She moved my high chair in that shop and I remained there with her and all the ladies.  They held me in their laps and interacted with me and read books to me and, indeed, helped to raise me.  Our home with my mom’s shop was right across from the front gates of Georgia Teachers College – now Georgia Southern University.  All of the women whose husbands taught there and the women who  taught there were my mom's customers.   These were educated women who valued reading, writing, and good conversation.  And a once extremely shy toddler bloomed into a gregarious, talkative, curious little girl.  I thank these ladies – a few who are still living – for that experience, and my mom for sharing her work with me. 

When I was five, we moved across town, just one block away from First Baptist Church on Woodrow Avenue.  I loved that split level on Woodrow Avenue.  We lived upstairs and my mom’s bigger beauty shop was downstairs.  The shop was big enough for three or four operators and Mama became the most sought after beautician in town.  The shop provided a place for me to work after school and in the summer.  And I worked diligently, sweeping hair, handing rollers to the operators, booking appointments, and when I was older, doing the payroll. 

Even so—there was plenty of time to play with the neighbors.  My brother Johnny and I had the freedom to roam the neighborhood. When we were a little older, we roamed the town.  We walked or rode our bikes all over Statesboro.  When the Medical Center Pharmacy opened here on the corner of Granade and Grady, it stayed open on Sunday afternoons and welcomed all of us to hang out at the snack bar and read the comics.  Yeah, it was that kind of white middle class childhood like you see in Norman Rockwell paintings.  And for the most part, it was fun for me. 

Sunbeam Girl

Though the Medical Center Pharmacy became a Sunday afternoon hangout – my biggest hangout spot growing up was First Baptist Church.  Since I could easily walk to all the activities, I was there just about any time the doors opened. 

And even if they were not opened for religious activities, my friends and I would have fun exploring various parts generally off limits, which included some swim time in the baptistery and dangerous explorations to the steeple.  For the most part, though, I was a “good” little Baptist, attending Sunbeams (for preschoolers), then Girls’ Auxiliary, children’s choir, plus Sunday School every Sunday morning before church and Training Union in the evening before evening services. I had good Sunday School teachers, for the most part, and believed everything they told me – everything.  During a revival service when I was nine years old, I walked down the aisle to “take Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior” and join the church.  I was baptized later by long time minister J. Robert Smith.  I remember feeling a bit disappointed that all I felt after the baptism was WET – but nevertheless, I was a baptized believer – and vowed I would be a good Christian. 

Teen Troubles

When I was 12 years old, I walked down the aisle again and rededicated my life – as if a 12 year old needed to do that.  But I felt that need to make an even stronger commitment.  And that’s when I got into trouble.  For you see, I became so committed that I decided to really study the Bible – all of the Bible, not just what the Sunday School teachers shared with me.  And of course, there are lots of contradictions in the Bible and lots of really weird things that just didn’t seem too holy to me. 

Soon after – in the 8th grade, we started studying Norse mythology in Mrs. Roach’s English class.  So here I was reading the Bible – and wondering about lots of the strange things I was reading; then also studying Norse mythology – and realizing that these stories had some of the SAME strange happenings as those I found in the Bible; and my little brain cells lit up with the realization that perhaps they were all the same. 

Now I still WANTED to be a good Christian and have that Christian GLOW on my face when I sang in the choir.  (Demonstrate)  My heart wanted to believe. But my mind was pushing back.  Add to that mix the hormones that come at this age, and first love, and first real heartbreak – with no help from prayers to Jesus who was supposed to be my savior.  I cried almost every night my ninth grade year.  

But then I started hanging out with Sammy Johnson and the motorcycle boys and felt a little better.  If you knew me in high school you would have described me as an outgoing, fun-loving, motorcycle riding, boy-loving, kind of wild girl who was also extremely dedicated to her church and her faith.  And all of that was very confusing.  I could not decide whether I was better suited to becoming a Hell’s Angel or a nun.  Seriously, that’s how confused I was.  After a while, I decided that the Hells Angel or Nunnery possibilities weren’t realistic but I was determined that I was going to leave Statesboro.  My senior English teacher had convinced me that I was a good writer, so I decided to apply to UGA’s Henry Grady School of Journalism and have a good time at that party school, then head to Atlanta to work for the Atlanta Journal.  I was going to be "Brenda Starr." 

Then along came Fred.

An Education for Fred and Me

The Page boys (Fred, Vick, and Will) were also active in First Baptist Church.  Fred had finished high school in 1965, and had attended a couple of other schools for post secondary work before being accepted into Georgia Southern College.  I was a senior at Statesboro High and that fall Fred asked me to go with him to the “Starlight Ball” at Georgia Southern.  To get the chance to go to a college ball with a handsome guy was too good to pass up.  I went.  He charmed me, and that was that. 

My acceptance to the Journalism School at UGA arrived in the mail – but by that time, I was too much in love to consider leaving and decided that I would remain in Statesboro and attend Georgia Southern with Fred.  He asked me to marry him and I accepted – thinking that it would still be years away.  We kept moving the date up and up – and “sort of” eloped on June 12, 1968, just days after my high school graduation and the day before I registered for Georgia Southern.  I say “sort of” because I took my parents with us.  After all, I was just 17 – too young to marry even in South Carolina without my parents' signature.   

Fred and I both majored in Elementary Education and took almost all of our classes together. He went from being a poor student to being a good one – and I became not only a better student, but an excellent tutor as well.   We continued our journey together through three degrees at Georgia Southern and our doctorate degrees at Mississippi State.

The Total Woman – NOT!

Fred and I remained active in First Baptist and with the College Student Union while we were students.  Actually that’s when I got my first opportunity to preach in a little chapel that looked kind of like this. 

Shhhhh.   No one was supposed to know.  At that time the Baptist Student Union conducted Sunday Services at the Bulloch County prison camp.  During the summer most of the students left, and Fred and I volunteered to continue the services.  The plan was for him to preach and for me to play the piano.  But he gladly turned the pulpit over to me; and I gladly took it.  We knew this was a special situation and it was not something we could even tell anyone about.  The guys in prison didn’t mind though – and that’s what counted to us. 

Fred was actually pretty open to me being a little different; but he was more concerned about what folks THOUGHT.  We had to at least SEEM to be a traditional couple – and LORD I TRIED!!  I stayed home with our two boys when they were little and I even took a workshop at First Baptist called “The Total Woman.”  Needless to say, I was not their model student.  It just didn’t take with me – and Fred seemed okay with that, as long as we looked traditional enough to others.  They must have approved because they invited Fred to be ordained as a deacon when he was just 27.

My own spiritual growth and development was complicated.  On the outside, it looked terrific.  When in my 20’s, I was President of Baptist Young Women, a regular in the church choir, the pianist for one of the children’s choirs, a teacher of  “Mission Friends” and a Sunday School teacher of 8th grade girls.  But I was secretly continuing the journey I had started as a young teenager of reading, studying, and thinking for myself.  And I was changing.  I was becoming more liberal socially, politically, and of course, theologically.  I would share just enough of my new ideas with folks at church to remain in good standing – but they suspected I was falling out of line.  And my husband knew it. 

