“There was once a Zen Buddhist Monk,” writes my colleague Jack Bryant, “who was renowned for his wisdom and learning. He lived in a monastery and students came from far away to study under his guidance. Because of his many visitors, the monastery had appointed another member of their community to be the monk's assistant. One day the assistant went to the monk and announced that a visitor had arrived. The monk instructed his assistant to bring the visitor to him. The assistant did as instructed and introduced the visitor. The monk asked his visitor to sit down and when he had done so, asked the visitor, "Have we ever met before?" The visitor said, "No." The monk said, "Come, let us drink some tea together," and they did. The next day the assistant went to the monk and announced that another visitor had arrived. Again, the monk instructed his assistant to bring the visitor to him. The assistant did as instructed and introduced the visitor. The monk asked his visitor to sit down and when he had done so, asked the visitor, "Have we ever met before?" The visitor said, "Yes." The monk said, "Come, let us drink some tea together," and they did. After the second visitor had left, the assistant went to the monk. "Master," he said, "I do not understand you. You have had two visitors. I heard your question and their answers. One of them understands everything there is to know about Zen. The other is completely ignorant ‑ he knows nothing. Yet you offered to drink tea with both of them. I do not understand." The monk said, "Come, let us drink some tea together," and they did.
Jack explains, “The meaning is clearer than most Zen stories. Tea is a metaphor for life. The monk is teaching his assistant that he should not be afraid to share life with people just because they are different.” I would push us even further and say that it is clear that we should want to share life with people precisely because they are different – for therein lies the richness that we seek in our spiritual lives.
We live in a religiously diverse country; opportunities for spiritual enrichment abound for those who have the courage and the humility to immerse ourselves in our vibrant religious landscape. This diversity in America is partly a reflection of globalization; religious diversity is almost everywhere these days. But it is also due to our unique history, to the fact that freedom of religion was written into our founding documents. America has always been a place where religious minorities have fled persecution, it has proved been fertile ground for many of these groups, allowing them to flower into full-fledged religions. In fact, Unitarian Universalism is one of those. Here we have flourished; we are evidence of the fulfillment of the American promise of religious freedom.
In recent decades, increases in immigration have also contributed to the religious diversity, taking the American religious landscape farther and farther away from our Pilgrim roots. To look at the way immigrants have changed the make-up of American religion is to remember that our history has too often been a story of legal tolerance and de facto intolerance. Incidents of religious bigotry and violence against religious minorities are commonplace both past and present. After the September 11th terrorist attacks Sikhs in turbans where beaten and threatened. The anger and fear of some Americans, combined with complete ignorance of the other world religions, led to some very unfortunate behavior.
It is not surprising that as diversity increases, so do intolerance and bigotry. We human beings tend to be afraid of change and difference. Our response to being confronted with a confusing world that we don’t understand is to try to make it smaller again. The move to make us a Christian country again, for example. The look back at the ‘good old days’ is always an inaccurate view, harkening back to a time that never was as simple as described. You could argue that the tendency to want to simplify is built into the formative stories of Judeo-Christian culture. What, after all, is the moral of the story of the tower of Babel? That diverse tongues and cultures are a punishment for a disobedient people.
So what does this have to do with us at South Church in Portsmouth, New Hampshire? As I said, our movement has been a beneficiary of the American commitment to religious freedom. If you learn our history, you will know that we have, in other times and places, been subject to disdain and repression and torture and death. Yet we found a safe harbor here, a place where we could flourish. Does this not obligate us to do the same for others? To affirm the inherent worth and dignity means that we are called by our most basic principles to defend the rights of religious minorities. And the best way to do that is to join with practitioners of other faiths to offer a unified voice of reason and tolerance as the debate about religious diversity rages on in this country.
A decade ago, when the culture wars were just heating up, your General Assembly delegates passed a resolution calling on Unitarian Universalists to build religious tolerance through more effective interfaith cooperation. The language of the resolution called it ‘our interfaith mission.’ It has not been easy an easy mission to fulfill. UU’s are too often hesitant to engage in really effective interfaith work. I observe two things about us that make it difficult; two characteristics that almost contradict each other.
The first is that we have an unfortunate tendency towards spiritual arrogance. We secretly think that we are smarter, more enlightened, and more spiritually evolved than other religions. This makes it hard to have a real conversation. The second, ironically, is that we have a deep sense of insecurity about our faith, and an astounding inability to articulate the core of our faith in interfaith settings. Getting out into the interfaith world would actually help us with both of these problems. We would find ourselves in conversations with religiously literate neighbors who would push us to clarity, challenge some of our dearly held assumptions, and when necessary shake up our smugness. We would learn so much about ourselves from our engagement with others! We would be forced to articulate UU values and principles in ways that strangers to our faith could understand. We would find common ground, grow in spirit and effectiveness, and expand our horizons. “Come,” said the GA delegates a decade ago, “let us drink some tea together.”
