Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Duluth 
My Living Faith
Hal Bertilson, July 8, 2007
When Karen Bauman invited me to speak today on my spiritual journey, it naturally led me to think back over the years about how my spiritual views have grown and matured. I just returned from General Assembly (GA) in Portland, Oregon (http://www.uua.org/events/generalassembly/2007/index.shtml) and every time I attend GA or the Meadville Lombard Seminary Winter Institute (http://meadville.edu/LL_WinterInstitute.htm) my theology and spirituality grows and strengthens me personally.
In the sermon I will mention a number of resources and these books will be listed in the reference list at the end of this sermon. It will be posted to our UUCD web page in a few days.
It is said that our religion is a living faith because it changes with culture, context, and theological scholarship—a truly living faith—Emerson, Theodore Parker, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, James Luther Adams, and so many more builders of liberal theology.
Each of our own personal faiths are living faiths, too. A sermon I listened to in 1982, 25 years ago, has given me a lasting frame to understand the dynamics of change in my liberal religious views. Dick Henry was our minister in Salt Lake City at that time and he observed that there are four stages to the growth of an individual's liberal religion.
The first stage is to reject one's past, ecclesiastical religion. Many come to Unitarian Universalist congregations because they can be free of past restrictions. I was free from this step because I did not have an early religious experience to overcome.
The second stage of development is to learn about Unitarian Universalism. Its history. Its principles. It is a home for newly recognized values, but those values in this stage are unexamined.
The third stage of development may be to become active in the religious activities, social activities, and justice activities of the community. Members in this stage may serve on the worship committee, welcoming committee, and Board of Trustees. But they may not have developed a personal Unitarian Universalist religion.
The fourth stage of development is to construct one's own personal liberal religion. One listens, studies, examines, and tests actions and theories. One rejects some views and adopts others. One considers new evidence and revises one's views. W. H. Auden has said that the central religious issue in life is discernment; the power to distinguish and select what is true or appropriate for oneself.
According to this view, we each have work to do in order to fulfill our spiritual potential.
I learned about Unitarianism 53 years ago, before the merger of Unitarians and Universalists, from a wonderfully subversive professor of philosophy, Donald Wells. I wish I could go back and tell Professor Wells how his philosophy of religion course started me on a path of enrichment and purpose. . . . a path that has had such critical effects on my family and others I have had the privilege of influencing.
Historically Unitarian congregations often emerged in university communities. There was always a spiritual component to the worship services when I began attending Unitarian services, but Unitarian congregations in the 1960s and 1970s often had an academic milieu. Every congregation, of course, is different. And there were many exceptions to my attempt at generalization.
The lasting memory of the Nashville, Tennessee church was the strength of its music program. Nashville had a wealth of college music programs and the Unitarian Church benefited greatly from their faculty and students. It was a large enough congregation that it likely had social and justice components as well, but since we lived in Nashville only six months I remember less of its overall programs.
That was 1965. When we moved to South Bend, Indiana in 1966, we found a Unitarian congregation, while spiritual, its dominant character was social justice. This was, of course, the 1960s and South Bend was a blue collar, union town.
Several years later we moved to Hinsdale, Illinois. Hinsdale is a professional class suburb, 17 miles west of downtown Chicago. The Unitarian Universalist church in Hinsdale was large enough that it offered a variety of programs and had spiritual, social, and justice components.
In contrast, the Fargo-Moorhead congregation we attended after I finished graduate school, was a lay-led fellowship and was dominated by university faculty. I have some satisfaction in knowing that my role in that congregation opened up the fellowship to serve a broader part of the community, including families, and steps toward retaining its first minister in decades. One of the lessons I learned in Fargo was the importance of the coalition of liberal religions. The Synagogue in Fargo was liberal and viewed us as part of the progressive community. Several of their members made secret donations to our operating budget. And they helped in other ways.
All of these spiritual communities, of course, affected me deeply and helped me start the process of building my own personal theology.