Are we there yet?

As young parents, we heard that call from the backseat of the car from our two boys, Fred and John, often when we traveled to Valdosta to visit my husband’s great Aunt or when we traveled to ballgames or for family vacations.  But this refrain is also a good header for this period of my life because I was always moving, working, hurrying, and scurrying. 

I began work as an assistant professor at Georgia Southern in 1979, shortly before my 29th birthday, and resolved to be a full professor by the time I was 40.  No time to waste.  Our children were enrolled in the laboratory school next door, which was awesome for us.  Fred also worked in the College of Education and we continued the partnership we had as students by doing all our research together.  Our primary research was related to the teacher shortage that was growing at that time.  As we “milked our data” for other presentation and publication opportunities, we reported on subgroups according to various categories – teaching disciplines, age, gender, and race.  And that’s when I really began to receive what was a higher calling, because I became committed to working through my research to publicize what had become a devious method for re-segregating the schools; the academic tracking of children from as early as kindergarten. 

By my late thirties, qualitative methods became more acceptable in educational research and I began to interview African American teachers as part of my research.  As I interviewed one teacher who shared her experiences of not only students being tracked but teachers as well, tears came to her eyes and I thought, “I cannot just research this stuff and present and publish this stuff.  That is not enough.  I must actively and openly work to help change the system here at home and beyond.” 

So I came out as an activist for change and haven’t stopped since.  And this, I believe, is where my partnership with my husband became strained.  He was openly supportive of me, but he questioned me on my ideas when we were at home.  He too believed in equality, he said.  But did I also think it was okay for blacks and whites to marry?  “Of course,” I said.  And I added same-gender couples to my approval list as well. 

Fred wasn’t there yet – and he did not like that I “thought differently” than he did.  He said, “We are married, we should think alike if we are going to have a strong marriage.”

I replied, “Well, I don’t see it that way.  Maybe we are like Ying and Yang.  Maybe our differing views complement each other.”  It had been okay in the past with him, but now my differing views were being made more and more public.  The next thing you know, I may be pushing for changes at church.  And YES, I did!   

On August 9, 1992, our pastor preached a sermon indicating that the Bible was an authority and was inerrant. In my Couples Sunday School class the following Sunday I presented information which challenged his message.  I included lists of things in the Bible that it would have been difficult for this moderate group to believe – and I added verses related to women’s subservience to that ridiculous list as well.   I was calling out my pastor from my little Sunday School pulpit.  My public witness door was opened now in the church as well, and I wasn’t going back in.  For I felt that my work with others WAS making a difference! 

Meanwhile, I was being promoted at work and had become the chair of a department that would change as well.  The Department grew from a small group of mostly old men who did no research to a vibrant, diverse group of free-thinking guys and gals who developed a doctoral program that leaned even further to the left than I did.  And I was becoming known at the University for not only being a hard working woman, but as someone who would stand up for faculty and students, for folks in education, and for the oppressed.  Yes, that would later get me in trouble – but for now, I felt like I could fly with those Eagles winning those championships.  I was even back on a motorcycle.  Like Helen Reddy, I was woman – strong and invincible – at least at work.  There was a perfume advertisement that was popular back then with a woman I tried to identify with who sang:  “I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in the pan, and never, ever let him forget he’s a man. – Cause I’m a woman!”  Well, I could bring home the bacon – but obviously fell short in other areas. 

Frustrating Forties

Indeed, I was bringing home the bacon but became less and less interested in frying it up in the pan.  We ate a lot of bad fast food – and my younger son blames me for feeding him all those growth hormones via the food we ate.  He says that’s why he and his brother are so big now and it takes more food (and therefore more money) to feed them.  And in terms of keeping my husband happy – boy, did I try!  I shall not share what lengths I went to … but I did try.  However, the failure of me and our boys to fit his idea of that traditional Baptist family drove him into depression.  His only relief seemed to be in running away to Brunswick, where he could always arrange for night classes – with days on the beach and evenings after class receiving warm fuzzies from graduate students enamored with his charm.  That’s how he kept his sanity.  I begged him to see a marriage counselor with me – knowing that his extracurricular activities were not the cause of the problem – but the result.  He refused.  I have often wondered what would have been the result of some good counseling at that time in our lives.  Would it have made a difference?

I kept my sanity through working and through reading.  Although I did read theology, philosophy, and psychology – my biggest revelations came through radical fiction – especially writings of the likes of Tom Robbins.  This was also the phase in my life where I discovered Unitarian Universalism and sent off for the materials – hoping they would come in a plain brown wrapper.  I hid them in a bathroom drawer under the feminine sanitary supplies with my other reading contraband. 

Eventually things at First Baptist got too difficult.  Because of my social justice activities in the community and my push for equality for women and more openness to African Americans in church, I was literally shunned by many.  After one study group meeting in which I encouraged the study of the role of women in the church – “Just study it” I asked, I was confronted by the chairman of the Board of Deacons and by the pastor who demanded that I withdraw the recommendation.  And the pastor basically let me know that he had to follow the power – and that was not me.   I decided to move on – not from my marriage; but from my church which had been such a meaningful part of my life.  But I knew I couldn’t go to UU.  That WOULD have meant the end of my marriage.

I joined Pittman Park United Methodist Church after finding that they had a liberal Sunday School class.  I also joined their choir and began training as a Methodist lay minister.  After getting that certification, I began preaching at some evening services.  This was a good transition for me, my "half-way" house. But the doctrine was still stifling.  Shari Barr was also going to that class but would leave a little early to go to the UU church.  I envied her.  But I had my family to consider.

And we continued for a while to have that “happy family” appearance to the community, while we all struggled at home.  My sons had especially problematic teen and young adult years.  I was constantly in a “fix it” mode for them.  My in-laws were also very sick during this time.  And our lives were getting more depressing.  I told NO ONE about any of this – and instead screamed at the trees at night when I needed an outlet. 

My Awakening!

My religious reading included Buddhism.  But I never thought that I would have the kind of enlightening experience that the Buddha did.  Perhaps mine is not comparable, but I tell you – I did WAKE UP on Christmas day, 1997!

I remember the spot where I was standing. I was holding grandson JD who was almost a year old on my hip.  It was his very first Christmas. But his grandfather wasn’t there.  Fred had left the night before saying he was just too severely depressed to be with us.    And it was Christmas.  And we were all depressed.  Then...it just fell on me.  I woke up.  And for the first time in my life I realized that we didn’t have to live that way.  And I said it out loud. 

“You know what?  We don’t have to live this way.  We are going to get a divorce.” 

My life changed after that.  I changed everything.   I colored my hair, I re-modeled my house, and I – at last – became a Unitarian Universalist!

