Unitarian Universalism Selected Essays 2001

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Published by the Unitarian Universalist Ministers’ Association Boston, Massachusetts

The Reverend Craig Roshaven, Publications Repres e n t a t i v e Kristen B. Payson, editorial consultant Unitarian Universalism Selected Essays 2001

Preface ...... v

Berry Street Lecture 2000 ...... 1 The Rev. Dr. Mark D. Morrison-Reed

Fahs Lecture 2000 Queer(y)ing Religious Education: Teaching the R(evolutionary) S(ub)-V(ersions)! or Relax! … It’s Just Religious Ed ...... 13 The Rev. Elias Farajaje-Jones

An Awakened, Compassionate Life in Today’s World ...... 39 Barbara Carlson

Does a Building Matter? An Inquiry into the Effectiveness of Unitarian Universalist Church Architecture ...... 51 Charlotte Shivers

The Law and the Spirit: Power, Sexuality, and Ministry ...... 67 The Rev. Sylvia Howe & The Rev. Paul L’Herrou

A Theology of Power in the Ministry ...... 81 The Rev. Gordon B. McKeeman

The Core of Unitarian Universalism ...... 91 Charles A. Howe

ii UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays iii Preface

This volume of essays is the creative product of many Unitarian Universalist colleagues who have challenged themselves to reflect at length on issues of importance to our ministry. This year, six essays were submitted to a four-member panel of peers for rev i e w . Five were selected for publication. Most, though not all, of these essays were first presented to Unitarian Universalist gatherings or study gro u p s . In the future, we will continue to consider well-written essays of relevance and in t e r est to our ministry for publication, even if they have not been presented to a Unitarian Universalist gathering or study grou p . As is our tradition, the Berry Street Essay is included. The Berry Street Lecture began in 1820 with an address by William Ellery Channing to a group of colleagues who had gathered for mutual support and edification. The Ministerial Conferen c e at Berry Street is now convened annually at the General Assembly at the conclusion of Professional Days and the beginning of General Assembly to give the essay its appropriate hearing. The Sophia Lyon Fahs Lecture, established in 1974 to honor one of our grea t e s t religious educators, is also included. As has become the custom, we have not exercised a heavy editorial hand with these papers. We have taken great pains to assemble a diverse panel of our peers for reviewing and commenting on the submission. Each author’s identity was con- cealed from the reviewers to guard against bias. It is our hope that this process will en s u r e a diverse volume of well-written essays that accurately reflects the diversity within our ranks and engages our interes t . I want to thank this year’s panelists: Don Fielding, Sam Schaal, Marjorie Mo n t g o m e r y, and Betty McCollum. I would also like to thank Kristen Payson, editorial consultant, for her invaluable advice, experience, and expertise in prep a r i n g this volume of essays. We encourage you to submit essays on topics of interest and relevance to our calling for consider in the next volume of essays.

The Reverend Craig C. Roshaven Unitarian Universalist Ministers’ Association Publications and Online Communications Repres e n t a t i v e

iv UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays v Berry Street Essay 2000 After Running Through the Thistles, the Hard Part Begins The Rev. Dr. Mark Morrison-Reed

HE BAPTISMAL FONT WAS OLDER THAN THE BUILDING . It had accompanied Tthe First Unitarian Society of Chicago when the congregation moved south to Hyde Park. The years had dulled the white marble. At age 4 I stood next to that font waiting with anticipation. Beside me was my brother. We were wearing matching plaid sports jackets. Behind us our baby sister squirmed in Dad’s arms. The minister, Leslie Pennington, had white hair and wore a black robe, and when he said, “Name this child,” both my parents said, “Mark Douglas Reed.” The minister reached into the font. As he touched my forehead with a drop of water, he repeated my name. I felt he was sort of like God. At age 8 I started crossing Chicago’s Southside on Wednesday afternoons by myself to attend choir practice under the wild gaze of Christopher Moore. On Sundays, however, I raced down hallways, played tag, and hated graham crack- ers. When I was 11, Jim Hobart, who was studying at Meadville Lombard Theological School, was my Sunday School teacher. He describes me as “a tall, thin sixth grader, serious, quiet but not shy, who didn’t have a lot to say but did make good contributions.” By age 17 I was a high school senior and president of the local LRY (Liberal Religious Youth); at age 19 I was already back home from college. I had flunked out, returned to Chicago, found a job, and was recruited to teach Sunday School. The kindergarten class thought I was great — particularly a biracial, developmentally challenged child named Dickey. He hung on me. Their appreciation and affection were triage for my broken ego, and so began the healing process. Returning to Chicago at age 25, a vagabond entering Meadville/Lombard, I discovered that the congregation was excited about my decision to enter the ministry. My marriage and ordination, my mother’s and sister’s memorial services were all held within that living community. As the Christmas Candlelight and the Flower Communion services marked the cycle of the year, these rites of passage marked the cycle that is my life. Nevertheless, something I only barely remember left the strongest imprint. It happened slowly, growing incrementally week after week, year in and year out. vi UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 1 Each time a teacher smiled or took me seriously, when our choir processed in especially her 3-year-old daughter — and covered her despair with gallows scarlet robes, an emotion grew — the feeling of being at home in that place, humor. Chris, a church member and social worker, organized a memory book for among those people. Trust grew, and with it my faith. Now my very being her 6-year-old and placed an altar by her bed. expects life to be this way, so much so that 51 years later, it is difficult for me to The challenge for me through all this was to be fully present — fully in those imagine living apart from religious community. pr ecious moments. Open to dialogue without pushing it, often I simply sat and I am at home among these people in this liberal religious movement. It is a waited and watched the rise and fall of each breath. I gave up the urge to fix and place where I was nurtured, and because I was nurtured I grew; having grown, I assuage, held in abeyance the need to grieve, and stilled my thoughts and feel- could give, and having given, I grew more. It is a place where struggling, I could ings so I could be fully there. Because that was all there was to do — be there. fail; where failing, I was still loved; where loved, I could begin again. It is a In a pensive moment after a bout of tears, it came to me that being present is place where in pain I could go; where, having gone, I was cared for; where cared what it takes to love a congregation. We do ministry knowing that, some day, for, I could heal and go on. That is why I am a minister, to help sustain religious the relationship will end. The challenge is to be there despite this. For unless communities — places like the one in which I grew up, places made holy by we can be fully there in authentic relationship with its members, we can go what people experience within them — the seasons of their lives and the heal- through the motions of ministry, but we cannot really minister. We cannot hold ing of their souls. back, because the power is in our relatedness to one another, yet we must hold The power of community is enormous, and I have lived my entire life in its back or risk conflating the professional with the personal. To minister is to wres- embrace. It is why I entered the ministry. I believe the liberal church is worth tle with this dilemma. devoting a life to — my life, in fact. The relationship of minister and parishioner has the qualities of a friendship, My years as a congregant did not prepare me, however, for a cruel irony. but no matter how warm and deep, authentic and rec i p r ocal the relationship is, it Ministry, as most of you have discovered, I am sure, is a source of unrequited is a circumscribed friendship. Why? Because it is built upon an unavoidable imbal- grief. I regret having not read the fine print. If I had, perhaps I would have ance: The minister is always more responsible for the relationship. When neces- made another choice. But the print was very small, the phrasing paradoxical, sa r y, we must be prep a r ed to forsake the role of friend for that of minister, and while I was young and eager. This is what it said: ready to choose the well-being of the community over the needs of the friend. We You will love your parishioners with all your heart but never befriend them. ar e not as free to share all aspects of our lives and ourselves. Nor can we make You will pour out your lifeblood for the community but never settle there. friends with whom we please, for that would create two classes of parishioners — You shall die to the congregation so that the ministry might live. the chosen and the not. Finally, when our ministries come to an end, so must the Let us look at these three: relationships, lest we take up space the next ministry needs if it is to take roo t .

You Will Love Your Parishioners with All Your Heart You Will Pour out Your Lifeblood for the Community, but Never Befriend Them but Never Settle There When Donna and I returned from a sabbatical in fall 1998, calamity struck. Ministry takes enormous courage or romantic obliviousness to the repercus- Immersion in death changed my understanding of ministry. Four women, all in sions of giving one’s soul to the church. Mary Oliver’s poem “In Blackwater their 40s, each a mother, had cancer; among them was my sister, Carole. These Woods” describes what is required: “To live in this world you must be able to do were strong, powerful women. Rosemarie stopped trying to end child poverty in three things: to love what is mortal, to hold it against your bones knowing your Canada and threw herself into music and art. Suzanne, another social action own life depends on it, and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.”1 We friendship, stopped promoting a national dialogue on social policy, drew her love what is mortal. For each individual ministry is mortal. It has its life span — friends near, focused on her teenaged children’s future and began talking to me a beginning and an end. Knowing this, we still invest our essence in the com- about the experience of dying, the nature of God, and the meaning of life. My munity. We treat it not as a job but as our lives. Then “when the time comes to sister, an insurance company vice president, worried about everyone else — let it go,” we have to let it go. This is the way it must be. Forrest Church writes:

2 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 3 The fact that death is inevitable gives meaning to our love, for the After seven months and many tears, they seemed weary of leave-taking and more we love the more we risk losing. Love’s power comes, in part, quite ready for us to go. And when we left, we left. Well, we left town at least. from the courage required to give ourselves to that which is not ours to Leaving emotionally proved more difficult. We maintained contact with two keep: our spouses, children, parents, dear and cherished friends, couples. One had been our surrogate parents — Bill and Eleanor. The other was [and congregations] … . 2 a friend of mine I’d introduced to his future wife who was a church member. We It takes courage to throw off caution and enter fully into life. The risk of loss also exchanged Christmas cards with those — mostly senior members — who is not just great; it is certain. Therefore, it takes courage for us to wholly engage wrote to us. That was a mistake — a misguided courtesy. Most often it was just in the life of the community knowing that what awaits us at the end of our min- that, a courtesy. But then a long revealing letter would arrive, or a note from istry is grief — a grief made deep by comforting familiarity, conflicts weathered, someone I knew had ceased attending, or a wistful comment about us from and dreams once shared. You will pour out your lifeblood for the community but someone who was keeping the new minister at arm’s length. In those moments I never settle there. ‘Why not?’ you ask. cringed, for I knew we were intruding upon our successor’s ministry. Two and half years after we left, Al French, a church member we had known You Shall Die to the Congregation So That well, died, and Beth Banks, who followed us at First Universalist, invited me to the Ministry Might Live deliver the eulogy. We both thought Donna and I had been away long enough. “Running Through the Thistles: terminating a ministerial relationship with a We were wrong. I knew it as soon as I began interacting with the older members parish” is an essay written by Alban Institute consultant Roy Oswald. When in — I was the minister and Beth the interloper. Twelve years in ministry and I 1988 the time came for Donna and me to leave our first congregation, the First was just beginning to really understand that ministry was not about my relation- Universalist Church of Rochester, N.Y., it was recommended to us. I assume ship to the members but rather theirs to one another. Nor should it be the many of you have read it, too. Roy recounts that when he was a young boy answer to my yearning to live in community, because at the end of the day they “growing up in rural Saskatchewan” the quickest way home from school “was will stay and I will leave. Only then did I begin to grasp this reality: Ultimately over the fields.” “It was shorter … but occasionally we would come upon enor- I must die to the congregation so that the ministry might live. When several mous thistle patches.” 3 He and his older brothers either had to walk around or years later our surrogate father, Bill, died, we consulted Beth and decided not to find the narrowest gap and sprint across. He writes: “I can still vividly remember attend. It meant grieving in private, a double loss — of Bill and of community. the experience: running full speed in bare feet across 20 feet of prickly thistles Truthfulness about this fate is something we need to hold up to one another yelping in pain all the way through.” At the end there were always a few thistles at the beginning of each new ministry. Leaning over the pulpit during the stuck in his feet, but the ordeal was over. This, Oswald claims, is how many of installation of Marcel Duhamel at Binghamton, N.Y., my friend Andy Backus us manage our departure from a congregation. We deal with our farewells by wagged his finger and said, “Marcel, you are not in charge here. This is not your steeling ourselves, then plunging in. We know it is going to hurt, so we rush church. And you are not indispensable … . You can and will be replaced.”4 full-tilt ahead, hoping to get it over with. The quickest burst of speed I’ve seen Given the chance, when Andy was installed in Schenectady, N.Y., Marcel was a colleague who announced his resignation on the way out the door to GA, returned the admonition. We are not indispensable, and each of us will be and left both his congregation and his fiancée by the end of June. replaced. That is the reality, and when we don’t understand this, we do irrepara- Donna and I read Oswald and did our best to fulfill the five tasks he out- ble harm. Did you hear what I just said? Do you understand? lined: “Take control of the situation,” “Get your affairs in order,” “Let go of old In the face of the inevitable death of our own ministries we go about our busi- grudges,” “Say thank you,” and “Be honest about why you are leaving.” Donna ness of building relationships in the context of religious community. This includes and I developed an exit plan. First, we were open about why we were going to pr eparing for your departu r e from the very beginning. Mark Belletini does this by Toronto. Our sermons talked about separation and grief; we reviewed our suc- occasionally saying to his parishioners, “When I am gone.” The point is to keep cesses and named our disappointments. We called upon several members who asking yourself: ‘What do I need to do today to help the next ministry succeed?’ A had become estranged. We listened a lot. We said thank you over and over. critical moment for the next ministry comes at the end of your own, the point at

4 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 5 which Roy Oswald encourages us to model effective closure. He writes: how much I was going to miss having a church community for myself.” Another [It] involves being able to live deeply into the human side of death — the lamented: “[There is] absolutely nowhere I can go where I don’t run into some- death of relationships — the death of roles and functions and res p o n s i b i l i - bo dy who is seeing me through some kind of filter.” And the most poignant com- ties — the death of that special relationship a pastor has with a parish. At ment of all: “I find the isolation of ministry to be excruciating.” One parti c i p a n t , times we may discover ourselves having more difficulty letting go of the ho w e v e r , didn’t get it. She couldn’t see why one should not reach out to members role we play than the people themselves … . Dying to the parish involves of one’s congregation and queried: “Why, oh why, would any of us not allow this dying to our role with people, as well. Our failure to die to this role with mutual ministry?” co n g r egational members gets us involved in pastoral acts with them long “Mutual ministry” is what our congregations are about. Good ministry empow- after we’ve left. Our hanging onto these roles is our bid for immorta l i t y . ers people. Ours is “the priesthood of all believers,” which, as James Luther Adams We allow ourselves to be indispensable with people, insuring our ability to writes, “implies that every member of the church has the obligation to share the live forever in their lives.5 work of reconciliation and healing.”6 Cl e r gy are included within its embrace. One of the hard blessings of ministry is being invited into the lives of those After my sister died, cards arrived and comfort was offe r ed. Tears, of course, who are dying. Over and over again we are given the opportunity to learn how to we r e shed, yet Sunday morning was not a time for the abyss; neither were meet- die, and then when we leave a congregation we get to practice. And still we find ings or classes. When I did go into the depth, it was with Donna or my run n i n g it difficult to say farewell. We stay involved long after we have left. They call; if pa rt n e r , colleagues or a support group unrelated to the church. Intermi t t e n t l y , not, we do. Correspondence goes back and forth. We even vacation with ex- th r ough the fog within, I noticed that the congreg a t i o n ’ s anxiety climbed in parishioners. The stories are legion. One new minister found he had to call the response to my emotional absence. Mutuality has a limit; sharing one’s grief is minister who had been there before his immediate predecessor to really find out go o d modeling, but being incapacitated goes beyond the implicit deal made what was going on in his congregation. How many of us have boxed a colleague between congregation and minister: We are called to serve, not to be served. No into a no-win situation because, when faced with a call to officiate from an ex- matter how caring the relationship; its essential nature can’t be overcome. As pa r i s h i o n e r , we said: “I’d be happy to do it if the settled minister says it’s OK.” Andy Backus elaborated in his charge to Marcel: “Never can this be your church . Then our colleague can’t really say “No,” which is what we should have replied in Never will these people be your family — because you are here by dint of what the beginning. Or, after a very long ministry the minister emeritus and his wife you do, not who you are … . Ministry, I am afraid, is often being alone among all stay in town and remain active in the congregation, studiously oblivious to a con- those people.” This abiding sense of isolation is not what we bargained for when tinuous series of problems caused by his passive presence. “Who me?” We find it we entered the ministry; it is a most bitter discovery. Rather than face the pain, di f ficult to let go, and as a result, we unintentionally undermine the ministry. we linger upon the fringe of a community that can’t be our own, and hold on to Why do we hang on? First, despite having made religious community the cen- pa s t o r -parishioner relationships that can’t be true friendships. ter of our lives, we live isolated lives. Second, we are confused about the power Forrest Church writes: “The fact that death is inevitable gives meaning to vested in the ministerial role. Third, having become attached to the congreg a - our love, for the more we love the more we risk losing. Love’s power comes, in tions we serve, we seek to avoid the pain of letting go. part, from the courage required to give ourselves to that which is not ours to Le t ’ s consider these: keep: our spouses, children, parents, dear and cherished friends, [and congregations].” (A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism, by John A. Ministerial Isolation Buehrens, F. Forrester Church, Beacon Press 1998, p. 5). First, despite making religious community the center of our lives, ministers live in isolation. During the second week in June of last year, a protracted conversa- Ministerial Power and Radical Laicism tion on the UU Ministers of Canada chat-line caught my attention. Its title was Second, we are confused about the power vested in the ministerial role. “isolation,” its tone anguish. I lurked, but many others made testimonies. One Sometimes we even deny its reality. When I was a child, I knew my minister, wr ote: “I did know ministry would be lonely. [But only later] it dawned on me Leslie Pennington, had something to do with God. His deep, resonant voice

6 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 7 sounded the way I imagined God’s did. I held him in awe. In my mind he still tures adrift without a community of our own. This is a harsh realization. We looms large, although I’m told he was no taller than I. I draw two points from don’t let go of our congregation because it seems there is nothing to grab hold this observation: The power of the ministry is in the eye and the expectations of of — a free fall after which religious homelessness awaits. the beholder. Entitlement is given to us whether we want it or not. However, It is a Faustian bargain we have struck. We receive all the perks of ministry today what people see and expect has changed. I can’t substantiate this, but I — a life full of meaning, invitations into the most intimate moments of people’s suspect that in the 1950s, ministerial authority was not challenged and distrust- lives, the righteous glow of justice work, and immortality through the institu- ed the way it is today. Ministry, propelled by activism and me-ism into the cul- tion’s survival. The cost? At the end you must quit the community in which you tural cauldron of the ’60s and ’70s with its anti-authoritarianism and, among have invested your life. Quit it. Leave it. Let it go. Trust that it will survive UU’s, anti-clericalism, with its t-groups, openness, and emotiveness, became without you and you without it. Rather than face religious homelessness, what more relational. At its worst, this gave license to an ‘I’m just one of the gang so do we do? We lurk around the edges of the community, maintaining circum- let’s jump in the sack’ attitude. At its best, it nurtured a less pulpit-bound and scribed friendships, and hope to be just an ordinary member of the congregation more accessible ministry. There was a removal of barriers, and simultaneously a upon retirement, except maybe to officiate now and then when asked. Rather blurring of boundaries. than say, ‘I relinquish my covenant with you,’ and ask that the congregation do I can’t help but wonder to what degree James Luther Adams’ reclamation of the same, we hang on. And thus, do harm. “radical laicism” as a central UU value further obfuscated the distinctions. We find it difficult to say ‘goodbye’ to our congregations and to our role as Coming out of his experience of the church in Nazi Germany, and with the minister because we mistake this vocation for our essential selves. When our American churches’ tacit support of racism, his insistence that prophetic power innate sense of our inherent worth and dignity flags, it is this role that helps “belongs not merely to the clergy: It belongs to the congregation and the indi- bolster self-esteem. Ask yourself for a moment, ‘Who am I, if not a minister?’ viduals in the congregation” was an important corrective.7 JLA said, “the test Without this identity I’d feel lost, adrift, afraid. ‘What happens if I let the “min- for clergy is of our capacity to elicit radical laicism.” I have no argument with isterial” facet of my life die?’ I’m not convinced I’d know how to stop. How his proclamation of the “prophethood and priesthood of all believers”; however, would I act? How would I relate? Would I feel empty inside? What would it the consequence is a flattening of the congregational landscape that makes it mean to stop being a minister? We must let go — youth passes, our children more difficult to differentiate between laity and clergy. This religious egalitari- leave home, relationships and dreams end, we die, yet most often until that anism invites us to underestimate the influence, responsibility, and authority final moment arrives, we act as if ministry is synonymous with life. infused in the ministerial role. After all, if we are just peers, why shouldn’t we I discovered a poem by Elder Olson in Great Occasions when I was searching continue our relationships with parishioners beyond the end of our ministries? for a reading as my sister was dying. I put a copy in my wallet. Later I mailed it to Suzanne as her illness progressed, and later still I read it to Chris. The Pain of Letting Go Nothing is lost; the universe is honest, Finally, having become attached to the congregations we serve, we are Time, like the sea, gives all back in the end, unwilling to embrace the pain of ending the relationship. We don’t want to let But only in its own way, on its own conditions: go because we have poured our lifeblood into the congregation, our lives and Empires as grains of sand, forests as coal, love are entwined in the fabric of the institution. We believe deeply in religious Mountains as pebbles. Be still, be still, I say; community, but the one we love most can’t be ours. Overwhelmed with church You were never the water, only a wave; 8 work, we take little time to develop a network of friends outside the congrega- Not substance, but a form substance assumed. This image comforted me when my sister was dying. It spoke to me about the tion — another set of relationships in which one is not “the minister.” In time, we even lose the skill of being ‘friend’ instead of ‘parson.’ Friendless, our sense nature of life. I could see her life and my own rising, as does a wave, cresting of isolation grows. And even if we have a life external to the church, we yearn and then subsiding once again into the sea. Now I’ve come to see ministry in to be in community with other Unitarian Universalists. We are communal crea- this way. We are not the ministry of a church, but a form ministry assumes.