The Salt Lake City church was large enough that it, like the Hinsdale church, offered a variety of programs and had spiritual, social, and justice components. On one occasion Duncan Howlett spoke at the Salt Lake City church. Howlett (1984) was a Unitarian Universalist minister whose pastorates included First Church in Boston and All Souls church in Washington, D.C. He was the author of several books including The Critical Way in Religion. His thesis in this book was that the critical way of religion was the tradition of inquiry, testing, conjecturing, and probing into the depths of all experience and life. As an assistant professor of psychology, when psychology was still positivistic and behaviorist, Howlett's thesis appealed to me. Yet my own research on violence and aggression had a social justice component, as well.
Later I was a member of the Germantown, Pennsylvania Unitarian Universalist church. The community of Germantown took pride in being the first community in Philadelphia to integrate. The Germantown UU church where I heard Bill Schulz speak for the first time. He was President of the Unitarian Universalist Association. After his 8-year term as UUA President he served 8 years as President of Amnesty International USA. Our local Duluth-Superior Amnesty group was able to bring Bill to Duluth several years ago as keynote speaker to kick off the Amnesty Stop Violence Against Women Campaign.
Dodie and I were members of the Lincoln, Nebraska Unitarian Universalist congregation before we moved to Duluth-Superior. While in Nebraska I made a number of speeches to community groups supporting the Stop Violence Against Women Act legislation. The social justice component of my theology was growing.
So often I have told people how lucky I am to have a job that makes it easy for me to integrate my religion with my work. I get to teach the Psychology of Peace, Cross-Cultural Psychology, and several feminist courses.
Sharing with you some of my experience at GA two weeks ago may illustrate in another way the growth in my social justice theology. At the worship service on June 23, Saturday morning at GA, Dawn Cooley, recipient of the 2007 Social Witness Service Award of UUA preached on the confluence of spirituality and social justice: Why grow? In that invited sermon, she argued that the world would be a better place if there were more UUs. The reason is our commitment to diversity and justice.
We Unitarian Universalists sometimes confuse sharing our message with others with trying to convert people. Conservatives wish to have their view serve as public policy to the exclusion of other religious beliefs. This is a view of Domination. The UU view can be understood in contrast as a care-giving and communitarian world view.
The nurturance of growth has been a pillar of my religious beliefs from the very start. I was one of the founding members of the Northshore Unitarian Fellowship (Kirkland, Washington) that emerged from the Eastshore Unitarian Church (Bellevue, Washington). Nearly 20 years later I served on the Mountain Desert District Growth Committee. We nurtured the establishment of a second church in Utah, on the south side of Salt Lake City.
After I left for a teaching position in Philadelphia, my first wife continued the effort by serving on the same Mountain-Desert District Growth Committee and nurturing the establishment of the third church in Utah, in Ogden. It was fun to know that in some of the years I was Board President of this Duluth congregation, Evelyn was Board President of the Ogden congregation. And that when we had our capital campaign a few years ago, Evelyn was leading their capital campaign in Ogden. And as many of you know, our younger daughter is minister of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Lansing, Michigan.
And, when in Nebraska, Dodie discovered Unitarian-Universalism, her response was why didn't anyone tell me about this before? Just as Professor Donald Wells had an invisible, but profound influence on me, each of us have profound influences on others. I believe we need to remind ourselves of this influence and use it for the greater good.
Our new congregational home to-be on College Street is an important way our congregation will fulfill the mission of making Unitarian Universalism available to more people. At the denominational level, the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations has launched a "Now is the Time" campaign (http://www.uua.org/giving/index.shtml) to grow our faith, a $20 million five-year fundraising campaign. The fund-raising campaign has a five-fold purpose. Growing Our Numbers fund will support advertising campaigns, provide growth consultants, train congregations in best practices for hospitality, enhance campus and young adult ministry, provide learning resources, and create grants for numerical growth. Growing Our Diversity fund will help us recruit ministers of color and ministers who are multilingual. It will help us provide more support for Bisexual/Gay/Lesbian/Transgender/Queer youth in our congregations. Growing Our Witness fund will help us become a more visible and credible voice on a variety of issues in social justice and socially responsible investing strategies. Growing Our Leadership fund will improve both the quality and accessibility of specialized leadership training for ministers, religious education professionals, and lay leaders (both adults and youth). Growing Our Spirit will fund initiatives to nurture our souls. Learning how Unitarian Universalists develop faith and encourage vital, transforming worship.
