Dogma

This morning I thought I’d google “Peter Morales UUA,” just to see whether anyone had noticed that we have a new president.  Not many had, but there is a blogger, Robin Edgar , who had been following the campaign and has kept on top of things that have happened since Peter’s election.  He wrote of repeatedly trying to get clear answers to questions from candidates and decries the “establishment.”  I must admit, I find that these are usually hallmark arguments of what many would call an “ax-grinder.”  Every UU church has one or two.  Maybe every church does.  They are the people who make us roll our eyes at every congregational meeting.  They are perceived as touchy and finicky and literal.  They frustrate us because they seem deliberately obtuse.  They are also a vital part of the UU community.  Ax-grinders make us think hard about every possible outcome of what we say or do, and that is not a bad thing.  

Anyway, he brought up something that is so true about UU’s, something my son and I have spoken about often, and that is the fundamentalist atheist streak in our denomination—the notion that if one is going to go around espousing a belief in God, one belongs in a traditional Christian church.  Alas, UU’s are just as prone to either/or thinking as anyone else.

On the way to GA, we got a flat tire, and as the three of us were standing at a gas station air pump wondering whether we really needed to change the tire or if we could just top it off and make it to a tire store to have the leak fixed, a man came up and offered to change the tire for us.  We accepted his offer, and one of the women I was with asked if he was a Good Samaritan.  He said, “No ma’am, I’m a Christian.”  Later, when he was finished and refused compensation, I said, “God bless you,” to him.  Once on the road again, the other two women said the phrase would have stuck in their throats.  I explained that, as I believe in God, I am perfectly comfortable saying that.  The one who knows me the least was shocked.  What did I mean I believe in God?  I told her what I tell everyone who asks that question.  I believe that I am a part of a Whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.  

“But you don’t—I mean—do you pray?” she asked, still taken aback.  Yes, I do, with full understanding that prayer is about going deep; it’s internal, not external.  It’s about connecting with the Whole and remembering that I am neither as big nor as small as I may feel.  I do not expect any kind of deus ex machina as a result of prayer.  What I get is usually perspective, which is no small thing.

That answer confuses fundamentalist atheists and Christians alike.  My riding companions finally concluded that my views of God and prayer were acceptable.  Some might get insulted that anyone would presume to judge anyone else’s view of God, but I’ve been UU all my life, so I took it in stride.  For people who hold similar views but are less inclined to let such judgments roll off their backs, I imagine it makes UU churches as inhospitable as Baptist ones.

A UU church can be and in fact should be a home to people like me as much as to secular humanists or anyone else who seeks a religious community without dogma.  UU atheists need to understand that even atheism requires a certain dogma, and while they are free to adhere to it themselves, they should not ask others in their faith community to hold it, as well.  As Peter says, faith is less about what we believe than about what we love, and we love each other and our values of dignity, compassion, and justice.  Our ax-grinding blogger is right.  If we are to become, as Peter’s slogan says, “the religion for our time,” we must address our own intolerance.

tags: religion  unitarian universalism  atheism  christianity  fundamentalism  peter morales