UU History

    WE ARE U AND U – AND UU

       (A Brief History)

    by

     Barbara Fleming

     Namaqua UU Congregation

We are U(nitarians) and U(niversalists) and U(nitarian)U(niversalists). 

 

Our roots go deep, all the way back to 325 AD – or Common Era, as many non-Christians prefer to designate the times following the birth of Christ. That’s when the Nicene Creed establishing the trinity, the creed still repeated in thousands of churches every Sunday, was adopted. In the early days of Christianity, many believed Jesus had been sent by God on a divine mission but had not been divinely conceived; these believers were called unitarians, meaning the oneness of God. But when the trinity became the doctrine of the church, believers in the oneness of God became heretics.

 

“Heretic” means “choice” in Greek. But to the Christian hierarchy, that meant everyone who did not accept the trinity as truth. Anyone openly expressing such beliefs was persecuted, so most kept silent, especially as the Inquisition swept across Europe in the 14^th and early 15^th centuries.

But in the 1500s, as the reformation began, heresy spread. In 1568, King John Sigismund of Transylvania (which is now Romania) adopted Unitarianism and practiced religious tolerance. Unitarian congregations established there in the 16^th century survive today. These believers wanted to follow Jesus, not worship him. The tiny flame of Unitarianism flickered in Europe, growing stronger from time to time, but a Spanish physician, Michael Servetus, was burned at the stake for writing “On the Errors of the Trinity” and Unitarians in Poland were cruelly suppressed.

Even in the United States, where so many had come to escape religious persecution, religious tolerance was not assured before the creation of our constitution. In the early 1700s, a woman named Mary White was hanged by Boston Puritans for openly expressing her Quaker beliefs. Puritans continued to profess their belief in the doctrine of original sin. By the mid-1700s, many of them – heretics – opposed this harsh interpretation of Christianity, preferring to believe in a benevolent, loving God. Some of these heretics became Congregationalists, then Unitarians.

In the late 1700s, the gospel of universal salvation – as opposed to the dangling over the fires of hell which Jonathan Edwards had described so graphically – was preached throughout New England by John Murray. An immigrant from England, where church and state were hand in glove, he fought for the separation of church and state in this country. Our constitution, which does not mention God and which guarantees that separation, was framed in part by Unitarian John Adams.

Benjamin Rush, a Universalist, said in 1790: “We believe the scriptures of the old and new testament to contain a revelation of the perfection and will of god…We believe in one god, infinite in his perfection. Jesus Christ is the mediator between god and man."

Along came William Ellery Channing, who in 1819 spoke publicly and eloquently of Unitarian Christianity. In 1825, the American Unitarian Association was founded in Boston. Unitarianism flourished in New England, helped by such luminaries as Ralph Waldo Emerson. For a time in New England, especially in Massachusetts, Unitarianism was a highly visible, popular and respected denomination.

Meantime, Universalism was taking hold in Philadelphia. In 1863, it became the first denomination to allow women preachers, ordaining Olympia Brown. Universalists were evangelists, interesting in spreading the faith, whereas their more sedate Unitarian brethren were less inclined to go out and spread the gospel.

It cannot be said that all Unitarians and Universalists believed in and spoke for abolition, but most did, and many in New England helped slaves escape. This became one of the first social causes in which members of both denominations actively engaged. Theodore Parker, among others, was ardent in the cause, aiding fugitive slaves and campaigning against slavery. Women’s suffrage was another social justice issue in which many of us became involved.

We U's and U's were still very much rooted in Christianity. Unitarianism continued to be a religion based on a belief in God, following Jesus as a great leader and humanitarian, and accepting the Bible as true. Universalism, also God-centered, continued to promise salvation for everyone, assuming an afterlife but denying the possibility of hell and damnation brought about by irredeemable sin.

In 1889, James Freeman Clarke framed the five points, which were still spoken in many Unitarian churches through the 1940s and 50s: “Our Faith--the fatherhood of god, the brotherhood of man, the leadership of Jesus, salvation by character, the progress of man upward and onward forever.”

Members of both religions were active in social issues – treatment of the mentally ill, care for the sick and wounded, education, including for the blind, birth control, poverty, child labor and other societal ills. Many individuals in the forefront of the battles for social justice during the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries were either Unitarians or Universalists. Civil rights became the focus of both groups by the 1960s, and we number some martyrs among us.

At this time, both of these small, active denominations realized how much they had in common and how much stronger the voice of liberal religion would be if they joined forces. This happened in 1961, when the Unitarian Universalist Association was born. The union has been a happy one, for the two religions were very close in their views.

Unitarians spoke these words: “Love is the spirit of this church, and service is its law. This is our great covenant: to dwell together in peace, to seek the truth in love, and to help one another.”

Universalists spoke of the their 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 men of goodwill to overcome evil.”

Gradually, during the 20^th century, U and U became UU, and the faith became more eclectic, moving beyond but not abandoning its Christian roots. Membership in liberal religion swelled, then dwindled again, and it has stabilized at just under 200,000 for some time. In the 1980s, UUs adopted the seven principles, which we use as a guideline for living and a way to let people know what we believe. We have no formal creed.

You will find among us Christians, Jews, Buddhists, pagans, agnostics, humanists, and some who have no word to describe their faith. They just know being a UU is a life choice, a central part of who they are and how they conduct their lives. You can find Unitarians all over the globe – in England and other European countries, in Australia, even in Asia. Our flame – our chalice – lights up the world.

Considering how few of us there are, we have accomplished a great deal. Individually, we support and help sustain the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, which works to help underprivileged people the world over. Many of us have been involved in such efforts as Habitat for Humanity, rebuilding burned-out black churches in the south, and a woman’s right to choose. A group of Florida UUs, for example, escorted a physician back and forth to Planned Parenthood every day after one of his colleagues was shot. We are people who often choose to walk the walk.

Most recently, the denomination as a whole has taken up the cause of same-sex unions, speaking for the right of same-sex couples in a loving relationship to have legal protection by marriage. Not all UUs agree with this position – not all UUs agree with any position. But such public stands are voted on annually at our national gatherings, which we call General Assembly, and that means the majority of us support a position.

                              So who are we?

We are young and not so young, Anglo, Hispanic, African American, short, tall, thin, not so thin, gay, straight…you get the picture.

We are America, in all its diversity, with all its virtues and flaws, in microcosm. Though there are a number of second and third generation Unitarians and Universalists, the majority of us have come from dogmatic or creedal traditions and value a religious home where each of us has the freedom to find his or her own spiritual truths.

We are an association of congregations, each independent and unique but united in our religious practices.

We are trying to make the world a better place, holding hands as we cross the street, looking inward and to each other for strength and guidance, gathering together to celebrate and to worship.

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