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Some of my thoughts on religion [1]

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Date: 2023-12-28  

I’ve been around religion my entire life. As a child my parents (and mostly my mom) had us join whichever local church we felt most comfortable in for whichever reason. As we moved around a bunch I was exposed to a variety of Christian denominations.

The Sturbridge Chair

My first church was the Federated Church of Sturbridge, MA. It was formed in 1922 with the merger of the Congregational Church (of Sturbridge, 1736), the Baptist Church of Fiskdale (1747) and the Unitarian Church (1864). Today it is in fellowship with the United Church of Christ, the Unitarian Universalists, and the American Baptist Church. Some of you make freak out at the Baptist or Christ in the title of those denominations. It is not Southern Baptist or anything conservative. All three denominations would fall into the Liberal religious category and the Unitarian Universalists are comprised of a significant percentage of Atheists (I don’t have the latest census, but in the ballpark of 10-30%, but don’t quote me).

This first church of mine wasn’t exactly foundational as my family moved out of town when I was 5. One of my three primary memories are walking up to the front for the children’s story. Another memory is of my being at the top of the stairs to the meeting hall below watching my mom rush by downstairs in intense grief. She had just learned her father had died in Jamestown, NY. We moved to Jamestown to be with the rest of the family the next year.

The Public House Stencil. I miss you dad.

The final memory is of the Church auction where members of the church who had bought old broken chairs (from the 1700s and 1800s) and had repaired and refinished them auctioned them off as a fundraiser. My father loved that auction. His first ever refinished chair was up for auction and wasn’t fetching a high price, so he started bidding to try and up the price and ended up buying his own chair back. He also created the Public House stencil. Every year there is one chair refurnished and has the Sturbridge Stencil added to it. My dad created the Public House stencil and the same honor of one per year was bestowed on it as well.

This focus on “non religious” thoughts on a piece supposedly about religious thoughts may seem incongruous. However, for myself, and I guess a fair number of others, Church is first and foremost about the community and the memories. At a latter church I remember every Sunday talking to one of the ushers in the back of the church just before service started and we would share jokes. That was the entirety of our relationship, sharing jokes. But it was special to me, in part because it was the closest my 8 year old self was to having a friendship with an adult. Sure I would have listened to him (or not) as I would any other adult if he interacted with me in that way. But he never pulled the adult card and we enjoyed sharing jokes. I can’t think of any other place as a child where I came close to having that with another adult.

I’ll spare you all the moves and series of churches, but by the time I was in middle school we joined Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Buffalo, NY. And there I took Lutheran Confirmation Class where I was confirmed publicly to be a Lutheran and confirmed privately to myself that I wasn’t even Christian. I continued going to church, including lots of participation in the youth program and being an acolyte. Rev. Charlie Bang (“Bang Bang”) was the minister and a sweet person. I sang in the choir directed by Jimmy Bingham when they did large performances in conjunction with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra such as Handel’s Messiah and Mendelssohn’s Elijah. I didn’t agree with the theology but they were good people (for the most part) doing good things and I loved them.

Eventually I came across Unitarian Universalism (again, having forgotten entirely that I was one when I was 5). Unitarian Universalism is a lot of things. It originated from the Unitarian and Universalist Churches in the New England and Mid Atlantic states. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau are two famous Unitarians. Many of the abolitionists in New England were Unitarians including Theodore Parker. Rev Parker was known for having a gun handy should slave catchers attempt to search the premises for folks moving north on the Underground Railroad. He’s also wrote:

I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.

Rev. Dr. King Jr. later cleaned it up into the quote most folks know today. Much less well known outside of Unitarian circles is Parker’s sermon “A Discourse on the Transient and Permanent in Christianity”. In it he critiques traditional Christianity as not based on the truth. Specifically, he saw the value of the teachings of Jesus but rejected the miracles and revelation. He pointed out the many contradictions in the Bible and viewed Jesus as teacher, but not divine. Ralph Waldo Emerson had earlier left the ministry based on similar beliefs.

These critical takes on Christianity were not unique. Many liberal theologians in this era and later were critically examining the Bible and challenging traditional views of it. I would attempt to sum it all up but it would simpler for you all to just got to a liberal Div School. Essentially, if you have a critique of Christianity ones of these folks probably beat you to it. And of course as people came up with a variety of responses each more or less convincing based on the audience.

I’ve drifted away from Unitarian Universalism. In this case not because of the theology, but because of rampant liberal elitism, post-Christian hegemony baked into the system, and systemic anti-semitism (of the type of anti-semitism seen in other liberal organizations). So I didn’t leave because of the theology, I left because of oppressive systems in the organizational structure which had little to do with the actual theology. The actual theology is that each individual has a right to their own responsible search for truth and meaning.

The word responsible does some heavy lifting in that sentence. It’s not license to believe whatever you want to. A belief that god wants you to kill someone is not responsible. Hedonism walks a very fine line as well and can easily stray into the irresponsible. Who gets to define what’s responsible? Good question. If the thoughts are never shared, then only the person who has them. So to be truly responsible you need to share your thoughts with the community. There is no formal means to do this within UUism, it’s left up to the individuals to build any structure if they wish. Some churches have classes which help people examine their own personal theology. But to share people are required to have a level of respect for other people’s beliefs (which is frequently lacking online). It is a delicate dance to share one’s own beliefs and risk the ridicule of others. It can be tricky to stay respectful when confronted with an idea you disagree with. And yet, I’ve never seen in person a UU ridicule another theology. I’ve seen many disagreements, but always a respect for the thought another person had put into their own ideas.

So where am I now? I believe that a new philosophy, or tradition, or religion needs to be made. I hate using any of those words because so much baggage is wrapped up in them. But I recognize a need for people to have a communal home for those emotional needs mostly focused around meaning making in a world unlike any we have encountered in the past. A great deal of this movement (in my mind) would be based on Unitarian Universalism and Philosophical Buddhism, plus some Taoism for good measure. Too many people get sidetracked by thousand year old texts missing the salient points of the texts. We need new texts (which are certainly informed by the past) but leave as much baggage behind as possible. It’s not that I don’t appreciate the old texts, there is much wisdom in them and are fantastic for those people who know how to use them wisely.

With climate change posing a real existential threat to our world, we need new thought and guidance on how to deal with it. And it all needs to be distilled for a general audience. One of UUisms challenges is that it is too open with too little guidance for those seeking help and direction who lack the time or desire to create everything for themselves from scratch. We need a cliff notes guide of what to believe and yet make it clear that is merely a starting place and may not be correct for all people.

When I taught World Religion at Radford University I had many students who wanted to know about different paths and whether they were good or not. It’s a tricky question for a teacher who can’t take sides when teaching. So I would often direct students to focus their own discovery looking at the impact the religion had on both the adherents and on other people. Was it oppressive to the individual? Did it oppress others? Did it help people be responsible citizens? And I would encourage them to explore that on their own. It was a delicate dance as I had many conservative students. I would always warn the students at the start of the semester that “I am that professor your parents warned you about”. I did not hide my personal liberalism, but I also couldn’t push an agenda other that learning about other people’s religions.

Oh you wanted my thoughts on God? It’s honestly not an important question for me personally. I really don’t care whether you believe in god or not, and my own belief has little meaning outside my own head. It’s not about who is right. It’s about what sort of world are we making and how to help each individual in it become the best version of themselves in a responsible manner.

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