This sermon was presented by Rev. Kathleen Hepler at First Parish in Framingham Unitarian Universalist, on May 3, 2015. Reading: Whose are you? by Rev. Victoria Safford
The title of this sermon is “Why Atheists Come to Church.”
Strangely enough, I begin by acknowledging a troubling event in our world these past weeks: the racial strife in Baltimore after the death of Freddie Gray at the hands of police.
The answers to the question “Why do Atheists Come to Church?” has everything to do with how Unitarian Universalism values respond to this event and all the others through racism’s tenacious American history. So…back to Baltimore in a moment.
Atheists and church. Church and Atheists. Why do Atheists come to church? This is a question a UU Atheist might be asked. It is a question that I have been asked directly many times as a minister in this liberal religion.
There is no doubt that the predominant belief in our country about why people go to church is that they believe in God and want to be with others who do also…believe in God. In truth, the reason people do anything is never one little pat answer. Still, most of American culture understands church to be the place you go to worship and serve or believe in God. My colleague Rev. Marlin Levanhar (whose sermon “Why Atheists Come to Church” inspired this one) wrote that a Methodist pastor friend of his answered the question “Why do atheists come to UU churches?” by saying: “They come because you put that sermon title on your sign!”
I guess to some it is a provocative title. I mean putting a rainbow on our front sign and flying a rainbow flag tells everyone that GLBTQ people are welcome here. I think a title like “Why Atheists Come to Church” or, perhaps even better, “Atheists Welcome!” flies in the face of the dominant understanding that church life is only for god-believers. Good grief, some of the most religious people I know are atheists. And some of you are sitting here this morning.
It has to be said that explaining our free religion can never be a short glib answer that hitchhikes on this common assumption that everyone in church wants a connection with the god of their imagining, or any god at all for that matter. That assumption does apply in most churches, because there is a creed that says it. This creed of god-centered beliefs is what binds the church together. Nothing at all wrong with that.
But that is not what is true here.
Unitarian Universalism is a non-creedal religion. We are not bound together by a set of beliefs that everyone must profess. The question naturally arises, what, then, does bind us together?
There is something very specific that binds us together as Unitarian Universalists. And it is far from a required belief in God. I will tell you what that is at the end of this sermon.
So, if you are an Atheist and your cousin knows it and you say, “Oh sorry, I can’t come Sunday morning. I am going to church,” she might think that you have had a religious conversion! You respond, “No, no that is not the case.” “Well then, why do you go to church?”
Atheists come here to church for the same rich and varied reasons that anyone else with any other theological label comes to church.
Atheists come to church here because this is a tradition where everyone has the right to freely and responsibly search for their personal beliefs as individuals. In that search some find that, for them, atheism is the theological term or stance that best describes them. This is the truth for more than a few people in every congregation I have served for 30 years. And this is part of the glory of Unitarian Universalism.
Atheists come to church here because atheism is a legitimate stance to take in a free religion such as ours. It is true for many UUs. And it is increasingly true for people in the larger culture too; who remain unchurched because of the assumption that church is not for atheists. Shout it from the roof-tops! This church celebrates belief- diversity…wants it…welcomes it…works at it.
Atheists come to church here because every human being seeks connection with others that lifts us out of an only solitary life and invites us to larger purpose; purpose expressed in loving community and service and values that focus our living toward the better.
And then, Atheists, like everyone else, come here to celebrate and mourn and mark the important passages of living.
Sometimes Atheists come here because they want their children to have a religious education that invites them to explore the big questions of life with others, shape a credo out of their own experience and reflection like our 8th graders did this morning. Sometimes those parents end up staying here for themselves.
