June 15, 2008
The cover of The Christian Century magazine’s June 3rd edition offers five provocative little words: “What to say about hell.” The magazine created a mini symposium, asking eight Christian theologians to respond to the question, “How should we think and talk about hell?” The first sentence of the first essay made my heart skip a beat. “The doctrine of universal salvation, often simply taken for granted, is being defended afresh on biblical as well as philosophical grounds.”
The sentence’s author is Dr. Jerry Walls, a professor of the philosophy of religion at Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky. I wrote to professor Walls and asked about this fresh defense of the doctrine of universal salvation. I asked if he was referring to Bishop Carlton Pearson of Tulsa, OK, the former evangelical superstar whose compelling and painful journey to Universalism I’ve spoken about from this pulpit. He wasn’t referring to Bishop Pearson. He recommended a book called Universal Salvation? The Current Debate, a collection of articles both for and against the doctrine. In searching for this book I found easily 20 more books on the same subject written over the past few years by clergy and academics from the evangelical, Methodist, Quaker, Catholic, Mennonite, and Dutch Reformed traditions—books with titles such as The Golden Thread: God’s Promise of Universal Salvation, The Evangelical Universalist, Destined for Salvation: God’s Promise to Save Everyone, What Does the Bible Really Say About Hell?, If Grace is True: Why God Will Save Every Person, and Hope Beyond Hell.
Without a doubt, the doctrine of universal salvation is being defended afresh. Furthermore, there’s a new organization called the Christian Universalist Association or CUA. Founded in May of last year, it describes itself as “an ecumenical organization uniting people and churches around the world with a vision of God’s all-inclusive love,” and it offers this motto: “All God’s children, no one left behind.” They’re holding an international conference in Oklahoma City this weekend. They are worshipping this very hour. My heart skips a beat.
To explain why my heart skips a beat, I need to give you a bit of historical background. I am an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister; you are the members and friends of a Unitarian Universalist congregation. The “Universalist” in Unitarian Universalist originated with a sect of liberal Christians in the post-Revolutionary United States who professed the doctrine of universal salvation—the doctrine that God condemns nobody and ultimately saves everybody. These Universalists eventually created the Universalist Church of America which became one of the largest denominations in the country during the 19th century. Its numbers dwindled in the 20th century and after many decades of institutional decline it merged with the American Unitarian Association in 1961, forming the Unitarian Universalist Association.
Even before the 1961 merger, the doctrine of universal salvation faded into Universalism’s spiritual background. Consider this 1949 quote from Universalist minister, the Rev. Brainerd Gibbons, who served as President of the Universalist Church of America in the 1950s. He said: “While fully aware of its Christian heritage, many equally sincere Universalists maintain that an inherent spirit of inquiry has carried Universalism beyond Christianity. A new type of Universalism is proclaimed which shifts the emphasis [from] universal salvation to [universal] religion, and describes Universalism as boundless in scope, as broad as humanity, and as infinite as the universe. Is this Universalism’s answer: a religion, not exclusively Christian or any other named brand, but a synthesis of all religious knowledge which passes the test of human intelligence, a truly universal religion.” This is important: by the mid-twentieth century, although there were still individual Universalists professing the doctrine of universal salvation, the Universalist Church of America was redefining Universalism as “beyond” or larger than Christianity, as a “synthesis of all religious knowledge,” as open to and inclusive of all religious insights and traditions. This is certainly a major part of how we understand Unitarian Universalism today. Our opening words pledged our hearts and hands “Unto the church universal, which is the depository of all ancient wisdom and the school of all modern thought, which recognizes in all prophets a harmony, in all scriptures a unity, and through all dispensations a continuity.”
However, despite the fact that today Unitarian Universalism is a non-doctrinal religion; despite the fact that today our faith is grounded in covenants rather than creeds and relationships rather than articles of faith; despite the fact that we base our collective spiritual life on principles that guide our living rather than statements of belief; and despite the fact that very few of us profess the doctrine of universal salvation, my heart skips a beat because…universal salvation is our doctrine! I had to study it in seminary. I had to answer questions about it when I went before the Ministerial Fellowship Committee. I teach it in our introductory classes. The first congregation I served was founded as a Universalist Church in 1820. I feel a sense of ownership towards this doctrine. It’s part of our history. We claim those late 18th and early 19th century Universalists as our spiritual forebears. So, I experience a little pin-prick—maybe I even feel a little threatened—when I read on the website of the CUA these words: “we see our organization as the resurrection of the 18th and 19th century Universalist movement which unfortunately dwindled in the 20th century and was absorbed into Unitarianism. We consider their history to be, for all intents and purposes, our own—and we are reclaiming it today.”
Friends: Not only is the doctrine of universal salvation being defended afresh on Biblical as well as philosophical grounds, but another association of congregations has announced they are the rightful heir to our history! My heart skips a beat.
But only one beat. The pin-prick doesn’t last very long. I’m actually not threatened at all by the emergence of the CUA. In fact, Hallelujah! I believe this movement, because it is an explicitly Christian movement, can transform the more mean-spirited, punitive, damning aspects of Christianity in this nation far more effectively than Unitarian Universalism can from its location “beyond Christianity.” Furthermore, it may be our doctrine from a historical perspective, but most of us aren’t using it. So why not give them our blessing? Why not celebrate the fact that the Christian Universalist message of hope is experiencing a revival? I believe we UUs ought to be in relationship with this movement, ought to do everything we can to support and nurture this movement. I was pleased to find out there are Unitarian Universalist clergy and lay-people serving on the CUA’s board. I’ve also initiated a conversation with the Rev. Kalen Fristad, one of the CUA’s founders, about having him speak here a year from now.