I LOVED Unitarian Universalism.  Indeed, I’ve described this religion as my salvation. I was not born with the gift of unquestioning faith like some.  But I was born with the need for religious community.  I found a home here.  Here was a place that I could ask questions, share my doubts, and affirm my commitments to those values that had become so important to me.  I also met Greg here, and what a support he has been on this journey.  And HERE was a place where my gay friends could come and be OUT – Hallelujah!  To use one of my dad’s phrases, I was “in HOG HEAVEN.” 

My Ministerial Journey

Because I had been a lay minister at the Methodist church, I sought to continue some kind of lay ministry at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Statesboro.  And folks here were glad to have me fill their pulpit for free and take on other responsibilities.  It wasn’t long before I realized that these activities were becoming more important to me than my job at Georgia Southern.  So I made an appointment with the nice lady at Human Resources to see when it would be possible to retire with full benefits.  And I learned that I could retire in 2005.  So I began to look at the possibility of going to seminary and becoming a REAL minister.  It would not be easy.  But it was possible.  The congregation agreed to be my sponsor and I was accepted by into the modified residency program of Meadville Lombard Theological School – a Unitarian Universalist seminary in Chicago.  With careful planning and an earned sabbatical from Georgia Southern, I would be able to complete most of my coursework and my clinical pastoral counseling unit by the time I retired.  Then I would have only a one year internship remaining.  That was the plan – and it became my reality. 

I jumped through all of UUA’s hoops for preliminary fellowship in March of 2006 and immediately let the folks here at UUFS know.  They had a meeting of the congregation and called me as their minister.  I began on July 1, 2006 – and I’m still here, now in my eighth year.  I’m enjoying the fact that our ministry has become a shared ministry with participation from many of our members and friends.  And last year, I joyfully welcomed that little child who had been on my hip at my awakening – as a full member of this fellowship.   

I have not been without struggles.  We have not been without struggles.  Yet – all in all—I still feel like I’m in a spiritual HOG HEAVEN!

The Building Your Own Theology Course that I’m sharing with others asks for us to consider theological values that have informed our journeys.  I’ll have to think some more on that…, but for now I would probably say “continuous revelation.”    

Perhaps I’ll reveal more later.  But for now --  as fellow Hog Heaven inhabitant Porky Pig says, “That’s All Folks!”

Building Your Own Theology

Sermon delivered on January 12, 2014

READING

From “Song of the Open Road” by Walt Whitman

Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road, …
Strong and content I travel the open road.
The earth, that is sufficient, …
From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary lines,
Going where I list, my own master total and absolute,
Listening to others, considering well what they say,
Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating,
Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the hold that would hold me.
I inhale great draughts of space, …
I am larger, better than I thought,
I did not know I held so much goodness.
All seems beautiful to me, …
I will scatter myself among men and women as I go,
I will toss a new gladness and roughness among them,
Whoever denies me it shall not trouble me,
Whoever accepts me he or she shall be blessed and shall bless me.
Listen! I will be honest with you,
I do not offer the old smooth prizes, but offer rough new prizes, …
You shall not heap up what is call'd riches,
You shall scatter with lavish hand all that you earn or achieve, …
Allons! the road is before us!
It is safe — I have tried it — my own feet have tried it well — be not detain'd! …
Camerado, I give you my hand!
I give you my love more precious than money,
I give you myself before preaching or law;
Will you give me yourself?
Will you come travel with me?

Building Your Own Theology

June 6, 1971.  That’s the date I graduated from Georgia Southern University.  We had the ceremony in the then NEW Hanne Fieldhouse.  It was before it was air conditioned and we were sweltering as under those long black robes. 

One of my memories that day was seeing all the faculty in their black caps and gowns and their colorful stoles.  And all of the gowns were black.  Those who had doctorates had black velvet slashes on their sleeves and the front of their robes.  Some are more colorful today – but then they were all black – except for one.  The robe of Vice President – and soon to be President Pope Duncan was different.  Here’s a picture that his daughter Mary Margaret sent to me of her dad in that beautiful robe.   

The velvet on his robe was a beautiful, bold, red.  I was told by my Page in-laws – who knew such things – that Pope Duncan’s robe was different and had red velvet because he had studied theology – the very highest and noblest field of all.  I was impressed.  Dr. Pope Duncan not only had the name of “Pope” – but he had studied GOD – and therefore stood out from everyone else as more noble and special.  The robe created a halo effect and I was always in awe of him – not just because he became a great president for Georgia Southern – but because Pope Duncan was a theologian. 

 Fast forward a professional lifetime to the early 2000’s.  I was a student at Meadville Lombard Theological School working on a Masters of Divinity – and as part of my requirements, I had to take three theology courses.  I was a good student – but this scared me.  I had heard that theology was really difficult.  And the professors at Meadville Lombard made sure that this reputation for theology courses would be upheld.  In the courses that I took, I not only had to read about the most famous of these theologians and understand their principles, I had to also read their own writings – and grapple with them.  Professor Thandeka required us to read all of Augustine’s Confessions, and a good dose of Luther, Calvin, Servetus, and many others.  And it was quite interesting to see how Christian doctrine and dogma came to be.   And though their writing was sometimes dense and difficult, it was nothing like that I was exposed to in my Process Theology course.  We read Whitehead, and Hartshorne, and Cobb and others influenced by them – or attempting to explain them.  Their view of God was much different – a changing, interacting God, co-creating with us.  But I almost felt that these guys felt the need to prove that there was a God – even though they no longer believed in the omnipotent, eternal Creator of all.  So they would create for themselves dense theories and even mathematical formulas proving the existence of their kind of god.  I also took a course in modern liberal theology – so much more refreshing, but still very dense and heady. Words and words and books and books and formulas and models – all trying to fit into my little head so that I too – could say that I understood theology – at least well enough to pass the courses and satisfy UUA’s Ministerial Fellowship Committee.  You all would be proud to know – for what it’s worth – that I aced all of these.

But I couldn’t just put theology back up on the shelf – Meadville Lombard and the UUA made sure that I grappled enough with my own theology that I could articulate it.  And I’ll share more about that the next time I share with you.  But in any case – while I was there, I heard folks talk about a curriculum called, “Building Your Own Theology,” that was written for lay folks to take as a Religious Education class.  And I thought then – I’m going to do that for the folks in Statesboro.  Do you know what this is folks? 

I just got this. 

It’s a round Tuit.

I ordered the books and will begin with a group of you at 6:30 this evening.  Others are still welcome to join us.  But all who come on my Sundays will at least get some of the background that will enable you to Build Your Own Theology

This curriculum is written by Richard Gilbert – and he maintains that we are all theologians.  We may not have Pope Duncan’s robe – but we can all study to understand God or whatever we view as Ultimate Reality.  Gilbert believes it’s important for us to “do theology” because “it has to do with the stuff of human experience, the meaning of being and becoming.” 

How do UUs do theology?  Gilbert suggests that we do it a little differently – not to become more divine (as someone suggested) – but to become more human.  And dang if he doesn’t also have a model to show that UU theology (if there is such a thing) can be understood at three levels.  I think he may have felt compelled to make up this model by other theologians.  I’m going to share it with you now – so that you may have an understanding of Gilbert’s perspective.

