The Movement of Liberal Faith (Jesus, tradition, beliefs, America)

[Davidium]

Recently, I have begun to think of my religious movement as “Liberal Faith” and not “Unitarian Universalism”. This does not mean that I am changing my association with the UUA, or that I don’t consider myself a Unitarian Universalist… I certainly do!

But I think our religious movement is bigger than those two doctrinal names from our past imply. I also think that we have allowed that term… “Unitarian Universalism” to be defined by others in ways that are not beneficial.

I am a person of Liberal Faith. What does that mean? It means that I believe that revelation is continuous… that new thought, new inspiration, and new revelation can occur at any time, to anyone open to such inspiration.

I believe that “scripture” is much larger than just the Bible. I believe the Cannon did not close with the formation of the Bible, and I look for wisdom not just in other faith traditions, but also in all of human thought, and also in nature and the universe itself. God is revealed in nature more than in scripture.

I believe, as Margaret Mead said, that a small, well intentioned group of people can indeed change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

I believe that humankind is not fallen into unrecoverable sin, but rather that human nature is, at its core, good and just. I believe that humanity has a positive and productive future, and that we are not evil by nature.

I believe that liberal faith requires one doctrine, and that is a doctrine of transformation. Liberal faith requires that we be willing to transform ourselves, our religious movement, and the world itself when such transformation is necessary and possible. A liberal who refuses to change is no longer a liberal… just a new kind of conservative.

I believe that liberal faith has transcended the concept of the “Preisthood of All Believers” that was at the core of the protestant reformation. Liberal Faith requires another step, the formation of the “Prophethood of All Believers”. Each of us perceives only a part of truth, and it is only in sharing that truth in loving community that we can perceive even glimpses of the larger Truth.

I believe that humanity is an inherent part of the universe, not something separate and set above it. The Universe was not created for us, we were created by it. “Out of the Stars we come”. Care for the universe, care for nature and the environment, is in essence care for ourselves.

I believe that there is no conflict between science and religion, that in fact they are two sides of the same coin. Einstein said that “Science without Religion is lame, but Religion without Science is Blind!”

I believe that we each carry the divine within us. Some of us show the divine through our lives more than others. In some of us, that which is divine within us shines like a beacon that is undeniable. Jesus of Nazareth, the Buddha, Confucius, Ghandi, Clara Barton, Theckla, in all of these people, and more, that which is divine about humanity shown through their lives as an all consuming fire. In the case of Jesus and a few others, that fire was so bright that it did indeed consume them.

All of this I believe, and more. All of this I believe to be at the core of my Liberal Faith. The religious movement that we call Unitarian Universalism is actually a movement of Liberal Faith. Unitarian Universalism is the structure in which we express it, but our religious movement transcends that structure. The Unitarian Universalist Association could go the way of the Dodo bird, but the religious movement of Liberal Faith would still exist in this world.

And so, I am of Liberal Faith.

Yours in Faith,

David

[michel]

I would go along with all of your statements.

[Scarlett Wampus]

Yep. Me too, or nearabouts.

[PureX]

That was a very well thought out and articulated post. I wish that more folks would consider their own beliefs as carefully and thoroughly as you have. Thank you.

[jeffrey]

I agree also. For years, for the most part, people that thought on their own were shunned by their fellow man, by their fellow church goer. Times are changing. There are alot more people that are now questioning things that don't make sense. Instead of "well, this is what the chuch teaches, so even though there are questions in my mind, I'll shut up and believe because I'm told to believe", we now have people standing up and saying "This don't make sense!"
There are still churches that will shun you, their members look at you like if you say something that you think is wrong about the teachings of that church. Telling you that the parts you have trouble believing in, "you must have faith". Sorry, but that is such a cop-out. And people are now voicing their questions, forming their own thoughts, ideas, refusing to be sheep. And when confronted with this, being told "it's the devil working on you", But guess what. Maybe it's the devil inside the church, not yourself, that is the real problem.

Freedom. Freedom to think on your own. Freedom to question what you doubt.
Excellent OP. Frubals to you when I can dish our more.

[Squirt]

It surprised me to realize that, as a Latter-day Saint, I can agree with A LOT of what you have said.

[Davidium]

It is heartening to me that so many of you agreed with what I had to say yesterday morning... and that none of those who posted were UU's. One of my professors, a minister with over 40 years of experience serving Universalist, and then Unitarian Universalist churches, started my thinking along these lines. He said in one of my recent classes that he began his career as a minister of the Universalist Church of America, and had become a minister of the Unitarian Universalist Association with the merger with the American Unitarian Association in 1961. He had seen churches, institutions, and other groups come and go.

But what always existed was the spirit of Liberalism in the world... It changed, but it was always there.

In part, my thinking along these lines goes with the sermon I preached earlier this month, which is also an entry into a sermon/scholarship competition within our UU Faith. In it, I looked at how we need to be open to transformation in many different aspects of our lives, including our political life.

If anyone is interested, here is the online link...

http://dynamicdeism.org/tpst/viewtopic.php?t=172

Thank you all for your kind words.... and now I'm back to my papers... its the end of my semester.

Yours in Faith,

David