Posted on 11/11/2002 8:04:53 PM PST by Incorrigible
Sunday, November 10, 2002
BY DAVID GIBSON
Star-Ledger Staff
Throughout its long history in America, the Unitarian Church has been something of an oddity, a liberal denomination that embraces no creed and rejects any hint of sectarianism in a country with an unslaked thirst for theological certainty.
The church's tiny membership reflected its marginal appeal, as did society's attitudes toward Unitarianism, which ranged from confusion over what -- if anything -- Unitarians believe in to quips about its user-friendly approach to faith.
Now, however, Unitarians may have the last laugh.
Not that they would ever gloat. Unitarians are still marked by the graciousness of the upper-crust New England society where the denomination took root more than two centuries ago, a region that remains the Unitarian heartland.
But in an interview during a visit to New Jersey recently, the head of the Boston-based denomination, the Rev. William Sinkford, did admit to a quiet satisfaction in the steady growth of the Unitarian- Universalist Association, as the denomination is formally known.
Sinkford noted that the UUA has registered gains for 20 straight years, up from 171,609 in 1982 to 200,599 a decade later to 220,600 today -- a marked contrast with the steady erosion in the mainline churches over that same period.
"It makes most of our close cousins in the Protestant family quite green with envy," Sinkford said, barely restraining a smile.
"The majority of Americans have actually decided that the stance that Unitarian-Universalism has taken is the right one, despite some significant rear-guard action on the part of the religious right, in particular," Sinkford said. "And so we find ourselves actually more in the mainstream in terms of the folks out there than we were 40 years ago."
The strength of that appeal was part of the reason Sinkford was in New Jersey, to dedicate the newly renovated Summit Unitarian Church. The congregation has long been one of the country's premier Unitarian churches, with a top- notch music program and a string of renowned preachers. The church is one of 23 UUA congregations in the state (which total nearly 6,000 adherents) and with more than 400 adult members and 200 children in religious education, it is twice the size of the average UUA church in America.
Indeed, denominational leaders are hopeful this could be the Unitarian moment.
After the trauma of Sept. 11, many Americans rediscovered a need for spiritual connection. But surveys also show that Americans are increasingly unchurched; that is, they have no formal religious affiliation. The American Religious Identification Survey, which is conducted every decade, showed the number of unaffiliated Americans almost doubled, from just under 8 percent of the population in 1990 to 14.1 percent in 2000.
That does not necessarily mean that they are atheists or even agnostics, but simply that they have no "container" for their spirituality. That is where the UUA, with its commitment to equality and its dogmatically non-judgmental ways, is apparently gaining most of its adherents.
"The contemporary wisdom about the church is that brands are becoming less important. So we focus very much on congregational life. It's what is happening in the congregations that is important, rather than the brand," Sinkford said.
EVERYONE'S WELCOME
The aftermath of Sept.11 has also been a time of scandal, turmoil and theological disputes in many traditional religions, and that also turned off people who may have been seeking an oasis. Unitarian officials say that while the worship surge after Sept. 11 abated in most faiths, attendance remained high at Unitarian congregations.
"It's hard to draw broad brush reasons for that, but one of them is that in Unitarian-Universalism we do pitch a big tent," he said. "We embody some answers, some sense of hope -- that the divides of religion that we are told must keep us apart can be overcome, and that pluralism can be seen as a blessing and not a curse."
If that is the case, Sinkford is certainly the right man in the right place. A former marketing executive for Revlon and Avon, Sinkord was elected president of the UUA in June 2001 and immediately announced that raising the UUA's profile was his top priority. The fact that he is the first African-American to lead the predominantly white, Brahmin denomination certainly underscored the UUA's pledge to expand beyond its traditional client base.
GETTING IN TUNE
Just as critical to the UUA's outreach, however, has been an evolution that few would have thought possible a few years ago: The Unitarians found God.
Not that they ever quite lost Him. Or Her. But as a movement born in the Reformation and reared in the rationalism of the Enlightenment, Unitarianism was never dogmatic and frowned on proselytizing. From its beginnings, Unitarianism rejected the Christian idea of the Trinity, believing that there was a single deity who found expression in many faiths. It had no creed and no dogma. In the United States, Unitarianism was initially linked with Congregationalism -- the heirs of New England's Puritans -- but broke with them in 1824.