Gilbert believes the UU theology -- and I’m quoting here “can be understood at three levels:

• The operational level, the process by which we do theology in religious community
• The menu of the diverse theological perspectives from which we may choose
• The specific credos that result when we build our own theology.

Let’s look at that first one for a minute. 

Are we in a RELIGIOUS Community?  Is Unitarian Universalism a religion?  Some folks prefer to think of us as a “movement” rather than a religion.  And some prefer to think of us a social society or just a justice loving community.  But I do use that term “religion” and lift it up – for more than just tax purposes. 

My colleague, the Rev. Meredith Garmon, puts it this way.  He says: 

"Religion means a sense of transcendence, of interconnection with all things, of touching the holy, either through special sacrament or the profound sense that everything is holy. Religion brings all those things together and integrates them. Sometimes, as in Christianity and Islam, it incorporates doctrine as part of the process, and other times, as in Unitarian Universalism and Buddhism, it doesn’t. Even the religions that don’t have creeds or dogma do have teachings.”

And of course our teachings are our principles!  And Richard Gilbert, the author of the Building Your Own Theology Curriculum, places these at the center of building our own theologies.  And he has a model showing these as the core for this quest.  

Now Gilbert has shortened these to fit into his model – but I’d like for us to look at what our association actually worked on and approved – and by our association – I mean us – or at least our representatives. 

We’ll come back to this model in a minute – but to reinforce this with us today, I’d like for us to read this covenant aloud.

It’s in the front of your hymnal a few pages back – but I’ve also placed the words on this PowerPoint.  Please read with me.

WE, THE MEMBER CONGREGATIONS OF THE UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST ASSOCIATION, COVENANT 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 right 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 existence of which we are a part.

These are our teachings – our operational values.  But they are not beliefs. While we embrace the seven Unitarian Universalist Principles consensually; their use takes us to different places on the theological spectrum.” 

 After surveying Unitarian Universalists about their beliefs in 1997, the UUA published options that seem to characterize members at that time.  And Gilbert uses these categories in his model as we move out from the core of our principles.  Let’s look back at the model and see what these are.  I’ll also include the description from the UUA publication.

1^st – Religious Humanism:  In religious humanism, humanity, while not the measure of all things, is at least the measurer of all things; religion emerges from human experience.  46.1 % chose this category in the 1998 survey.

2^nd – Earth / Nature Centered Spirituality:  This natural spirituality recognizes our sense of oneness with the earth and its rhythms.  19% selected this category

3^rd – Theism:  This position is perhaps best exemplified in process theology and in these words by Alfred North Whitehead, “God is the binding element in the world.”  13% of the 1998 respondents considered themselves theists. 

4^th – Liberal Christianity:  The UU liberal Christian takes biblical religion seriously and finds in the teachings of Jesus the decisive model for religious living.  9.5% of the 1998 respondents labeled their theological perspective as Christian.

5^th – Mysticism:  The mystic is one who recognizes there is more to life than eyes can see, ears can hear, nostrils can inhale, hands can touch or words can express.  There is a sense of unity with humanity, the earth, and the cosmos.  6.7% listed this as their theological perspective. 

Now Gilbert realizes that these five categories are imperfect – but he offers them for us to at least see possibilities.  I don’t think 2014 Unitarian Universalists would be satisfied with these categories --- but I think it at least demonstrates Gilbert’s message that our theological beliefs are diverse.  Today we would combine some of these and add more – like scientific naturalism – and theologies grounded in some of the other great world religions plus others which see reality from the perspective of the oppressed or from various gendered perspectives.  And many of us may come up with ideas that don’t fit into any of these categories very well.  But the point is that we don’t leap over work exemplified by the middle circle of Gilbert’s model.    There is a need for us to do our theological homework before or at least AS we tackle the questions in the outer circle, the questions regarding human nature, the nature of ultimate reality, our role in history and evolution, our ethical behavior, and the meanings we create for our lives.  It’s at this level that we will create our own credos so that we can do the work we need to do as a religious people – or if you don’t like the term religious – choose some other term – as a loving and compassionate people. 

Gilbert warns that we fail to do out theological homework at our own peril.  He says:  “Without a deep-rooted theology, this tumultuous world in which we live will be full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.  If we are to harness our deepest spiritual explosions for meaningful living in this world, we need to get our theology straight.  Developing a theology is not an academic exercise; it has to do with the very stuff of our lives.” 

Now – although Gilbert may think you all need to take this Building Your Own Theology RE Class that we are offering, I don’t know that it’s necessary.  It will be interesting and it will be easier to think about these things in a group setting like that.  But Building Your Own Theology is probably something you’ve been doing all your life – whether you’ve called it that or not.  And I do think that “thinking on these things” – at least here on Sunday mornings, will have an effect on your life.  As you determine your own credo, it will help you to harness your convictions to make a difference in the world. 

As I come to the end of this sermon time, you may be feeling like the rabbit in the story for all ages today.  You’ve heard some possibilities and some ideas of mine and others, but probably don’t have any great conclusions to report.  Maybe you’ll just have to go into your rabbit hole and ponder things a bit.  And perhaps you’ll decide to venture out again and continue to explore with us. 

As Whitman says – “Will you come travel with me?” 

And as Tom Bodett says – “We’ll keep the light on for you.”

Celebrating Rohatsu! The Enlightenment of the Buddha

Message delivered on December 8, 2013 at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Statesboro by Rev. Jane Page

Wake-up!

You may say – “Jane, I’ve been awake since 7 a.m.”
But are you really awake?  Are you seeing things as they are? 

Most of us go through our days thinking we are awake and viewing the world realistically.  But eastern religions (and now psychologists and brain scientists) are telling us that what we take in through our senses is heavily filtered by the time we make meaning out of it.  Many of those filters are there because we don’t want to change.  We want things to be the way we see them now – and we make them fit into that subconsciously.  Occasionally though – some of those filters may be lifted, and we have an epiphany – an awakening.  Sometimes those awakenings are gradual.  But sometimes they come all at once and we wonder – "wow, why didn’t I see that before."

Most of my awakenings have been gradual, but I had one of those pivotal moments.  As I have shared with you all before, Decembers and Christmas time have sometimes been difficult for me.  For all practical purposes, my marriage of almost 30 years ended on Christmas Day in 1997.  But I am very grateful for that day too.  Because until then, I had been blinded by tradition, by my own image of myself, by family views, and quite frankly – by love.  I took my marriage vows very seriously and never thought that I would get a divorce.  Whatever it took – I would be there, no matter what.  But that Christmas was different.  I remember the spot where I was standing when I "woke up."  I was holding grandson JD who was almost a year old on my hip.  It was his very first Christmas.  My parents were there, and my sons John and Fred, and JD’s mom Michelle.  But my husband wasn’t there.  He had left the night before saying he was just too severely depressed to be with us.  I don’t need to go into details regarding why he was depressed, but his life was considerably troubled, especially because he was married to me but his love for me was gone.  It’s more complicated than that…but that description will suffice.  In any case, we were just continuing our marriage as we were supposed to do – and we were all depressed.  And it was Christmas.  My son – JD’s dad - was on the sofa in a fetal position.  I had my Santa hat on my head – trying to be joyful – but there was no joy.  Then... It just fell on me.  I woke up.  And for the first time in my life I realized that we didn’t have to live that way.  And I said it out loud. 

“You know what?  We don’t have to live this way.  We are going to get a divorce.” 

My marriage was already over – had been for about a decade -- and I felt like a fool for not being able to see it.  But I woke up that day.  It was a painful awakening.  But I'm so glad I was able to see more clearly.  Hallelujah!

So – because of that experience – I know this can happen.  I KNOW that we can be BLINDED – and just not SEE things as they are!  And I know that we can wake up.  So I have great appreciation for Buddhism. 

Now you heard the story of Siddhartha in our Time for All Ages – and you know that after lots of journeying, he finally woke up to some Truths that had been hard for him to see before then.  He called them the four Noble Truths.  Let me review them quickly for you.

1st – Ordinary Life brings about suffering.  Sh…. It happens.

2nd – The origin of suffering is attachment.
The joke goes – Why don’t Buddhists vacuum in the corners of their rooms?  The answer is they don’t have attachments. 
Now we know that attachments are necessary for survival.  If parents (humans and other mammals) didn’t become attached to their children, they would dessert them.  But some attachments are just unhealthy.  Even some that may have at one time good nurturing for us. 

The 3rd noble truth is --- the cessation of suffering is attainable.  Things can get better.

And 4th – there is an eightfold path to end the cessation of suffering.

Now this path is not linear --- sometimes you have to do two or three of these together, so perhaps path is not the best metaphor.  But it’s the one the Buddha used, so who am I to complain.

Here’s a graph that shows them in circles surrounding the Buddha.

Right View, Right Intentions, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Concentration, Right Mindfulness

Of course – Erk Russell boiled it down to one rule – Do Right!

These noble truths and paths to enlightenment are lifted up in all Buddhist traditions – but they do have lots of different ideas about these, just as there are many ideas about other religions and philosophies.  Rev. Doug Taylor explains it well.  He says:

In the Theravada Buddhist tradition, your affliction due to attachment and ignorance will successively be burned away through stages of enlightening experiences until the final stage when full enlightenment is achieved.  At this point Nirvana has been reached and the material “world of Forms ceases to arise.”  Which means a fully enlightened being will cease to exist from our perspective – and we will cease to ‘arise’ from their perspective.  Only a very few can achieve this state.  In this version of how it works, none of us here are ‘fully enlightened’ or anywhere close.

Mahayana Buddhism, on the other hand, is not interested in such a goal.  Or, more specifically, the goal is seen as unachievable until all sentient beings are ready and we can all transcend together.  However, the possibility of this being achieved by all sentient beings is, from our current perspective, so minimal that we can say this final goal is not really an attainable goal; therefore Mahayana Buddhism is not interested in such a goal.  Instead we say enlightenment is ongoing; there is no final point when someone can say, “I am fully enlightened.”  If you are enlightened, there will continue to be more breakthrough experiences because life is always evolving.  Or, as philosopher Ken Wilbur says, “In this sense, you are never ‘fully’ enlightened, anymore than you could say that you are ‘fully educated.’  It has no meaning.”  (Wilbur, Ken, A Brief History of Everything p216)

I can go along with that I think.  What I have a harder time going along with is any of the assertions of reincarnation or afterlife.  I’m not saying “it’s not so.”  I’m just saying – “I don’t know.”  I believe in life BEFORE death – and one is enough for me to work on. 

In any case, many of the values and ideals that we lift up as Unitarian Universalists – are good Buddhist ideals.  Of course Christians would say they are Christian ideals as well, and that they are.  But I think what we do not do in western religions very well – is the practice of letting go that Buddhism encourages.  We mainly suffer because we think that things are enduring – when things are really changing.   So how do we get to this state where we can see more realistically and let go.   

The best way to let go and really be able to take that first step of waking up is to do what the Buddha did – NOTHING.  He just sat down and did nothing.  And he attempted to think nothing as well. 

I came to understand this better while having trouble with using the internet.  If there are problems with my computer – or my modem – or my router – sometimes I just need to UNPLUG them – turn the power off – let them rest – then turn them on and allow them to RESET, so that they can allow me to see and connect. 

My brain is like that too – often with several programs running at once.  While I’m preaching this sermon, I’m listening out for the kids, and thinking about whether or not I’m wearing the best shoes for standing for a long time, etc. and noticing all kinds of things about all of you out there.  We know what happens to our computers when we are running to many programs.  Our brains are like that as well.  And sometimes we need to unplug.
 
Now I’m the first to confess that I am not a good meditator.  I’ve tried all kinds of things – even spending lots of money to go out to California and get trained by Deepak Chopra and get my own special mantra.  (Don’t bother.)  I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m one of those folks who needs a little help to allow my mind to slow down. 

Occasionally Greg has come into our bedroom and found me with the Catholic channel on listening to the nuns recite the rosary.  I don’t believe what they are saying.  But that repetition and drone helps me let that monkey mind go.  So does Buddhist monk chanting and meditation music.

There are some great tools on YouTube for this – and I thought I’d share one of my favorites today.  This includes monks chanting, bells chiming, and some music and nature sounds as well --- but it’s also woven into an enchanting meditation piece.  You can experience it with your eyes closed – or if you prefer, you can open them as be drawn in by the beautiful visuals of nature that are offered. 

So take deep breath.  Breathe in and out.  Place your feet on the floor for some grounding and for about several minutes – just be – just witness – just notice, your breath or the sounds – and just let go. 

Buddhist monk chanting meditation  (Yeah, you should really click this and do it.)

As we end this sermon time, I invite you to close join with me in another Buddhist ritual – sending loving kindness to ourselves and others.  First to ourselves – repeat after me.

May I be happy.
May I be healthy.
May I be safe.
May I have peace.

Now I invite you to think of someone who especially needs some loving kindness today.  And as you have them in mind – repeat these words after me.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be safe.
May you have peace.

Now let’s send loving kindness to this congregation gathered here today.  Repeat after me.
May we be happy.
May we be healthy.
May we be safe.
May we have peace.

And now – let us send loving kindness to the world.
May all beings be happy.
May all beings be healthy.
May all beings be safe.
May all beings have peace.

Namaste!

SKELETONS!

Skeletons (in our buildings, in our bodies, and in our closets)!
Rev. Jane Page
October 27, 2013

My Primary Sermon Series this year is entitled, “Building Our Church; Building Our Faith” – and I’m attempting to use the building metaphor – especially as it relates to OUR building renovation process – and tie it to our Unitarian Universalist faith – and/or our personal faith.  So – since this is the Sunday before Halloween, I decided it would be a good Sunday to look at Skeletons (in our buildings, in our bodies, and in our closets).

