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“Two Hundred Years of Professing a Universal Faith”
I remember the first day I worked in this building – excited to be your new part-time secretary, grateful to have discovered Unitarian Universalism. The phone rang during when I was passing through the Parlor, “Good morning, Unitarian Church,” I answered. The Rev Elizabeth Tarbox happened to hear me, and made a point later, of saying, “Tricia, this is a Unitarian Universalist Church.” I don’t believe I’ve made that mistake since.
Point taken. This year marks the two hundredth anniversary of Universalism, the smaller denomination that merged with Unitarianism in 1961 to form the Unitarian Universalist Association. Universalism is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year. This is a good time to re-tell some of the Universalist story.
Historically, Universalism can trace its beginnings to several theological concerns.
If God created the world and every human soul, and if God is good, all-knowing and all-powerful, how could it be that most people were considered damned to eternal torment?
How could an all merciful God allow even so much as one of his creatures to suffer without hope of relief?
How could it be that human beings, created by God to be reasoning creatures, when they exercised that faculty, would be relentlessly tortured by the benevolent God that created them?
Some early Christians agonized over these questions. They did not, could not believe in a God that would inflict punishment without end. In spite of what the church said, and taught, they believed in a God that would find a way to save every soul.
Augustine, who lived from 350 to 430, was the first major theologian to write extensively about the depravity of man. A monk named Pelagius, who disagreed with the idea of original sin, opposed Augustine in a series of debates. But Pelagius was no match for Augustine. One result of the debates was that Cyprian’s Doctrine was endorsed by the church, which said that because mankind was inherently depraved there could be no salvation outside the church. Cyprian’s doctrine became the justification for persecuting those who stepped out of “theological line.” It’s ironic, before the debates the idea of original sin was almost a footnote in Augustine’s writings. After, it had become a major point of dogma. Nonetheless, Pelagius spoke his truth bravely and is cited as an early Universalist precursor.
Universalism didn’t really begin to take shape as a movement until the mid 1700’s after John Murray arrived in America. His is a story about love and about religious passion. John Murray was a Methodist lay preacher in England where he first encountered the Universalist thinking. Murray documented an early encounter with a Universalist thinker – when he had been assigned to bring her back into the fold.
Argument with a Universalist………………..
Murray himself soon came to believe that all, believers and unbelievers alike, were saved by Jesus Christ. But when his Methodist congregation got wind of this shift they let him go.
His story becomes a sad one from here. [The following information comes from the Murray Grove Museum…] “Soon thereafter he lost both his infant son and his beloved wife to illness - he was barely rescued from debtor's prison. Downcast and distressed, he was determined to give up religion altogether and make a new life for himself in America.
Murray booked passage on the brig "Hand in Hand", bound for New York. Diverted first to Philadelphia, they were on their way back up the Jersey coast when they were swept onto a sandbar in a place called (I am not making this up) Good Luck. The crew loosened the ship from the sand only to find themselves becalmed, unable to sail because there was no wind.
Murray approached the nearby Potter Homestead in search of provisions. Thomas Potter was a devout if unorthodox man. He was very religious and [I am not making this up] had built a church on his own field – a church which had stood empty for ten years, waiting for the right preacher to come along.
(An aside -- When we look at the characteristics of Unitarians v. Universalists there are ways in which they are very different – and have always been different socially more than religiously. Unitarians tend to be “heady,” upper class, highly educated, champions of reason who disbelieve in miracles. Universalists tend to be less educated, more passionate, hold love at the center of their faith and they are much more apt to believe in miracles. The blend of both creates who we are now – and how these two groups came together is a topic for another day…..)
When Potter learned Murray's background, he was convinced that this man was the preacher he’d been waiting for, sent to him by God. Murray wanted nothing to do with Potter. He told him he was leaving the minute the wind allowed his boat out of the bay. Potter spoke with conviction: "The wind will never change, sir, until you have delivered to us, in that meeting-house, a message from God."
After a couple of days passed, Murray relented, and agreed to preach in Potter's church if the boat were still stuck on Sunday. But if the wind blew, he was still leaving.