8 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 9 The image of “running through the thistles” is catchy. We can see ourselves tillation of our essence — our deeds and dreams and love for those with whom yelping and hollering as we sprint through leave-taking — accepting a little we have strived to build the beloved community. pain but avoiding the hard and prolonged work grief requires. Oswald coaches Where does this leave us as minister? To live in religious community, we us through the process of leave-taking, but doesn’t address how to bear the must die to the ministry. I say this in hope — a hope more romantic than realis- heartache. Having counseled others through loss, we know what this requires. tic. For I’m not sure it’s possible. There is no ritual that will unordain us. I don’t The human urge is to avoid the grief, but the reality is “that the way out is the even know if I can stop. And I’m not sure others will let me. Still I hold this way through.” The way through is the hard way of mindfully accepting the pain hope in my heart. Someday, when I’m done ministering — not done being car- rather than avoiding it or stoically enduring it. ing, human, and present — but rather done with bearing the primary responsi- The image of waves seems more apt — waves upon the ocean. I can see us bility for a religious community, I’ll take off my stole, hang it around my col- rolling along, one following the next. There have always been priests and priest- league’s neck, and say, as Bob Doss did when he retired from Wilmington, “It’s esses interpreting the mysteries of life; there will always be a need for those who all yours, buddy.” Then I will shed my beloved, worn pulpit gown handed down can illuminate the human condition. As we rise above the ocean and into con- to me by the daughter of the Reverend Frank Edwin Smith, and with the robe sciousness of ourselves and of life, it sometimes seems as if we are alone. We my role. have been set apart, but we are not alone; we are embodiments of the Unitarian Someday I’ll minister no more. Someday I’ll deepen the spiritual life I never Universalist tradition. There are moments when we know this. It comes to us quite make enough time for now. Someday I’ll say ‘no’ even though I’ve known during the Service of the Living Tradition when, in the reading of the names the bride since I named her as an infant. Someday I’ll sit in a memorial service from that past and the future, history is compressed. Yet “you were never the and weep tears unchecked by the necessity of having to rise to deliver the eulo- water, only a wave; not substance, but a form substance assumed.” You were gy. Someday, somewhere, I’ll add my voice to the choir and sleep through the never the tradition, only a voice through which it spoke and loved. sermon if it bores me. Someday I’ll come early to set up my Sunday School class Still I want to know how to crest and then let go of my life: the foaming surf, project and smile when the rascals charge down the corridor playing tag. of what I had been, running up the beach and then receding into the ocean, into unconsciousness, submerged once again in the Divine Mystery. The pound- ing surge of the ocean is so relentless that we know the end to life and ministry 1 “In Blackwater Woods,” American Primitive, by Mary Oliver. Little Brown & Co., will certainly come, whether we accept it or not. If we had a way of envisioning 19 8 3 . this task of ministerial leave-taking that portrayed it as a choice, an act of voli- 2 Church, F. Forrester and John Buehrens. A Chosen Faith, Beacon Press, 1998, tion, might it not make what is difficult easier? p. 5. 3 Oswald, Roy M. “Running Through the Thistles: terminating a ministerial relation- I suggest the image of the Phoenix serve us as a model for leave-taking. ship with a parish,” The Alban Institute, 1978, p. 2. “Legend has it that when it saw death draw near, it would make a nest of sweet- 4 Charge to the Minister, delivered by the Rev. Andrew C. Backus at the installation smelling wood and resins, which it would expose to the full force of the sun’s of the Rev. Marcel Duhamel to the ministry of the Unitarian Universalist Church of rays, until it burnt itself to ashes in the flame. Another Phoenix would then rise Binghamton, N.Y., Nov. 19, 1989. 5 from the marrow of its bones.” 9 This approximates Oswald’s five tasks of leave- Oswald, p. 2. 6 Adams, James Luther. Voluntary Ass o c i a t i o n s , ed. Ron Engel, Exploration Press, taking. Upon seeing “death draw near,” intentionality and mindfulness can 1986, p. 259. inform us as we put all in order. There is celebration and thanksgiving in our 7 Adams, James Luther. The Prophethood of All Believers, ed. George K. Beach, leave-taking as we surround ourselves with “sweet smelling woods and resins.” 1986, p. 59. 8 In the full sunlight of truth, we explore what our years together meant. A puri- Olson, Elder. Great Occasions, ed. Carl Seaburg, Beacon Press, 1968, p. 388. 9 Cirlot, J.E. The Dictionary of Symbols, 1962, p. 253. fying flame consumes the “old grudges” and us. How appropriate for a faith whose central symbol is the flaming chalice. Then, finally and appropriately, the next ministry rises out of “the marrow of [our] bones,” for it arises from the dis-

10 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 11 12 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 Fahs Lecture 2000 Queer(y)ing Religious Education: Teaching the R(evolutionary) S(ub)V(ersions)! or Relax! … It’s Just Religious Ed The Rev. Elias Farajaje-Jones

OOD EVENING ! I SALUTE THE FOUR DIRECTIONS of the universe; I salute Gthat which is above, that which is below, that which is within our hearts. And I ask my First Nations sisters and brothers, the Yuchi and the Cherokee and all other peoples indigenous to this area, to give us their permission to be here on their soil, on their lands, to be near their waters. And we call upon all of our ancestors, those of origin and those of choice, and we ask them to be here with us today. In a very special way, we invite Sophia Fahs into our midst, acknowledging the importance of her work in shaping new understandings of religious education. And we call upon all those ancestors in the ministry of religious education, especially all those women who were marginalized and mini- mized. Ashe’. Blessed be. Amin. I would like to thank Liz Benjamin for inviting me to participate in this conference. And I would like to thank all of those who have worked so hard to make this all possible. I have taken the liberty of letting the title work through some transformations. When I write, the title is usually the last thing to come to me. In order to respect the deadlines for the preparation of GA, I had to submit a title that I eventually felt was not going where I wanted to go. So, the submitted title gave me permission to express it in another way. Being asked to give this lecture before such a distinguished gathering of Liberal Religious Educators has led me to realize that I have spent a lot of time not only thinking about religious education, but also committing religious education. But it has also made me interrogate the arbitrary distinction between thea/ological education and religious education I consider it all to be part of a con- tinuum. Thea/ological education, with all the prestige of the thea/ological academy, seems so often to be reserved to a few. Religious education is seen primarily as something that women do at church with children. I propose that we interrupt that way of thinking right now, for it is impossible for me to think of them as two separate entities. I’ll probably go back and forth between the terms in the

2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 13 course of the evening. So I invite you to join with me in a group romp through resulted in some great public event with special drag, big meals and parties, and the multicolored landscape of “Queer(y)ing” and “decolonizing” religious educa- really kewl gifts! Mine just seemed to go on and on. tion/thea/ological education and looking at how we understand Teaching the So, the first Sunday in May after I had turned 7, I staged my own First RSV. Not the Revised Standard Version, but “Teaching the Revolutionary Communion, getting dressed as closely to how I had seen my boy cousins Subversions.” This is extremely appropriate since this weekend marks the 31st dressed (although my cousin Kim Marie’s veil would tempt me for years!). Now anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, the guerrilla street warfare waged by mind you, I learned about different religions, and saw the Dead Sea Scrolls, per- queers, predominantly transgender people of color, butch dykes, drag kings, drag formed in pageants; but I also was taught Negro history and the behavior appro- queens, etc., that resulted in this weekend being Queer Pride weekend in many priate for young colored children of the upper-middle class. Most of us in that parts of the country. I know that some of you are like, “Why is everything queer, prosperous, yet discreet and tasteful , very high church black United Methodist queer, queer, with him? Why must he be so exclusive?” My intent is not to be parish church school were the children of professionals, and the lines between exclusive; my intent is not to criminalize anyone. My intent is to thea/ologise Sunday School and Jack and Jill (a special network of national clubs for the from an unabashedly intersexional queer perspective. So often we queers are the children of the black bourgeoisie) were more than fluid. ones who sit politely by while our perspectives are left untouched or glossed I was shocked when I learned that in some other denominations, adults went over quickly so as to not make anyone uncomfortable. Well, at least tonight, to Sunday School. Religious education still seemed like something done before, let’s share in an intersexional queer religio-thea/ological perspective. in between, or after services and definitely not for adults. Services were servi c e s , I am a queer-identified bifag or polyfag of African, Tsalagi (Cherokee), and and not religious education. Then there were those faith communities in which Spanish-Irish descent. I’m a full-time, live-in parent of a 5 year old and foster ch i l d r en were taken out of worship for “class” and then ret u r ned to the worship- parent of a 26 year old Black gay man living with HIV whom I began to parent ping community; it often made me feel as though people were picking up their when he was 16. I am a priest, a video artist, scholar-activist. I locate myself ch i l d r en after shopping. In my overactive little mind, I also wondered why very clearly up front since my location, my living at intersexions, profoundly almost all of my Sunday school teachers were women. Was it because we were shapes how I understand thea/ological /religious education. ch i l d r en, and theref o r e not important enough to merit the educational atten- I would like to dedicate my reflections today to my son, Issa, and to the tions of male clergy? It was also clear to me that once I left for boarding school at memory of Nile Kiyama, a Black queer performance artist from Oakland whom I the age of 13, I had somehow finished my religious education and could now was fortunate to know and count as a friend who committed suicide at the end teach Vacation Bible School. In fact, I was invited to run the Vacation Bible of last year, more than a year after I had finished filming a documentary on him School program. Did that mean that other than the “teacher’s manual or guide” talking about his art and his life as an African descent queer man living with th e r e was no preparation necessary for this awesome task.? I was greatly trou b l e d , HIV. May his memory be eternal and as a blessing to all generations! for I knew already then that what had been special about my religious education When I was growing up, as a child I often had the feeling that what was was not that it was in f o rm a t i o n a l but that it was fo rm a t i o n a l . called “religious education” was really just a ploy to keep us kids busy while the I worked with the youth group at Christ Church, Episcopal in Poughkeepsie, grown folks attended to the real business of praying and doing liturgy. I soaked New York, while a student at Vassar College. Once again, I started to think that up all the information that I was given, along with all the paradigm-forming I the youth group existed as a kind of last stop before full liturgical integration. was receiving at the same time. I was fascinated by the difference between what Everyone in the youth group had been confirmed and could therefore partici- I had to do on Sunday mornings and what my Roman Catholic cousins and pate fully in the Eucharist; nevertheless, the youth group seemed like just a friends did on weekdays, after school, learning some Latin, preparing for First more grown-up version of Sunday School. Holy Communions and Confirmations. My Jewish friends learned Hebrew, stud- When I became Eastern Orthodox at the age of 18 in my senior year at ied Torah and prepared for Bat/Bar Mitzvahs. My Buddhist friends had yet Vassar, the priest and I worked out a plan of study and involvement in the life another form of religious education. I definitely felt that my Jewish and Roman of the church that served as my preparation for being received into Orthodoxy. Catholic relatives and friends had the better part: Their religious education Here, once again, the emphasis was not so much on information as on

14 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 15 formation, of acquiring a sense of what it meant to be and to move in the world process, one that engages the entire person and their relationship to the envi- as Eastern Orthodox. ronment, to other people, and to whatever it is that they call (or don’t call) the In my Eastern Orthodox world, opinions varied and vary widely and wildly divine. I also believes that it calls us to be radically engaged in the healing of on who does religious education, why , when, how, etc. Some were taught to the universe. In a world of either/or thinking, religious education has been seen memorize the Zakom Bozhii (the law of G-d), learn prayers in a language they as something that contains its own norm (more on norms later); the special did not understand, etc. Since infants receive the three sacraments of initiation things such as race, gender, class, geography, embodiment, etc. can be dealt with (Baptism/Eucharist/Chrismation) all at once, they are technically full members in special units. It’s often seen as something totally apart from worship and real of the eucharistic community and receive communion as infants. Some felt that ministry. My fantasy is that if we gradually begin to create revolutionary, the liturgical life of the Church was the greatest teacher possible, while others “queer,”holistic multifocal, multilayered, intersexional contexts, we’ll see how used more intersectional methods. religious education (understood in the broadest possible sense) is inextricably As a student in seminary, I was once again struck by how women entering bound up with worship that is rooted in and connected to the sacrament of the the school were immediately directed toward the religious education certificate sister and the brother, the liturgy after the liturgy; i.e., the work that we do as program. In a church that denies women ordination to the priesthood, it was revolutionary agents of change. It really is all about religious education, for all usually expected that even if a woman did complete the M.Div. degree, she of us, no matter where we are in the circle of age. would go into “religious education.” And that “religious education” was under- I would , along with the late Dr. John Boojamra, an Arab Orth o dox thea/olo- stood as being primarily with and for children. With all the societal construc- gian who specialized in religious education, propose talking about hypostagogy, tion of what children and childhood are supposed to mean, you didn’t have to the education of the entire person. The hypostasis, the person, is understood be a disciple of Foucault to figure out that this was a fairly violent way of mar- both as individual an d as part of a community. This would not be a rep l a c e m e n t ginalizing women, while at the same time saying: Look, they don’t have to be for the term “pedagogy,” but it would remind us that we are all constantly in priests; they get to religiously educate the children. They’re the really important pr ocess. The spiritual transformation that results from this is both the proc e s s influence. Yet something in that did not ring right for me. It all seemed to come and the end product. Revolution in the movement will come from revolutions in back to saying that religious education was really not all that important; any- religious/thea/ological education. I know that the word “rev o l u t i o n a r y” has one, even women, could do it. You just had to be nice, patient, smile a lot, and passed from vogue; well, what better times than these in which to reclaim it. like to work in fairly confined space with children bursting with weekend ener- We in the northern axis, and especially in the United States, live in a world gy! So while, on the one hand, I was being told that this was crucially impor- in which everything has to happen quickly. If our laptops don’t download in less tant work, it was also made very clear that this was not real priesthood. than 15 seconds, we’re on technical support like white on rice! In the area of As a seminary professor for the last 15 years, the last four of which have been California in which I was born and in which I now live, neighborhoods that as Professor of Cultural Studies at Starr King School, I have had the opportuni- were historically populated by people of color are witness to the displacement of ty to develop and practice/commit a “queer,” multifocal, intersexional these people on a daily basis. Real estate prices are extremely high, yet with the thea/ology of religious education, and that is what I would like to share with creation of the new cyberaristocracy, it’s nothing for people to walk in and pay you through the process of looking at what I call “queering” religious education cash for places that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars or more. The impact and teaching revolutionary subversions (RSV). Each class that I teach, whether that this is having on global economies is overwhelming. So I think that we’re it be liberating the Bible for UUs, African Religions in Diaspora, or the Divine in a good place to provide some revolutionary reflection and action. How about Feminine in Russian Orthodox, religious thought is taught in a way that calls us moving from LREDA to PREDA? In my understanding, “liberal” accepts the sit- to continually and simultaneously consider issues of race, class, gender, embodi- uation and tries to fix it; “progressive” challenges basic assumptions of situation. ment, environmental issues, cultural representations, sexualities, etc. These are Just my interpretation! not treated as peripheral considerations. Why “Queer”? I use the word queer, which I know makes some people Let me say first off that I believe that religious education is a global, holistic uncomfortable, because it says NO, we don’t have to be like everyone else in

16 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 17 order to have the right to full life. No, we don’t have to accept the paradigms we would say in French, de longue haleine: of long breathing. In my experience of and constructs that we are fed on a daily basis. No, we don’t have to accept cat- ho m e o p a t h y , the important thing is going to the roots; this prevents rec u r ren c e egorizations and binary, either/or thinking as the only way. It’s inclusive of lgb- of the same symptoms over and over again. If this occurs, this then means that tiq. When I was growing up, we were colored and negroes. Then we took on th e r e is what is known as a ba rr a g e , a dam, that does not allow full healing to black, a word that was used as an insult in my communities, especially when happen because it is blocking the rem e d y ’ s effectiveness. Until this barrage is combined with African, as Professor Angel Y. Davis of UCSC reminds us in ex p l o ded, the same things will happen over and over again. This kind of in- Marlon Riggs’ film Black Is/Black Ain’t. I think think that once I was able to depth work in homeopathy is indeed long, but its benefits are life-lasting. This is make that paradigm shift, going from gay to queer was easy. We did: what, I believe, Unitarian-Universalist religious/thea/ological education is called colored/negro/black thing to do. Too often we want quick fixes; we want to be able to say that we res p o n d - Plenty of folks did not like gay back in the day: homophiles, etc. Queer theo- ed to a crisis. Yet we don’t grapple with how we could have challenged the sys- ry, which is not and cannot be a pre-established “discipline,” does nevertheless tem that created the crisis without having to wait for there to be a crisis. offer the opportunity for “queering” things. By “Queerying” religious education, I say “decolonize” because, like Frantz Fanon, the Martiniquais psychiatrist I mean to “interrogate” religious education that is, at the same time, to “queer” who linked his experience as an Antillais to that of the freedom struggle in it. We really are doing two things at once. This is a practice mirrored in the Algeria where he lived and struggled, Fanon, author of The Wretched of the Earth hip-hop epistemology and aesthetic of “freestyling”: There is more than one and Black Skin/White Masks, believed that individual psycho-spiritual transforma - thing going on, and we are actually enjoying it. tion had to be about revolution, about radical social change. Like Fanon, I By queering I mean destabilizing, interrupting the business-as-usual of con- believe that the only way that we will come to the radical social change that ceptual and organizational assumptions. To suggest that religious education is per- many of us desire is through undertaking very fundamental paradigm shifts with- haps at the very roots of our individual and collective lives is to “queer” reli- in our own ways of thinking and being-in-the-world and on a broader cultural gious education. To state that religious education is not something that can be scale. The heteros u p r emacist colonization under which we live declares that the contained in a neat little area is to “queer” it. To dream that religious education is world is and must be he t e r osexual and that heteros e x u a l i t y ’ s hegemony, its display and should be multifocal, multilayered, intersexional and engaged in the erotics of privilege and power, should be the norm; the same holds for temporarily able- of learning is to “queer” it. So, now that we have “Queered” that up (in several bo died supremacy or class supremacy or white supremacy or male suprem a c y , etc. senses of the word), let us move on. “Decolonizing” religious education means looking at how it can subvert the I’m not just being “cute” when I use certain language. I don’t like the ways in dominating paradigm instead of reflecting it or having a merely reactive which anytime we get urged to stretch our boundaries, we quip about political response to it. This is why if we are going to Queer religious education, we have correctness as a caricature. But I do believe in living intersexionally and queerly. to begin to re-define “age” away from the patriarchal model of the “family”; We can begin this liberatory queering process by looking at some things that which is given a strong political anchoring in the writings of Cicero (in particu- we will have to carefully critique and dismantle to begin to shape our attitudes lar his De Republica), who believed that anything other than patriarchal family di ff e r ently and thereby decolonize our bodies and our minds from the oppres s i v e structure would lead to total social chaos, with women and animals (sic) acting and murde r ous stranglehold in which he t e ro p a t r i a rc h y (the domination of society out! As funny as this might seem, and as outdated as Cicero might appear, th r ough institutionalized/compulsory male heterosexual power) holds all of us, these constructs still govern the ways in which we see children, education, etc. qu e e r / s t r a i g h t / o t h e r wise. But I think that to do this, it is important to take a And I believe that Unitarian-Universalist religious/thea/ological education is homeopathic approach to examining heterop a t r i a r chy and how it specifically called to engage in the work of Interrupting Conversations. influences the processes of thea/ological /religious education. Allopathy contents My use of the idea of interrupting conversations is to look at how thea/ologi- itself with finding a symptom and eradicating it immediately; homeopathy goes cal education has yet to fully acknowledge that race/class/gender/sexuality/spiri- after the root cause of the problem of which the symptomology might only be tuality are not monolithic distinct categories. Our notions of race and ethnicity one manifestation out of many. The process of healing becomes one then of what must include an understanding of the elements of class, gender, sexualities,

18 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 19 geography, spiritualities that go into the shaping of notions of race; how race, stand that many of us are living as though our lives were someone else’s occu- gender, sexuality, geography, spiritualities go into the shaping of notions of class; pied territories. We might not believe or accept certain things that are going on how race, class, sexualities, geography are factors and facets of the shaping of in the world around us, but we rarely challenge them for fear of the conse- gender; how the demonizing of the dark leads to the war against women and quences for us and for those for whom we care. Much of the tensions, personal their bodies from the Inquisition until the beginning of the dismantling of and communal, with which we live, are, I believe, rooted in this colonization. women’s reproductive rights is connected to the masculinization of the healing Colonization, the forced imposing of a certain way of thinking, of being, of industry, to the hardening of Christian religious dogma in northern Europe, to moving in the world and the subtle and systematic removal of all that it per- the driving out of the Goddess, to the destruction of the Earth, to the mass ceives as a threat to its project, makes us doubt the value of our own work when killing of kweers of all colors, is connected to the expulsion of the Dark Other, it goes against the grain of the dominating paradigm. i.e. the expulsion of Muslims and Jews from Spain, is connected to the Afrikan Teresa Cordova, in her essay “Power and Knowledge: Colonialism in the slave trade and the invasions of the Americas, Asia, and the Pacific Islands, Academy” (in Living Chicana Theory), reminds us of how colonization can even where indigenous peoples , Afrikans, and Asians were enslaved and massacred kill our spiritualities, poison our relationships. Its roots go so deeply that it is (and continue to fuel a fear of brown-skinned immigrants and the brutal mur- sometimes difficult for us to imagine that we can re-shape the discourse. Why? dering of dark-skinned peoples, women, kweers, etc.) because they were consid- Fundamentally, because hegemony is the power of the dominating discourse to ered to be like women: incarnations of evil ; incarnations of unbridled lust; like convince everyone that the interests of the few in power are really the interests women, they were considered to be too connected to the body and to sex; and of all. Brute force need not be used to attain this goal, nor even blatant efforts where the earth was destroyed because like women, the earth was considered to to sway public opinion. It goes on through the economy, through billboards and be wild and needing to be dominated; like dark-skinned peoples, it needed to be TV programs, through curricula in schools; it unfolds itself in ways that lead us dominated and controlled. This interlocking vortex became reflected in our lan- to believe that the desires of the discursive regime are indeed ours. Thus, they guage, where all that was evil was “dark” and vice-versa. The Dark Other was come to be taken for granted. Hegemony is important because the capacity to soon not only people with brown skin, but anyone who was other: people living influence the thought of the colonized is by far the most sustained and potent with disabilities, women, kweers, etc. operation of the dominating discourse. This leads to the fragmentation and The perception of this profound level of interconnectedness, of the ways in comparmentalization of our lives. And it goes on every day in countless ways. I which religious/thea/ological education has historically benefitted from all of have many and frightening epiphanies of this when I go to the movies with my the above, the ways in which it helped to shape these horrors and the ways in 5 year old: I have to try to counter the heterosupremacist/able-bodied suprema- which it grows out of them must be taken seriously if we are to truly engage in cist/U.S. supremacist, male supremacist,etc. images that are constantly being the work of decolonizing. And not just decolonizing in academic ways, but projected into the world. Can a holistic, global, all-encompassing, multilayered acknowledging the crucial role of this if we are to engage in truly prophetic thea/ological religious education, a hypostagogy, help interrupt/disrupt this ministries. How can ministry no longer take into consideration the spiritually hegemony? I believe so. deleterious effects of all forms of colonization on the very souls of all peoples? Nevertheless, our participation in this hegemony happens on deep levels of Fanon, for whatever postmodern objections one might have to certain aspects of our consciousness, as we believe, as we have been taught, that there is indeed a his work, gets at the psycho-spiritual consequences of colonization in his work norm from which many of us are standard or nonstandard deviations. Lennard J. Black Skins, White Masks. Colonization is dangerous to all, but it has particularly Davis, in the essay “Constructing Normalcy” in the Disability Studies Reader (pp. deleterious effects on colonized peoples, reaching into the very depths of our 9–10) points out that the word “normal” as “constituting, conforming to, not beings and our relational spaces, creating what the Korean thea/ologians refer to deviating or different from, the common type or standard, regular, usual” only as Han, that flattened-out, hollow feeling of a crushed-down spirit. enters into usage in English around 1840. Before that, it meant “perpendicular.” If we use the Fanonian analysis of the psychopathology of racism and colo- The word “norm” in the contemporary sense has only been used since around nialism as he lays them out in Black Skin, White Masks, we are helped to under- 1855, and “normality” and “normalcy” appeared in 1849 and 1857, respectively.