Nevertheless, the resurgence of Christian Universalism in our time raises a very significant question for us. We call ourselves Universalists. It’s part of our name, part of our history. But what do we mean by it? We know what they mean. What do we mean? I want to explore this question now; and I want to use this exploration to make some basic claims about my first five years of ministry in Manchester. In looking back, I feel that even though we no longer hold the Christian doctrine of universal salvation at the center of our faith, there is a universalist impulse at the heart of our shared ministry. There is a universalist impulse at the heart of our message, at the heart of our vision, at the heart of our community, and at the heart of our denomination. A universalist impulse lies at the heart of our principle of the inherent worth and dignity of every person. A universalist impulse lies at the heart of our principle of a world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all. A universalist impulse lies at the heart of our principle of the interdependent web of all existence. Every person. Justice for all. All existence. Everyone is invited in. Nobody is left out. Everything is connected. Inclusion. That is what I mean by Universalism.
The universalist impulse inspires in us openness and a curiosity towards all religion. The universalist impulse leads us to assume at the outset of our spiritual journeys that all religions have something of value to teach. All religions offer paths to the sacred, paths to human growth, paths to ethical living, paths to right relationship with ourselves, with our neighbors, with strangers, and with the earth. All religions express truths. All religions manifest wisdom. The universalist impulse says “Do not be threatened by different ways of approaching the sacred. Rather, be inspired and be in relationship.” The universalist impulse leads us to build communities in which multiple religious world-views can co-exist peacefully. The universalist impulse leads us to counter fundamentalism’s spiritual elitism with a celebration of religious pluralism. The universalist impulse leads us to challenge fundamentalism’s ‘one right way’ with the message that there can be no peace and no justice when one way dominates and all other ways are silenced and destroyed. The universalist impulse leads us to replace fundamentalism’s doctrines of exclusion with, to use Bishop Pearson’s language, a “doctrine of inclusion.” The universalist impulse says there can be many truths in one room! Many truths in one community! Many truths in one nation! Many truths in one world! The universalist impulse says many truths abide! Many truths endure! Many truths survive! Even the doctrine of universal salvation, as beautiful, simple, elegant and hopeful as it is, is still only one among many truths. Looking back over five years, this conviction that there can be many truths in one room has characterized our shared ministry.
The universalist impulse also demands that we recognize hell on earth and do everything in our power to transform it. Friday, as the President of the Greater Hartford Interfaith Coalition for Equity and Justice, I led a delegation of seven clergy to a meeting with three of Governor Rell’s staff to talk about how the Governor can address the problem of urban violence. This was our second such meeting. Our message to the Governor is that we as a statewide community must stop treating urban violence purely as a criminal justice issue with punitive, damning threats of “three strikes and you’re out.” As a statewide community we must begin understanding and treating urban violence as a public health crisis. A member of our delegation, the Rev. David Massey of Hopewell Baptist Church in South Windsor, came late to the meeting because he was assisting at the funeral of William Henry Googe, III, an eighteen-year old who had been shot a week earlier—Hartford’s latest victim of gun violence. Though the Governor herself spent only a few minutes with us, she clearly signaled an openness to further dialogue and a desire to do whatever is in her power to help solve the problem once and for all.
It was the universalist impulse that led me to ask for this meeting in the first place. It is the universalist impulse in me that says the current social conditions which breed urban violence and which allow so many of these murders of young men of color to take place with virtually no public awareness outside of the inner cities, with virtually no public outcry, with virtually no response from the larger community, and with so little dedication of public resources beyond the criminal justice system—these social conditions are morally outrageous and unacceptable. It is the universalist impulse that says we cannot stand by and do nothing while children—anyone’s children—shoot each other. It is the universalist impulse that says, “Do not let stand anyone’s hell on earth.” It is the universalist impulse that says, if there’s something we can do to acknowledge suffering, to bear witness to suffering, to alleviate suffering, to transform suffering, then we are morally compelled to do it. It is the universalist impulse that reminds us everyone matters. Everyone matters. Everyone matters.
The universalist impulse reminds us that caring for one another
matters. The universalist impulse reminds us that the life-long, wide-ranging
search for truth and meaning matters. The universalist impulse reminds
us that working for peace and justice matters. The universalist impulse
reminds us that living in harmony with the earth matters. Oh, it is a hard
impulse to respond to. Easy to talk about; hard to do, hard to uphold;
hard to live by. It is a hard promise to fulfill. We fail again and again
and again. But it is also inherent in the universalist impulse that we
always have another chance; that we can always try again; that we can find
our way back to each other when our ways have grown separate; that we can
be reconciled to each other when our bonds have been severed; that we can
build the beloved community out of the cinders and ashes of our isolated
and fragmented lives; that we can live our lives in such a way that we
make life’s
circle whole. In looking back over five years of ministry here at UUS:E,
this universalist impulse has been at the heart of my preaching and teaching,
has been at the heart of our shared ministry, has been at the heart of
Unitarian Universalism.
Amen and Blessed Be.