How to begin? We could start by dismantling some of the fallacies that prevent us from really getting out there and being effective. The first is that we have nothing in common with other religions, and there would just be awkwardness and discomfort. Several years ago, I was invited to speak at an adult education class at the Haymarket Baptist church in Haymarket, Virginia. This was a class on Baptist identity, and the group had decided that one way to strengthen their own identity was to develop a better understanding of neighboring faiths. Are you already feeling like some of your stereotypes are being challenged? They invited a Rabbi one week, me the next, then a Catholic priest. I started my presentation by talking about what we had in common – and it was not a short talk! I reminded them of our common cradle in the Radical Reformation. We were both among the so-called extremists who insisted that faith was voluntary; that every adult should be able to make an informed choice about religious affiliation. From that belief in adult choice came our shared belief that religion must be free of coercion, particularly from the government. Those who called first for the separation of church and state – they were the Baptists and the Unitarians. Today we still share that commitment to religious freedom with our Baptist brothers and sisters. Whenever the wall of separation between church and state is breached, the UU’s and the Baptists are the first in line to repair the breach.
I also reminded them that we hold in common a commitment to congregational polity. Sociologist Robert Bellah, in speaking to us at a General Assembly, gently prodded us to recognize that although today we find many Baptist resolutions unacceptable – the one about women being in graceful submission in marriage comes to mind– those resolutions are not binding on any individual or congregation. Just like in Unitarian Universalism, no Baptist can be forced to follow any of the resolutions their assemblies pass, just as nobody here is required to follow the resolutions that our General Assembly passes. UU’s and Baptists both recognize the local congregation as the only legitimate unit of decision making power in our religious movements. When my Baptist colleague asked me to speak to his class, he was saying to me, “Come, let us drink some tea together.” It was an enlightening evening for all of us.
I guarantee you that I could write a similar speech about almost any religious group that invited me to drink tea with them. The common ground is there – in history, in polity, in ethical principles, in concern for the natural order and for the needs of human beings. Robert Bellah also told us something else about ourselves in that speech that I found quite startling: he told us that we are not all that different from other Protestant groups in America. He reminded us that all the religious groups that first came to America were dissenters from the established order, radicals, renegades, people who didn’t want to be told what to do or think or believe. We are different, but we are not so special and unique that we require all kinds of special handling. We are all more human than otherwise, as my colleague Dick Gilbert is fond of saying.
Another fallacy that holds us back is the belief that there are so many religions out there now, and so many sects, it is just too hard to understand them all. If we don’t understand them, we can’t have a decent conversation with them, and we will end up sounding ignorant or disrespectful – making inadvertent errors that could be insulting or worse. It is true that the religious landscape is very confusing these days. It is true that genuine dialog requires some knowledge and preparation. But remember that one of the normative sources for our own faith is “Wisdom from the world’s religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life.” Last year our Covenant Groups spent the year tapping into the various wells we identify as the sources of our faith. They came back this year with the suggestion that some of their sessions focus more specifically on those other faiths; that the groups be given the opportunity to plumb the religions of the world for inspiration and wisdom. Our Junior Youth Group will be involved in a similar set of explorations using the Neighboring Faiths curriculum. I’m kind of hoping that members of the Covenant Groups will find a way to join the Junior Youth on their field trips; visits to the houses of worship of other faiths. Reading and thinking and talking about other religions is one thing, but to worship with people faith shows a profound respect and takes your interfaith understanding to a whole ‘nother level.
The third fallacy that keeps us from fulfilling our interfaith mission is the one that I find the most frustrating. It is the mistaken belief that Unitarian Universalism is just too hard to talk about. If we are hesitant to talk openly about our faith, we may be misunderstood as some kind of secret society, a cult even. These are serious misunderstandings; in fact they are so much the opposite of what we aspire to that I cringe when I hear people dismiss us as such. It really is incumbent on all of us to develop our own personal short-hand description of our faith. Personalized, for sure, but still capturing the core of what we hold in common. A credo.
This following credo statement was published in the UU World about twenty years ago. It is one of those things that I keep going back to, though the original is now so tattered that I have lost the name of the author. Just listen to one person’s attempt to state UU beliefs in positive language. “I believe in God, the God within us all who moves us to act with love, compassion, and kindness, even when we don't feel like it. I believe in grace, for although I may not know exactly what grace is, or where it comes from, I know that my life is full of gifts, gifts not of my own making. I believe in the gospel, that is, the good news that our liberal religion offers us the freedom to seek our own spiritual paths. I believe that I can be born again, every day if necessary, for each day is truly a new beginning. I believe that how we behave is as important as what we believe. I believe in the power of witness, that we all are called to affirm the dignity and worth of every human being in a world that is often intolerant, unfair, and even cruel. I believe in the redeeming power of human love and laughter, especially laughter. And I believe that each day is the day we are given. May we be glad and rejoice in it.”
You too could craft a statement like that if you put your mind and heart to it. Once upon a time of group of people at South Church decided that they wanted to become more intentional about their faith – both their personal spiritual journeys and their understanding of and practice of Unitarian Universalism. They gathered in small groups, promised each other that they would be faithful in attendance, careful in listening, and respectful in speech. Year after year they come back and reform their groups, they practice their shared ministry together, they learn and grow and laugh and cry and support one another. Today the Covenant Group Ministry committee invites you to register for this year’s program. They will be downstairs during social hour, with all kinds of specifics and logistical answers. Hear their invitation for what it is. They are saying to you, “Come, let us drink some tea together.”