Potter, his family and neighbors were electrified by Murray’s message that the love of God, the most powerful force in the universe will ultimately prevail over human sinfulness – delivered on Sunday, September 30, 1770. As soon as Murray was finished, a sailor ran up to inform him that the wind had turned, the ship was free, and they could now leave for New York.
********************************
Murray finished his journey. But he later returned to Good Luck and stayed for several years, traveling and preaching to enthusiastic crowds. He eventually headed north again, preaching his way up the coast of New England, sowing seeds of Universalist thought along the way. He would later gather the first permanent Universalist church in Gloucester, MA and later, established another, in Boston. From that point on Universalism grew rapidly, a people’s movement, and content to be so.
Universalists organized a denomination only because their hand was forced. At this time (turn of the 18th century), the Presbyterians and Congregationalists were denominations in what was known as the Standing Order. As such, they had a legal right to tax every individual in the parish, for the support of the clergy. The only remedy an individual had to avoid paying such taxes was to join some other sect, and produce a certificate showing that he paid taxes to it.
In New Hampshire, though, Universalist certificates, were not accepted. The dispute was brought to the New Hampshire Supreme Court, which decided that Universalism wasn’t a true denomination because they had no creed or profession of faith to distinguish them from the Standing Order. That did it.
Fierce believers in spiritual freedom and the right of conscience, up to this time Universalists had shared the understanding that every individual had an equal right to interpret the Bible and left it at that. But being forced to pay taxes to churches for clergy that were not their own was not acceptable. They came together -- 200 years ago this year -- and produced their profession of faith which essentially defends the moral character of God.
Known as the Winchester Profession, it has three parts - reads in full:
We believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament contain a revelation of the character of God, and of the duty, interest and final destination of mankind.
We believe that there is one God, whose nature is Love, revealed in one Lord Jesus Christ, by one Holy Spirit of Grace, who will finally restore the whole family of mankind to holiness and happiness.
And finally: We believe that holiness and true happiness are inseparably connected, and that believers ought to be careful to maintain order and practice good works; for these things are good and profitable unto men
The Calvinist majority was very disturbed by such perilous wandering from sound doctrine. These Universalists were called Godless misinterpreters, no better than the Unitarians!
Universalists insisted that God was by nature, loving, rational and redemptive. They said sin is finite - punishment, therefore, is remedial, not vindictive –and never eternal. Vilification against the Universalists became so strong that growth slowed.
This was the historical moment when Hosea Ballou, a brilliant preacher who had participated in drawing up the Profession, came into his own. He rode the circuit, not only preaching the idea of a loving God but expanding these thoughts with even more heresy. In 1805 he published a book entitled Treatise on Atonement in which he argued that Jesus Christ is not God, but God’s messenger of love and reconciliation. Jesus was an exemplar, the purest example of God’s love – and our job is to emulate Jesus. Ballou introduced the phrase “salvation by character.” John Murray had been a trinitarian – here, with Ballou, Universalism also develops a unitarian perspective.
There is one anecdote about Ballou said to convey his down home personality well. When out on a preaching engagement, he arrived home where he was to be put up and was met by the hostess, mop in hand.
“Well, Mr Ballou. They say you hold all will be saved. Do you really believe that doctrine?”
“Yes, Madam,” he said.
“All people,” she pressed, “just as they are? How can you possibly?”
“What are you going to do with that mop in your hand, dear Madam?” Ballou asked.
“I’m going to mop my floor.”
“Do you intend to mop the floor just as it is?”
“I mop it up to clean it.”
“True. You do not require it to be made clean before you will consent to mop it up.
God saves us to purify us; that’s what salvation is designed for. God does not require us to be pure to save us.”
Universalism, with its belief in a loving God, has had a glorious history. A natural zeal for social reform comes out of their belief that every person has inherent worth.
In the early 1800’s, Universalists were the first denomination to come out against slavery. Since the early 1800’s a major Universalist concern has been prison reform and the abolition of capitol punishment
Universalists pushed for public, tax supported schools at a time when education was only for the wealthy. They also pushed for the radical notion that both boys and girls should be educated.