So one pillar of my living faith is growth, our responsibility to share our spirituality, world view, and justice concerns with others. A second pillar has been the importance of lay theological education.
My faith has been strengthened through theological education. Of course everything that is done in a congregation from sermons to serving on committees and boards is education. Beyond that, though, there are opportunities such as the Meadville-Lombard Winter Institute offered each February. The 1999 Winter Institute left a strong impression on me. Karen Gustafson and I attended. It was led by the presidents of the two Unitarian Universalist seminaries, Bill Murray for Meadville Lombard Theological School, and Rebecca Parker, for the Starr King School for Ministry. Their stories of organizing for social action and religious education were inspiring.
At Winter Institute in 2004 Sharon Welch, Professor of Religious Studies, Women's Studies, and Multicultural Education at the University of Missouri-Columbia spoke on "New paradigms for global ethics and global citizenship" and led me to read several of her books and discuss them with my students, influenced my social justice work, and informed my sermons. Her theological work has inspired and strengthened my commitment to social justice work. Her ability to extrapolate from Native American spirituality to peaceful approaches to global conflict is both challenging and inspiring.
At GA two weeks ago Sharon Welch and Bill Schulz gave a workshop titled The Theology of Peacemaking. It was sponsored by UUA staff, but the room was too small. I was not able to attend, but I purchased the audio and look forward to listening to it. By the way the audios are still available for purchase.
The Winter Institute in 2005 helped me become more comfortable with my own place in the universe and the inevitability of my own death and an even keener understanding of the interconnectedness of things, living and non-living. This was the Institute led by Michael Dowd and Connie Barlow that we are all made of stardust and are evolving from the great radiance (their term for the big bang) to human cultures and eventually a self-determining humanity and consciousness in which we are all connected. In this story we humans are seen as part a universe of "nested creativity." This is a story that Connie would like to see told at hospices for humanists, because it can help them see their death as part of this evolutionary process. The story is that the heavy metals that are necessary for our bodies could not have existed without the death of stars and galaxies. Thus we are part of this physical evolution of the physical universe. This is earth-centered spirituality. That death is a natural part of this process.
As my spirituality kept evolving from the work of Barlow and Dowd, I have a strengthened realization of something bigger than myself. The spirit energy since the great radiance and with it a feeling of connectedness. We are the universe becoming aware of ourselves. This is not animism of a rock; it is instead a recognition that we are part of the process with the rocks.
On June 21st at GA I attended a session titled "Beyond UU 101: Lay Theological Education." It was a panel discussion between the two moderators of General Assembly, Denny Davidoff who was moderator for decades and Gini Courter who is presently moderator. They are both so impressive. How they can handle plenary sessions of 6,000 members with such skill I am just in awe. Anyhow, they asked "How much teaching do you want when you create your own theology?" And they answered that as we grow older we want more theological education. We want theological underpinnings of who we are and what we do. About being able to listen. How do we know what is right and wrong? And there are issues we face as stewards of our congregation. They asserted that there is a common yearning for lay theological education.
In the past several years, our Duluth Adult Enrichment Committee has been meeting this challenge. While many have been offering enrichment courses, I will speak from my experience leading several of them. I have a much a better understanding that all the world religions stress economic equity and an understanding of the theological underpinnings of this belief from having led the discussion of Richard Gilbert's (2001) book How Much Do We Deserve? An Inquiry into Distributive Justice.