20 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 21 So, between 1840 and 1860, we see the concept of the “norm” entering into the country that you are either black or white. Any other group has to find its own ideational framework of the English language. The social process of disabling place and is ultimately defined as being identified with black or white. Some of arrived with industrialization and with the complex of discourses and practices us just disappear into the “other” box. In this country, which is not separated that are connected to late 18th- and 19th-century concepts of so-called race, from what goes on in the rest of the world, we are an entire fluid spectrum of class, gender, nationality, criminality, sexual identity, etc. racial identities, products of generations of mestizaje/metissage. We are a Along with the concept of the norm, come those of “deviations” and Creolized country, yet we refuse to acknowledge where our lines and our lives “extremes.” Applying this concept of the norm to the human body then creates overlap. We have spent centuries not talking about “race,” trying to exist as the notion of a “deviant” body, of bodies that do not conform to the norm. though it weren’t there, yet few have been bold enough to hold up the very Soon the poor, people with disabilities and people labeled as criminals all notion of race as being an invention with a very traceable history. There are so- became connected in peoples’ thinking. Of course, race and ethnicity would not called “white” people who are actually not really “white”; nevertheless, they be far behind: A U.S. eugenicist, Charles Davenport, feared that the influx of have not been allowed access to their true history, because of the erasing power European immigrants would make the U.S. population “darker in pigmentation, of white supremacy, of shame. To dismantle racism, the very notion of “white- smaller in stature … more given to crimes of larceny, assault, murder, rape, and ness” must be deconstructed. This interrupts fictions of “racial purity”; fictions sex-immorality.” of the “common type.” The definition of whiteness has changed throughout the One of the greatest acts of resistance and decolonization for our holistic reli- years in U.S. history, as well as the criteria by which people are given the gious education is to move beyond either/or (binary) thinking. We are often supreme honor of being assigned to this category. There were times when Irish, trapped in the belief that there really is a wall, that there really is a norm. So we Russian, Southern. Europeans, European Jews, South Asians, Arabs, etc. were talk about heart vs. head, when neither can function without the other. We talk not considered to be “white.” However, lest any of these groups be tempted to about body vs. head; so far as I know, the head is part of the body. Or we pit coalesce with other people of colors and challenge “white” hegemony, they were humanist against spiritual as though the two were mutually exclusive! gradually assimilated into the great white host. More and more, we witness the phenomenon of people who become Either/or thinking erases millions of people. It sets up mixed-heritage or mul- Unitarian Universalist while maintaining another religious affiliation. Race and tiracial people to have to make a choice to identify with only one group, as gender, for example, invested with particular meanings, are categories created by opposed to being able to define ourselves as we choose, while still acknowledg- human beings (men, to be specific) to support and reinforce their economic and ing our place within the people of color communities. This is an important fact social power. We should be able to realize that, for example, Asian and Jewish for UU religious/thea/ological education to take into consideration, because or Latina and Black or Jewish and Arab or sex radical and living with disabili- many in the generations coming up in the UUA are of mixed heritage and/or ties are not necessarily mutually exclusive categories; that indeed, each category are living in cross-cultural settings. So now, some mixed-heritage people begin must be understood in a way that transcends any kind of monolithic, norma- to challenge a purely black/white way of seeing “race” while making it clear that tivizing definition of it. Why can’t we find Passover cards in Spanish? The just because we offer this new way of understanding things, it is not necessary to assumption at Hallmark (and elsewhere) is that there are no Spanish-speaking think that we will abandon communities of color in times of oppression. This is Jews, just as there is no such thing as Black Spanish-speaking people, or South still difficult to understand for people who had to build their racial/ethnic iden- Asian Jewish queers. tities in relation to the binary racial wall. Won’t we just take away from all that We can hold more than two things at a time in creative, dynamic tension. has been gained on the basis of this racial wall? And if there is no more wall, This will affect how we approach race, gender, class, embodiment, sexualities, what will become of us? spiritualities, etc.; it will influence how we can show how they interconnect and The same holds true for bisexuals: We are not confused; we are not fence-sit- intersect constantly. ters (because maybe there really is no fence!). But we do refuse to accept the par- We are caught in ways of viewing “race” that we did not create, but that we adigm of monosexuality that says that you are either gay or straight. We choose uphold by not analyzing and questioning. We have bought into the idea in this to challenge with our bodies and our lives that way of thinking and to define

22 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 23 ourselves in the ways in which we choose while acknowledging our place in the old people, or immigrants, or people living with no health care. We might be queer communities that we will not abandon in times of oppression. Trans- ma r ginalized, we might be oppressed and alienated, we might be socially erased, gendered people are not in disorder. The disorder comes from a society that is we might be historically suffocated, but we are not mi n o r i t i e s , and we need to stop limited to a binary construction of gender and sexuality: You’re a man or a using that term to describe ourselves, and when others use it to describe us, we woman, as many would say. As transgender activist/theorist/deity Leslie need to let them know that that does not work for us. Every time I hear someone Feinberg says in hir book Transliberation, trans people are not saying that they say “sexual minorities,” I have to ask who is the majority? Not to get lost in queer want the categories of man and woman to disappear; they’re challenging us to th e o r y, but it is important to say that if we challenge the notion of a heteros e x u a l open up to far more rich and complex possibilities. This interrupts the fiction of ma j o r i t y , if we interrupt a minoritizing discourse, if we acknowledge the fluidities gender/sex purity. Some of us are differently-gendered, differently-sexed. What and slippages of sexualities, then there can’t be a ma j o r i t y ! But the fiction of the you “see,” is not always what you “get”! Let’s make more pronouns; this is about “common type” allows a small heterocracy to perpetuate its heteron o rm a t i v e self-determination, self-definition. morality and to strangle all of us with it. We must decolonize our lives, for our Oppression around gender-expression also plays a very prominent role in bo dies and spirits and dreams and passions are no one’s occupied territories. Many teen suicides. If we are honest, most of us in this room have experienced some will say that we are angry: We are. Politeness can and has killed us; if we have form of oppression around gender expression. We weren’t acting as we were sup- hope, it is hope tempered by memory. We know the history of abuse to which we posed to in a world in which gender expression and sexualities are often seen as have been submitted if we are trans people or young or of the wrong religion or the same thing and problematized in the same way. living with disabilities or poor or … or an immigrant or a woman or a sissy boy or And we know that transgendered people will not abandon queer communi- a tomboy girl: Our lives have little value in the eyes of many. ties in times of trouble, for if it were not for them, not only in the streets at None of us is just like everybody else: We don’t have to be like everybody Stonewall, but every day that they step outside into the streets of a transpho- else to be guaranteed the right to safe and whole existences. We want to create bic/homohating world, where would we be now? As intersexed or differently a world in which everyone is able to discover and define and live who they are, sexed people point out, how “natural” can mutually exclusive definitions of who they are becoming, with the option to change several times throughout the male and female be if they have to be defended by the violent, nonconsensual course of their lives. Now that’s revolutionary religious education! genital surgery that intersexed people have been historically forced to undergo. When we affirm these identities, we are not saying that lesbian and gay is Part II bad; we are acknowledging how everything had to be packed into those cate- In the spirit of what Frantz Fanon writes in Black Skins/White Masks, it seems gories vis-a-vis the wall. We are not denying anyone the right to identify as les- that sometimes, and on very deep levels of the unconscious, if we are over- bian and gay; we’re just opening up how big queer really is. I, as a recovering whelmed to such a degree by the desire to be like everyone else, it is because we biphobe, know how painful this can be for those of us who invested in the bina- live in a society that makes this type of inferiority complex possible, in a society ry system. I was one of the first to scream that there was no such thing as bisex- that derives its very stability from the perpetuation of this complex, from mak- uality: It was too frightening for me to consider that I had been made to believe ing it look like a survival tactic, in a heteropatriarchal society that proclaims that I had to make a choice that was actually a false choice. But I can also under- that the world is and must be heterosexual and that compulsory heterosexuality’s stand how it can be profoundly frightening for some of our straight allies to real- display of privilege and power should be the norm. In other words, we should ize that there is not a wall separating straight from queer/masculine from femi- not be faced with the dilemma Turn straight or disappear, but we should be able nine/, etc. This leads to very new and exciting ways of teaching about gender, to take cognizance of a rich variety of possibilities of existence, of wholeness, of sex, sexualities, etc. in the context of religious/thea/ological education. This will life. This hetero-colonization of our lives, our minds, our dreams, our bodies, is also mean new forms of advocacy, new forms of worship … the work of those who would tell us not only this, but who also say, be men or We are not minorities, neither as kweer people, nor as women, nor as people disappear; be “able-bodied” or disappear; be rich or disappear; turn white or dis- of color, nor as poor people, or people living with disabilities, or young people, or appear; the same people who say that we must not speak Spanish, Korean

24 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 25 Vietnamese, Ebonix, Punjabi, American Sign Language, Hmong, Arabic, position in which we frame the discourse. And we call upon our white sisters Amharic, Tigrinya; that we must speak English Only or disappear! and brothers to understand that it is systemic racism/white supremacy that divides us, not our challenging of it. We can grow to understand how our expe- Part III riences, our realities are different without disrespect for each other. Our queered and queering thea/ological/religious education will go even fur- We kweers of color will no longer be erased in the white queer world or in ther in recognizing that some of us are as proud of being First Nations/Native the straight POC communities, and we will be challenged and informed by the American/Aboriginal, Middle Eastern (or Southwest Asian), Pacific islander, history of engaged struggle by poor, rural, and working-class people (of color and South Asian, Pinoy, Asian, Latina/o, Jewish, Mixed-Heritage/Metis/Mestizo, white), and we will work together, because this is about surviving with our lives. African, Sinti-Roma (erroneously known as “gypsy”) as we are of being kweer, I also believe that it is incumbent upon progressive white people of faith to of being women, of being people living with disabilities, of being environmental begin the work of deconstructing “whiteness,” of denormativizing whiteness in warriors. These things are inseparable for us; we cannot and will not pull them much the same way that we will have to engage in the in-depth work of denor- apart without doing irreparable violence to our very bodies, souls, and minds. mativizing the norms! This means looking at how the notion of a monolithic And we challenge our various people of color communities to dismantle mono- “whiteness” has erased many people’s heritage: They were once “Sicilian” or lithic/essentializing/normative notions of “race” that equate “kweerness” with “Galician” or “Bosnian”; now they’re just “white.” This work of deconstructing “whiteness” and selling out to white people accompanied by the loss of cultural and denormativizing whiteness might also help us to understand the subtle and “authenticity.” Not only are there multiplicities of kweernesses, or multiplicities not-so-subtle ways in which monolithic/”flattening-out” notions of whiteness of living with disabilities, or multiplicities of being environmental warriors, or are at work in some “queer” mentalities that seek assimilation and identification multiplicities of being women, but there are also multiplicities of pacific islander with the dominating culture. experiences and identities, of latina/o identities (i.e. being a so-called black How does this work in relation to the Radical Right? What are the ways in Puerto Rican living in the South Bronx is a very different experience from that which the Right uses constructions of “whiteness” as being synonymous with of being an upper-class Argentinian “heterosexual” temporarily able-bodied man “virtue” and heteronormativity, etc? of German and Italian descent which is, in turn, different from that of being It will be important for white queers to begin to deal with this and not just Chinese Cuban Jewish lesbian (or “dyke” as my friends would say) living with exculpate themselves by constantly looking at “how homophobic” those people HIV; there are multiplicities of First Nations experiences and identities (mixed of colour are. It is also about asking the question of whether white queers are blood, “pure” blood; unregistered, etc.; multiplicities of Asian and Middle actually interested in not just acknowledging their power and privilege, but Eastern experiences and identities; class, gender, geography, displacement, lan- looking at whether they really intend to dismantle it. If you are a white lesbian/ guage, ability/disability, religion, etc. all factor into our experiences. gay/bisexual/transgendered/intersexed/queer/questioning person, I am sure that Multiplicities of blacknesses: Some are Spanish-speaking, others kreyol-speak- you notice how rarely you see images of yourself in the dominating culture. How ing; practicing many different religions; mixed-heritages and mixities: African - does that make you feel on a daily basis? If you are a heterosexual person, how Native American; African-Asian; African-Caribbean; African-Latina/o; do you feel when everything around you refers constantly to queers and you find African-Pacific Islander; African Jewish; African Arab; African European, and yourself all of a sudden, and maybe for the first time in your lives, on the mar- so on. Let’s not provide boxes into which people must fit. Let us let each other gins? Those of us who are lgbtiqq of colour are not only not represented in the show up with all our pieces. dominating culture, but we are also only rarely represented in queerspace. And And those of us who are kweers of color do not have to make a choice when we are, it is often in ways that are highly problematic. between being people of color and being kweer, any more than “straight” people If you know how social erasure makes you feel, it should not be difficult to see of color have to make choices between their identities as people of color and how it makes others feel, especially when those “others” are queer folk living being straight. The same holds true for any of us. The problem is whether or not with disabilities, or who are incarcerated in the prison-industrial complex. When we stand in a position of strength, a position in which we define ourselves, a all is said and done, it’s really ju s t about learning how to “Connect the Dots!”

26 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 27 Part IV our ethics of liberation and justice; where we can say that we have our own tra- I would propose that we begin to look at life In t e r s e x i o n a l l y , where we finally ditional family values that come out of our traditions of resistance and struggle, admit that there is no such thing as being “just” one thing. Where being kweer our own notions of family (where family can be one, two, or more); where we also means being a butch Pilipina bi-dyke single mother with HIV who risks los- fight for the legal recognition of kweer unions, but where we also fight for all ing custody of her child for a whole host of reasons; where being kweer means relational configurations to have the same rights and access. Ideally (“if this acknowledging the particular issues of kweer women of colour in their strug g l e were my dream,” as my colleague Dr. Jeremy Taylor would say), I would like for against multiple, interlocking oppressions. Where kweer means acknowledging government and religious institutions to discontinue their practice of “legaliz- that it is impossible to understand these issues without some form of class-analysis ing” relationships and place their energies into seeing that all of us have access of the socio-political -economic factors contributing to sexism (understood as sys- to housing, health care, insurance, education, etc. without being dependent on temic oppression and not just impolite men), as compounded by white suprem a c y . a relationship. For without sexism and gender oppression, heterosexism could hardly exist. In t e r s e x i o n a l i t i e s wh e r e we understand that adding bisexual, or transgendered , In t e r s e x i o n a l i t i e s wh e r e we acknowledge that race/class/gender/sexuality/spirituality/ or intersexed, or questioning to our names is not just a matter of creating ever- em b o diment are not monolithic, distinct categories; where we as kweers can see gr owing acronyms for our letterheads, but a way of showing that we are moving notions of race that must include an understanding of the elements of class, gen- to w a r d a diffe r ent way of acting and seeing things, a way that challenges the de r , sexualities, geography, embodiment, spirituality that go into the shaping of monosexist ways of perceiving sexualities and genders in the dominating culture. notions of race; how race, gender, sexuality, geography, embodiment, spirituality Whether we like it or not, and no matter how much we think that we are assimi- go into the shaping of notions of class; how race, sexuality, geography, embodi - lated, our very lives are a big threat to that great wall of either/or! Some of us ment, spirituality are factors and facets of the shaping of gender. fought hard to carve out identities as lesbians or gays: We weren ’ t in a place to Intersexionalities where we strive to understand the fluidity of desire and the question that wall. We made an uncomfortable peace with it. Now here come fluidity of gender, where we offer ways of transcending either/or thinking and the bisexuals, the transgendered and intersexed people challenging that wall. look at and delight in complexities. Where we understand that if what we said And we had accepted the existence of the wall, of the fence; now some of our about how notions of gender and gender expression have been and are being own are saying that the wall doesn’t even exist? It’s painful, it’s time-consuming; shaped by a multiplicity of factors, then there must be more than just two gen- it ’ s brain-wracking; it brings up all our issues of abandonment, of betrayal, of ders, where male does not equal superior; where gender expression and desire wanting desperately to be “accepted”; someone’s confused (not us!); but if we are don’t have to all fall out neatly along a nice, clean either/or binary divide. all to survive with all our lives, let the decolonizing begin. In t e r s e x i o n a l i t i e s ca n Where freedom is also freedom about gender expressions, because if we are not then spill out and kweer heterosexual identity, for heterosexual identity exists free there, are we really free? That if we still labor under someone else’s binary only by virtue of defining itself as the norm over against queer deviation. But if notions of gender, we are still prisoners of a system of socially-constructed gen- th e r e really is no norm, then there aren ’ t really any deviations. We’ r e all then der apartheid. just a big mix of possibilities of desire just waiting to happen! Intersexionalities where we understand that spiritualities are about the art of Let us remember that not everyone in the world views sexualities in the wholeness, the politics of wholeness, the aesthetics of wholeness, where the extremely limited ways in which they are viewed in the dominating culture of erotic and the spiritual constantly inform each other, where sexspiritualities and the United States. In many cultures there is a wide variety of forms of sexual spiritsexualities are sex-positive and body-affirming. They are profoundly about expression; unfortunately, because these sexual expressions don’t “identify” the business of transcending apparent oppositions. They point us toward right themselves in Western terms, we sometimes rush in and do the job: raising the relationships with our Mother, the Earth, with our other animal sisters and rainbow flag and claiming those sexual expressions and gender expressions as brothers, and with one another. Justice and equality are crucial parts of whole- being “Just the same as …” without bothering to acknowledge the complex and ness, of spiritualities. These spiritualities also shape our moral discourse, inform intricate cosmologies that they reflect. We can’t just appropriate the names our values of respect, mutuality, subjectivity, agency, liberation, intentionality; without really understanding what they are all about. Let us not forget that

28 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 29 many of these were banned by Christian, colonial authorities who condemned have sex? The nonexistent norm? Erotophobic discourses and practices provide them as primitive, sinful, perverted behavior; these were “perversions” for which the tools for marginalizing, trivializing, and at the same time, policing and crim- people were killed in state-sanctioned murders. In some cases, these practices inalizing sex in our lives. Witness the difficulties that we have had around talk- were completely destroyed in the colonial period. ing about sex in HIV prevention and education work! And look at how it has In t e r s e x i o n a l i t i e s pr ovides ways for us to examine how our colonized mentality made us censor the very expressions of our souls, our works of art. has made us think that if we deny the centrality of sexuality in our context, in Many of us have been told that we are incarnations of evil because we like our sexperiences, in our lives, in our thoughts, in our dreams, in our crea t i v i t y , sex. As bodies, some of us struggle against the image of us as too libidinal, too that if we trivialize it, then we will become more acceptable to the heteroc r a c y . lust-driven, too sexually criminal, and this struggle sometimes has given us ways Fr om childhood to older age, a “norm” of sexual development has been defined of viewing sex and bodies that challenge erotophobia. We know that our queer and all possible deviations described and proscribed. It is not surprising that bo dies have always blurred the public/private split, have always blurred the fo r ms of sexualities that do not have rep r oduction as their sole purpose have boundaries of personal/political. When your body is on the line, you know that been so violently attacked because they seem to celebrate sex for the sake of sex! you are transgressing the public/private split by your very existence. When you Erotophobia, the fear of the erotic and its power, with its roots in the partic- can be arrested because of what you do with your body , you know that your body ular varieties of Euro-Puritanism that came along with the European invaders of is political. When the dominating culture expends incredible amounts of time, what was to become the United States, has played a powerful role in shaping mo n e y , and energy controlling and policing our bodies and the ways we decide to our minds, in contributing to our dis-ease. Erotophobia intersects with white use them, it is clear that our bodies are political. And that brings us back to the supremacy in the investment of peoples of colour as the exotic/erotic other — centrality of sex in our life experiences and to the primacy of the body . people who are seen as the very incarnations of the erotic (therefore, of evil), Bodies matter; in the ways that the dominating culture has organized its people who are sexually dangerous and therefore in need of domination. If we meaning and conferred and confirmed identities, we have been led to believe take a critical look at erotophobia, we can see the historical links between the that just rich, white, male, heterosexual, temporarily able-bodied bodies matter war against women and their bodies, from the controlling of women’s reproduc- (or those that resemble them the most closely); that these are the perfect bodies tive rights all the way back to centuries of “witch burnings” and how that was that really matter. But all bodies matter; not numbers, not statistics. Bodies mat- connected to the hardening of Western Christian religious dogma in northern ter: not ball-gowned and tuxedoed and academically-attired bodies matter, but Europe, and the expulsion of the Other (Muslims and Jews ) from Spain. This, just plain old bodies matter. Dead bodies matter, dying bodies matter, infected in turn, is connected to the invasions of the Americas, Asia, and the Pacific bodies matter, disabled bodies matter, decolonizing bodies matter, decolonized Islands, to the African slave trade, and to the massacre of indigenous peoples, bodies matter, poor bodies matter, injectable drug-using bodies matter, commer- the destruction of sacred arts, and the decimation of the environment. cial sex-workers’ bodies matter; ghetto bodies matter; projects bodies matter; Interrupting erotophobia, as an integral part of the process of decolonization, trailer-park bodies matter; reservation bodies matter; colored bodies matter; is thus profoundly transgressive in that it challenges many intersecting oppres- working-class bodies matter; children’s bodies matter; women’s bodies matter; sions (white supremacy, hatred of women, able-bodied supremacy, heteronorma- public assistance bodies matter; immigrants’ bodies matter; prisoners’ bodies tivity, etc.) that have roots in erotophobia. matter; HIV bodies matter; cervical cancer bodies matter; breast cancer bodies Erotophobia leads us to trivialize all that is just too blatantly erotic. It makes matter; hypertension bodies matter; sickle-cell bodies matter; diabetes bodies us say, “Queer boys are shallow and silly: It’s always all just about dick.” Bisexual matter; prostate cancer bodies matter; homeless bodies matter; people and BDSM/leather people are silly psychopaths; they’re preoccupied with lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgendered/intersexed/queer/questioning bodies matter; nasty sex.” Erotophobia keeps us from talking about sexualities of young people, Earth’s body matters; bodies matter. lest we be identified as perverters of youth. And we rarely question that. Eroto- Intersexionalities challenge us to show that disability does not mean incom- phobia also tells us that old people are not supposed to have sex. People living plete, that the tendency to equate disability with tragedy keeps us from strug- with disabilities are not thought of as sexual beings. Who , then, is allowed to gling together for justice and access for people living with disabilities. Disability

30 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 31 makes us confront issues of access and accessibility, which are issues for all of us, able-bodied privilege is overwhelming: Everything is constructed for the tem- in many differing contexts. Disability makes us address its social aspects such as porarily able-bodied as the norm. poverty, class, isolation, alienation, social erasure, marginalization; makes us When will our the/aologies recognize that even temporarily able-bodied per- understand that bodies are not just flesh-and-bone bodies, but also bones-and- sons don’t really fit the image of the perfect body? Bodies of persons living with braces bodies, bones-and-wheelchair bodies, deaf bodies, blind bodies. disabilities are not just bodies of flesh and bone, they are bones-and-braces bod- Nancy Eiesland, a thea/ologian living with disability, in her groundbreaking ies, they are bones-and-wheelchair bodies. Deliberate attention to the physical book The Disabled God: Toward a Liberating Theology of Disability, shows us Jesus body is necessary to prevent it from being socially erased or lost under notions as a disabled God who embodied impaired hands and feet and pierced side and of normative embodiment. People still equate disability with mental problems; who was the image of G-D. Jesus does not create a new normative power. G-d is people living with disabilities are often considered to be less intelligent. present with persons living with disabilities at the margins, and, like OYA, Disability make us confront issues of access and accessibility that are issues for transforming. The disabled G-d struggles for justice among people living with all of us, in many different contexts. Disability does not mean incomplete; dif- disabilities and an end to estrangement from our bodies. ferent is not dangerous; different is not bad! And this leads us to looking at the centrality of the body. Rehabilitation did not address social aspects of disability such as poverty, iso- In Christian “theology,” the body is often explicitly denied in importance lation, alienation, social erasure, marginalization; it substituted professional con- and then explicitly constructed through the necessity of only “perfect” bodies trol for individual self-determination for people living with disabilities. Our representing and approaching God. Acts of charity, especially in policies of thea/ologies have not looked at the diversity of disabilities. They have really rehabilitation for persons living with disabilities, are rooted in the belief that dealt with disability in one of three ways: sin-disability; virtuous suffering: tem- persons with disabilities are “helped” through strategies of paternalistic care to porary affliction now for heavenly rewards later. Suffering as means of purifica- try to adjust, so that they can be as much like temporarily able-bodied people, tion and gaining spiritual merit not only promotes link between sin and disabili- thereby reassuring the latter that nothing will upset their hegemony. Romantic ty, but it also implies that those who never experience a cure continue to harbor tales of “overcomers” deny the reality of discriminatory practices and belittling sin somewhere in their lives. Charity, taking care of those poor people, segre- images and structures of oppression. In the Yoruba religious tradition, two of the gates persons living with disabilities and pushes them out of the life of society. orisha (manifestations of the Divine), Babaluaiye and Osanyin, are both depict- The uncritical use of the Bible,, as we know from women, kweers, POC, to ed as living with disabilities. The disabling theology of most Christians has address concerns of people living with disabilities perpetuates marginalization equated disabilities with sin. From purity and Holiness codes to Jesus’ healings, and discrimination in the name of religion. The refusal to address the concerns the implicit theological assumption has equated perfect bodies with wholeness of people living with disabilities is to re-inscribe oppressive notions of the per- of spirit. Disabilities could also be elevated to virtuous suffering when, and only fect body, which can lead to fat-phobia, severe looksism, etc. and to perpetuate when, they could be spoken of as trials of obedience. Such teachings allow one marginalization and discrimination. If our new revolutionary queered religious of two options for those persons living with disabilities: miraculous healing or education can get this, then we will see new dispositions of our worship spaces; heroic suffering. our language will start to change, and we won’t use blinded and paralyzed when The Disabled Divine with us now represents full personhood as fully compat- we really want to say that we were overwhelmed or shut down by something. ible with the experience of disability. Any of us, now or in the future, may find And our arts will reflect it, too. As Eli Clare says in her book Exile and Pride: ourselves living with disabilities. That is why I insist on using the term tem- Disability, Queerness, and Liberation (p.123): “Gender reaches into disability; dis- porarily able-bodied; it shows that the “wall” is really not that solid. We strive ability wraps around class; class strains against abuse; abuse snarls into sexuality; to maintain the identities of these walls to protect ourselves from what would sexuality folds on top of race … everything finally piling into a single human threaten our image of ourselves as being ideal. People with disabilities are still body. To write about any aspect of identity, any aspect of the body, means writ- the butt of jokes; many things in life are often not accessible; society considers ing about this entire maze.” that persons with disabilities should stay out of sight, at home. Temporarily In 1858, Sojourner Truth was challenged to prove that she was a woman by