Universalists founded Tufts University, St Lawrence University, Buchtel College (now Akron University) and Throop Institute (now Cal Tech). All except Tufts were open to women from the beginning.
From the outset women have played a leading role in Universalism. Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, was one of many empowered Universalist women in the public arena. Olympia Brown is widely regarded as the first woman in the U.S. to be ordained and recognized by a denominational body..
The openness of Universalism has left room for growth and change. Universalism, evolved as it sought to make sense of Biblical scholarship and Darwin’s evolution. ‘Salvation’ no longer suggests to most Universalists an event in an after-life, but rather a process of self-fulfillment and social transformation. The word salvation and “wholeness” are now often used interchangeably by our denomination.
An updated declaration of faith was written at the Universalist general assemblies of 1935 and 1953. It reads:
We avow our faith in
God as eternal and all-conquering love;
the spiritual leadership of Jesus;
the supreme worth of every human
personality;
the authority of truth, known or to be
known; and
the power of persons of good will and
sacrificial spirit to overcome
all evil and
progressively establish the kingdom of God.
Neither this nor any other statement shall be imposed as a
creedal test.
Note that this profession doesn’t say "Christ," and doesn’t say "only of Jesus." Since at least 1805 Universalism has acknowledged the importance of other spiritual leaders--like Moses, Buddha, and Lao-Tzu. The Jesus of Universalism is the Jesus of history--a prophet and defender of the powerless whose eloquent restatements of traditional Israelite ethical principles move people still.
When the merger of the Unitarians and the Universalists occurred in 1961, the Universalists,were outnumbered 2 to 1. They worried their beloved heritage might disappear, be subsumed by the voice of the Unitarian majority. Now, however, many Unitarian Universalists are devoted to fanning the flame of Universalism. Universalism is a religious option within the UU movement. It expresses modern UU values by using Biblical language and traditional symbolism in a challenging, new way.
The contemporary symbol of Universalism is the "off-center cross" on the front of your Order of Service. Contemporary Universalist literature explains that the circle, a traditional symbol of infinity because it has no beginning or end, represents the universe. The empty space at the center represents the mystery at the heart of the universe that people call "God." The cross represents Christianity, out of which Universalism grew, and which is the path toward God that most religious people in North America are brought up to follow; but it is placed off-center, to leave room for other points of view and to acknowledge the validity of other paths toward God.
Universalism has certainly left its mark on the American religious landscape. Their rejection of hellfire and damnation in favor of a loving God affects contemporary America in a profound way. Listen to this quote from Jonathan Edwards:
The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked. His wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire… you are ten thousand times as abominable in his eyes as the most hateful, venomous serpent is in ours….O sinner! …… You hang by a slender thread..... It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite, horrible, misery...
Liberal Christianity now has adopted a much more loving God. This view is rooted in the Universalist tradition. I’d like to close with this posting that I found at a Universalist website – author unknown:
A dozen miles southeast of downtown Boston, in Weymouth, there is a small parking lot at the corner of Washington and Prospect Streets, across from a Dunkin’ Donuts. The original meeting house of the First Universalist Society stood there from 1839 until destroyed by fire in 1938.
Every time I drive by I glance at the lot and in my mind’s eye I see a historical marker. “FIRST WOMAN MINISTER,” it announces in big letters. Smaller text below says, “Olympia Brown, first woman to achieve full ministerial standing in any denomination in the United States, served here, 1864-69.”
No actual historical marker is there. And with the site currently owned by the Archdiocese of Boston, and even discussion of women’s ordination prohibited by the Vatican, I don’t expect to see a marker installed any time soon.
There is no marker there. But the words of Olympia Brown are as meaning ful to our tradition now as they were in her day:
“Stand by this faith. Work for it and sacrifice for it. There is nothing in all the
world so important as to be loyal to this faith . . Go on finding ever new
applications of these truths . . . always trusting in the one God which ever lives
and loves.”