On November 10, we will caravan after a short service here to our new building to “claim our space” there.  And what you will be able to see when you walk into that big empty space is the SKELETON of our building.  You won’t be able to see it later when we cover it up with walls, but you WILL be able to see it then.  Now we are fortunate in that we have a STURDY skeleton.  In fact, our building skeleton is made of STEEL. The skeleton (or steel frame) provides the framework for keeping this building up right and in shape.  Just as the skeletons in our bodies do for us
.
Actually the skeletons in our bodies do more than just provide us structure.  According to my sources, there are six primary functions of our skeletons:  support, movement, protection, production of blood cells, storage of ions and endocrine regulation.  Our Skeletons are super-important.  And if you’ve ever broken a bone, or had some skeletal problem, you know this!  Then why are skeletons scary!
Well, of course, skeletons represent death.  Because when we die, our bodies return to dust leaving nothing but the skeleton.

The most famous use of skeletons to scare folks were the Jolly Roger flags pirates used to scare their victim ships, hoping when folks saw these they would go ahead and surrender everything.  If they did not, they next would put up a blood red flag that meant that all would die.
Here are some other scary skeletons. 
 But not all images of skeletons are scary.  The skeleton images used in Latino Day of the Dead celebrations are quite happy.  You’ll hear more about the Day of the Dead next week – but I’ll share a few of the images with you now.
 

Why is there a difference in these images with other more traditional scary images?   Well, I suppose it has to do with how we all VIEW death.  And the Mexican view of death seems to be a whole lot happier!

Then what about that common phrase “Skeletons in the Closet.”  What’s that about?  It was first used in England.  Then when they started having water closets in the houses, they changed it to Skeleton in the Cupboard.  We still say “Skeletons in the Closet” here.  In any case, it implies that you are hiding dead bodies that you don’t want folks to find out about.  And it has come to represent anything in a family or group that you keep hidden.

Since we Unitarian Universalists are folks who more likely like to COME OUT of closets – or at least curious enough to explore them, I decided I’d take a look in our famous Unitarian Universalists and see what’s in the[JP1]ir closets and share that with you today.  Because, yes, we have some skeletons in our UU closet!


Now we are very proud to have some of the founding fathers claim Unitarian as their theology.  And they did some great things that we can be proud of.  Here’s one of them.  This is John Adams, second president of the United States.  And here is his wife Abigail, also claimed by the Unitarian Universalists.  Indeed, they held both Unitarian and Universalist ideas.  Some have called them the grandparents of our country for the many, many good things they did for this young democracy.  But that is not what this sermon is about.  What we don’t lift up about Adams is his support of the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798.

At the time, America was threatened by war with France, and Congress was attempting to pass laws that would give more authority to the federal government, and the president in particular, to deal with suspicious persons, especially foreign nationals.  So disgusted was Jefferson with Adams' enthusiastic support of the Naturalization law that he could no longer support the president and left Washington during the Congressional vote.  The first three of these acts were more related to aliens – strengthening citizenship requirements and making it easier for the administration to deport folks. There was much opposition to those, but the 4th act – the sedition act – was the one that really got him into trouble.  And the outcry reminds me of those who now feel their rights are being abused in the name of security.  This Sedition act gave Adams tremendous power to define treasonable activity including any false, scandalous and malicious writing. The intended targets of the Sedition Act were newspaper, pamphlet and broadside publishers who printed what he considered to be libelous articles aimed primarily at his administration. And many were arrested, including Benjamin Franklin’s grandson. Citing Adams' abuse of presidential powers and threats to free speech, Jefferson's party took control of Congress and the presidency in 1800.

So we say – YAY to Thomas Jefferson for standing up for our rights – right?  Well we do applaud Thomas Jefferson for many great things that he did.  Because of his Unitarian sympathies and theology, we claim Thomas Jefferson as a Unitarian and include him in the “Famous Unitarians and Universalists” on the UUA web page.  And our UUA district was even named the Thomas Jefferson District before finally being changed in recent years, after considerable struggle, to the Southeast District.  After lauding his grand contributions, the UUA page devoted to him ends with this paragraph outing the skeletons from the closet.

Thomas Jefferson's genius is everywhere apparent in his thirst for and his comprehension of the best enlightened philosophy, history, science, political theory, agriculture and religion of his age. Tragically, he failed utterly to engage, in any substantively practical way whatsoever, the massive realities of American racial oppression and injustice. Jefferson's writings display deep reservations as well as moral anguish concerning Negro slavery; yet he never freed his own slaves. Much attention, in Jefferson's time and in ours, has focused on his …relations with his …slave, Sally Hemings, the …half-sister of his wife. There is now compelling DNA evidence that Jefferson was the father of at least one of Hemings' children. He did free two of Hemings' children in his will and Hemings was given her freedom shortly thereafter. But millions of African Americans have had to suffer many more decades of cruel economic slavery, even after legal slavery was ended in the 1860s, because of the common, absurd notion, which Thomas Jefferson shared and only mildly questioned, that the "dark" races were inferior to the "white." Moreover, Jefferson's presidential removal policies proved horribly destructive to Native Americans. They set the pattern for the Bill for Indian Removal, signed by President Jackson in 1830, whose cruel enforcement resulted in the Trail of Tears of 1838-39 and other atrocities. Jefferson's prophetic advancement of human liberty is deeply tainted by his shameful legacy in matters of race.

South Carolinian Senator John C. Calhoun was a Unitarian and co-founder of All Souls Unitarian in Washington, DC. He was a leading American politician and political theorist during the first half of the 19th century.   He began his political career as a modernizer and he was a proponent of a strong national government. In fact, in 1957, a Senate Committee selected Calhoun as one of the five greatest U.S. Senators.

But here’s the skeleton – quoted from Wikipedia:
After 1830, his views evolved and he became a greater proponent of states' rights, limited government, nullification and free trade; as he saw these means as the only way to preserve the Union. He is best known for his intense and original defense of slavery as something positive, his distrust of majoritarianism, and for pointing the South toward secession from the Union.  And yes, he himself was a slave owner.  Whereas other Southern politicians had excused slavery as a necessary evil, in a famous speech on the Senate floor on February 6, 1837, Calhoun asserted that slavery was a "positive good." He rooted this claim on two grounds: white supremacy and paternalism. All societies, Calhoun claimed, are ruled by an elite group which enjoys the fruits of the labor of a less-privileged group.

Also, my friend and colleague Rev. Gordon Gibson pointed out this conundrum to me.  He said, “We can be proud that when the Amistad case was argued before the Supreme Court the men and women who had liberated themselves and taken control of the ship were represented by Unitarian John Quincy Adams; but we also need to own that opposing counsel was John C. Calhoun, also Unitarian.”

Well, enough of politicians! There are others like Millard Fillmore (who passed the fugitive slave act) and William Howard Taft, who frustrated some Unitarians when he served as the association’s president; – but we’ll leave them and their skeletons alone for now.