Atheists come to church here because this is a liberal religion. The definition of liberal is someone who keeps their mind and heart open in the continuing journey of being human. A free religious liberal is willing to say what is true for them, and then listen to others with loving curiosity and without judgment. This means that we are open to being influenced to one another in these matters. A Theist here might, over- time, become Agnostic. An Atheist might become more Theist by hearing others define the holy in out-of-the-box ways. A Humanist might begin to call themselves a “Mystical” Humanist. And, of course, having been open and dialogic through years at First Parish, the label you gave yourself initially might stay secure. Yet, it will be even more secure because it has been shaped in the fire of diversity’s call to dialog.
Personally, I choose right now to be “Theologically Unlabeled.” That is, eager to have a conversation about what sustains me, but aware that what you mean by god and what I mean might not be the same thing; likewise what I mean by atheist and what you mean might vary.
The intentionally unlabeled are welcome here!
Yet, there is a religious inclination, a religious stance that is not welcome here. And that stance is idolatry.
If someone is a Theist, that is, someone who believes in God, and they also believe that anyone who does not embrace their God is a sinner, or an infidel, or inferior to you, they are practicing idolatry. Likewise if someone is an Atheist and finds that they feel superior to others because of it and unwilling to abide another way, this too is idolatry. One can be a fundamentalist anything, including an Atheist.
In my mind, being a UU requires that everyone is willing to increase their comfort with ambiguity as opposed to resting in safe and “boundaried” understandings of life’s mysteries.
“Ambiguity knows that in welcoming the stranger we ourselves become the stranger by crossing the borders of our consciousness….our Unitarian Universalist faith insists that we do not limit the infinity of grace. Therefore our job is to cultivate possibility in response to isolation and suffering. The feeling of chaos that is inherent in possibility makes us uneasy. But when we embody possibility we are creating a new story to explain the world and our participation in it. We are taking an evolutionary step forward, one that allows for a future in which our children themselves can be creatively ambiguous in heart, body and mind. You know, sometimes those forms ask: “What is your religion?” We are given a list. At the bottom of the list is that nebulous “Other.” That is the space where we can write in: Unitarian Universalist. Because, what are we? We are religiously “Other.” (from ‘Ambiguity’ by Rev. Mitra Rahnema)
If we practice increasing comfort with ambiguity we will be more able to keep the space open for others and to realize that no one anything has the understanding of everything.
One way to look at the story of Adam and Eve goes to the topic of idolatry. There they are in the garden eating from any tree, any fruit they desire…happy and bound in unity with all life. God tells them not to eat of the fruit of knowledge…the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. Well, they do anyway and by so doing are cast out of the garden of unity. Once they believe that they themselves alone have the ultimate knowledge of good and evil, their life in the garden is over.
Here at First Parish we can eat from any of the trees that that fuel our spiritual, our human journey, or that changes our heart, gives us hope, expands our minds….be that science, philosophy, scriptures, poetry, experience, silence, psychology, Ted Talks, or Mad Magazine. But what is forbidden is the fruit of the tree that starts us down the path of declaring that we ourselves know the whole truth of right and wrong; we ourselves have found True Truth; and that because of this our self–righteousness labels others inferior, or sinners, or hell-bound, or infidels. The fruit of the tree that makes us act superior to others and that excludes us from working to create inclusive community because of it… is not the way of liberal religion of Unitarian Universalism.
We know all too well what Marlin Levenhar states:
“Exclusive beliefs can lead to actual death and real destruction. Some of the fruits of exclusive religion have names like terrorism, the Crusades, the pogroms, the Inquisition, witch hunts, censorship, theocracy, manifest destiny. These are the noxious fruits of religious exclusion that have, and continue to, lead to death. These are the fruits that drip not sweet nectar, but blood.” ( Rev. Martin Levanhar from ‘Why Atheists Come to Church”)
So, yes Atheists welcome here. “Undecided” welcome here. Theists welcome here. Agnostics, come on in. Confused? Join the crowd! No better place to begin a dialog with others in the service of refining your confusion! But Idolatry…not so much.