32 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 33 publicly showing her breasts. The white women present were shocked by the that we are back at the starting point. In order to move wisely into the future, very idea, but Sojourner said that the shame was theirs, not hers, for she had the interconnectedness of these issues will have to be constantly addressed. This nursed many white children — to the exclusion of her own — with those very might mean that we will have to develop much more complex and complicated breasts. This was such a powerful act of resistance and decolonization precisely approaches to prevention, education, and health care, but is there really any because she did it in a context that said that Black women were sexually other solution? With a perspective rooted in intersexionalities, we can come to depraved and that white women were pure, pious, and virtuous. Sojourner understand how injectable drug-users can also be kweer; where women with Truth, who deconstructed with her very body, showed that she did not have to HIV also means lesbian/bi/trans women. And that when we talk about HIV in conform to Euro-Puritanical notions of purity and modesty to be who she want- the prison-industrial complex, we are also talking about queer people (many of ed to be. She could have reacted by not showing her breasts, thinking that this whom are poor and of colour) in the prison system. Not just situationally, but public display of nudity would simply confirm what white people thought about people who went in queer and who will come out of prison queer. Being kweer women of African descent. She was not ashamed to show her body, even in the prison-industrial complex pretty much means being completely erased though by showing her naked breasts she would only confirm in the minds of from the consciousness of the queer communities, not to mention from that of some her sexual depravity and deviance; she was, after all, a Black woman. Yet the dominating culture. And it means living in a place and in ways where it is she used her very body to shatter the hegemony of erotophobia. difficult to survive with our lives. Through Intersexionalities, we are moving toward understanding that we live Ac c o r ding to an article titled, “The Death Penalty: \AIDS and Medical in a world of fluid constructions of sexualities, desire, and gender; that many Ca r e in California Prisons” which appeared in the August 13, 1998, issue of San people have sex with all genders, in varying and dazzling relational configura- Francisco Frontiers, a local queer publication, the California Department of tions. This should shape how we see the many faces and facets of HIV preven- Co r rections held more than 155,000 prisoners in its system as of 1997. It also tion and education. The process of decolonization allows us to see that HIV is identifies only 1,500 prisoners with HIV/AIDS. However, according to Judy not a separated and isolated issue, but that community development and Gr eenspan, the chair of the HIV in Prison Committee of California Prison empowerment are part of HIV prevention and education. Why does it some- Focus, even the Department of Corrections’ own studies conducted with the times seem that HIV-prevention and education efforts have not been able to do state Department of Health Services revealed a serop r evalence rate of about 3 what they set out to do? pe r cent, which equals approximately 4,000 HIV-positive prisoners. There are, In The Birth of the Clinic/An archaeology of medical perception, Michel Foucault ho w e v e r , according to Gree n s p a n ’ s findings, approximately 10,000 prisoners liv- writes: “Let us call tertiary spatialisation all the gestures by which, in a given ing with HIV. Needless to say, they receive absolutely substandard medical care. society, a disease is circumscribed, medically invested, isolated, divided up into Prisoners relate how they are deprived of their HIV medications when prison closed, privileged, regions, or distributed throughout cure centres, arranged in doctors feel that their attitudes are too negative. One doctor at Corcoran has the most favourable way … it brings into play a system of options that reveals been known to refuse to give vitamins to an HIV-positive prisoner. Furth e rm o re , the way in which a group, in order to protect itself, practices exclusions, estab- pain medications are often systematically denied to women and men prisoners lishes the forms of assistance, and reacts to poverty and to the fear of with HIV since it is believed that they are all drug users. HIV-positive prisoners death.”(pp.15-16) state that when they are relocated from one prison to another, their medications The deeper issue, again from the perspective of tertiary spatialization, is that ar e stopped when they enter a new prison. This seems to be especially the case HIV is not a separate, isolated issue. HIV can no longer be seen in isolation when it comes to combination therapies including protease inhibitors; this, of from other issues such as the prison-industrial complex, homelessness, sexism, course, creates the context for HIV to develop resistance to these particular med- heterosupremacy, anti-immigration, erotophobia,(Alameda county ban on ications. Others state that those prisoners who are on combination therapies are fotos), racism, classism, ableism, ageism, domestic violence. Especially in the often subjected to 7–14 day prescription delays when they run out of their med- communities of colour, HIV represents an entire complex of issues. We have ications. They are req u i r ed to request a new prescription every time they have consistently avoided dealing with these issues, and that is why it often seems exhausted their supply of medications. This, of course, creates the kind of con-

34 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 35 text that leads to HIV developing drug resistance. Prisoners who try to crea t e felons, with those who are brown or black being extremely vulnerable. Since hidden supplies of HIV medications so that they will not run out are punished. kweer youth are at even more risk of being kicked out of their homes by their Fo u r - to six-week waits to get medical attention are not unusual. pa r ents than heterosexual youth, they are much more in danger of living on the The situation for women prisoners with HIV is even more grim: According to st r eet and ending up in jail. Even for youth who are not homeless, but especially Gr eenspan, at the Central California Wom e n ’ s Facility, the only on-call physi- if they are brown-skinned, the expansion of what constitutes “gang activity” cian is a ret i r ed pediatrician whose information about HIV/AIDS is limited to (such as wearing the same color clothes) could give a racist-homophobic-trans- what he has learned from the prisoners. Guards with minimal medical training phobic police officer the ability to arrest young people for no valid rea s o n . do triage; this means that women prisoners with HIV are often misdiagnosed and Finally, Intersexionalities where we understand that our religious education op p o r tunistic infections go untreated. Some prisoners die simply because their has to be multi-issue/multifocal/multilayered because we are multi-issue people. medical complaints are ignored; they are often sent back from the infirma r y with Anti-imperialism, anticolonialism have to be part of our intersexional thea/olo- their problem never having been addressed. Women prisoners in California are gies, for through the power of global corporate capitalism, what happens to any basically in a system where there is no medical care. At the Central Californi a of us in the U.S. is tied to what happens in Brazil, in Cuba, in Nepal, in Wom e n ’ s Facility and the Valley State Prison for Women, the one and only Palestine, in the Fiji Islands; issues of political prisoners in the U.S. and prison- infectious-disease physician does not do medical exams. Women hardly ever (if ers of war in the U.S. (Native/Black/Latina/o/Asian/Pacific Islander/Arab, etc., at all) get to see a gynecologist; this is particularly dangerous since many of the some of who are kweer) are our issues, where the struggle for the restoration of HI V- r elated complications in women affect their uterine system. Being in prison sacred lands (given some of our roles in many traditional societies) is our strug- should not mean that one is subjected to substandard health care; being in prison gle; where labor-union issues, immigration, literacy, unemployment, health care with HIV can become its own death sentence. And the problems are magnified reform, dismantling the state-sanctioned death penalty and the prison-industrial when it comes to issues of transgendered prisoners living with HIV. complex, crimes of violence against women, women’s health issues, access and If the conditions that foster the development of HIV strains that are drug- accessibility for all, single parents, child custody, hunger, homelessness are all of resistant are allowed to persist in prisons, then we are facing new forms of the our issues; Mumia Abu-Jamal is our issue; for the bloodshed in Eritrea is linked death penalty. And this will have an effect on how HIV will develop in the to the bloodshed in South Asia is linked to the bloodshed in parks where general population. This means that our religious/thea/ological education will kweers and especially trans people of color are killed across the U.S. understand that people working in HIV ministries will have to do more than This “queer(y)ing” of religious-thea/ological education, this multifocal, mul- wear red ribbons: It will help us to understand that the work of HIV ministries tilayered approach is an ongoing process. Its implications are legion, for it sug- might be work of advocacy and agitation. This, and the insights learned from gests that what we do in worship reflects and shapes what we do in the class- looking at the history of religious and thea/ological attitudes in times of plague room, which in turn inspires and grounds our actions in the world. The or other epidemics and particularly the role of the poor, will help to shape our resources for this type of education are bountiful. Beyond books and lectures, art, our worship, our politics, our awareness of the power of intersexionalities. there are the resources of the Internet (check out beliefnet.com!); there is the In an intersexionalities perspective, we are challenged to understand how all body of work being produced by all sorts and styles of artists who are engaged in of us are affected by constructions of age; where we are all younger and older this revolutionary process. We live in urgent times; it’s no longer sufficient for than someone else; and that youth issues are all of the abovementioned issues us to just tack on the sexualities unit or the race unit or the class unit. There is and senior issues are also all of the above. The alarmingly high percentage of no such thing as perfection, as arriving at the point where the work is finished. youth suicides that are gender/sexuality oriented exists because many of our We can only continue to do the work, continually discovering new dimensions young people feel that death is the only option for them. How do we allow them of it. May this bring us that sense of awe and wonder of which Sophia Fahs to advocate for themselves? When we hear of teen gangs, how often do we think speaks of finding in children. that the members of those gangs could very well be kweer? In California, Prop . May it also allow us to discover the ways in which we can not only interrupt 21, the “War on Youth” proposition will facilitate the incarceration of youth as hegemonic thea/ological conversations, but also begin to shape new ones. That

36 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 37 is what for me is the most exciting about how we can shape the conversation; not just in reactive ways, but in ways that take into account the multiplicities of human experiences, acknowledging that we all live and move constantly in the in-between spaces, that we are all more than one thing at a time. In the words of Octavia Butler, a contemporary womanist science fiction writer of African descent, in her book, The Parable of the Sower: All that you touch, you change. All that you change, changes you. The only lasting truth is change. G-d is change.

38 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 An Awakened, Compassionate Life in Today’s World Barbara Carlson submitted for a doctoral course at the University of Creation Spirituality, Oakland, California

Cr eation is what the mystic is awakened to, what the prophet fights to sustain.

The molecules of blood in our bodies are identical to the chlorophyll in green plants save for an atom of iron substituting for an atom of magnesium.

The true self is the self in relation to all others and the ‘others’ include all our sisters and br other crea t u r es and all time and all space.

In a world of interdependence there is simply no such thing as private salvation. Matthew Fox

Soul is … that aspect … of the person that expresses her union with the universal orde r (life force) and through it with all being. Dona Marimba Richards

Most of the evil in this world is done by people who do it for good purposes. Krister Stendahl

Do n ’ t look at the teacher; look at what the teacher is looking at. Ana Perez - C h i s t i

What good is it to me if the son of God was born to Mary 1400 years ago but is not born in my person and my culture and in my time? Meister Eckhart

Ev e r y crea t u r e is a word of God and a book about God. Nicholas of Cusa

Th e r e is something godlike about all new beginnings. The Spirit is always there, hovering over the waters. Matthew Fox

They came to Buddha and asked, “Are you a god or a magician or a devil?” “No,” said Buddha. “Well then, what are you?” “I am awake,” said Buddha.

2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 39 N THE “L OVINGKINDNESS MEDIT ATION ” the Buddha begins with lovingkind- beheld this beloved community, which is now ours to make real in this 21st I ness to self, to a beloved other and then to “all sentient beings,” illustrating century of recorded time. In the words of liberation theologian Jose Miranda, the natural progression of compassion. If any of these dimensions are devalued The Eschaton is now! or diminished, then there is an incompleteness of the soul’s journey. Let us begin by preparing ourselves. Preparation requires the discipline of Compassion to others while devaluing self, for example, becomes a “mere act of daily spiritual practice as well as the discipline of careful study so that we might will” without real depth or redemptive power. In the words of a friend (Leslie enter more deeply into our own truth and “the truth of the universe.”1 As Heyboer), “No one can heal anyone else. The best we can do is heal ourselves Thomas Merton, Matthew Fox, and others have pointed out, the scientific as and become a healing presence.” Yet compassion to self without recognizing the well as the spiritual reality of interconnectedness requires deep study of nature, larger dimensions of self/world becomes mere pietism, an exercise in gazing in as well as books. 2 the bottomless pool-pit of Narcissus/narcissism. Matthew Fox has provided a four-path grid for the spiritual journey. The first In this paper I reflect on an awakened, compassionate life in today’s world, path is foundational. It is the Via Positiva. This is the path of affirmation, using the framework outlined by Matthew Fox in Original Blessing (1983) and thanksgiving and ecstasy.3 further elaborated in subsequent texts. (See Bibliography for a complete listing.) This is the path a mother knows when she holds her newborn child The four paths to awakening and fullness of life are the Via Positiva; the Via It is dawn streaking a wild palette of pink in a pale morning sky Negativa; the Via Creativa, and the Via Transformativa. It ’ s the sound of music, the song of a bird First, however, some reflections on today’s world. The touch, the look, the sound of a beloved We live in exciting times, in a global village made ever smaller by the speed It ’ s communion with a kindred soul of electronic communication and technology and marketing. Spring flowers on a high mountain meadow We live in dangerous times made frightful by the prospect of the decimation or The sound of the sea—waves gently caressing the shore even annihilation of the human race if we cannot solve the problems of environ - Bi l l ions of stars grabbing you by the nape of the neck and enveloping you mental pollution, the ongoing destruction of species, global warming, over-p o p u - in night-space mystery lation and the ever-p r esent threat of nuclear contamination and destruction. It ’ s juicy watermelon on a hot day and homemade soup on a blustery one I believe we also live in hope full times, a time when human beings may be Pl a y ing and dancing and creating—a poem, a song, a work of art, a good on the brink of an evolutionary leap to a consciousness of individual identity dinner enjoyed with friends not as an isolated, ego-encapsulated “self” but a holonic self that is deeply inter- Laughter overflowing, giggles, ho ho, ha ha, hee hee! connected and part of a much larger reality, and therefore responsible to that It ’ s work that matters larger reality. This leap also involves some structural (physiological) changes, It ’ s living in the Eternal Now with gratitude unceasing producing a deeper integration of left and right brain function, so that creativi- Via Positiva is giving thanks for every breath, every moment, every grace ty, play and imagination — so long stifled in a mechanistic, positivist, reduc- bestowed on this wild and precious life (Mary Oliver). It is trusting that this is tionist world focused on left brain function—are revitalized, causing us to “see” the time and the place, “Now is the moment for the divine brea k t h r ough.” This and experience the world in new ways, holistic ways. We humans, like all life, realized eschatology breaks forth in a new sense of time, this time, all the time are not “things” but whirling patterns of energy. As Francis Bauer, process theol- th e r e is, this now past-pres e n t - f u t u r e ALL in this moment! In this New Tim e ogy professor at the Franciscan School, used to say, Everything is in motion! th e r e is realization of sacredness, God in all things, all things in God since before The world’s great wisdom traditions, and especially the deep underground the world began, each living crea t u r e from the Great Cosmic Egg, a spark of the river of mysticism (Meister Eckhart) that unites them, have a significant role in light that is the Light of All Worlds. Amen, Forev e r , Hallelujah. Welcome to the birthing a transformed world, the place envisioned by the ancient prophet, Via Positiva. When you find Home there is no place that cannot be home. Amos, where justice rolls down like waters and peace like an ever-flowing Paradoxically, the Children of Light must also accept, endure and embrace stream. The prophets, saints, and visionaries in every age and tradition have the Dark.

40 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 41 Via Negativa is the path of mystery and darkness, of silence and suffering.4 and creatures threatened with extinction, has great power for healing and for The poet May Sarton wrote strengthening awareness at a deep, cellular level that we are connected to all Help us to be the always hopeful life and thus to the suffering of all. From Joanna I also learned the Buddhist ga r deners of the spirit practice of tonglen, breathing the suffering of others — animals, creatures of the who know that without darkness sea, victims of war and violence and oppression — breathing it in, through the nothing comes to birth heart, and out again into the healing of the world. Breathing out is crucial as without light because the heart is open and the pain is felt deeply but not held onto. If the nothing flowers. pain were held in, it would quickly become toxic to mind, body, spirit. Without darkness … without going deeply into the pain of being human, as Experiencing pain and then letting go enables us to marshal the resources to well as the joy, we cannot become whole persons. So much in modern life and take effective action, paving the way for the Via Creativa and the Via our social fabric conspires to keep us anesthetized from our pain. Caught up in Transformativa. the frenzy of consumerism and the quest for eternal youth — facelifts, eyelifts, The Via Creativa is the path of play, the path of co-creation, of the divine butt-lifts and dozens of absurdly expensive potions — there is no time for empti- artist in all people. In that great fireball of creation, all the cosmogenic seeds of ness and deep listening. So the emptiness, instead of being the fertile, pregnant creativity burst forth to find expression in increasing diversity as the magnifi- void, the ground of new being, becomes — just emptiness, vacuous emptiness. cent flora and fauna — all the flowering plants and trees and creatures of earth And then the hungry ghosts and the addictions rush in to fill up the space; we and sea and sky — took shape and form. This diversification gives life beauty. It become addicted to television, to lovers, to food and drink and other sub- is the task of the artist to “excite humans to reverence all that is precious and stances. Even exercise becomes an addiction, not to mention that well-known meaningful in human life.” 5 narcotic, overbusyness! Matthew Fox writes that “the beauty of a dance, a poem, a symphony or a It was not until I began a daily practice of meditation and in the deep silence picture enters into eternal life.” 6 But the Via Creativa, the artist’s way, is not fell smack dab into my own shadow — all the rationalizations, justifications, confined to these forms; it pervades all of life with the potential for newness, intellectualizations used over the years to maintain my “good girl” self-image — freshness, the joy of creation. Fox writes: that I truly began to heal, truly began to learn the meaning of compassion. (As I What are the personal arts that we all need to start birthing anew? have written elsewhere, it was either compassion or extinction.) It is ongoing They include the art of friendship … making beauty where we dwell work. That Inner Critical Parent with the accusatory finger (“You really should … conversation … massage … laughter … preparing food … hospitality have known better, of course!”) hovers, ready to seize any opportunity. … the sharing of ideas … growing food and flowers … singing songs … Having grown up on the bromide, “Laugh and the world laughs with you, making love … telling stories … uniting generations … putting on skits … weep and you weep alone,” I mostly followed that maxim. It was only after satirizing human folly. The personal arts include the arts of listening and experiencing a devastating betrayal and disillusionment from a most unexpected healing, of enjoying oneself with others in simple ways … creating our source that I began to understand that the deepest wound is also the deepest lifestyles and our communities … the art of parenting and forgi v i n g . 7 source of healing. The vision of life as art, play, creativity includes a fundamental re-vision of I am especially indebted to two seminary teachers who helped me under- the larger systems and institutions of human society as well. Politics becomes stand the power of the Via Negativa. From Mark Belletini I learned to always “the art of the expression of the people’s will and needs.” (Roll over include space in worship where people can pour out their grief, so that it does Machiavelli, PACS and popularity polls, along with a little war now and then not spill out inappropriately or unrecognized because there is no place for it. to rile up the passions.) Economics becomes “the art of planetary management.” And from Joanna Macy I learned that “the heart that stays open can contain (Roll over junk bonds and savings and loan fiascos and all abuses of natural the whole world.” Joanna’s work in despair and empowerment and her “Council resources and careless toxic waste disposal.) Utopian? Of course. Students of his- of All Beings,” in which one enters into and experiences the pain of animals tory will recall that putting an end to human slavery was once considered utopi-

42 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 43 an as well, though a serious argument can be made that economic slavery still how the distorting biblical images of women, “Eve the temptress” and “Mary the exists in the form of sweatshops, “slave” wages, and horrendously unsafe work- virgin mother” had perverted not just my personal understanding of what it ing conditions for many people, especially women, in underdeveloped countries. means to be a woman, but that of Western culture and civilization for more Our modern celebrity-crazed consciousness is a sad side effect of stifling the than 2,000 years. I had been one of those who identified with the oppressors. inherent creativity of humans. All 4-year-olds (unless they have been brutally When people said, “You think like a man!” I took it as a compliment. And I mistreated) are creative, yet by the age of 40 only a small percentage of the pop- often preferred talking with men because they talked about interesting things! ulation regards themselves as “creative.” Our schools require children to con- Damn. (I’m glad I woke up and connected with many women who talk about form more than to create. Most artists I know have to support themselves by things that matter.) So I started looking around for images of the female divine. teaching or some more prosaic work in order to “afford” their artistic expression. One provocative author, Judith Ochshorne, said the “one god” theory Support for the National Endowment for the Arts, including broad-based com- (monotheism), along with the notion of the “chief sin as disobedience (!)” was munity programs to develop the arts, dwindles as moralists and Christofacists a patriarchal “trick” to maintain male authority and supremacy. I became a (Dorothy Soelle’s term for fundamentalists) seek to restrict artistic expression polytheist, worshiping many images of the female divine. High in my personal and funding. I suspect that the idolizing, over-imitating and overpay of celebri- pantheon are the Cretan Snake Goddess with her arms upraised, holding ser- ties in our time is in large part an anesthetic or a substitute for the loss of the pents, in a position of power (no sniveling ‘Thy will be done, O great master’) inherent creativity that is every human’s birthright. (Did you see Elvis on Third and the beautiful and serene Kuan Yin, the Buddhist goddess of mercy and com- Street last night?) passion dedicated to relieving the suffering of all beings. Matthew Fox affirms that the prime virtue today is creativity. “The living The call to justice begins with awakening to the truth of one’s own life, cosmology ushered in by the Cosmic Christ … will propose creativity as the because basically, justice is a call to truth, both personal and cosmic truth, most important moral virtue of the upcoming civilization.”8 This may not be so (which, holonically10 speaking, are of course one and the same). In his commen- much a “new” truth as the remembering and discovering of an ancient one as tary on the Illuminations of Hildegarde of Bingen, Matthew Fox clarifies that exemplified in Hildegarde of Bingen (1098-1179 C.E.), the gifted visionary, Justice is not a moral virtue, an ethical norm as humans conceive; it is an artist, musician, and healer and boundary breaker who was able to rise up out of operative pattern by which the universe holds together and is symmetrical- her sick bed only when she gave voice, shape and form to her creative gifts!9 ly bound. Because of justice the universe survives and thrives.11 Jesus of Nazareth is another historical prophet who illustrates the power of Justice, a spirituality of the anawim, includes acts (individual and collective) creativity par excellence. Once, when the bureaucrats tried to trip him up, as of mercy, and it is also a larger concept, akin, I think, to the Eastern concept of they often did, Jesus stopped for a moment and drew something in the sand. karma.12 Then he said, Let him who is without sin cast the first stone. Now that’s cre- Justice, like all true spirituality, is also a celebration. Hildegarde celebrates ativity! I believe it was through a creative interactive process of listening, the joy of justice-making as a path of reverent discipline: “It is justice, which, teaching, loving, and forgiving that Jesus transformed ordinary sinners into when sprinkled by the dew of the Holy Spirit, ought to germinate good works heroes and heroines of faith. I think it is the business of the church universal, through holiness.”13 the synagogue, the mosque, the sangha, the sacred circle, to provide the space Justice-making as a path of reverent discipline brings also the joy of solidarity and be the vessels for salvific creativity in our time. A great illustration of this with those who join in the struggle. Participating in a prayer vigil on the court- kind of power unleashed is the civil rights struggle in the 1960s that took shape house lawn on a cold, blustery night in late November, protesting the execution in black church basements. We are all called to be birthers of beauty and jus- of a prisoner whom the court had defined as mentally retarded, I experienced tice. And that leads to the final path, the culmination, the path of compassion solidarity with members of my own faith community as well as friends and col- and justice-making: the Via Transformativa. leagues in the Jewish, Methodist, Catholic, Quaker communities, and others.14 Awakening from the stupefying patriarchal trance some15 years ago thanks This kind of solidarity is the essence of what I understand as “deep ecumeni- to Mary Daly’s stunning wake-up call in Beyond God the Father (1974), I realized cism” (Matthew Fox).