What about other figures we brag about?
Well, there’s the famous architect and Unitarian - Frank Lloyd Wright, who even designed some of our churches.  In addition to some unscrupulous business dealings, Wright abandoned his family and ran off to Europe with a women who was married to another man.

And there’s the popular showman, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and Universalist P.T. Barnum.  Barnum was credited with the phrase, “there’s a sucker born every minute,” and he used that understanding in his business and entertainment practices.  He rationalized that he used fraud and deceit as a way of getting attention – then gave folks the entertainment they desired.  One of his hoaxes was Tom Thumb, who traveled through Europe with him as a “little man.”  It was actually a little kid – that began his career at age four – and was taught how to act like a man, even smoking cigars and drinking.  Here’s a picture of the two together.

And what about the women?  Weren’t there Unitarian or Universalist women with skeletons in their closets?  Oh yes, and there still are—of course.  You can read my sermon on Julia Ward Howe to uncover some of hers.  But today I’d like to tell you about Lydia Pinkham, who began as a Quaker but became a Universalist.

You may not have heard of Lydia Pinkham but in the 1880’s, she was one of the most famous women in America.  Lydia Pinkham was a household name because she sold her famous vegetable tonic, a home brewed herbal remedy for female problems, under the name.  The elixir promised to cure every womanly ailment possible including infertility.  Advertisements claimed there was “a baby in every bottle.”  And some men took it for ailments too.  Lydia’s skeleton was uncovered, however, when the Food and Drug act had them reveal the ingredients and 20% of the tonic was alcohol.

SO – someone wrote a drinking song about her – and the Ballad of Lydia Pinkham became famous in the taverns.  I’ve got the chorus on the wall – and you can sing it with me when you catch on.

Ballad of Lydia Pinkham

Let us sing (let us sing) of Lydia Pinkham
   The benefactress of the human race.
She invented a vegetable compound,
   And now all papers print her face,

Mrs. Jones she had no children,
   And she loved them very dear.
So she took three bottles of Pinkham's
   Now she has twins every year.

Lottie Smyth ne'er had a lover,
   Blotchy pimples caused her plight;
But she took nine bottles of Pinkham's--
   Sweethearts swarm about her each night.

CHORUS

Oh Mrs. Murphy (Oh Mrs. Murphy)
     Was perturbed because she couldn't seem to pee
Till she took some of Lydia's compound
     And now they run a pipeline to the sea!

And Peter Whelan (Peter Whelan)
     He was sad because he only had one nut
Till he took some of Lydia's compound
     And now they grow in clusters 'round his butt.

CHORUS.

Well, enough of those so-called famous UUs.  What about US?  Do any of you have skeletons in your closet – things you are kind of ashamed of or don’t want folks to know?  Well, I hope so – or otherwise you may just not quality to BE a Unitarian Universalist!

I recently sent you all an article by my colleague Rev. Tony Larsen entitled, “Why You Should Not be a Unitarian Universalist.”  Did you read it?  Well, I’m going to close out this sermon by quoting Larsen in this article – because I think it speaks to the acceptance of the skeletons we have in our closets.  He says:

My friends, not everyone can be a Unitarian Universalist. Not everyone should be a Unitarian Universalist. Because the first criterion for getting into this church is: you've got to know how to sin. That's very important to us; and not everyone knows how to do it. We don't want people here who never do wicked things. We don't want people here who are holier than thee or thou. We don't want people who have made it in the salvation department and are just waiting around to get picked up. Because people with too much heaven in them are hell to live with. 

Now don't get me wrong. If there were any perfect human beings around, we might let them in. But since there aren't any, anyone who claims he/she doesn't do wicked things is either trying to fool others, or trying to fool themselves. It is the nature of the human to be evil as well as good. And you should not be a Unitarian Universalist if you're not willing to admit that about yourself.
As a matter of fact, recognition of your evil has great power for mobilizing compassion. I say that from my experience in counselling. Some of the best therapists are the ones who know how to sin a little - maybe a lot. They're more tolerant of the human condition. They react with compassion rather than self-righteousness, with understanding instead of judgement. 

Now, if you think you're too good - you won't like it here at UU.  But with a little bit of hypocrisy and selfishness and deceit, you'll do fine. We're not asking you to try to develop those qualities, because you don't need to. Each and everyone of you already has them. We're just asking you to recognize them in yourself. It'll do wonders for your tolerance of others' foibles.

So folks – look in your closets, examine the skeletons in there, and tell them how much you appreciate them keeping you humble.  And I’ll do the same.

Amen and Blessed Be.

Tearing Down Walls

I’m not someone who gets excited about tearing things down.  I like to build up – not tear down.  And once something is there – I like to preserve it.  Maybe that’s just part of human nature.  But sometimes it’s not in the best interest of all. 

I was so excited when the congregation voted to accept the gift of the building on the corner of Cypress Lake Rd and the by-pass to renovate for our new home.  And I’m still very excited.  But I’ve had to overcome a little uncomfortableness along the way – and it’s related to our topic for today – tearing down walls.  You see there are some interior walls on the south end of the building where the office area was separating three rooms, a storage area and a bathroom.  In my own mind, I had envisioned that perhaps we could USE these rooms for RE space.  But while planning with the Building Committee, others pointed out the need to have the sanctuary meeting space on that end of the building – and Matt even pointed out that the spacing with the walls wasn’t best for our purposes even if the RE classes were on this side.  I knew they were right.  For us to best utilize that space for worship and teaching and other aspects of our mission, those walls would need to be demolished. 

What I did not admit to the building committee – or even to myself – was that my initial hesitancy about tearing down the walls was probably more related to my personal history of having been involved with putting them up in the first place when we built that building with the hopes of my son having a successful body shop business there.  All those shelves back in that storage area,… I put them up myself.  But that dream died.  Fortunately, there is new life and purpose for that building, and those walls WILL come down. 

The theme for this series of sermons is “Building Our Church; Building Our Faith.”   And sometimes, that does require tearing down walls. 

Now I’m not hesitant about tearing down all walls.  I love tearing some down.  We Unitarian Universalists have worked on removing walls for decades – especially those that unnecessarily divide us and lead to oppression – all those ism walls:  racism, sexism, classism, and also phobia walls, built with bricks of FEAR: xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, Islamaphobia, and on and on…  Yes, all those walls that prevent folks from honoring that first principle of respecting the inherent worth and dignity of all.  And we celebrate the success we’ve had working with others to knock down some of these walls today.  Many of you are wearing Rainbow colors in honor of 25 years of National Coming Out Days.   Brick by brick we are tearing down those walls and we will continue to do so.  I don’t have the same kind of hesitancy about tearing down those walls that are clearly obstructing a loving future. 

