by Rev. Rick Klimowicz, October 19, 2003
Cornered by a persistent young theologian with the question of where God
had been before the world was created, the great Protestant reformer
Martin Luther snapped. He was building a hell for such presumptions,
fluttering, and inquisitive spirits as you are. If true, then there must
be a large space reserved for Unitarian Universalists down there. We may
not flutter, but we do presume to be inquisitive spirits.
Luther, for all his greatness, would not understand and appreciate how
our liberal religious faith abides and informs our honest doubts. For
him, to be somewhat skeptical, uncertain, hesitant, and undecided is the
antithesis of faith. He would especially balk at our emphasis on freedom
of conscience and at the importance we place upon being a reasonable and
compassionate community.
The New Testament image of Doubting Thomas (the skeptical disciple of
Jesus) was used by many to quiet doubts among early Christians that Jesus
had literally rose from the dead. The Gospel of John (20: 19-29)
portrayed Thomas as prototypical of doubters, convinced of the
Resurrection, only after he placed his hands in the wounds of the Savior.
Thomas believed because he judged and he experienced. How much greater,
then, is the faith of those who simply believed.
The early church father Tertullian wrote: "Absurdum ergo credo." "Because
it is absurd, I believe." Because the resurrection was scandalous, it was
true. God had broken the mold with the life of Jesus; God had broken the
rules with his resurrection. Not despite, but because of the
contravention of natural law, we must believe.
Orthodox Christians are not open to questioning or to searching for
evidence outside of the Bible and tradition to support dogmatic
assertions. They would be inclined to proclaim, rather than to speculate
about belief. For them, to be inquisitive spirits is "uncool."
For religious liberals, honest doubt is a virtue. It is vital to our
caring for the subtlety and intricacy of situations. It is crucial to our
choosing deeds over creeds. It is essential to our engaging in a free and
responsible search for truth and meaning.
Unitarian Universalists sometimes get a bum wrap. Did you here the joke
about the KKK coming to town and burning a question mark, rather than a
cross, on the lawn of the local UU activist?
Our conscientious study and reflection and our desire for deeper wisdom
and understanding puzzle the public at large. A local newspaper article
on the little Unitarian Universalist congregation where I was minister,
called us "a curious religious community."
What do your non-UU family and friends make of your company with such
inquisitive spirits? Have you ever felt like you were born into the wrong
household?
I know my traditional Roman Catholic parents wondered at my curiosity.
They actively discouraged my search for meaning and purpose in my life
work and relations. They prefered adherence to dour creeds and rote
catechism. Yet, I persevered and, in time, I discovered that I was just
one inquisitive spirit among many who valued curiosity...
The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own
reasons for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when one contemplates
the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of
reality. It is enough if one tries to comprehend a little of this mystery
every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.( Edmund Burke)
We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because
we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths. (Walt
Disney)
Joy in the universe, and keen curiosity about it all - that has been my
religion. (John Burroughs)
The permanent sort of curiosity is attracted by the amazing and
consecutive life that flows on beneath the surface of things. (Robert
Lynd)
Effective questioning brings insight, which fuels curiosity, which
cultivates wisdom. (Chip Bell)
Good scientists are people in whom the childhood quality of perennial
curiosity lingers on. Once they get an answer, they have other questions.
(Frederick Seitz)
My Alma mater was books, a good library... I could spend the rest of my
life reading, just satisfying my curiosity. (Malcolm X)
Ironically, it is not that we are non-believers. It is that our belief
often has to pass through the fires of skepticism and the trials of
doubt. Poet Anne Sexton sensitively shares her need to believe and how
hard it is to actually know.
With Mercy for the Greedy
(For my friend Ruth who urges me to make an appointment for the Sacrament
of Confession)
Concerning your letter in which you ask
me to call a priest and in which you ask
me to wear The Cross that you enclose;
your own cross,
your dog-bitten cross,
no larger than a thumb,
small and wooden, no thorns, this rose--
I pray to its shadow,
that grey place
where it lies on your letter...deep, deep.
I detest my sins and I try to believe,
in The Cross. I touch its tender hips, its dark jawed face,
its solid neck, its brown sleep.
True. There is
a beautiful Jesus.
He is frozen to his bones like a chunk of beef.
How desperately he wanted to pull his arms in!
How desperately I touch his vertical and horizontal axes!
But I can’t. Need is not quite belief.
All morning long
I have warn
Your cross, hung with package string around my throat.
It tapped me lightly as a child’s heart might,
tapping secondhand, softly waiting to be born.
Ruth, I cherish the letter you wrote.
My friend, my friend, I was born
doing reference work in sin, and born
confessing it. This is what poems are
with mercy
for the greedy.
They are the tongue’s wrangle
the world’s potage, the rat’s star.
"Need is not quite belief." We may need to believe in self and others, in
the natural world, and in life’s beauty, truth, and goodness at times.
But, at other times, we may need to question these beliefs.
Humans are distinguished from other animals, in part, because of our
capacity for faith and our readiness to doubt. Humanity glimpses truth in
sacred scriptures and in the ancient teachings of earth centered and
world religions. But women and men are also given to fresh inquiry or
innovative research. We are eager for new knowledge. We ask probing,
disquieting questions about our convictions, because we wish to satisfy
our innate curiosity.
Satisfaction of one's curiosity is one of the greatest sources of
happiness in life.( Linus Pauling)
Life must be lived and curiosity kept alive. One must never, for whatever
reason, turn his or her back on life. (Eleanor Roosevelt)
Unitarian Universalists are distinguished further in that we are such
inquisitive spirits. Our democratic belief in conscience and in a
reasonable and compassionate community undermines the efforts of social
and religious conservatives to impose their authoritarian creeds. This
unconventional religion that fosters the desire for deeper discernment
makes us valuable citizens. We understand and appreciate ambiguity. We
acknowledge our mortality and the inspiration of the Spirit, even as we
discover greater diversity in and possibilities for humanity and the
natural world.
In the adult religious education curriculum Building Your Own Theology,
there is an exercise involving drawing images of God from one’s
childhood, from one’s youth, from one’s pre-Unitarian Universalist
adulthood, and from one’s present concept. There often is a striking
pattern. A child may have an anthropomorphic understanding of
God--usually an elderly man with a long white beard. But a Unitarian
Universalist adult may have a more developed idea of God as Cosmic
Energy, symbol for infinity, Ultimate Concern, etc. Remarkably, UU’s are
encouraged to grow in their evolutionary quest to develop and refine key
religious concepts, such as God. And UU’s find support in their
congregations for this ongoing free and responsible search for truth and
meaning.
I believe that it is our belief in conscience and community that abides
and informs our honest doubts. Existentialist Theologian Paul Tillich
once wrote:
For in the depth of every serious doubt and every despair of truth, the
passion for truth is still at work. Don’t give in too quickly to those
who want to alleviate your anxiety about truth. Don’t be seduced into a
truth which is not really your truth, even if the seducer is your church,
or your party, or your parental tradition. Go with Pilate, if you cannot
go with Jesus; but go in seriousness with him!
Alfred Lord Tennyson once remarked...
There lives more faith in honest doubt than in half the creeds.
I agree. Who wouldn’t prefer the calm and humble entreaties of the
skeptic to the angry and dogmatic decrees of the fire and brimstone
preacher?
Inquisitive spirits know that being somewhat skeptical, uncertain,
unsettled, hesitant, and undecided is part of our dialogue with our
liberal religious faith. Ironically, if we carry our honest doubts long
and far enough, then we will come to more strongly believe in conscience
and in community. Questioning allows us to deconstruct cultural and
religious beliefs and reconstruct them in the context of our
contemporary, profoundly relational, and pluralistic world.
When we feel our convictions may be open to question or to more evidence
to prove or disprove them, then we affirm the importance of freedom of
conscience. When we are inclined to speculate about a matter, to approach
an issue of intimacy and ultimacy cautiously and fully conscious of the
subtlety and intricacy of the situation, then we are being reasonable and
compassionate.
When we entertain our honest doubts, then we may critically reflect upon
the good, the true, and the beautiful unhindered. When we become the
author of our life stories, then we may realize that truth and meaning is
not the sole property of one cultural or religious text or tradition.
When we recognize our fallibility and our current stage of moral
development, then we may act upon the worth and dignity of all and other
ethical principles with greater understanding.
GK Chesterson once said that the object of opening the mind, as of
opening the mouth, is to shut it down again on something solid.
When we are given to inquiry and entertain our honest doubts, then we
proclaim the importance of liberal religion. We celebrate diversity and
see faith and doubt engaged in an ongoing dialogue that gives our life
greater meaning and purpose.
In the Jewish Midrash, a Rabbinical commentary on the Torah, we read:
God said to Moses: You doubted me, but I forgive you that doubt. You
doubted your own self and failed to believe in your own powers as a
leader, and I forgive you that also. But you lost faith in this people
and doubted the divine possibilities of human nature. That I cannot
forgive. That loss of faith makes it impossible for you to enter the
Promised Land.
In this Unitarian Universalist congregation, there are many inquisitive
spirits raising bold and exciting questions in an effort to satisfy their
innate curiosity. Let us have faith in our people and in the divine
possibilities of human nature. Let us offer our insight and support and
refrain from automatically doubting one another’s sincerity. For our
honest doubts may disturb us, but our liberal religious faith in each
other as seekers of the light encourages and sustains us.
I’m sorry Martin Luther, but this house of worship is a "hell" that we
can be thankful for...
After-all, we are a refuge where belief in conscience and community abide
and inform our honest doubts about conventional concepts. A shelter for
inquisitive spirits with the courage and sense to question social,
economic, and ecological injustice. And a promised land for seekers and
activists to find respite, before returning to the larger world to
proclaim the divine possibilities of human nature.
So Be It! Amen!