Last winter 10 to 15 of us discussed Rabbi Michael Lerner's The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right. I was inspired by Lerner to join the Network of Spiritual Progressives and attended the Midwest meeting of the Network last November in Minneapolis. It is a network of Unitarians, Jews, progressive Christians, and progressive Muslims for social justice.
This spring in Adult Enrichment we discussed David Korten's The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community and we had a chance to meet Korten at the Prairie Star District annual meeting in Minneapolis this past April. Both Lerner and Korten lay out ways we all can respond to the justice crises in our world today. They provide paths that we can take. Indeed, these are paths we must take if we are to have a safe, just, and caring world to pass on to our children and grandchildren.
On June 22 at GA, a lecture by David Korten on Navigating The Great Turning was offered, but it was scheduled at the same time as a workshop on Peacemaking: What congregations are Thinking and Doing? Come Share and Hear from Other Congregations. I shared what we have been doing in Duluth and heard some outstanding examples of peacemaking from other congregations.
Following that session, I was able to attend a panel discussion of David Korten’s work. The title was UUs Articulating and Accelerating The Great Turning. It was sponsored by the Unitarian Universalists for a Just Economic Community (UUJEC; http://www.uujec-nw.org/) which I have joined and attended their annual meeting that Saturday night.
Riane Eisler offered a lecture at GA titled The Caring Revolution: Turning Economics right Side Up! Many of you know her work from (1988) The Chalice and The Blade. We will be discussing in adult enrichment this fall her new book (2006) The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics. The lecture was a nice review of The Real Wealth of Nations. She made the point that fundamentalism is not about religion. It is about domination. Like The Left Hand of God and The Great Turning, the Real Wealth of Nations is a tool kit we can use to change our culture from domination to care-giving and community.
I should like to acknowledge a number of other adult enrichment programs planned for this year. Hal Moore will be showing a five-part video series of Karen Armstrong's The Great Transformation. Marree Seitz and I will lead a discussion of Paul Rasor's (2005) Faith Without Certainty: Liberal Theology in the 21st Century. And there will be programs on global warming and much more.
At annual meetings of both UUA and Amnesty International, there is always at least one rally for legislative or human rights advocacy. I particularly value the opportunity to participate in these expressions of social justice. On June 23rd at GA, we participated in a noon Witness for Earth Community rally. The rally had a good turnout outside the convention center with some media coverage. UUA President Bill Sinkford spoke as well as allies from interfaith communities. And like other Duluth UUs I participate in social justice advocacy in our own community. I stand in vigils and protests with Women in Black, Grandmothers for Peace, and Loaves and Fishes when I am able.
Craig Nelson (2006), in his new biography of Thomas Paine, reminds us that what drove the Renaissance and Enlightenment was a global avant-garde of hardworking progressives dedicated to making the most of their lives through a program of self-improvement, education, communication, and virtue. The eighteenth-century moderns traveled across the continents and oceans to meet and debate; turned conversation into an art form; and strove to tolerate contrary opinion in a universal search for truth.
Connie Barlow (e.g., 1994), Briane Swimme (Swimme & Berry, 1992), Michael Lerner, David Korten, Riane Eisler, Paul Loeb (1992; 2004), and many others, including the new field of narrative psychology (e.g., McAdams, Josselson, & Lieblich; 2001), tell us the way to persuade and influence others is through stories. We humans are a story-telling species. If we are to change the direction of our culture from domination, exploitation, and violence we must be telling stories of justice and hope.
My living faith has evolved into an emphasis on UU growth, interfaith cooperation, welcoming to diversity, theological education, and justice. I believe we have a responsibility to engage in social activism. The conditions of economic injustice, global warming, hate crimes, and war demands as much. We must change our culture to care-giving, justice, personal growth, and community.
References
Barlow, C. (1994). Evolution extended: Biological debates on the meaning of life. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Eisler, R. (1988). The chalice and the blade: Our history, our future. HarperSanFrancisco.
Eisler, R. (2007). The real wealth of nations: Creating a caring economics. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Gilbert, R. S. (2001). How much do we deserve? An inquiry into distributive justice. