The Seven Deadly Sins of Unitarian Universalism

Rev. John Millspaugh
November 16, 2003

There’s a story about a woman in a rural farming community who was delighted with her church’s new minister and his tendency to lay it on the line. One Sunday the minister began his sermon by talking about the importance of making time for the Sacred, and the woman leaned over to her friends and said, "Isn't he good!" And when he moved on to idol worship, she poked her neighbor and said, "Listen to him tell it!" And she began to bounce in her seat when he called for an end to the unjust war in which their nation was currently involved. "It's the voice of God!" she proclaimed. He moved on to speaking about honoring one’s parents, and she cried, “Amen!” He came to honoring one’s body as a temple, and began to speak on the evils of chewing tobacco. At that point she spat angrily, turned to her neighbor and said, "Now he's done gone from preachin' to meddlin'!"
 
Do  you know the difference between preachin' and meddlin'? Preachin' is when a minister talks about the sensitive subjects in other people’s lives. Meddlin' is when a minister talks about the sensitive issues in our lives.
 
We have gathered this morning to talk about sin, and if that’s not a sensitive issue to talk about in Unitarian Universalism, I don’t know what is. When we say “We have gathered this morning to talk about sin,” that’s probably the first time that sentence has been uttered here in the history of this congregation. 

We are known for NOT talking about sin. We emphasize the good in human potential. We like it that way. We want a religion that focuses on human aspirations rather than human failings. We don’t believe in original sin as
much as we believe in original blessing. We believe that children are not born in sin. They are born as limited but unrepeatable incarnations of Life itself.    

But there are times we might envy the ready vocabulary other faiths have
to discuss the human tendencies that can be destructive. Some human tendencies can be destructive in themselves, and sometimes positive human tendencies get out of whack — or get over-emphasized — and guide our lives disproportionately. Sin is a handy term to describe that occurrence. 

It’s not just individual tendencies that can get disproportionately emphasized, but also institutional tendencies. Even good tendencies can become destructive when they are escalated out of proportion with other values. We see it when corporations, which rightfully focus on making a profit, end up making that focus so exclusive that they neglect the human or environmental impact of their actions. We see this over-emphasis of a positive tendency when orthodox religions, in an attempt to provide people a clear path to the holy, end up condemning all other paths. And we see it in at least seven ways right here in Unitarian Universalism, among Unitarian Universalists. We’re not immune. 

The particular philosophies and institutions that we cherish have their own particular ways in which  they tend to get out of whack. I love this religion, I love this movement, I love what we are about in this world and the way we work towards it. Still, I try to not close my eyes to our flaws. I can’t speak to the whole movement, but I’ve seen  Unitarian Universalism in about
forty houses of worship in twelve U.S. states.  I believe I’ve seen certain trends, some negative and some positive, which for some reason tend to get blown out of proportion in this faith, and in liberal religion generally. For purposes of this sermon, I’m calling these the Seven Deadly Sins of Unitarian Universalism. 

Hear me loud and clear. This faith deserves to be celebrated. This faith deserves to be shouted about from the rooftops. But as you celebrate this faith and this community, as you shout from the rooftops, let there also be a whisper in your head, reminding you of the seven deadly sins to which Unitarian Universalism is prone. What are the seven deadly sins? Well, I’ll give you a clue. You’ll hear them in a WHISPER. The first so-called sin starts with a W.  The next starts with an H.  And so on. 

The first trend I’ve noticed is Wanderlust. It’s a beautiful thing about Unitarian Universalism that we are not tied to dogma, that we encourage spiritual exploration, that we draw insight and wisdom from many world religions. There is a power in this method not to be found in many more traditional religious paths. 

Yet, this open-mindedness and perpetual seeking can lead to wanderlust:  
a very strong or irresistible impulse to keep moving. We might read this or that scripture, practice this or that meditation technique for a while, but we are skittish about staying in one place for too long. We hear about people who identify as UU Buddhists or UU Christians and we feel vaguely uneasy. Don’t they get that UUism isn’t about having answers, it’s about having questions?

Wanderlust blown out of proportion leads to valuing questions more than answers. Wanderlust causes us to fear what would happen if one set of religious stories and scriptures became primary for us. We look down on those who have found their own answers, not only because they have found answers we disagree with, but because they have found answers at all. 

So that’s the “W” in “Whisper.”  Wanderlust. 

The “H” is less specific to Unitarian Universalism, but it is common to most religions.  The H is hypocrisy.  Now, religion of any kind is particularly vulnerable to the charge of hypocrisy. Religion is in the business of establishing ideals and nudging us toward them.  Religion helps us see a horizon in the distance, and gives us the strength to walk in the direction of that horizon. Call the horizon enlightenment, for example. Or just name one portion of that horizon, one ideal toward which we walk—kindness, compassion, unconditional love. Religion helps us keep that horizon in our vision, and gives us the strength to walk in the direction of that horizon.

Now sometimes, religious people get accused of hypocrisy because they haven’t yet reached the horizon. They are not yet perfectly kind or compassionate or filled with unconditional love. Well, that’s not hypocrisy, that’s just being human. Real hypocrisy, the kind that makes it to our list,
is when religious people glimpse part of that goal in the distance, and they say that they are walking toward it, and they might even think that they are walking toward it, but they really don’t even try.

This plays out in Unitarian Universalism in all kinds of ways. We say in our seven principles that we encourage one another to spiritual growth. How actively do we try to do that? We say that we promote a world community of peace with justice. Do we actively strive for that? I mean going beyond talking about it to putting a little bit of work toward that end? We call ourselves Unitarian Universalist, and we have a sense of what that stands for. Do we actively do our part to walk toward that goal in the distance, and take the hands of others and help them on their way? Or do we stand in place, the horizon in view, and just talk about what a great horizon it is?

W, Wanderlust, H, Hypocrisy. 
Third. Intellectualism.

Do you think??? Now there’s nothing wrong with rationality, or with having a denomination where the members tend to be well educated, but there is a problem with turning religious experience into an intellectual exercise. I mean, the Wiccans have their spiral dances, the Muslims have their prayers five times a day, the Jews have their Sabbaths and their mitzvahs, the UUs have their . . . coffee hours. I mean that’s great, we want our coffee hours, but what’s going on here?  Are we religious people because we want to talk about the Ultimate or because we want to experience the Ultimate? Are we here to tickle our brains or to seek out and collaborate with the Eternal?  Intellectualism.

You’ve seen the cartoon of the a long line of departed souls marching through the clouds, with most people heading toward the left, where a sign reads, “Heaven,” but some Unitarian Universalist folks are heading off to the right, where a sign says, “Discussion about Heaven.”

That’s intellectualism gone wacko. The map is not the territory, the menu is not the meal. If our religious lives are to flourish, we must not treat the religious life as an intellectual exercise. We must open our souls to the unknown, whether that is through the risk of meditation, or through doing social action work, or through prayer to an unknown universe, or through discovering the divinity that is to be found when we gather in small groups like Evensong or Covenant groups. Religion is not only about talking, it is about experiencing, and it that often requires going beyond the intellectualism.

W, Wanderlust.  H, Hypocrisy.  I, Intellectualism.

In discussing the fourth tendency, I want to start by letting you know that
there is a large group, locally here, who have not participated in a community of faith for some time. And they miss it.  The individuals in that group—who do not know each other yet, by the way—they are hungry for some unnamed something that is missing from their lives. Perhaps their children have begun to ask questions that they cannot answer without the answers sticking in their throat.  Perhaps they went back to the religious homes of their childhood and found that they no longer belong there.i Perhaps they have recently experienced a life tragedy. Consciously or unconsciously they are searching.

Just a few short years ago, you were probably in that group. Now you have a religious home and community that makes a difference in your life. But there are others, still out there, still searching for what you have found here.

Imagine that later this week, you’re at work, or at a party and you run into one of these people who is looking. You might not know that they are looking, they might not present themselves as if they are looking, but they are. They say to you, “Oh, you’re Unitarian Universalist.  What’s that?” How would you respond?  Really, think about what your most likely response would be. Maybe you have tucked away a few thoughts for a moment such as this, and you share them. You talk about what Unitarian Universalism means to you. Or, perhaps more likely, would you respond in confusion, even embarrassment and mutter something incomprehensible, or maybe make a joke and dismiss the question uncomfortably?

There are those who seek what we have here, and it is in our power to let them know that it is here and share it with them.  Unitarian Universalism saves lives, and I mean that literally. There are good people right now who are alone and hungering for a place where they will be accepted for who they are.  Not letting them know about a faith community that might become their beloved religious home, not letting them in on the secret, is a form of Stinginess.  W, H, I, S, Stinginess.  We have what we need; why risk discomfort to point someone in the direction of what they need? It’s just stingy.

It is so easy to take a few minutes to figure out what you are going to say the next time someone asks you what it means to be Unitarian Universalist. 
You might say, “It’s a free-thinking liberal religion that is guided by shared values rather than a particular dogma or creed. This lets each individual claim their personal beliefs based on conscience and experience. At its core, Unitarian Universalism places an emphasis on the worth and value of every person and the interconnectedness of all things. UUs are encouraged to give life to their values, demonstrating compassion, respect, and justice,
working together to make the world a better place to pass along to our children.”ii 

It would take three minutes to get that down, or a few minutes more to write something for yourself. Not taking the time to prepare ourselves to welcome other seekers into this faith, is, in a word, stingy.