From that point the denomination steadily de-emphasized its links with Christianity.
In 1961 the Unitarians merged with an even smaller community of Universalists, who espoused universal salvation for everyone. The motto of the new Unitarian-Universalist Association was summed up as, "One God, no one left behind." Unitarian-Universalism became the ultimate come-as-you are church for folks who didn't know who they were, religiously speaking, but wanted to find out. Its unifying principles were inclusiveness and a commitment to social action. The sacred took a back seat.
"It is a religion of the reasonableness of God. Essentially they are free-thinkers," said Stephen Marini, chairman of the religion department at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. "But one of the problems of having no doctrine or creed is that you run the risk of a religion with no 'there' there."
In fact, that wide-open approach eventually led to such fuzziness about what the UUA was, or stood for, that the denomination began an internal struggle over its identity. Some UUA congregations were more Christian-oriented while others discouraged any talk about a divinity. A few years ago the UUA even suffered a schism of sorts -- unusual for a quintessentially pluralistic community -- when a splinter group disillusioned with the lack of a religious center broke with the UUA and formed the American Unitarian Conference (after settling a lawsuit over the name).
The past decade, however, has seen Unitarians move towards a greater focus on the sacred, which probably helps the UUA's appeal because aging Baby Boomers are increasingly asking the big questions and seeking ways to talk about God.
William Sinkford embodies that pilgrimage.
COMING HOME
As a child, Sinkford had attended a high-church Episcopalian congregation and a Southern Baptist church, and was turned off by both. At age 14 he was, as he put it, "a stand-up atheist." Then his mother dragged him, "kicking and screaming," to a Unitarian church. He loved it.
"I was surprised to find a church where I could bring all of myself in the door -- all my questions, my doubts, all the arrogance of youth," he said. A few years later, however, Sinkford grew angry over what he saw as the denomination's retreat from a commitment to racial justice, and he left.
In the early 1990s he started working his way back to the church, prompted by the death of his mother and the caring response of her Unitarian congregation. Although he entered the seminary in 1992, Sinkford said he was still defining the parameters of his belief when his teenage son, who was struggling through a drug problem, overdosed in 1996 and wound up fighting for his life.
His son survived, and is now a straight-arrow Army Ranger serving in Afghanistan. But sitting in the emergency room, Sinkford said he found himself praying.
"As I sat through the night with him, I experienced the presence of God. I experienced hands that would hold me through the night. And I knew those same hands were holding my son," he said. "I am quite clear on the presence of something that transcends me, and the presence of a love that has never broken faith with us."
Needless to say, that is not the kind of talk most Americans associate with Unitarians. But Sinkford thinks the change of tone is healthy for the UUA, but mainly for the people who are seeking the kind of alternative that the UUA can provide.
"What draws people is their hunger, their yearning for religious commitment," Sinkford said. "Yes, there always is an ongoing conversation in Unitarian-Universalism about what we believe and how we live that out. But more and more of our congregations are welcoming people who are unchurched, who are coming in looking to engage with religious language, to engage with the wisdom of the faith community.
"For many years (we) were unwilling to use religious language to talk about God. That is shifting. And in my view that is a very healthy thing for this faith that I love."
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Yeah, but it is a good place to pick up chix. Unitarian women are EASY!
Trouble is, if it is a god of your own making, it is not God at all.
Because it is yet another biblical word that has been "watered down" and misinterpreted to fit a belief or philosophy. Ya know? Like "Church" is a building.
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Beautiful.
Unitarians: Believe in EVERY religion being right...Budda, Christ, Jewish, Bai Hai, Zoastrianism, wooden idol worship, New Age jargon, Dianetics, etc. But not strongly.
Well that makes sense. As people have become increasingly educated over the years, they have become less tolerant of going to places where all they find is people who wanted to dictate to them how they should live their lives.
These are people who are looking for spiritual answers, not for someone to tell them how to run their lives, which is what one finds in most churches.
God will be so pleased to know that these folk have no need of Him. They can manufacture their own God apparently.
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