44 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 45 I am reminded in this context, also, of a conversation with a colleague who as the Via Positiva, the Via Negativa, the Via Creativa and the Via Transforma- dr ove a truckload of food and medical supplies to the suffering people in tiva, I believe it is also important and necessary to join with, to align oneself Nicaragua some years ago during the terrible struggle between the Sandinistas actively with a community of like-minded others.18 The Creation Spirituality and the U.S.-backed Contras. He was stopped in Honduras and thrown into a Community offers such a community for seekers. prison cell, held three days and nights, blindfolded. As he told me this story, I I believe that creation theology offers the missing center of identity and said, “Bill, you must have been terrified!” He paused thoughtfully, only for a meaning in liberal theology identified by Rabbi Michael Lerner in a brilliant moment, then said, quietly, “No, I wasn’t afraid because I knew I was doing the lecture on January 27, 2000, at the Earl Lectures and Pastoral Conference.19 right thing.” A spirituality named compassion is peace that passes understanding. Rabbi Lerner said that a liberal theology of inclusiveness “includes” all, namely, In a spirituality of compassion expressed in works of justice, there can be such diverse groups as women, people of color, people of all sexual orientations great danger and terrible risks — “straight is the path and narrow is the gate” — and ethnic backgrounds. According to Lerner, the flaw in this liberal theology is but those who find the path and follow it experience a joy that is transcendent; that it offers inclusion in a society whose basic values are consumer-driven, e.g., they light the way for the rest of us. This is the Way, the Truth, and the Life money and power, a society that has a deep hole at the center. Traditional liber- spoken of by Jesus, it is the path of the Bodhisattva pledged to devote her/him- al theology does not offer a “new” value-based identity, which fundamentalism self to the relief of suffering of all beings, it is the way of Mohammed, the Great does offer, but at the cost of the demeaned “other.” Creation theology, I believe, Spirit, the Goddess. It is the Via Transformativa, the ultimate expression and offers the missing center of a value-based identity, an identity whose meaning profound celebration of every true religious path. and value are deeply rooted in all-inclusive cosmic justice, compassion and cre- Not all of us are called or able to drive a humanitarian truckload of supplies ativity, and in the basic unity of art, science, and religion. through enemy territory. But as the daughters and sons of Life, citizens of this Rabbi Lerner concluded his lecture with the observation that there is “inside planet, this cosmos, alive in this dangerous and exciting time in human histo- each of us a split: a part that is cynical about the world being different, a part ry,15 we are all called to act for justice in acts of mercy, both in the traditional that believes the world could be based on love and caring and awe and wonder.” sense of “feeding, clothing, sheltering, setting free, giving drink, visiting, bury- “People,” he said, “will think you are nuts … always have … Moses and the ing, educating, counseling, admonishing, bearing wrongs, forgiving, comforting, burning bush … Jesus … .” (lecture notes). praying”16 and in the larger, global-village context. We need to work together to Rabbi Lerner is right, of course, that those who threaten, or even dare to actively intervene in the public world to create more compassionate and just question, the foundation of the existing order are always at great risk. Notable institutions and systems of government. examples in our time include Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and in The problems described earlier — environmental pollution, destruction of my own religious community of Unitarian Universalism, James Reeb, murdered species, global warming, overpopulation, the ever-present threat of nuclear cata- in Selma where he had gone to support Dr. King’s march. Not only the death of strophe, along with the ever-widening gap between rich and poor that con- the body, but other more subtle “deaths” are a threat, such as attacks on reputa- tributes to the suffering of people everywhere, and especially to the economic tion and “scholarliness” as defined by the dominant paradigm, are a potential oppression of indigenous peoples and people in underdeveloped countries — reality for those of us who dare follow a new path. these problems require collective solutions. The path that begins in awe and wonder and gratitude may lead through dark Environmental scientist Will Keepin writes: times, times that test the will to continue. The “Via Negativa” can be tough. Yet Pr ecisely because of the limitations of the human mind — with its frag- the creative power of the universe is on the side of justice and compassion. mented constructions, partial perspectives, and circular reasoning — we As Rabbi Michael Lerner said, “The real world is constituted by our set of may req u i r e the synergistic power of collective human yearning and com- beliefs. Our task is to put out a different vision of the way the world could be.” munity to transcend our present predicament as a species.17 That is why, in seeking to live an awakened, compassionate life in today’s May we be granted the grace, courage and chutzpah to live the vision. world, following the four paths of creation spirituality outlined by Matthew Fox We are neither gods nor devils nor magicians. May we be awake.

46 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 47 Footnotes 1 Fox, 1999, p. 24. Kapleau, Philip. The Wheel of Life and Death, A Practical and Spiritual Guide. 2 Ibid. New York: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1989. 3 Fox, 1983, p. 33. Keepin, Will. “The Transformation of Science and Sangha” Noetic Sciences 4 Fox, 1988, p. 219. Review, Winter 1996, p.21. 5 Fox, 1988, p. 199. Lerner, Michael. “Why Liberal Politics Plus the Internet are Not Enough—the 6 Ibid., p. 210. Upsurge in Spirit and the Implications for Social Justice,” Lecture at Earl Lectures 7 Ibid., p. 200. and Pastoral Conference, the Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, CA, January 27, 8 Ibid., p. 203. 2000. 9 Cf/ Fox, Illuminations of Hildegarde of Bingen, 1985. Richards, Dona Marimba. Let the Circle Be Unbroken: The Implications of African 10 Note: Holonically is derived from holon, a term coined by Arthur Koestler to Spirituality in the Diaspora. Lawrenceville NJ: The Red Sea Press, 1989 (copyright refer to an entity that is itself a whole and simultaneously a part of some other 1980). whole. We are holons of the cosmos, i.e., whole/parts. Whitehead, Alfred North. Adventures of Ideas. New York: The Free Press, 1933. 11 Fox, 1985, p. 45. 12 In The Wheel of Life and Death, Zen teacher Philip Kapleau writes that a truly sympathetic human being would act immediately and directly to do everything he could to alleviate another’s pain and suffering. Helping another would be helping himself. No man’s karma is exclusively his own, and no one’s suffering is exclusively her own. A web of relationships sustains and nourishes each of us. (Kapleau, 1989, p. 246) 13 Quoted in Fox, 1985, p. 45 14 Many of us had urgently implored the pardon board and the governor to intervene in this tragic execution of a man judged retarded. The state had passed a law making it illegal to execute a retarded person, but this man was sentenced before the law was scheduled to go into effect, and our pleas to remedy the tragic immoral absurdity of carrying out his execution were ignored. 15 Cf Alfred North Whitehead ( Adventures of Ideas, 1933): In every age of tran- sition there is the pattern of habitual dumb practice and emotion which is passing and the oncoming of a new complex of habit. Between the two lies a zone of anarchy, a passing danger or a prolonged welter. 16 Fox, 1999, p. 8 17 Keepin, 1996, p. 21 18 Interesting slip. I first typed life-minded others! 19 Rabbi Michael Lerner, “Why Liberal Politics Plus the Internet are Not Enough: the upsurge in spirit and the implications for social justice,” lecture at Earls Lectures and Pastoral Conference, Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, California, January 27, 2000.

Bibliography Daly, Mary. Beyond God the Father. Boston: Beacon Press, 1974. Fox, Matthew. A Spirituality Named Compassion. Rochester, VT, 1999. ______. Creation Spirituality; Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth. San Francisco: Harper, 1991. ______. Illuminations of Hildegarde of Bingen. Santa Fe, NM: Bear & Co., 1985. ______. Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality. Santa Fe, NM: Bear & Co., 1983. ______. The Coming of the Cosmic Christ. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1988.

48 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 49 Does a Building Matter? An Inquiry into the Effectiveness of Unitarian Universalist Church Architecture Charlotte Shivers Presented at the Malibu Study Group, March 20–22, 2000 OF COURSE A BUILDING MATTERS . But how? In my first interim year, I was shocked to discover that the church building seemed to be working with me. That is, its very architecture seemed to attract people and to enhance their worship experience. This came as a shock because I realized that the building for the religious society of my settled ministry seemed to have worked against us: It did not often attract people, and it made creating worship an unusual challenge. At the interim church, for instance, I saved time, planning, and energy each Sunday in that the meeting space, the worship space, was ready; the mood was already prepared by the setting the 19th-century building itself provided. The beauty of the simple lines, candles in the chancel, high glass windows — all somehow provided a ready way for people to enter into a spirit of worship. Newcomers, I realized, were often drawn simply by seeing the building as they drove past; they recognized it as a church and came in ready to welcome the experience they found there. My previous settlement had been with a round, onion-shaped building from the 1960s. There, the first challenge of Sunday morning had been the need to establish the space as sacred, the time as special; to make it something other than the boisterous social spot of the night before. The unique onion shape was a wonder in the neighborhood, a welcome change in a grid of tract homes, but it was seldom recognized as a place of religious community. When people came in they were as often put off by the unique structure as they were attracted to it. The plot thickened when I went on to a second interim placement in a structure from the 1950s, dramatically different from either of the other two. The long, flat lines of this building resembled an attractive, efficient office structure. Worship was a challenge again, particularly because it was in an “auditorium,” a room whose square corners and low lines made it harder to evoke the sense of awe and mystery that I feel are part of worship. The building did little to attract people because, while it was in a prominent location, its gen-

50 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 51 eral flatness was not dramatized in such a way that people saw it. I sometimes before anything else happened!3 had to give directions to people who drove by the church regularly but did not Olivia Holmes responded to my question about architecture enhancing wor- know it was there. ship by saying that three of her four churches did that “absolutely” and one — All this has led me to meditate on how architecture affects the life of a “not at all.”4 church. Surely we build or select our buildings with the intention that they sup- Sydney Wilde began with “Yes, yes, yes, yes, YES” and added port us in nurturing a vital Unitarian Universalist congregation. How often do Most of my churches have looked like “Pizza Huts” and the diffe r ence in they do that? Aside from its location and its condition and its size, how does the tr ying to create a worshipful mood in a “pizza hut,” and a New “Cathedral” building matter? is striking. Of course each comes with its own set of prob l e m s . 5 1. Does the architecture speak to the community around it in a A colleague who is not an interim commented anonymously, “Church people way that promotes the Unitarian Universalist message and who choose a building that looks like a maintenance shed deserve the people attracts people who are seeking a religious home? who show up … !” 2. Does the architecture lend itself to a meaningful worship Originally, I was focusing more on the visual, but acoustics cropped up again experience? and again as a significant architectural failure. Heather Lynn Hanson wrote, Often, architects tend to compromise noise/sound control in their visual My own experience guided me to these questions. Was it unique to me? To design of a space, and then the building committee says, ‘Oh, we’ll addres s find out, I sent an e-mail query to other experienced interim ministers. They are acoustics later.’ … The result is an expensive mess to rep a i r . If people can’t a good sample of our ministry, and they must occasionally reflect on the effect hear themselves think, the introv e r ts will withdraw from the conversations.6 of the architecture as they move from church to church. I told my story and John Hurley, UUA Director of Informa t i o n / A r chivist, whom I consulted for asked them my two questions. ba c k g r ound, told a story about acoustics. The Brattle Street Church of Boston, Many responses affirmed my experience. Peter Raible noted, one of the most prestigious Unitarian churches of the early days, was near Years ago, Lon Ray Call, who was the prime starter of new churches in Faneuil Hall but outgrew its space and moved to Commonwealth Avenue in the the old American Unitarian Association, observed that when he went Back Bay. Henry Hobson Richardson, historically renowned architect, designed to a community where a Unitarian church had failed before, he could their building. Despite its great beauty, the acoustics were so bad and the rem e d y always tell why that was so when he saw the building erected (or used) would have been so expensive, that amidst other church troubles, the lack of by the failed church. 1 go o d sound drove them to sell the church and cease their life as a congreg a t i o n . 7 Fred Campbell said, “Architecture always sets the stage for what you can do.” At this point I felt safe in concluding that our architecture is often not effective He told in glowing terms of a humanist congregation, the Ethical Culture in attracting people and enhancing their worship. Society of St. Louis, where a sanctuary with a 50-foot ceiling and powerful light Why? Our members are at least as capable and creative, as caring and intelli- provided a huge “celebration of the vertical,” a celebration of the transcendent, gent as the norm. Why does our architecture sometimes serve us so poorly in attract- of God. In less than glowing terms he contrasted that to a UU church built in ing people and enhancing their worship?8 I want to discuss five possible reasons: the 1960s, representative of what an architect friend had called the “American Brutalism School.” Every room was square or rectangular; the sanctuary was of 1. We have conflicting views of worship. painted cinder block, called an auditorium and opened to no natural light but 2. Our free faith, our missions and our visions, are hard to depict to a 6 x 15 video screen on the stage in front. “The architecture closes the com- in architecture. munity in to its own knowledge.”2 3. We have been uncentered by the move from city to edge city Several experiences sounded like my own. Judith Walker-Riggs wrote, and suburb. Having served a church whose worship space had to be triumphed over 4. We lack a good sense of beauty and symbol. every week before worship happened, it was a joy to serve a beautiful old 5. We don’t care enough about our architecture to give it full church in England, where just entering the space made you feel better, support.

52 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 53 We have conflicting views of worship because the long-time humanist minister had used poetry as scripture — two art Worship, in fact, is not even a word that is used in many congregations. Let forms that transcend the rational. But the great clear gothic windows and the me say what I mean by community worship. It is a time set aside when mind, simple white lines also must have “gentled” any conflict, perhaps as a constant body, and spirit might coalesce around transcending values; worship is an expe- Sunday morning reminder that there was something larger, something large rienced designed that we might enter in, give over, and return to our regular enough even to transcend human differences. Whatever the cause, that was a lives with a sense of “Oh, yes, that’s what it’s about.” church with remarkably little inner animosity. Worship is a challenge to contemporary UUs because we come out of a time Dennis Daniel provided a powerful example of a time and place in which the in which the rational seemed to be primary among us, sometimes to the exclu- architecture was very specific in the way it enhanced the worship experience. sion of feelings like awe and wonder, which are often deemed part of worship. I As interim minister at First Unitarian of Chicago, he delivered the sermon won’t simply blame our humanist past, because it is only the rational extreme of “Giving These Stones Life” in which he quoted Von Ogden Vogt’s discussion of that phase that worked to deprive us of concepts such as sacred or worship. that church’s design, Remember, it was Campbell’s story of an ethical culture society — surely The long and narrow spaces do not spread out to comprehend a many- humanist — that evoked the words, “celebration of the transcendent.” sided experience, but point the attention, with a singleness of concen- That rational extreme has often wanted the building to be a simple place tration, upon the highest experience: the high vaulted aisles do not rest where the rational mind can concentrate on an intellectual search for truth and assuredly upon the finite and the known, but lead the imagination to not be diverted by beauty or symbols or feelings. In sharp contrast, the more find some communion with the infinite unknown.10 spiritual element wants that interior space to inspire feelings of the transcendent Worship can happen with or without architecture, of course, but architecture with its play of light, space, art, and beauty. The cinder block auditorium (one can enhance it mightily. And it doesn’t have to be a cathedral to do so. A minister’s daughter asked if they could play basketball there) is severely chal- friend describes the flat, rectangular Quaker meeting house whose architecture lenged to meet the needs of the year 2000 seeker who wishes a celebration of made it a place of worship for her. The great windows were placed so that peo- the vertical. ple always had a view of the natural world outside. That alone can inspire awe, Many of our churches simply weren’t built with worship in mind. The “audi- wonder, a sense of the transcendent — or simply a peaceful time to center one- torium church” of my second interim year seemed to have been built primarily self. Worship. for the auditory senses. Its straight lines and square corners seemed to “close the Our conflicts about worship are unfortunate, because worship is primary community in to its own knowledge.” among the purposes of a religious organization. I would hope that our architec- The church in Des Moines, Iowa, was designed to function as both theater ture could help to make that happen. It could provide in shape and light and and church, which diminishes its effectiveness as a place of worship. That onion texture an interior that might cause someone to feel, “Ah, I’d like to spend time church of my first ministry was designed primarily as a place of community and here … it rests my spirit … my defenses go down … my mind could open.” a place that could incorporate theater and dance. That would enhance worship. That would be worship. Olivia Holmes wrote that one of the churches she had served was designed under the heavy influence of secular humanism. The sanc- Our free faith, our mission and our vision, are hard to depict tuary is called the auditorium, the chancel is called the stage. It is not in in architecture any way worshipful space. However, it still seems to reflect the fear of I thought it would be useful to know what is given to our congregations serious religion on the part of old-timers, and enhances the sense of lack when they set out on the arduous task of building a building. I contacted UUA among those coming to find spiritual awakening!9 Building Programs Director Wayne Clark (his title has been changed to Part of the wonder of the 19th-century church of my first interim year was Director of Fund Raising Services), shared my two questions, and asked what the way its very architecture seemed to ease that spiritual-rational tension. Of overall directives, if any, went out to congregations. course, that tension was also eased because the church treasured its music and My short answer is that we always encourage congregations to consider

54 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 55 their building needs within the context of their own specific vision and I am the church. You are the church. We are the church together … mission. We believe that it is a congregation’s vision and mission that Melissa remembered this song so well that she defied the bishop of a French drives its more specific goals and objectives which, in turn, will help cathedral; he had tried to convince her that even though only four people had them to determine their building resources needed. We counsel that come for services, it was still “the church.” After her insistence that “the church their building is just a means to an end … a way of housing their pro- is the people” he consulted with his attending priests and turned back to her gramming and staff to support the programs.11 and said, “Yes, little girl, you are right. The church is the people.” That seems a reasonable way to begin. But mission and vision within our free Of course, the church is the people. But people can’t become the church if faith are at the heart of our architectural challenges. That is, our buildings they can’t find the church. Too often our free faith has insisted on buildings that sometimes fail to attract people because there is such confusion about our mis- don’t begin to suggest that they are the home of a religious faith. sion and vision. It is not easy to express a free faith symbolically in the architecture of its building. In striking out for what we need, we usually find ourselves bereft of We have been uncentered by the movement from city to edge the traditional form of church, which at least told people what manner of build- city and suburbs which has happened in the last 60 years ing we were. We don’t all agree with the simple steeple that points upward, and If our churches don’t always stand forth as a visible and relational center we cannot, in Peter Raible’s words, “just slap a symbol (e.g. a cross) on a build- within a community, advertising by their very structure what they are, they per- ing, we must make the building itself speak as our religious symbol.”12 People, for haps reflect not only Unitarian Universalist confusion, but society’s confusion as instance, have come to know that a steeple with a cross on top depicts a faith in well about … the city. Where is the center? Jesus as savior and God as father. How do we depict a respect for the interde- Architect and minister William Haney speaks to this in his 1998 Minns pendent web of all existence symbolically? Lectureship “The Search for Truth, Beauty and Human Dignity: The Affinities Despite this difficulty, we can probably all visualize UU churches that do between 19th Century Unitarian Theology and American Architecture.”16 glow as a symbol of our faith. Sometimes we have succeeded dramatically. Haney notes that Unitarian theology profoundly affected an American architec- Architect and UU minister Edwin Charles Lynn notes that Unitarian ture that developed through Unitarian architects from Charles Bulfinch and Universalists have made outstanding contributions to religious architecture; he Thomas Jefferson to Frank Lloyd Wright. But in Haney’s view, it was Bulfinch notes that the architectural critic for The New York Times named two UU alone whose architectural efforts sought to connect to and be a congruent part of churches among the four most significant religious buildings of the 20th centu- their urban community.17 And that becomes very important for U.S. architecture, ry: Unity Temple in Oak Park, IL, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and the and for Unitarian Universalist churches. He writes, Rochester, NY, Unitarian Universalist Church designed by Louis Kahn.13 The purpose in my considering a comparison of Jefferson with Bulfinch Then Lynn goes on to acknowledge our unique architectural difficulty, is grounded in an assertion on my part that the city is the very place UUs are often ambivalent about our buildings. Our strong ethical orien- where we seek out truth, beauty and human dignity. If there is any value tation commits us to human needs, and sometimes clouds our ability to in the seventh principle expressing our interdependence, I cannot see it see how our buildings serve those needs. We often overlook the idea as merely the warm fuzzies about nature nor recycling. That to me is an that architectural details such as the delicacy of a ceiling treatment, the avoidance of the real issues. Mumford points out, in his book The City in boldness of a modern ‘steeple,’ … can be seen as metaphors for our spiri- History, tual aspirations for wholeness, justice and peace.14 … an old Egyptian scribe tells us, the mission of the founder [of a Annie Holmes, interim minister in our Des Moines church, told a story one city] was to “put the gods in their shrines” (p. 573). Sunday called “Melissa’s Message.”15 A true story, it was about a little girl from … The comparison is clear: Bulfinch did ‘put the gods in their one of Holmes’ congregations who had learned their song that began, shrines,’ and Jefferson had no intention of ever doing that. As Unitarian The church is not a building, the church is not a steeple, Universalists, their legacy is still with us. In some instances, we will find the church is not a resting place, the church is the people. our congregations in the very midst of the urban struggles, as with

56 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 57 Bulfinch. In others, we will find them not only in the suburbs, but hid- cated to soap, oil, and sewing machines.21 den in the woods, out of the way; and, like Jefferson, either unwilling or The plight of the church in the suburbs is no happier for Patton, unable to explain themselves as religious liberals to the wider world, “of Suburban churches are conceived as adjuncts to suburban homes, like which we are a part.” 18 carports or sun parlors. They are appurtenances to suburban life and Bill Haney traced and mourned the demise of our cities. In a way, as the city have the same air of dullness that pervades the surroundings.22 has lost its place as the center, the role of the church as part of that center has Patton’s way out of this dilemma was demonstrated in the Charles Street been bifurcated, too. It can stay in what had been the geographic center even Meeting House. Its burst of creativity in art, beauty, and symbol was intended to after its people move away; then it must attempt to become a center with the draw all people. A mural of the Great Nebula in Andromeda was the focal new population, and often deal with poverty, crime, and high-rise encroach- point, and the pews allowed people to face each other. It has been a grand ideal, ment. Or it can sell the building and move; then it must struggle to become a but no silver bullet for our architectural needs. That onion church I served was new center in a terrain that is built around the isolating needs of a car culture. a sample of Patton’s ideal.23 Alas, circular architecture did not prevent a congre- The center is difficult to find. The church’s role seems different, and the archi- gational split or demographic change. The circular dream was weakened by the tecture it chooses may reflect its confusion more than its identity. poor acoustics, and the congregation could not afford the windows that might One easy conclusion is that “city” churches, which are still present in a loca- have provided light. tion that could be called “city,” announce themselves with traditional architec- The church seems less certain of its role as it has to moved to the suburbs ture and invite people in by their presence. It was a church such as that where with its major population, white middle-class people. The UU church of edge ease of worship initiated the shock that started this paper. I doubt if there is an city or suburbs may simply not yet have found an architecture that reflects its active, old, center-city UU church in the country that I couldn’t have walked function. The particular square-rectangular church from the 1960s that Fred into and felt something of the same effect. Campbell described, for instance, was on six acres at a location chosen for easy The impact of our dislocation is discussed by Edwin C. Lynn in Tired freeway access; Campbell and his wife drove by it three times before they could Dragons: Adapting Church Architecture to Changing Needs.19 His “tired dragons” find it. are those tired city churches. Once the high-steepled center of an affluent popu- One of Haney’s conclusions is that our cities are the place in which the rela- lation, they are now dwarfed by the high-rise buildings that surround them. tional values we espouse (as from our theologians Henry Nelson Weiman, James Lynn offers practical means toward adapting the old church. He advises that Luther Adams, and Charles Hartshorne) can be best learned and expressed. “I every room should have multiple uses, uses that will provide financial resources believe Unitarian Universalist history, values and theology must sponsor a new as well as keep the rooms occupied all through the week. way of seeing ourselves in relationship — and that new relationship must be in … a worship space is needed that combines the flexibility of the fully the city in order to preserve what we value in nature.”24 Our move from the city utilized environment with the beauty of a worship setting. There is no may have fragmented us more than we know — and our architecture reflects it. reason for flexibility to be in one room and beauty in another.20 Not all designs were done with the care that Lynn demonstrates. Some of the We lack a good sense of beauty and symbol in the design “multi-use” counsel from that period may be part of the reason why so many of of our churches our sanctuaries not welcoming to the worship experience today. Carolyn Owen Towle’s sermon for the Service of the Living Tradition in Another minister, the late Kenneth Patton, speaks of church and city as he 1994 was called “Beauty Crowds Me Till I Die”25 (quoted from Emily discusses transforming the Charles Street Meeting House at the bottom of Dickinson), and it included the words, “beauty lies at the heart of all saving Beacon Hill into a temple for “a religion of one world.” He recalls that church e s , human experience.” once the center of our cities, are now secondary to business and entertainment. I wonder at the painful irony: This denomination has produced some of the “They huddle among the stone canyons. Their up-reaching spires, sym- country’s greatest architects, yet our architecture so often comes up short in pro- bols of aspiration, do not reach to the upper floors of the temples dedi- ducing churches that allow us to feast our eyes on beauty. Two colleagues men-