In real time, this means that you might hear the word “God” here on a Sunday and you might not. In real time, it means we have to stretch ourselves toward one another in inquiry and openness and widen our “word-tolerance” for the sake of diversity, and to insure that no one way holds sway as the final answer. And oh by the way, we do have 7 principles that guide us in our endeavor. The first one is “We affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person.” The sixth one is…”the goal of world community with liberty and justice for all.”
Therefore a belief array that promotes things like homophobia, misogyny, male superiority, racial bigotry, or the raising of weapons against others in the service of religion would be based on a god way too small for this inclusive religion. Our Universalist history that described God as Love, as a God that embraces all people in life and in eternity (no matter what) is in our bones.
No, we are not unified by a requirement of certain beliefs here. So, can you believe anything you want here? Not if your beliefs slander and exclude others from the healing balm of love and equality, justice and mercy, inclusion and freedom. Not if your beliefs allow you to have the final say as to who gets to be in the in-crowd and who is cast out. We have no truck for that here.
I said I would name what does bind us together. What binds us together here at First Parish and within the flexible boundaries of Unitarian Universalism is not a creed …but the covenant we have with one another. We have agreements about how we will act together in the service of free religion.
And what is that covenant? “Love is the doctrine of this church. The quest for truth is its sacrament and service is its prayer. To dwell together in peace. To seek knowledge in freedom. To serve all life with compassion to the end that all souls shall grow into harmony with the Divine. This is our great covenant. One with another, and with our God.”
Here, by the nature of our freedom within the crucible of covenant we are always practicing the widening of our understanding. Here, by the nature of this free faith, we are always teaching one another to take a deep breath and to reach out to another we might want to label or judge and listen to their truth. We here, are practicing how not to be idolaters of mind or spirit. Rather we say that some things are more important than concrete, individual beliefs. Things like:
- learning to live in peace with differences
- working for liberty and equality for everyone in the laws and systems of the land
- a recognition that ambiguity is a necessary part of creating peace as it makes space for new understandings to emerge
- a shared understanding that life is an interdependent web
- a shared understanding that Love calls us no matter what label we give that call
We do not always succeed in practicing these values. But this is the covenant we have together that calls us into the practice over and over again. It requires of us forgiveness and faith.
How does the fact that Atheists come to church here have anything to do with our response to the struggles in the world? I notice that when people are fearful we often gravitate to the illusion of certainty where one thing is right and the other thing is wrong. Our fear wants to find a safe place to hang out…in surety…in simple statements that pretend truth. Yet, over and over again we learn that these stances create more mayhem and strife, death and separation.
What the aching world needs is human behavior that arises out of a different consciousness.
The practice of our faith teaches us to resist the pressure to make whole groups of people “the other,” be they police or people of color. Our practice of being in community that is theologically diverse teaches us a thing or two about the strength in diversity, the humility in it, so that we can coach ourselves to not simplify the world’s problems when we are fearful. Rather we would abide in open and receptive ambiguity listening to where the spirit of creativity needs to go for good and loving purpose to evolve. Rather we would strive to remember that we are all One despite how anyone feels, or thinks at any one moment.
The God I would worship does not invite either/or thinking and stance-taking that demonizes a whole class or race or profession, but that calls us to listen and to act out of love and always imperfectly. I am an atheist to the God of easy answers and the God of power over others for small and self-serving purpose. Yet, I could say that the Sacred is present when kindness prevails or when a system groans toward more equality and mercy. I could entertain theism whenever the arc of the world actually does bend toward justice.
This is what the relational covenantal religion of Unitarian Universalism has to teach the world. Inclusivity. Working for laws and practices and systems that are just and equitable as expressions of love’s longing for peace. Humility that binds all people together. The desire to go beyond simple thoughts that divide people and serve to create inequity through the practice of power, prestige and profit.
The weeping world needs something different from its human inhabitants. Our religion has much to offer it. Let us be about it.
BENEDICTION
We are one, after all, you and I.
Together we suffer,
Together exist,
And forever will recreate each other. (Pierre Teilhard de Chardin)
The Blog of Rev. Kathleen Hepler 