Unitarian Universalist | Earthly Religion

From Passive Tolerance to Dynamic Mutuality

January 25, 2012
Byron Carrier

The issue I wish to address today involves the inevitable tensions that can grow between the good souls of a church or fellowship. My concern is twofold: how do we maintain and improve a dynamic, satisfying fellowship for all of us, and how do we model the dynamic mutuality possible in a pluralistic democracy? These issues go to the heart of our congregational and societal relations. I’m glad I don’t have any particular complaint or crisis in mind. This really has to do with…

January 25, 2012
Byron Carrier

On May 25th of this year we could celebrate the 200th birthday of a quintessential American: Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson exemplified American individualism as the holy duty of being human. He was the ultimate Protestant, preaching we should be ourselves as daringly, caringly and authentically as we can – that is God’s infinite creativity made manifest and satisfied. “Man is timid and apologetic; he dares not say, “I think,” “I am,” but quotes some saint or sage,” said Emerson. I don’t mind the irony. …

January 25, 2012
Byron Carrier

Picture this: Our president in the White House takes scissors to Bible, cutting out of the New Testament all that makes Jesus more God than human. Out goes the virgin birth story, the miracles, even the resurrection. When preachers object, he calls them “soothsayers and necromancers.” To top it off, he is having an extended affair with his half-black servant, fathering children with her. Such a scandal would leave Fox News sputtering, unsure how to begin the spin. How prissy and protected we are.…

January 24, 2012
Byron Carrier

To be liberal means being generous, open minded, innovative, and kind. It is the force of the new, the progressive. It is inclusive and visionary, seeking freedom and progress for the whole of society. It does not war against conservative forces, but uses them to stabilize a system while innovating within it. Conservative and liberal are dynamics of nature -- structure, experimentation, and new birth. It is a sign of how regressive an era we live in that the word liberal is used as…

January 24, 2012
Byron Carrier

Many religions have one thing in common: each believes it has the best truth. It is bold or predictable for me to preach on why our religion has the best truth? I suspect many UUs would resist such an attempt. Everyone has the right to their own way, we believe. What works for some wouldn’t work for us, yet we’re glad that others have their ways. We’re not evangelical. We don’t proselytize. We’re a “live and let live” religion. Meanwhile other religions insist…

January 24, 2012
Byron Carrier

“It doesn’t make an iota of difference,” goes the phrase meaning it couldn’t matter less. That phrase comes from an old theological fight over the letter “i”. The homousians and the homoiusians had it out over whether the iota should be there. One side claimed Jesus was of the same nature as God. The other claimed he was of the same substance. For this iota of theological difference, hundreds were killed. More important than an “i” in a word is the “I” in you. …

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The dream of an Earthly Religion…

Earthly: our precious natural earth which allows us our bodies, lives, cultures and future.

Religion: from the old root words religare and religio, meaning “to bind back to the root and be whole again.” This does not assume we need to believe in God or the Bible. Rather, we should be well-related with our own bodies, each other, natural life, and natural existence as it actually is. If there is connection with divinity or God, it is in and through our bodies and beings that we relate primarily, not via scriptures, traditions, rituals, or supposed religious authorities. In short, by religion we mean “relating well with reality.”

The emphasis here is on the earthly. It is not an afterlife or an instead-of-life that interests us. Living well here on earth together does.

While we take our religious perspective and work seriously, we don’t want it to be stuffy. Too often, religions can be alien to the human condition rather than affirming of it. They can be demeaning and demoralizing, dull and bossy, ponderously pretentious. We lean more towards the fun and sexy, natural and lively, human and humane, thoughtful and pertinent.

Reality: the obvious and inescapable stuff of physical existence. We intend to enjoy and tend our lives in these bodies, for our time, in our cultures, for our singular and interrelated ecosystem. There may be more, but there is AT LEAST THIS of which we are born, in which we live, and into which we will die.

God or no-God is not the point; Earth is. Both believers and non-believers are welcome here, for we all share a common source, opportunity, and responsibility: life as it is and could be. This ranges from simply improving one’s own life to your helping save and restore Eden’s, not just to “sustain” it, but veering it to thrive as never before. If you value your life, each other’s, and Earth’s – welcome!

Learn more…

From Passive Tolerance to Dynamic Mutuality

Emerson, on his 200th

Faith in the Larger Liberty

Lovely, Lonely Liberals

Why Unitarian Universalism serves God and Humanity better than Christianity Does

Theology Still Pertinent