58 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 59 tioned this immediately: and others get their attention back onto God, or the Spirit, or whatever Peter Raible wrote, “Flee like a banshee from any Unitarian, who is so you need to call it, then a beautiful space can be a threat. The congrega- doltish as to recognize not how space influences life and how a simple, beautiful tion where I am currently interim has two large windows at the front building (and not expensive) is not a luxury, but essential to our religious looking out onto ancient forest. A colleague … once remarked bitterly, approach to life.”26 ‘Wait till you have to preach against the snow!’ I was amazed. Against??? And Judith Walker-Riggs, “When the building is beautiful, the minister’s The day it snows I won’t have to worry at all about the quality of my words are no longer all important, as they should not be. People will feel uplift- preaching, cause God, the Universe, and Everything will be preaching ed just from having been in that space.”27 for me! Yes, architecture matters!31 One colleague actually spoke poignantly of the need for beauty without men- I resonate to that theory as I remember a Unitarian Universalist church on a tioning it once, high hill overlooking the San Francisco Bay, the Golden Gate Bridge and The building here in ______. is so awful (old, poorly maintained, Mount Tamalpias. The sanctuary offered only tiny window slits of light and dirty, inadequate in size, heating, plumbing, etc.) that I admit I haven’t view. I was told that had been the wish of the powerful minister at the time the really thought much about the effect the architecture has on the sur- building was built — as if he, too, wanted to escape competition with beauty. rounding community or whether it reflects UUism in any way. … The All these ideas about our difficulty with beauty are useful. I would add anoth- road in front will be widened to a six-lane highway soon, and the com- er. Ironic as it seems for people who are mainstays of the art museums in our mittee that is supposed to be thinking about what we should do hasn’t communities, I believe that we tend toward a misunderstanding of symbols. met in months! If the road goes as planned, it will take off the front six Many people come into this religion burned, damaged by religious experience so inches of the building … 28 invasive to their personal sense of the sacred that they eschew any symbols that For the benefit of the Unitarian Universalist ideal in that area, perhaps it is might threaten to inflict more of the bad message. That might include the to be hoped that the building lose its front six inches. Seriously, how can so shape of the traditional church, a stained glass window, abstract sculpture, or many of us abide such ugliness so much of the time? I have no grand theories anything formal in front suggesting an alter, even a stream of light. here. Kenneth Patton suggests one, A part of that hurt is often manifested in a need for control so that they Persons in the Protestant tradition living in the United States in the won’t be hurt again. To acknowledge the power of a symbol to communicate mid-twentieth century are, by the nature of their traditions and environ- more than words — that means giving over some degree of power, or control, to ment, more poorly prepared to appreciate the potential relationship that symbol! Fear of loss of control may be at play whenever our members strug- between art and worship than any other people in history. … gle against the use of a chalice, or any artistic element, even a beautiful build- Protestantism, more than any other major religious movement, has been ing. Of course, beauty is not the same as symbol, but many of our most powerful prejudiced against the use of art as an instrument of religious life.29 symbols partake of beauty, and it must seem safest to those most damaged to Carolyn Owen-Towle presents a theory that is close to Patton’s: fight off all beauty, lest some symbolic meaning creep in. Those painted cinder Reluctance about beauty certainly has compelling roots in our Judeo- block churches may not provide beauty, but they surely have provided safety Christian past. Judaism, in its fear of idolatry, practiced strict taboos from painful reminders of a difficult religious past. against the making or worshiping of graven images. Christianity, histori- Sometimes, of course, our lack of beauty relates closely to economics. Many of cally dreaded and rejected aesthetics as dangerous, since beauty was our congregations are stretched to the breaking point just to get the plainest of thought to be a distraction to people’s direct experience of the divine.30 buildings created — and others of our congregations are just plain cheap. I One of Judith Walker-Riggs’ theories is particularly interesting. It’s about ap p r eciate again what Raible said about beauty, “a simple beautiful building (and ministers. not expensive) is not a luxury, but essential to our religious approach to life.”32 There, are however, ministers quite frightened of beautiful buildings — The Internet at least is acknowledging beauty. My research so far indicates if you’re in it for the attention to yourself, rather than helping yourself that, in general, if the church’s website committee deems the church or any part

60 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 61 of it an attractive way to spread their message, the picture goes out on the net. gathering of a religious community, and it should embody an appealing invita- If not, the web site is merely words. tion to the passerby. And inside, whatever your budget or prevailing theology, there must be something of beauty upon which people’s eyes may rest. We don’t care enough about our architecture to give it And so on. I’m not proposing to write the new prospectus on buildings, but I full denominational support am saying that one reason that so many of our buildings are less than fully effec- As appalling as that feels, I had to include it in the reasoning after I found tive architecturally is that so little attention is paid. We need to give congrega- what our denomination offers to those struggling congregations brave enough to tions more aid in remembering the vision. Also, although we have not been think about a new building. able to afford staff planners or architects, and while we provide little by way of I shared Wayne Clark’s words earlier; he does well to encourage a church to financial support for new buildings, we could at least organize a skilled volun- begin by expressing its own mission and vision. I also received a copy of the teer force. We have ministers and lay leaders who have “built” churches; we printed material we provide for those who want to build, “Facilities Planning must know of architects and planners who care about Unitarian Universalism; Sourcebook: A Guide through the Process of Site Selection and Planning for there are probably other gifted and willing souls who could give feedback, Constructing or Renovating Your Church Building.” It begins with a brief para- respond to questions, and give moral support along the way. graph about the general building committee and then says, When Wayne Clark responded to my query, he also said, “It sounds like quite The general building committee has a great responsibility to the Lord, to an interesting topic, and not one that has been explored among UUs, I think.”34 the congregation, and to the community. Under its direction the build- We need to explore it. Little help and direction are given to our congrega- ing to be erected will be a house of worship to the glory of God. The tions. Not that our congregations are great at accepting direction, but more members of this committee must be responsible people who will could be offered. As early as 1903, John Hurley reports, the American Unitarian approach the building program prayerfully, with open mind and heart, Association provided a resource called, “Plans for Churches.” Today we could at and with determination to erect a building appropriate for its use. They least send out a few of the “Ten Commandments of Post Modern Soulistic should be clear thinking people …33 Health Architecture” that Leonard Sweet shared with a recent national confer- This is probably a fine church development resource for groups who share that ence of church architects, 35 purpose; there are useful sections on committee development, site requirements, Thou shalt not commit ugly. … Aesthetics has everything to do etc. It is however inappropriate and totally inadequate as an aid to a Unitarian with soulmaking. Universalist congregation. Thou shalt have a sense of place. People today more than ever Yes, they need a committee of “clear thinking people,” but they deserve a need roots, a place of belonging … prospectus that speaks to the challenges within their own religious tradition. Thou shalt … Point people to something larger than themselves. Build They deserve something in our tradition of bold titles. How about “Building the the sky in which souls soar. (emphasis added) Promise”? It could well begin, Perhaps we could simply etch that directive, “Point people to something Congratulations. You are to be commended for your courage in moving larger than themselves,” on all mailings to any congregation considering erect- toward building a church. You have the opportunity to express our free ing a building. It might at least be centering to the minister during months and faith in stones and mortar. That brings challenges; organization, plan- years of ministering to planning commissions and building committees and a ning, finances, timing all are critical. But you also embark on what can congregation as well. be the most exciting leap forward in the life of your congregation. We could send them a reprint of Rev. Edwin Charles Lynn’s “The Shape of The decisions are yours. Whatever building material you chose, Worship” with its pictures of worship space and its quotation from theologian remember that the stones do talk, the wood speaks. Our churches are a Joseph Sittler, visible statement of who we are. Be sure your building says what you No place is holy, but the presentation of the holy never occurs without a want it to say. Its appearance needs to communicate that it is a place for the place.

62 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 63 I’ve stated my hypothesis: Our churches are often less than effective in creating worship space and in serving as an appealing visual symbol. This is perhaps Notes 1 Peter Raible, e-mail communication 2/2/2000. because, 2 Fred Campbell, telephone communication 3/9/2000. 1. We have conflicting views of worship. 3 Judith Walker-Riggs, e-mail communication 2/1/2000. 4 2. Our free faith, our missions and our visions, are hard to depict Olivia Holmes, e-mail communication 2/2/2000. 5 Sydney Wilde, e-mail communication. in architecture 6 Hanson, e-mail 2/1/2000. 3. We have been uncentered by the move from city to edge city 7 Hurley, telephone conversation, 3/10/2000. 8 and suburb Note: I want to focus on the structure of the building, not its condition. Lack of care can damage the effectiveness of almost any architecture. I also want to 4. We lack a profound sense of beauty and symbol differentiate between the architecture and the location of the architecture. Some 5. We don’t care enough about our architecture to give it full of our churches are never noticed because they are tucked away in remote set- denominational support. tings. That’s different from a church on a main street that is never noticed because it is not distinctive, or where it is distinctive but not recognizable as a I’ve learned much in the process. I have come to have more respect for the church. ambiguity of it all. There are no sure bets. The challenge of using space to 9 Holmes, e-mail communication 2/1/2000. reflect and express our religious aspirations is reminiscent of the very mystery 10 Von Ogden Vogt, “Religion and Art,” provided in an e-mail communication that we explore. Philosophies of worship change from decade to decade. For from Dennis Daniel, 3/9/2000. 11 Wayne B. Clark, Director of Fund Raising Services, UUA, e-mail communica- instance, when Kenneth Patton refers to the Unitarian church that Frank Lloyd tion 2/2000. Wright designed for the Madison congregation — surely one of our “great” 12 Rev. Peter Raible, e-mail communication 2/2/2000. churches — he calls the room for the Sunday service “the auditorium.”36 I’ve 13 Rev. Edwin Charles Lynn, “The Shape of Worship,” UU World, used that word here as an anathema, the room of painted cement block that for September/October 1989, pp. 20–22. 14 Ibid. Fred Campbell “closes the community in to its own knowledge,” or that Judith 15 Rev. Annie Holmes, First Unitarian Church, Des Moines, Iowa, 3/12/2000. 37 Walker-Riggs needed to “triumph over” to create worship. 16 Delivered at Meadville/Lombard Theological School, Chicago, Illinois, October The certainty is that the space does matter. And that whatever the space 27–29, 1998 may be, there must be a way to draw forth a living experience with it. That cir- 17 First Lecture, p. 15. 18 cular room in the onion-shaped building was exquisite for a congregational spi- Second Lecture, pp. 14–15. 19 (Boston: Beacon Press, 1972) ral dance, and for seeing each other speak. The formal room with the high glass 20 Lynn, p. 112. windows was exquisite for imparting a sense of awe, a feeling that we were gath- 21 Kenneth L. Patton, A Religion for One World: Art and Symbols for a Universal ered for a transcending purpose. Religion (Boston, Beacon Press, 1964), p. 84. 22 The minister’s recurring challenge is to bring the one to the other, that a for- Patton, p. 85. 23 Proposed Building for Unitarian-Universalist Church in Van Nuys, California. mal setting of vertical space might include dance and participation, that the cir- Drawings by the architect, Frank F. Ehrenthal, Plates 100, 101, and 102. cular room of intimacy might be used to stretch us to awe and wonder. The art 24 Sixth Lecture, p. 15. of architecture could allow more of this to happen without the minister — or 25 Rev. Carolyn Owen-Towle, “Beauty Crowds Me till I Die,” sermon delivered at when the minister misses. First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego, June 12, 1994, p. 3. 26 Rev. Peter Raible, e-mail communication 2/2/2000. Our buildings speak. May they declare with conviction the ideals for which 27 Judith Walker-Riggs, e-mail 2/2/2000. we strive. May their inner spaces nurture the courage we need to live those 28 Leslie Heyboer, e-mail communication 2/1/2000. ideals. 29 Patton, p. 135. 30 Owen-Towle, p. 3. 31 Walker-Riggs, e-mail communication 2/1/2000. 32 Raible, e-mail communication. 33 Facilities Planning Sourcebook: A Guide through the Process of Site Selection

64 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 65 and Planning for Constructing or Renovating Your Church Building, Church Development Resources, Gerard J. Borst, Editorial Coordinator. The Law and the Spirit: 34 Wayne Clark, e-mail communication. 35 This came to me from Dennis Daniel, who found it on the Internet. Power, Sexuality, and Ministry 36 Patton, p. 322. The Rev. Sylvia Howe & The Rev. Paul L’Herrou 37 Walker-Riggs, e-mail communication 2/1/2000. presented at the Harper’s Ferry Study Group November 14, 2000

Introduction Last year when our Harper’s Ferry group was brainstorming ideas for this year’s study, both of us were very interested in the discussion of sexuality and ministry. I, Sylvia, had been on the UUMA Exec when the first public case of sexual impropriety came before the Fellowship Committee. It was a difficult time, a time of much pain and confusion. Since then, we have both taken the Marie Fortune training that C.E.N.T.E.R. offered the UUMA chapters, the Safe Congregations training workshop the Fred Muir and Marg Corletti lead, and Deborah Pope-Lance’s Ministry after a Betrayal of Trust. Through the years, we have been intrigued by the ways that our colleagues reacted to issues surround- ing sexuality and ministry. During the chapter training sessions, the difference was between ministers who had been in ministry for more than 15 years and those who were newer. Many older ministers seemed reluctant to participate and appeared quite defen- sive. Comments such as, “We’re returning to a new Puritanism” were common. By and large, women of whatever level of experience welcomed the training. When we participated in the Safe Congregations training, the differences were also between those ministers with more and less experience. Ministers of either gender who entered the ministry after about 1990 seemed certain that the lines of separation between minister and congregation were clear and that behavioral norms and accountability were a given and clearly understood. Ministers who entered the ministry prior to 1990 were not so united, nor so sure. Some thought the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association (UUMA) Guidelines and Code of Professional Practice supported a new Puritanism that only served to undermine the very core of what it means to be a Unitarian Universalist. Others were satisfied with the Guidelines and Code, but saw them as suggestive, not prescriptive of behavior. Others spoke from somewhere in between. When we received a phone call asking if we would be willing to co-present a paper on the history of how our ministerial sexual ethics came to be in the form

66 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 67 it currently is, we gladly accepted the offer There was much talk about ministers who had engaged in sexual behavior with Being model Unitarian Universalists, we aren’t exactly doing what we were parishioners, but, interestingly, it was not considered ‘misconduct.’ More a mat- asked. Interesting as the history may be, we did not want to be limited to “what ter of the slightly scandalous, a good subject for gossip.” was.” So the title of this paper is “The Law and the Spirit: Power, Sexuality and Those of us with 20 more or less years experience found the sexual climate to Ministry.” We will share some survey results, discuss the history; the how and be changing. Although there were women in theological school and the parish, why we got to 1990, explore the issues of power, sexuality and ministry, and the sexual climate was very open. Chapter meetings included stories of sexual conclude with some suggestions for what needs to be done next. We thank you conquests and how female parishioners were in hot pursuit. One respondent said for inviting us to present this paper. that in 1975 the only book on the subject in the seminary library was titled The Problem Clergymen Don’t Talk About. What was the “problem”? Sexually aggres- Questionnaire Results sive women! To aid our exploration of how things were and how they are now, we decided One woman wrote, “I was told that if I was going to have a relationship with to do some research. We created a questionnaire. anyone, I should try to make sure it was at least 30 miles away from my parish.” We asked 21 colleagues if they would be willing to be interviewed. We A male colleague wrote, “It [the sexual climate] was quite open. As a single received 15 responses: 7 men, 8 women. The results of the survey are anecdotal, minister, I never thought about dating in the congregation, I just did it. I saw not objective measures. They served our purpose: to gain a clearer understand- no ethical problem with it. I was not even aware that there might be. The crite- ing of other colleagues’ sense of the issues. ria of a sexual relationship was solely consenting adults.” We state up front that our subjects were not selected in a scientific manner. General Assembly was wide open. Many respondents knew of colleagues who Initially they were simply colleagues we knew who had dealt with these issues had “GA wives.” One was asked by a senior colleague if he could borrow my during their ministries. A couple of interviewees came by way of referral. We room for an afternoon because he was having an affair with another colleague’s tried to include ministers with a broad range of years in the ministry. The (his mentee) wife. Several women reported being taken aside by their intern- respondents range from a student who just received preliminary fellowship to a ship supervisor or an older colleague and being told which male ministers to colleague who has been in the ministry for more than 40 years. The average is stay away from. slightly less than 20 years’ experience. Ten respondents are parish ministers Although many individual ministers were faithful to a single partner, the sex- serving congregations of various sizes; four are community ministers, two of ual climate in the 1960s, ’70s, and early ’80s was a time of openness and explo- which serve at an association level; one is a student. ration. Ministers and parishioners were testing the boundaries of sexual behav- We were not totally politically correct because we did not contact any col- ior. Norms were being challenged, boundaries stretched. leagues of color, or those who are lesbian, bisexual, or transgender, although two Those coming into our ministry after the late 1980s seem to have had differ- colleagues who are gay responded. We also did not ask any colleague that we ent experiences depending on their gender. Some women continued to face know of, who has been accused of sexual impropriety, who is rumored to have harassment and abuse from male parishioners and colleagues. For some men, been sexually improper, or who has stated publicly that we are living in a new times were also difficult. One respondent with 12 years’ experience wrote, era of sexual Puritanism. We hope these lapses do not prevent our reflections “Things were touchy — by which I mean , women were ready to be offended, from being heard. and men were reluctant to admit to being sexual creatures. Sexuality was We want to share a sampling of what our colleagues wrote and said. regarded largely as a male disciplinary problem. 1. What was the sexual climate like when you entered the It was becoming clear that our sexual behavior did indeed have an impact on ministry? our ministries. Ministers’ lives, parishioners’ lives, and the congregation’s life For our most experienced colleague, his first colleagues were male. He wrote, were deeply impacted by sexual naiveté, malfeasance, misconduct, and abuse. “When I entered the ministry it was virtually all male. Sexual involvement with Discussions of clergy misconduct, the long-term consequences for the congrega- parishioners was not honored or approved, but neither was it openly confronted. tions, and an attempt to establish norms of behavior began to surface. In the

68 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 69 late 1980s, the UUMA Guidelines were revised to include a Code of Everyone responded “yes” to this question. Two respondents feel that this is Professional Conduct. This was the first for any denomination.” the ministry to which they are called. 2. In what ways has this [the sexual climate] changed through 7. In your current ministry, in what ways do you have to deal with the years of your ministry? issues involving sexuality and ministry? There was great consistency in the responses to this question. They can be In one way or another, all respondents are involved in these issues. Some are summed up by paraphrasing the comments of a minister with 22 years of experi- after-pastors and are dealing with the consequences of past ministerial sexual ence. The whole tone of our ministry has changed dramatically. Trust and sup- misconduct. Some are teaching students and interns about the importance of port exist among colleagues where competition once ruled. sexual ethics. Some have parishioners who are acting out sexually, these minis- Another who entered ministry in the late 1980s wrote: “The anxiety has ters are faced with the challenge of holding them accountable for their behavior decreased markedly. Stories and jokes can be told with appreciation, rather than and responding pastorally to them. Some have preached about the issues. Some nervousness.” work with lay leaders about boundary issues. Some counsel colleagues who do 3. To what do you attribute the change? not seem to understand and appreciate issues of sexual ethics. Almost every respondent cited the increase of women in the ministry as a 8. About 10 years ago, there was a strong focus on sexual ethics major reason things changed. Other responses were: The passage of time; the in our ministry. Some people believe we have become complacent. thoughtful attention the subject has received; the fact that we really are sexual Do you agree or disagree and why? creatures and sex will out; maturity in our faith (i.e. things are not quite so Responses to this question were varied. A few, such as the following, indicate skewed toward individual satisfaction); response to rapidly changing social and that ministers are generally aware of the importance of this issue. “I don’t think cultural understandings and standards, and a response to having witnessed the so and I hope not. I certainly don’t feel complacent although I remain puzzled consequences of irresponsible sexual behavior. that there are still more cases than I would expect of colleagues who are still Several respondents cited the work of various denominational groups as sexually abusing congregants or others under their supervision.” instrumental in effecting change: the UUMA, Unitarian Universalist Women’s Another wrote, “I agree. I think there was a strong reaction to [Marie] Federation, the now disbanded Women and Religion Committee, Task Force I Fortune’s single-minded approach — UUs love to behave in the grays and and II, and the Department of Ministry. Fortune doesn’t allow for this. Around a lot of boundary issues, ministers like to 4. What kind of course work/workshops/seminars on Sexuality find exceptions and if there are exceptions to be found, then the “rules” don’t and Ministry did you have in theological school? work and shouldn’t apply.” Only one respondent who attended theological school before 1984 had had any 9. Are clergy more at risk of violating sexual boundaries than in course work on sexuality and ministry. Everyone else had nothing or next to noth- the past? If so, how? If not, why? ing (a brief mention in a pastoral ministry class). Ministers with 12 or fewer years Several respondents did not answer this question. One person said clergy are of experience have had formal and informal course work. Although the Fellowship more at risk now because this is no longer a hidden problem, nor is it one that Committee does not req u i r e specific course work, it does req u i r e that candidates it is OK to be secretive about. Five said there is not a greater risk of a violation read some books on the subject. When he recently met with the committee, the for exactly the same reasons. Five said there has been no change. Clergy simply student respondent was not asked a single question concerning this issue. do not believe it will happen to them. Two respondents remind us that denial is 5. What continuing education courses/workshops/seminars not just a river in Egypt. on Sexuality and Ministry have you had? 10. Is there anything in the current way of dealing with violations Ev e r y respondent has had continuing education workshops and done reading on of sexual boundaries that might be changed to increase clergy the subject. Many have had the Marie Fortune training and/or Safe Congreg a t i o n understanding of seriousness of the issues involved in a violation? training. Several have taken Deborah Pope-Lance’s After Pastor training. Several respondents believe that we are doing all we can do. Others gave 6. Have you been or are you currently involved in the conversation specific suggestions: required reading and course work for students, greater about sexual ethics and ministry? accountability, a signed document in a minister’s file stating that he or she has