Whoo-ee, he’s gone from preachin’  to meddlin’. 
Let’s review.  W, Wanderlust, H, hypocrisy, I, Intellectualism, S, Stinginess.

Next is Pollyannaism.  Using a word as awkward as Pollyannaism should count as a sin in itself, but it turns out that Pollyannaism is a real word,
meaning blind optimism. You see this most often in our view of human nature. We don’t talk about evil or sin, this Sunday being an exception.  The Universalists ejected hell and the devil from their theology in their earliest days here in America, and that was a good move.  There is no such thing as the Devil, I believe, no such thing as hell. They do not exist.  But there is such a thing as evil. In particular, let us consider human evil. “When I speak of human evil I speak of our capacity to stunt others’ lives and our own. I speak of the murder of potential. We see human evil in ongoing pollution, in famines and expiring species, homophobia, factory farms, widespread gun violence, sweatshops, class and race prejudice.”iii  And more.  So much more.  I could go on. But I won’t.  I will only say that in our Pollyannaism, our tendency to talk only about the good and the beautiful rather exclusively, we lose something. We need to learn how to name human evil, how to talk about it. It’s dangerous territory for discussion, for none of us can finally name what is good and what is evil. But evil pervades our world, and avoiding talking about it only leads to its perpetuation. Enough of this Pollyannaism.  W, H, I, S, P.

Can anyone guess what E is?  It’s egoism.  We certainly have it as a movement. We honor wisdom from all the world’s religious traditions, but we’re sure glad that we’re in this one.  And that’s okay. But we go on from that good tendency to secretly harbor the notion that most people would be better off in this faith, if only they could rise to it. I’ve never heard any UU actually say that, but I sometimes get the sense that we think that everyone would want to be UU; at least, they would if they were enlightened enough. And that’s pretty egotistical.

We’ve got ego issues as a movement, and we have ego issues as individuals.  People join UU congregations to serve and be served, but we sometimes forget the “to serve” part. We’re pretty good at being served; it’s harder to serve.

There are times in our life, sometimes months, sometimes years, where we really are not able to serve the community in any capacity, and that’s okay. 
A new member, who gave me permission to share this story,  came to my office this past January or so and said that she felt that she knew she wasn’t pulling her own weight yet, and she’d like me to let her know where and how she could serve. Now she had some great skills, and she was offering them. And Tapestry had gaps in its programs that needed to be filled. I made the connections in my head, and then I let them go. You see, I knew from talking to this person that she was recently divorced, dealing with financial woes, and taking care of her mother in hospice. I told her I was touched that she wanted to serve, but that this is might be a period of her life when she let go of her feelings of responsibility and simply let our congregation serve her.  She did.  For months.  Those who were running the programs kept running the programs, and still, she stayed out and simply let herself be served, as I hoped she would. Slowly, her life got better. Only now is she becoming more involved in actively supporting congregational programs, and now, she’s loving it.

There are times to sit back and let others do everything to support the community and its programs. Those times can last for months or years.  But for most of us, those periods of time do not last indefinitely. If we are continually being served without ever serving, then our ego is leading us to neglect our cherished principle of justice, equity, and compassion in human relations, and obscuring the democratic basis of our congregations.

So.  We’re up to Whisp-E. You can say them along with me if you’ve got them. The first six are W, Wanderlust, H, Hypocrisy, I, Intellectualism, S, Stinginess, P, Pollyannaism, E, Egoism.

Finally we get to R, Relevance. Or more accurately, lack of relevance. This faith community makes a wonderful difference in the lives of most of the people who attend here.  Yet, aside from Tapestry’s impact on our own lives,
how is South Orange County be a better place for having our congregation in it?  We have a vibrant social action committee, we plant trees, serve at food banks, provide material goods to families in need, and more than can be named.  Still, as we grow, let us ask the question, how can we minister beyond these walls?  I’m not going to answer that.  But in the coming years, we as a community will answer that.  We’re answering that already, And I’m excited to see what our greater, future answer will be.  Relevance.

So. Those are the seven trends in Unitarian Universalism that tend to get out of whack. UUism’s seven deadly sins. Let’s see if you’ve got them.  W? H? I? S? P? E? R?  Whisper. 

We are a good and blessed people, and this is a good and blessed faith.  We can transcend intellectualism and wanderlust and claim the answers that we find as we search. We can move beyond egoism and hypocrisy, and step up our efforts to live this faith. We can take off our rose-colored glasses, see that the world is hurting, and determine to lead more relevant lives.  From a stinginess that makes us clutch this faith tightly to our chest, we can move on to a generosity that allows us to share it with all who might benefit from it. In so doing, as we walk toward the horizon, the whisper becomes a song of joy. So may it be.

Shalom, Salaam, Namaste, Blessed be, and Amen.