The emblem:
The circle 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 -- one (among many) path toward God and the path from which Universalism (and Unitarian-Universalism) has grown; it is off to the side to leave room for other points of view and to acknowledge the validity of other paths toward God.
.... our congregations are not so much 'decontamination chambers' where people wash away their former religions, but rather 'workshops' where they confront them.
Bible:
This is the way I learned to think about the bible. The Bible is like a bunch of Unitarian-Universalists sitting around arguing. The various books are arguing with each other. The book of Job is arguing with the book of Leviticus. The book of P, one of the sources of Genesis, is arguing with another of the sources of Genesis, the book of J. The Bible is a discussion -- it's not the word of God, but words about God.Jesus Christ:
.... a prophet like MLK, eloquent, courageous, religious motivated social reformer. A latter-day Israelite prophet -- a critic of the status quo, defender of the powerless, someone calling Israelite religion back to what he considered to be first principles ... which still move people today, across all the centuries and despite all of the intervening theological nonsense.The Cross:
Crucifixion was a deliberately cruel way of executing a non-Roman citizen who was to be made an example of because he or she was a threat to the empire. A cross is a reminder that Jesus was, indeed, a threat to the empire because of his message of radical egalitarianism was subversive of the empire's patronage-based, slave-supported, hierarchical system. I now see the cross as a warning and a call. The warning is that defending oppressed people is dangerous. The call is that we are supposed to do it anyway.
To be continued!
VERY interesting reading and food for ruminating!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, when I named one of my rescued dogs. I wanted to name him after someone who meant a great deal to me.
Everyone has a dog named King; and Martin is kind of a wimpy name for a large dog, so I named my dog Luther.
He was a dear animal who never got over being afraid of humans--except for me. I have pictures of him--which I must show you--of Luther standing behind me with his head bravely looking out from between my knees at the rest of the world, with the expression, "This is my mommy!" written courageously (but safely) all over his face.
Anne
You look at this slim volume sitting on a shelf and can't help but wonder, why bother? can't be much in there. But it is a very clear, concise volume that does a very good job outlining Universalism and contrasting it to the other U. It can be read in a breeze. But then it calls you back and pushes you on to further exploration and discovery.
ReplyDeleteGreat explanation of the cross. So simple and direct. Why have so few people gotten it?
Yes, Trudeau elaborates:
ReplyDeleteBy singling out Jesus and depicting only the Christian cross within its symbol, Universalism challenges the anti-Christianity of so many UUs and makes it impossible to deny the UU movement's Christian heritage. At the same time, though, the placement of the cross expresses Universalism's desire to keep its Christian heritage at arm's length. The Universalist symbol says: just as we pick and choose from other religions, we pick and choose from Christianity.