70 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 71 taken a minimum amount of course work, taking the Code of Professional constantly monitoring their professional behavior as to its explicit and implicit Practice seriously, understanding the risk involved when behavior can be con- appropriateness. strued as inappropriate, focusing on intimacy and relationships rather than sexu- 15. What do you think is the responsibility of one colleague ality, and of course, continuing education. to another when there is a suspected or obvious violation of sexu- 11. What do you think is the most important issue concerning al boundaries? sexuality and ministry that needs to be addressed by ministers/ Everyone agrees that “tough love” is desirable but exceedingly difficult to UUMA/ Fellowship Committee/Department of Ministry? practice. Newer ministers are more optimistic about the process working than Although the responses to this question had much overlap, they were pretty are more experienced ministers. evenly divided between those who see the primary concern as one of enforce- 16. Under what circumstances would you feel comfortable talking ment: giving the appropriate bodies the authority to discipline ministers who with a colleague about a personal ethical dilemma concerning violate ethical boundaries and a need to develop a deeper understanding of your sexuality and ministry? what it means to be a sexual being. Everyone hopes they would be able to talk to a trusted, compassionate col- Several people suggested that congregations are not the appropriate body to league. Newer colleagues in ministry feel more confident that they will actually enforce ethical standards, that they often hinder the process. There is general do it. Despite believing that they should, those who have had longer ministries agreement that most of the responsibility needs to be borne by ministers, as sug- are less sure that they would/could confide in a colleague. gested in the Code of Professional Practice. Everyone agrees that this is easier said than done. Others see the need for a collaborative effort among the The Sexual Revolution Department of Ministry, the Fellowship Committee, the UUMA, congregations, It is clear that those of us entering the ministry before 1990 have lived ministers and lay people. through a definite shift in attitude and behavior concerning ministerial sexual The second category of response is best summarized by this comment: ethics. The most obvious difference is one of gender. Today our ministry is com- Sexuality needs to be seen as a subset of larger issues — appropriate boundaries posed of an almost equal number of females and males of various sexual and in ministry, self-care in ministry, self-differentiation, appropriate use of power gender orientation. This is a relatively recent phenomenon. Prior to the mid- and authority. 1970s when women began, once again, to enter our ministry in significant num- 12. What resources are available to help clergy deal with bers, ministry was at least 99 percent male. sexual issues and ministry, and which ones have you used? A respondent remembered what it was like. “Behavioral norms were clear. This group of respondents seems well aware of resources and have used many They said that sexual relationships were for married couples of opposite genders. of them: Marie Fortune’s books and training, other books, Safe Congregation Of course, we knew that the rules were broken, but it happened in secret so that training, Ministry After a Betrayal of Trust, and denominational and collegial the appearance of sanctity of the family was maintained.” support. One person felt that although the training resources are available, they This was true as well for all public figures. We know now that the press col- are difficult to access. luded to ignore the extramarital affairs of U.S. presidents such as Roosevelt and 13. What additional resources do you think need to be Eisenhower. Dalliances were overlooked, unless the transgression was flagrant or available to clergy to help them understand and deal with became impossible to ignore. this issue? Then came the Sexual Revolution, a sea change that deeply influenced The most frequent response was periodic workshops at chapter meetings and where we stand today. This is of interest both because of its influence on cur- during Ministry Days at General Assembly. rent sexual attitudes within the culture, the denomination, and our ministry 14. What measures have you taken to reduce your own vulnerability for inappropriate sexual behavior? and because it is a prime example of the largely unacknowledged difficulty of negotiating social change within Unitarian Universalism. Everyone reported that heightened awareness has made them pay more It is sometimes said that religion is an attempt to help people find roots and attention to developing and maintaining fulfilling personal relationships and

72 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 73 wings. In terms of this metaphor, and in comparison with other religious Boundaries were set aside. Open marriage, specifically understood as meaning denominations, Unitarian Universalism is strong on wings and weak on roots. sexually open marriage, became quite prevalent. General Assembly became a When confronted with social issues, other religious groups tend to struggle with meeting ground for those wanting an opportunity to explore away from home. their roots, whether Biblical or doctrinal, and move ahead slowly as they resolve As Paul was registering for GA one year, he heard one of the volunteers at the the issues of grounding. Unitarian Universalism has a tendency to leap ahead registration table quite openly ask another, whom he had apparently just met, “I without the support of roots. The result is often much pain and hurt as well as see that you are wearing a wedding ring. Do you have an open marriage?” social progress. This was true of the civil rights movement, the anti-Vietnam As the professional leaders of congregations, ministers were not exempt from War movement, and the Sexual Revolution as well. being swept up in this sexual tide, and sometimes were in the forefront. The Sexual Revolution can be said to have begun in 1960, when the Food Boundaries were not part of the dialogue, but clearly, boundaries were being and Drug Administration licensed “the pill,” the first oral contraceptive. Prior torn down, and those who attempted to maintain clear boundaries were often to the advent of the oral contraceptive, the fear of pregnancy dampened our derided. There was a belief that we could move from hierarchical structures and cultural libido. On a personal note, one of the authors of this paper (Paul) mar- power inequalities to all being on an undifferentiated, level playing field with ried and moved to Massachusetts in 1959. At that time, the condom was the little or no recognition of the inherent power differences between ministers and most commonly used form of birth control. However, in Massachusetts, the sale lay persons, between men and women, which did, in reality, continue to exist. of condoms was illegal. In order for a couple to practice birth control so that A parallel attempt to reduce hierarchy led many ministers to deny the inher- they could relatively freely express their sexuality, even within marriage, it was ent difference and healthy boundary between clergy and laity. A question dis- necessary to go out of state to purchase condoms. The advent of the pill opened cussed among colleagues at the time was, “Why should ministers be expected to the flood gates to a much freer sexuality than had previously been the case. conform to a higher moral standard than the members of their congregations?” In addition to the pill, people believed that venereal disease had been con- During a time when ministers were considered “just one of the folks,” it was a quered by antibiotics. AIDS was not at that time even on the horizon. The reasonable question. Perhaps the one boundary that still had currency, at least “human potential movement” told us that “should” and “guilt” were words to be for most ministers, was the boundary between counselor and counselee in the dropped from our lexicon, and that jealousy was a learned response that needed pastoral counseling relationship. to be overcome as we developed new, nonpossessive, nonhierarchical relation- Some of our colleagues wrote books exploring issues of sexuality and mar- ships. By the late 1960s and ’70s, a cultural shift had emerged. Sexuality was out riage and which were published by Beacon Press. Ronald (Ron) M. Mazur wrote of the closet. Attitudes and behavior relaxed as sexuality began to be seen as a Commonsense Sex, 1968 and The New Intimacy, 1973. David Sammons wrote good and healthy thing. The Marriage Option: Why It Remains the Best Alternative, 1977. (Prior to the A few of the defining books of the era: In 1962, Helen Gurley Brown’s Sex Sexual Revolution, no one would have thought of marriage as an alternative.) and the Single Girl popularized the idea that single women had the same right to About Your Sexuality came out early in the 1970s. This was truly on the cutting enjoy an active sex life as men. Nena and George O’Neill’s Open Marriage, pub- edge in bringing sexual openness and honesty to our young people. However, in lished in 1972, invited us to expand the boundaries of the marriage relationship, hindsight we can see the need for a stronger values base, which has been incor- including being open to sexual encounters outside the relationship. The Harrad porated in the OWL program. Experiment, by Robert Rimmer, promoted group marriage as an ideal. The gener- By the late 1970s, women were entering our ministry in increasing numbers. al message was that sex could simply be a form of play, completely disconnected In part, the Sexual Revolution made this possible. Because of the pill, women from bonding, relationship, or responsibility. were not forced to choose between children and career. But these pioneer UUs joined the sexual revolution with all the enthusiasm and excitement we women faced with new challenges. Many female colleagues report ministerial had given to other social causes. Many wanted to be on the cutting edge of this gatherings as being highly sexually charged and that being “hit on” was the gen- free and casual exercise of sexuality. Experimentation of all sorts occurred in our erally accepted norm. congregations. Prior to the Sexual Revolution, there was a Puritanical approach to the sexu-

74 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 75 ality of ministers. There were clear external rules, which were flaunted amid an two aspects are seen together, we get an image of the ‘power of exis- attitude of looking the other way or excusing the behavior as being only human. tence-as-a-relational-process.’ Rules were often treated legalistically. With the advent of the Sexual The power of the individual is enhanced when the web of rel a t i o n - Revolution, sexual Puritanism and the rules based upon it were discarded, and ships is benevolent and encourages the most crea t i v i t y . This gives the per- to a large extent we were left without guidelines. Sexual acting out by male col- son the potential ability to participate fully in the relational web, to allow leagues seemed at times to become a sport. The consequences of this game were on e ’ s being to absorb as much experience as possible, and to have such an widely ignored. With the entry of increasing numbers of women into our min- ef fect on self and others that the whole relational aspect of life is istry and the increased awareness of the destructiveness of the abuse of power enhanced and enlarged. Healthy internal relationships are mutual rel a - through sexual irresponsibility, we have entered a new era of responsibility and tionships in which self and other are continually transformed. (pp. 24–25) accountability. A Unitarian Universalist theology of power requires that we examine the power inherent in the office of ministry. Our congregations are places where Can the future be different people come searching for meaning, intimacy, and a connection with the We are in a post-Sexual-Revolution period, attempting to pick up the pieces. Divine. Whether we like it or not, whether we personally affirm a Divine For now, the task is not to impose a new Puritanism. It is to articulate, establish, Presence or are conscious of it, as ministers we are seen by many of our parish- teach, and, when necessary, enforce a more integrated set of guidelines and ioners as an embodiment of, if not, God, then a Perfect Parent. We have power, rules, based on an understanding of clear personal boundaries, relational power, simply by being ministers. and a recognition of what it means to abuse that power. As our colleague the Rev. Carl Scovel said in a recent sermon to the The beginning point for this task is to develop a theological understanding Massachusetts Bay District clergy, of power. This is a tricky subject for Unitarian Universalists. It means we have … the minister stands on the boundary between the holy and the to grapple with issues of divinity, power, authority, relationship, and what it human, between the Most High and its manifestations, between God means to be human. No easy task, to be sure. However, we do not begin ex and humankind. Regardless of our theologies or styles of ministries, we nihilo. The groundwork has been laid in the first and seventh principles: “The all stand between our people and that to which they still aspire. We feel inherent worth and dignity of every person” and “the interdependent web of all in our roles as clergy the yearning and the distance, the guilt and the existence.” A theology of power built on these two interrelated principles recog- idealism, the “ought” and the “can’t,” the kinship and the distance nizes that the individual does not exist in isolation. Power is relational. which our people feel toward the divine. When they think that we rep- In The Abuse of Power, James Newton Poling writes, resent the ideal, their admiration is terrifying. When they discover we Within a process-relational view of reality, power in its ideal form is vir- have failed, their fury and disappointment is just as intense. tually synonymous with life itself. To live is to desire power to relate to We need to acknowledge this power. We need to accept the fact that we are others. indeed called to be more than just “one of the folk.” Failure to do so comes with Power is often misunderstood as a one-way effect on others. But a terrible price. Denying our power demeans the office to which we are called. power is actually organized by the relational webs of which we are a Denying our power degrades the inherent worth of every person and of the com- part. Our ability to act in effective ways depends on our connections munity we serve. Denying our power is an invitation to abuse it. with other persons, and with the institutions and ideas that form the Built upon the first and seventh principles, a Unitarian Universalist theology basis of our experience. of power understands that the individual does not exist in isolation or in a soli- … Two basic principles of life are interrelated. There is the cre- tary moment in time. Power is relational, it is shared, and it is shaped by the ative energy that is the basis of everything that is, what Meland calls past, present, and the future. Such is also true of the power of the community. ‘the Creative Passage.’ There is the web of relationships into which this Our task as ministers is to enhance individual and community life by using the energy is structured, what Loomer calls ‘the relational web.’ When these power inherent in our role to strengthen and deepen relationships, individual

76 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 77 and communal. When we intentionally or unintentionally yield to the tempta- “mushy” boundaries. To do this, we need to be aware not only of our need for tions to abuse that power, we not only weaken or destroy current relationships self care, but also of the need to care for each other. We must not just call each and their potential for transformation, but we tear the fabric of the community other when we suspect that there is a violation of trust, but call each other sim- in ways that are lasting and difficult to heal. ply to ask, “How’s it going?” We need to “get a life” and not allow ourselves to Our task as ministers is to nurture and encourage the growth of that portion become so immersed in our congregations, becoming prisoners of the systems we of the interdependent web that we have been called to serve and/or have been serve, that we have no outside friends or interests. A 24/7 work week should not entrusted with. This may be a congregation, a venue for chaplaincy, a counsel- be a goal for ministry. ing practice, a community of people, an institution, our network and tradition Ministerial power, often denied, often ignored, sometimes abused, is a gift as colleagues, or even seemingly isolated individuals who look to us as a safe inherent in our calling to ministry. Used wisely and well, it can bring healing haven and a conduit to the sacred. To do so, we need a deep awareness of our and hope to people’s lives. Ministerial sexuality, often denied, often ignored, own egos and ids. sometimes abused, is a gift of our humanity. Used wisely and well, it enhances We are sexual beings with needs and wants that are not different from those our ability to provide ministry to those who come to our congregations. of the people we serve. Yet because of the power and authority inherent in our Ministry is not about us. Ministry is about creating a safe web of relationships in position, our sexuality affects the way we relate to and are seen by these very which transformation and hope are available to all persons. same people. It is incumbent upon us to understand this and to develop and uti- Our hope is that the issues of sexuality and power in the ministry will lize clear personal and professional boundaries. In other words, we must know increasingly move into an exploration of the spirit of the ministerial relation- where we end and the other begins. ship. The spirit, not the law, can guide, strengthen, and inspire our ministries. We believe that the development of this awareness must begin in theological We live and we serve, school. This critical and often overlooked facet of ministry must be explicitly not by the heavy hand of rules, taught as part of the ministerial formation process. It can happen in specific but by the spirit that lives courses and in formal conversation in the context of the school community. We behind every law we try to write, recommend that the Fellowship Committee add as a requirement that all candi- by the spirit which animates our days, dates for fellowship must have done course work that addresses issues of power, by the spirit which stirs our compassion, sexuality, and ministry. by the spirit which calls us to this path, It must not end upon receiving a degree. Those of us in the ministry need that leads us to walk hand in hand continual reminders about the importance of issues of sexuality and power to with each other as colleagues our ministry. The respondents to the questionnaire suggested several options: and with those we guide and serve. chapter programs, ministerial support groups, continuing ed workshops and a Amen. strengthened Code of Professional Practice. We recommend that the Code of Amen. Professional Practice be rewritten to both add specific actions that are clear violations and to better state the spirit of the covenant we intrinsically have with RE S O U R C E S : those we serve, the violation of which constitutes an abuse of power, even Workshop manual, Clergy Misconduct: Sexual Abuse in the Ministerial Relationship, though it is not defined by the letter of the law. Center for the Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence, 1992. Somehow, we must develop a method to hold each other accountable to the Workshop manual, Creating Safe Congregations: Toward an Ethic of Right Re l a t i o n s , ed. Patricia Hoertdoerfer and William Sinkford, 1997. guidelines in our Code of Professional Practice. This is not easy to do, for we all Benyei, Candace R., Understanding Clergy Misconduct in Religious Systems, carry with us a strong desire not to “rat” on another. Ideally, we would feel Hayworth Press Inc., 1998. secure in our ministries so that we are empowered to speak to one another when Boers, Arthur Paul, Never Call Them Jerks, The Alban Institute, 1999. we feel that a colleague is particularly vulnerable or seems to be operating with Hands, Donald R. & Wayne L. Fehr, Spiritual Wholeness for Clergy, The Alban Institute, 1993.

78 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 79 Hopkins, Nancy Meyer, Clergy Sexual Misconduct: A Systems Approach, The Alban Institute, 1993. A Theology of Power in the Ministry Poling, James Newton, The Abuse of Power: A Theological Problem, Abingdon Press, The Rev. Gordon B. McKeeman 19 91 . Safe Congregations Panel preliminary report, Restorative Justice for All: Unitarian Presented at the Harper’s Ferry Study Group Universalists Responding to Clergy Sexual Misconduct, 6/2000 November 2000 Scovel, Carl, “The Impossible Call,” Sermon given 10/4/00 at the MBD UUMA chapter meeting. Tra c y , Denise D., Healing the Congregation, The Alban Institute, 1995.

AM PL E A S E D TO HAV E BE E N IN V I T E D to speak with you. I think I have something Ito say. But I have been ret i r ed from the ministry for a long time, distanced from the perfo r mance of ministry, and perhaps also from the realities of ministry. I feel considerable sympathy for these words from Harry Meserve : When I first entered the ministry in a small New England town, the job description was comparatively simple. In the morning one worked in one’s study, reading, writing, reflecting. In the afternoon, soon after lunch, one took a handful of cards and went to call on people all afternoon. Then one went home. There were a lot of church meetings in the evening. I attempted to attend them all … . It was all very much as they had said it would be at the Divinity School, except that a lot of things happened that I was not prepared for. Nobody had ever told me how to deal with grief and pain, with sickness and the sense of failure, with the frustration of youth and the despair of age, with the sinfulness and saintliness, both authentic and powerful, that resides within any group of people, and with the strong currents of opinion and feeling that sometimes run through churches and other human communities, turning friends into enemies and enemies into friends, lending both terror and endless excitement to the outwardly routine tasks of ministry. Looking back over the years, it seems to be that I have become more, not less, perplexed; more, not less, uncertain as to what the final answers are, but more deeply interested in the task of ministry than ever before … . I plan to go at this task backwards, speaking first about the ministry, then about power, then about power in the ministry, and after that about a theology that undergirds power in the ministry. I begin then with the ministry. I spent my first 10 years in ministry, roughly from 1945 to 1955, trying to discover what the ministry was all about. I graduat- ed from the theological seminary, in my case Tufts, which resulted in my being in possession (tenuous though it was, and incomplete, of course) of tools and

80 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 81 equipment for ministry. I had studied the literature of religion, especially the 4. Embracing a cosmic story, an attempt to answer a fundamental Christian and Jewish scriptures of the Old and New Testament. In addition I question, “Where am I?” had a nodding acquaintance with the sacred literatures of other world faiths. I 5. Expanding one’s knowledge of the world’s religious traditions. had courses in religious education, with particular reference to children, though 6. Practicing spiritual disciplines as a means of refreshing one’s I understood that adults were not immune. I studied the history of religions, the convictions and commitments. history of the Christian Church. I was introduced to homiletics, and liturgies, 7. Developing a comprehensive value structure and a commitment the conduct of worship and church music. I had courses in systematic theology to living in accordance with it. and the philosophies of religion. I was subjected to Parish Practices and Church 8. Playing an active role in a religious community. Administration. I was introduced to Ethics, including Social Ethics. I presume Each one of these, of course, is susceptible to much further explanation, that you were subjected to a similar array of tools development and elaboration. This is not my present errand. It does, however, The question that was foremost in my mind, once I got my release from the- suggest the magnitude of the task of ministry. It is an enormous task, never-end- ological academe, was what am I supposed to be doing with these tools? I guess ing, complex, multilayered, fraught with perils and frustrations, but also capable that the faculty assumed I must know the answer to that fundamental questions, of offering deep and abiding satisfactions. It is a challenge with intriguing possi- but I did not. bilities that keep us at it and that, I believe, lead us to ask, “Whence arises the So the first 10 years of my ministerial career were a particular kind of hell. I power that makes ministry possible — and deeply satisfying?” was supposed to fulfill expectations whose purposes were mysterious. I was going So we move to the subject of power, and its ancillary question of power in through the motions. Gradually, I guess, because I don’t recall any dramatic the ministry. moment of enlightenment — no trumpets, angels, visions, or visitations — I As a prelude, I offer these lines from the pen of Adrienne Rich, from a piece began to believe that my ministry was to help people grow a set of religious titled “Power”: principles and practices that could be applied to the problems, paradoxes, enig- Today I was reading about Marie Curie: she must have known she suf- mas and quandaries of being human, of being alive and recognizing that death fered from radiation sickness her body bombarded for years by the ele- was lurking at the end of the process. Later on I put it this way: Ministry is par- ment she had purified. It seems she denied to the end the source of the ticipating in a leadership role in a process by which people are invited to cataracts on her eyes, the cracked and suppurating skin of her finger- become mature religious persons. Churches are communities of people engaged ends till she could no longer hold a test-tube or a pencil. She died a in offering resources and opportunities to help themselves and others in their famous woman denying her wounds — denying her wounds came from religious growth. Considerable work has been done since I departed theological the same source as her power. school in describing and identifying the stages of religious development. I call your attention in particular to the poignant last line, “her wounds came I have developed a list of some of the elements (or facets) of the develop- from the same source as her power.” ment process. It includes: Power is the ability to do or act; the capability of doing or accomplishing 1. Cultivating an awareness of the depth dimension in life — something. Lurking in the background of such a definition are such related “Things are not what they seem — they are so much more.” notions as “control” and “authority.” We are, both by disposition and by history, 2. Examining one’s own life story, looking for clues to values, suspicious of authority, since it has the power to subvert, to debase and to practices, and viewpoints learned in our very early lives, many of enslave, even to destroy. So we begin by examining the sources out of which the which persist into adulthood. ability to accomplish something may arise. 3. Enlarging one’s self-concept, being aware of the ways in which Knowledge is obviously one of these pre-conditions. The tradition of an edu- one’s self-boundaries are enlarged by the inclusion of “others” cated, learned ministry arises from the conviction that knowledge is a source of and occasionally narrowed by conscious exclusions in response to power and of authority. Since the ministry has religion as its primary field of hurts of many kinds. endeavor, it is incumbent upon those who aspire to power know much about

82 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 83 religion. All those courses you took, possibly only because you were required to go?) when you’re up to your waist in alligators, that you're supposed to be drain- do so, were intended to provide you with one of the primary and fundamental ing the swamp. Your calling is to be a religious leader. Religion is not about sources of power. You know more than a little about a subject of which few peo- political victories, but being faithful to a vision of the holy. Regular communion ple have much information. It may be quite helpful. But let me add a more- with the holy, however you conceive it, is vital if you are to be that dealer in than-casual caveat. hope. More words from the pen of Adrienne Rich: For many years now there has been an ongoing tension in the field of educa- My heart is moved by all I cannot save: so much has been destroyed I have tion about the relative importance of content and process. Most of us have to cast my lot with those who age after age, perve r s e l y , with no extraordi - known people, more specifically teachers, whose knowledge of their subjects was na r y power, reconstitute the world. impressive, but whose ability to transmit it to others was nearly nonexistent, or It may help us in our quest for power to be clearer about the kind of power to put it a bit more kindly, sadly deficient. Conversely we may also have we are seeking. In this aspect of our search, my own efforts have been much encountered those whose communications skills were superior, but whose com- stimulated by the work of Gary Zukav, author of The Dancing Wu Li Masters mand of the subject being imparted seemed frail and fragmentary, or in a word, and, more recently, The Seat of the Soul. I quote at length from the latter book, inadequate. Obviously the relationship between knowledge and power is predi- rather than put myself between you and his provocative words: cated on having both a deep and wide-ranging religious faith based on an ade- We see that when the activities of life are infused with reverence, they quate understanding of religion and the ability to present it lucidly, persuasively, come alive with meaning and purpose. We see that when reverence is and in a variety of situations. Public worship, organizational participation, for- lacking for life’s activities the result is cruelty, violence and loneliness. mal instruction, counseling, and conversational settings come to mind as occa- The physical arena is a magnificent learning environment. It is a school sions when both significant knowledge and clear presentation combine to pro- within which, through attention, we come to understand what causes us duce useful power. to grow and what causes us to shrivel, what nourishes our souls and what Let me say a word here about another factor in the power equation: commit- depletes them, what works and what does not. ment. We are very fond of identifying ourselves and our religious approach as When the physical environment is seen only from the five-sensory truth-seeking. I am often tempted to ask whether we have ever found any, and point of view, physical survival appears to be the fundamental criterion whether, having found some truth, we are committed to it, even as we recognize of evolution because no other kind of evolution is detectable. It is from that further truth may (and probably will) be found. Those who have not made this point of view that ‘survival of the fittest’ appears to be synonymous up their minds are unlikely sources of power. with evolution, and physical dominance appears to characterize A second source of power is personal spiritual practice. For a maturing reli- advanced evolution. gious adult, spiritual practice offers a dimension of power that is of crucial The need for physical dominance produces a type of competition importance. The ministry is a continuing exercise in patience. The goals of that affects every aspect of our lives. It affects relationships between ministry are long-term goals. Very few instant fixes are available. Growth tends lovers and between superpowers, between siblings and between races, to be a slow, gradual process, requiring persistence and perseverance. Spiritual between classes and between sexes. It disrupts the natural tendency practice undergirds and upholds one’s continuing effort when results are slow in toward harmony between nations and between friends. The same energy coming and seeming reverses are encountered time and time again. Then, too, that sent warships to the Persian Gulf sent soldiers to Vietnam and one is likely, perhaps even inevitably, to be working with those whose spiritual Crusaders to Palestine. The energy that set Lee Harvey Oswald against growth is not yet far enough advanced to be robust in addressing discourage- John Kennedy is the same energy that set Cain against Abel. Brothers ment, dismay, or even panic when progress is not evident or even present. and sisters quarrel for the same reason that corporations quarrel — they Recently in a church bulletin I ran across a quotation from Napoleon, “A seek power over one another. leader is a dealer in hope.” Spiritual practice is intended to keep one in touch The power to control the environment, and those within it, is the with the wellsprings of mind and heart. It is easy to forget (how does the saying power over what can be felt, smelled, tasted, heard or seen. This type of