But there are others that bring that same feeling of hesitancy to me that I felt about tearing the walls down in our building.  That’s the same feeling of hesitancy I had when I first heard of some new ideas about the future of Unitarian Universalism proposed by our current president Peter Morales.  Now – you know, we have congregational polity.  And just because our president says something – doesn’t mean it’s so.  But we did democratically elect him, so I thought I should listen to what he had to say.  Let me share a little about this vision he has for Unitarian Universalism.   

It starts with a look at the rapid change in our religious culture as discussed in a sermon he preached called “Breaking Down the Walls.”  Peter is just a little older than me so I can also relate to much of this.  He says:
"When I went off to college in the 1960s, only five percent of young adults said they had no religious identity. In other words, 19 out of 20 young adults at least claimed some religious label. By the year 2000, the number who said they had no religious affiliation had grown from five percent to 12 percent—from one in 20 to one in eight. That is significant, but nothing compared to what has happened since. The number of the “nones” (in this age category) has jumped to more than 30 percent today. The “nones” are, by a large margin, the fastest growing religion in America.… Make no mistake, this is a sea change in our culture."

Here’s more specific information I found from the Pew foundation.

The number of Americans who do not identify with any religion continues to grow at a rapid pace. One-fifth of the U.S. public – and a third of adults under 30 – are religiously unaffiliated today, the highest percentages ever in Pew Research Center polling.

In the last five years alone, the unaffiliated have increased from just over 15% to just under 20% of all U.S. adults. Their ranks now include more than 13 million self-described atheists and agnostics (nearly 6% of the U.S. public), as well as nearly 33 million people who say they have no particular religious affiliation (14%).

Now Peter, with the help of some others, did a little research on these Nones to find out who they were.  And this is what they discovered: 

While the tens of millions of nones are skeptical of religious institutions, they are not hostile to spirituality. All kinds of surveys show that nones often describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious.” They want depth and meaning in their lives. They want to connect with ideals that transcend their narrow lives in service of something beyond the banality of consumer culture. In addition, the nones are open minded. They accept glbt people without a second thought. Marriage equality is no big deal.

The nones are also accepting of racial and ethnic diversity. They grew up among immigrants. And the nones are also accepting of cultural and religious diversity. They have no patience for a perspective that says one religion has all the truth and is the one and only way.

And the nones care about economic justice and the environment. We see their involvement in such things as the Occupy Wall Street movement. They care about issues like global warming and sustainability.

Who do they remind you of?

US!  They are US – but they are not here.  My initial thoughts are:  Well, let’s bring them in.  And we may be successful with some of them – but others aren’t coming here. And these nones are in addition to approximately 500,000 folks who IDENTIFY as UU’s but who are not affiliated with any congregation. All of these folks “out there” – beyond our walls – are like the WOLVES in our children’s story.  They may be starving for spiritual nourishment, but they will not come in our walls for fear of losing their freedom.  So what do we do to harness our resources with their resources and ideas to make a positive difference in the world and nourish one another spiritually?   

That’s what prompted Morales and others to take another look at the walls we have in our congregations – and encourage us to take some of them down or at least lower them.  These ideas are outlined in a document entitled “Congregations and Beyond.”  In this document Morales makes it clear that he still considers the congregation to be the base for what we do.  But to be effective today, we Unitarian Universalists need to move beyond our congregations.

The main gist of this is how we view ourselves.  We have long defined ourselves as an association of congregations. Morales says that instead – “we need to think of ourselves as a religious movement. The difference is potentially huge.”

Associations and institutions are just not sexy enough I guess.  Here’s an example of something that happened to Morales that probably affected his reasoning on this. 

A couple of years ago, hundreds of Unitarian Universalists, all wearing their bold yellow “Standing on the Side of Love” t-shirts, joined in a huge protest of immigration policies in Arizona while they were at the Justice GA in Phoenix.  Morales said that the news media were there in full force. His assistant was trying to get him interviewed on television by asking if they wanted to interview the president of the Unitarian Universalist Association – but before she could get “association” out of her mouth – they were gone.  Then she had an inspiration and asked the CNN reporter if he’d like to interview the leader of the Yellow Love shirts --- and Morales was on live at the top of the hour. 

I’ve also found in many of the things I’m doing with others in Statesboro – that I can often get a WHOLE lot more done, if I’m willing for some larger movement to get the credit – rather that highlight my own church.  Now I’m still evangelizing for Unitarian Universalism – but I’m just sayin’…  Sometimes, you have to let that go and just flow for goodness sake. 

According to this “Congregations and Beyond” document, the implications of thinking of ourselves as a religious movement rather than only a collection of congregations are profound and liberating. Here is a few of the ways:

* We focus more on connection and less on “membership.” Paying attention to who our ministry serves, how many lives we change, and the difference we are making in the world can help us redirect our efforts outward.

* We invite people to connect to our UU movement whether or not they choose to join a congregation. We can reach out to young adults, students, snow birds, people living in foreign countries, linguistic and ethnic minorities, etc. They can all be part of the UU movement.
 
* We continue our efforts to connect with UU college students. We would make clear that they are still a part of our movement.

* We have a good way of taking in people through such portals as Standing on the Side of Love.

Now one reason I’m feeling better about this document and idea of lowering our walls is that our congregation is already doing it.  That really became evident to me as we prepared our chalice lighter grant.  Our Chalice Lighter Coordinator, Leon Spencer, suggested that we include a visual that showed our “footprint” – how we connected with others outside our own congregation.  Here’s the visual he came up with after getting input from committee members.

These are groups outside our congregation that we have worked with in the past or that we continue to connect with in many ways.  Indeed, we have lowered our walls at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Statesboro. 

We plan to be part of the bigger community this month by sharing our values in the upcoming Ogeechee Fair Parade – with our theme of growing our values. And we’ll also be sharing at the community Trick or Treat at Mill Creek on October 31. Of course our children will Trick or Treat for UNICEF on October 27 and we’ll pass on our gifts to the international community.   Yes, we’ll partner with Magnolia Baptist Church in Feeding loads of hungry folks on October 15 – that’s this Tuesday folks.  Your minister has also been invited for the very first time to take part in the Community Thanksgiving Service and she has enabled them to move it from the “main street churches” to the Averitt Center, so that it will truly be a community service.  We also plan to work with Voces Unidas in having another wonderful celebration of Las Posadas in early December. And we’ll work with the pagan community in the celebration of the solstice.  We’ve set up a “pagans in the boro” Facebook page for these folks to use to connect and make their planning easier.  Additionally we have a virtual study group that is open to all called the Statesboro New Jim Crow Study Group on Facebook.  Just this month alone, I’ll be representing you as your minister at two Georgia Southern events – presenting there at an LGBTQ conference and on a panel.  Plus – our virtual outreach is wider than you think.  Our “Just Jane” blog which has my sermons and other postings has had almost 23,000 pages viewed by folks from all over the world.  We HAVE moved beyond the walls are widening our outreach-- and if you are not doing it with us, we encourage you to get involved. 

Help us tear down any walls that are hindering us so that we can heal and nurture our congregation, our community, and the world. 

Oh, may it be so.