84 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 85 power is external power. External power can be acquired or lost, as in I summon it to address some particular facet of living: dealing with disappoint- the stock market or an election. It can be bought or stolen, transferred ment, failure, depression, confusion, whatever. I identify it as the central com- or inherited. It is thought of as something that can be gotten from some- monality of the religious community. I recall it in meetings that struggle to one else or somewhere else. One person’s gain of external power is per- muster resources for addressing institutional problems. I seek to help people ceived as another person’s loss. The result of seeing power as external is realize that the religious community’s health and their own are intimately con- violence and destruction. All of our institutions — social, economic and nected, and that their contributions to it of time, talent and self, are for their political — reflect our understanding of power as external. … own welfare. We devote our lives to realizing the soul, the holy spirit, the inner After millennia of brutality to one another, individual to individ- light within ourselves, and try to practice what we preach by asking whether we ual and group to group, it is now clear that the insecurity which under- can preach what we practice. lies the perception of power as external cannot be healed by the accu- Such a theology provides a context for ministry. We are bent on a holy mis- mulation of external power. It is evident for all to see, not only with sion, the advancement and growth of individuals toward religious maturity and each newscast and evening paper, but also through each of our countless the creation, sustenance and growth of a religious community committed to sufferings as individuals and as a species, that the perception of power as being a source of continuing power for its adherents in addressing the personal external brings only pain, violence and destruction. This is how we have and social ills, the unwholiness of existence and transcending the partialisms evolved until now, and this is what we are leaving behind. that are the source of so much mischief. We are often perplexed as to how to Our deeper understanding leads us to another kind of power, a address problems, both personal and social. One thing we do know is that peo- power that loves life in every form that it appears, a power that does not ple must believe that they can muster the resources and the power necessary to judge what it encounters, a power that perceives meaningfulness and address problems. There lies a continuing need for encouragement and hope. It purpose in the smallest details upon the Earth. This is authentic power. does not arise except from an inner sense of ability, competence and trust. When we align our thoughts, emotions, and actions with the highest There are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people. Beckoning them forth is part of ourselves, we are filled with enthusiasm, purpose and meaning. a task of ministry. Life is rich and full. We have no thoughts of bitterness. We have no We have the responsibility to lead the religious institution (the church) in memory of fear. We are joyously and intimately engaged with our world. becoming a source of power. We are called to do this in the midst of a group of This is the experience of authentic power. people overwhelmingly devoted to individualism, and consequently suspicious So now we have arrived at the theology part of the title. I begin with a quo- of institutions. One result of this pervasive distrust has been that we have tation from Hosea Ballou in the “Treatise on Atonement”: “G o d has a good sought to keep our institutions as weak as possible without actually killing them. intention in every volition of man.” Stripped of its archaic language, it might be We are committed only to searching for the truth, but with considerable appre- stated, “Every living thing is oriented toward wholeness.” Plants are heliotrop i c , hension lest we find some, only to discover that finding a truth compromises they seek the sun. They need nutrients and moisture. Their roots probe the soil for our freedom by demanding our allegiance to it. Our own self-interest requires us them. The rivers run to the sea. Human beings intend their own wholeness, but to make commitments on behalf of our growth, maturity, well-being, in a word, ar e often sadly confused about how to seek or achieve it. Our contemporary culture our wholeness or (to use a religious word) holiness. is itself a dramatic illustration of the almost desperate quest for wealth, reg a r dless of Each individual is a locus of power, actual and potential. A purpose for having the consequences, on the assumption that wealth brings satisfaction, peace of any institution is to link the separate powers of individuals into one large r , more mind, health, friends, and, of course, power. committed, more powerful community. Our dilemma is that our individualism is The impulse toward wholeness is what I count on in the quest for power to the death of social power. In illustration of the quandary, I recall to your minds accomplish something. This impulse has been called the soul, the holy spirit, what Robert Bellah told us at General Assembly in 1998 in Rochester, N.Y.: the inner light. It is what I address in sermons. I try to summon the awareness of Almost from the beginning the sacredness of conscience, of the individ- it to consciousness. Some don’t remember its presence without some prompting. ual person was linked to the right to pursue one’s own economic inter-

86 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 87 ests … freedom of conscience and freedom of enterprise are more close- brate not so much our diversity, individuality, and differences, but our oneness, ly, even genealogically, linked than many of us would like to believe … . that we are members one of another, a church, a body of folk committed to the It is not accident, as they say, that the United States, with its high eval- oneness of all that is. The sermon will seek to empower persons in their self- uation of the individual person, is nonetheless alone among North growth toward a greater embrace of life, and invite the renewal of commitment Atlantic societies in the percentage of our population who live in pover- to live it day by day. Our educational endeavors will speak to the questions of ty and that we are dismantling what was already the weakest welfare who we are, and what we are up to, the living of the human family in dignity, state of any North Atlantic nation … . And this is in not small part due love, and peace. We will take people where they are, in whatever condition or to the fact that our religious individualism is linked to an economic circumstance, but we must remember that we have no obligation to leave them individualism which … ultimately knows nothing of the sacredness of where and as we find them. Indeed, our obligation is to invite them to be whole the individual. people, the destination to which their souls are summoning them. In our coun- I propose that, in our search for a solution, we look more closely at the con- seling, committee meetings, correspondence, “calling,” we are “the heralds of cept of self. The self is an expanding (and contracting) internal event. The universal redemption.” We are called to build a community in which power is infant in need simply cries. Others, whose selves include and embrace the cry- created, shared, and utilized in the service of a grand vision of humaneness, of ing infant, who know it to be “flesh of their flesh,” seek to address the misery happiness, of plenty and of peace. expressed in a cry. It is the infant’s misery, but not alone. It is the parents’ mis- Hear Robert Bellah once more: ery too. The parents’ selves include the infant. In time the infant will establish Beneath the surface glitter of American culture there is a deep inner its “separate” self. It will learn to say “No!” And eventually its growth will core, which … is ultimately religious: the sacredness of the conscience expand its self to include mother, father, siblings, relatives, playmates, class- of every single individual. Nothing I have said tonight takes away from mates. The maturing self struggles to embrace more and more. The religions the enormous power for good of that idea. It is responsible for the best counsel either treating self as an illusion, or encouraging identification of self in our culture. But, by the very weakness of any idea of human solidarity with others, universally. Cain’s question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” was asked associated with it in a culture dominated by the dissenting Protestant in an attempt to conceal a murder. It always is, one way or another. When we tradition, it opens the door to the worst in our culture. It easily leads to cannot identify with an “other,” we stand at the boundary of our own self and the idea that humans are nothing but self-interest maximizers, and the are challenged to grow toward a larger self. Let’s give it its proper name: devil take the hindmost. It is that version that we see all around us. I Universalism, or universal salvation, the errand on which we are bent, the real- don’t think we can challenge that version until we come to see that the ization of exalted human possibilities through self growth from narcissism to sacredness of the individual depends ultimately on our solidarity with all encompassing wholeness. And the glorification of the narrow self is the source being, not on the vicissitudes of our private selves. You face in your very of what we call evil. denomination the most basic conundrum of American life. If you can Every gain, every time a person takes one step toward a more inclusive self, solve it, you may help lead the larger society out of the wilderness into learns to love one more person, understands his/her well-being as inextricably which it has wandered. bound to that other and is committed to that other’s health and well-being, is And, in conclusion, these lines from Karle Wilson Baker: an increase in the power of the church to fulfill its mission of universal salva- The Lord said, “Say, ‘We,’” But I shook my head, Hid my hands tight tion. So long as we remain uncommitted to the growth of individuals toward a behind my back and said, Stubbornly, “I.” greater inclusivity and identification with the plight of others — so long as The Lord said, “Say, ‘We.’” But I looked upon them, grimy and all there are “others” — our efforts will languish for the want of a conjoined power, awry, Myself in all those twisted shapes? Ah, no! Distastefully I turned the power of a committed religious community, composed of individuals grow- my head away, Persisting, “They.” ing in “authentic” power. The Lord said, “Say, ‘We’”; And I, at last, Richer by a hoard of There remains the possibility of a ministry of power. Its worship will cele- years, Looked into their eyes and found the heavy word That bent my

88 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 89 neck and bowed my head Like a shamed school-boy then I mumbled The Core of Unitarian Universalism low, “We, Lord.” More power to you! Charles A. Howe Presented to The Fraters of the Wayside Inn at Sudbury, Massachusetts January 25, 2000

Preface Our program chair has assigned me the task of presenting a paper defining the core of Unitarian Universalism — or, in other words, what has been central to our movement throughout its history and has given it its uniqueness. The word “core” does not lend itself well to metaphor in the same way that words like “stream” or “tree” or “web” do, yet it is one appropriately assigned for this paper, implying as it does centrality, compactness, endurance, and strength. For the moment, let us consider this Unitarian Universalist core to be a flexible, vibrant, rod-like body, central to our movement, gaining in length as it moves ahead through time and changing in strength and vitality as it does so. Not much visual imagery here, to be sure, but that’s OK. We don’t always have to invoke metaphorical images in talking about religious matters — a crude dia- gram later on will have to suffice. What does this core carry with it as it moves onward through time? Around the growing end of the core, here in the present, we find clustered the men, women, and children of our Unitarian Universalist congregations, their leaders among them, the activities in which they are participating, the geographical locations in which they convene, the buildings in which they worship. If we look carefully, we can see John Buehrens and Kay Montgomery in their offices at 25, the peripatetic Denny Davidoff somewhere or other in the mix, the old Independent Christian Church, Universalist in Gloucester, the new meeting house under construction in Cherry Hill, and even the miscellaneous group of ministerial types gathered here this morning.

People and Places If we go back along the core to the 16th century, we see quite a different cluster of men, women, and children carrying on activities in Transylvania and Poland. And if we look carefully, we can identify men and women with the names of George Biandrata, Francis David, Faustus Socinus, Katherine Weigle, and Jadwiga Gnoinska, and places of worship in places such as Kolosvar and

90 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 91 Rakow. A bit farther back down the core we can see the dreadful sight of Carnes, Gene Pickett, Sandy Caron, and others, and others, and others, all for a Michael Servetus being burned at the stake at Champel. time part of the cluster around the core, or still part of that cluster. Moving quickly forward along the core to the late 18th century, bypassing It ’ s hard to say just when this core first started to come into being. Let’s say it many worthy people and places in the process, we find a cluster of men, women, was sometime in the 14th century at the start of the Renaissance, with the core and children, John and Judith Murray among them, all proclaiming universal gr owing thicker and more vibrant with the coming of the Italian Humanists, salvation in places along the American seaboard, places such as Gloucester, Gu t e n b e rg ’ s printing press, Erasmus, Luther, and Servetus, and then Socinus and Boston, Oxford, New York, Philadelphia, Good Luck. There are also David. Some of the core’ s strength and vitality were soon lost with the death of Transylvanians, Englishmen, and other Europeans to be found along the cluster, David in Transylvania and the destruction of Socinianism in Poland, but it sur- and with the passage of time people from more and more countries will make vived, nevertheless, to find revitalization across the Atlantic in America. their appearance, but for the sake of simplicity and manageability I’ll limit my Here in America we’ll have also noted some changes in the strength and observations on what is transpiring along the core to America. That’s more than vitality of the core as it moved along through time. A weakening that begins in enough for us to handle! the 1920s, becomes pronounced in the ’30s, regains its strength during the ’40s Moving along the core into the early 19th century, we see ever-larger clusters and ’50s, loses some of that strength in the 1970s, and seems to have recovered of people, with Boston Brahmins now intermingled with shopkeepers and farm- during the 1980s and ’90s. I’ll leave it to each of us to judge how strong that ers. Standing out in the crowd, but somewhat apart from each other, we can see core is as it moves into the new century. William Ellery Channing and Hosea Ballou, each proclaiming his unique, liberating message. We note that the core is strong and vibrant! 3. Theologies As we move onward, we no longer can spot Channing, Ballou, and the What the people clustered around the core were thinking as it moved along Murrays among those clustered around the core. They live on through their was inevitably changing as well, both as the result of interactions between words and deeds, but their places have been taken by others, particularly those themselves and with the outside world. The theologies of our religious forebears bent on the reform of American society. We hear voices call for women’s rights, of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries were for the most part based on reinterpre- the abolition of slavery, temperance, the reform of penal institutions, of the tations of the Judeo-Christian scriptures, reinterpretations that, variously, reject- treatment of the mentally ill; calls for the abolition of war, for the restructuring ed the doctrine of the Trinity and affirmed the humanity of Jesus and universali- of society. The names of most of those in the crowd are unknown to us, but we ty of salvation. can find those whose names we know well: Theodore Parker, Ralph Waldo With the coming of the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason, a significant Emerson, Adin Ballou, Susan B. Anthony, Mary Livermore, Thomas Starr King, change in the thinking of those men and women clustered around the core Olympia Brown, and many others. Their voices are being heard farther and far- began to take place. Examples include the shift in Universalist thinking from ther to the south and west as we move forward along the core to places such as John Murray’s Rellyan theology to that of Hosea Ballou, and the gradual move- Charleston, Camp Hill, New Orleans, Chicago, St. Louis, San Francisco. ment to the core of liberal Congregationalists, soon to become Channing-led Now let’s medium-fast forward, past people clustered around the core at such Unitarians. times and places as Gloucester in 1870, Saratoga in 1894, Boston in 1899, And the changes in thinking continued as outside forces made their impact Montreal in 1917, Washington in 1935, Canton in 1947, Syracuse in 1959, on those within the Unitarian and Universalist movements, those men, women, Boston in 1960, Cleveland in 1968, Atlanta in 1985, right up to Sudbury in and children congregated around that ever-extending core. Such diverse influ- 2000. I hope you stayed with me on that medium-fast forward through history!) ences as scientific materialism, German biblical criticism, Eastern philosophies, Some of those we could spot as their faces flicked by us: Jenkin Lloyd Jones, European Romanticism, and Darwinism found expression in diverse theologies, Herman Bisbee, the Iowa Sisterhood, Sam Eliot, John Haynes Holmes, in such diverse thinkers as Priestley, Jefferson, Emerson, Parker, and Francis Clarence Skinner, Fred Eliot, Bob Cummins, Sophie Fahs (we’re getting familiar Ellingwood Abbott. now!), the Humiliati (very familiar!), Dana Greeley, Hayward Henry, Paul During the course of the 20th century, new outside forces emerged to affect

92 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 93 the Unitarians, Universalists, and then Unitarian Universalists gathered around enth principle calls us to reverence before the world, not some future the core: World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, the Bomb, the civil world, but this miraculous world of our every-day experience. It chal- rights movement, Black Power, women’s rights, gay and lesbian rights, the com- lenges us to understand the world as reflexive and relational rather than ing of the space age, the computer age; the Social Gospel, modernism, human- hierarchical. It bespeaks a world in which neither god nor humanity is ism, neo-orthodoxy, existentialism, process theology, cosmological theology, at the center; in which the center is the void, the ever fecund matrix New Age and Neo-pagan thought and practices, Buddhism and other Eastern out of which being emerges … . It calls us to trust the process, the creat- religions, the various expressions of spirituality. All elicited responses from the ing, evolving, renewing, redeeming process which brings us into being, ever-changing group gathered around the end of the core, often including us, which sustains us in being, and which transforms our being. It offers a whether in support or opposition. vision of a world in which the holy, the sacred is incarnated in every The socially centered Universalism of Clarence Skinner, the Religious moment, in every aspect of being, a world in which God is always fully Humanism of Curtis Reese and John Dietrich, the creative interchange of present, and in which God is always fully at risk. It offers us the opportu- Henry Nelson Wieman, the Tillichian theology of James Luther Adams, the nity to complete the theological renewal Universalists were attempting one-world religion of Kenneth Patton, the Emergent Universalism of the in the years immediately before merger … . We are not called to be the Humiliati, the feminist theologies of Rebecca Parker and Sharon Welch, the “quintessential boomer church.” We are called to follow the directive of neo-paganism of Margot Adler — all have found expression around that ever- our history. extending core of our movement during the century just completed. David Bumbaugh makes a strong case, in my opinion, for the next theologi- In passing, let me mention that Richard Speck, in his article “The Enduring cal emphasis to be developed by those who will be clustering around the grow- Center of Unitarian Universalism,”1 has recently identified “community” as ing end of our movement’s core in the years ahead. But we should not mistake being the center of our movement. “Community,” he says, “is central to our con- this promising “interdependent web theology” for the core itself, we should not tinuing to have a liberal faith.” It is, he contends, the major reason that people see it as the be-all and end-all of our Unitarian Universalist theology. join our congregations, and it “will keep us growing well into the next millenni- There’s always a tendency to see things that way. The Universalists conven- um.” Despite Speck’s contention that “[t]hroughout our history as a denomina- ing at Winchester, N.H., in 1803 were so sure that they had “gotten it right” in tion, the building of community has been a central task,” my reading of our his- their avowal of faith, that they decreed that it should never be changed; I sus- to r y is that this has been a major emphasis for only the past 40 or so years; more- pect the signers of the Humanist Manifesto thought that they had “gotten it ov e r , it is an emphasis that is by no means uniquely our own, but shared with right” 130 years later. My own best guesses as to what will be happening around those of many denominations. It is undoubtedly an important activity of those the ever-extending front of the core in the first part of the 21st century will be cl u s t e r ed around the core, but to my mind community scarcely qualifies as “The more attention to space age cosmological theology, to the nature and role of Enduring Center of Unitarian Universalism,” as being the core itself. consciousness in the universe (as per Edgar Mitchell), and to earth-centered spirituality, although the current attraction of neo-paganism will slowly fade 4. Looking Ahead away, lacking, as it does, any firm rootage in our tradition. But whatever But to continue. In his essay, “The Heart of a Faith for the Twenty-First emerges, it seems self-evident from our history that our core can never be Century,”2 David Bumbaugh proposes that the seventh principle of our UUA defined by a theology, no matter how right that theology seems at the time. So Principles and Purposes, i.e., “respect for the interdependent web of all exis- what then, is the unique, abiding core of Unitarian Universalism? tence of which we are a part,” can provide us with a theological base for the century that we have now entered. It “represents,” David Bumbaugh says, 5. The Core Itself our peculiar contribution to the religious agenda. Nor is it an insignifi- I argue that the unique core of Unitarian Universalism is a center, a nucleus, cant contribution. Hidden in this apparently uncomplicated, uncontro- a locus of intellectual ferment moving constantly through time. Not the intel- versial, innocuous statement is a radical theological position. The sev- lectual ferment of hard science or of secular academe, but a theological or spiri-

94 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 95 tual intellectual ferment, one in which Unitarian Universalists of many back- leaving its imperfect products in its wake, products that we, by entering that grounds have wrestled freely over the year and are wrestling freely, wrestling center, are challenged to improve. with basic religious questions: Why are we here? Why is anything here? What is our significance? END NOTE S What, if anything, of us survives our death? 1 Richard Speck, “The Enduring Center of Unitarian Universalism,” UUMA: Unitarian Is there purpose behind the universe? Universalism Selected Essays 1997. What or who is God? 2 David Bumbaugh, “The Heart of Faith for the Twenty-First Century,” UUMA: Unitarian Universalism Selected Essays 1994. What are our responsibilities-- to ourselves, to each other, to society as a whole, to the earth, to the universe, to God? How do we relate to our past? How does our understanding of the past guide us into the future? What is sacred? How are we saved? Of what does salvation consist? Who are our saviors, exemplars, models? What, whom, how do we worship? How do we define our Unitarian Universalist faith? You can add other questions of your own. What keeps emerging out of this intellectual ferment, taking place freely at the interface between past and future, are partial, temporary answers — theologies — that enable us to move ahead with better understanding of who we are, why we are, what we are called to be doing, where we have come from, where we are heading, and of the all-embracing reality in which we live and move and have our being. The new theologies that emerge are shaped both by the ones that preceded them and by the changing forces within our movement and the outside world. This intellectual ferment took place in the minds of Michael Servetus, Francis David, and Faustus Socinus, and, through time, has taken place in the minds of all those of our spiritual forebears who have been actively engaged in this intellectual struggle. It has taken place in some, perhaps all, of us. It has taken place, from time to time, over the years right here in this place. The metaphor for the core of Unitarian Universalism that I suggested at the beginning — the flexible, vibrant, pulsing, rod-like body — materializes in our imagination only as we move backward from the present; it but marks the path that the center has taken. The true core is that strong, free, vibrant intellectual center, that center of free theological intellectual activity; that center always demanding response in the world; that center always in process, always moving ahead through time,

96 UUMA Selected Essays — 2001 2001 — UUMA Selected Essays 97 Selected Essays 2002 Call for Essays and Submission Guidelines

• Deadline for consideration: January 1, 2002 • We invite you to submit original essays and presentations for publication in UUMA Selected Essays 2002. Essays presented before a Unitarian Universalist gathering or study group will be favored; however, any essays that are of interest and relevance to Unitarian Universalist ministers and that are well-written will be considered for publication. • All essays must be submitted in both electronic format and hard copy. Include a cover letter with your full name and title as you would like it to appear in print, your home and business addresses (not to be printed unless you so request), daytime and evening telephone numbers, and email addres s . • Documents may be submitted via email to cro s h a v e n @ u u m a . o r g as an attached file in RTF (Rich Text Format), or in Microsoft Wor d. You will generally receive confirmation of receipt within 72 hours. If you do not receive confirmation, please contact Craig Roshaven. A hard copy should also be sent by U.S. mail. • If you do not have e-mail, you may submit the document on 3.5" disk, rea d - able by IBM compatible systems, with the manuscript saved in two file for- mats: ASCII text and either RTF or Microsoft Wor d. Include a hard copy of the document with your disk. The hard copy should exactly match the file saved on disk. Send submissions to: Craig Roshaven 7133 Robinhood Lane Fo r t Wor th, TX 76112 • Material should be doublespaced. Number your pages, please. Use single-col- umn text. Hard copy printouts should be of letter quality, with crisp, black type (whether typed or computer printed). No handwritten corr ec t i o n s . • DO NOT include your name on the manuscript itself. Materials will be judged by an independent panel who will not know who submitted which es s a y . Please edit your papers to eliminate identifying material. • Fo r mat the material so that any citations appear as endnotes rather than as footnotes. The essays are published with notes as endnotes. • Your essay should be finalized at the time of submission. There will be no op p o r tunity to make revisions after submission. • If you have any questions, please contact Craig Roshaven.

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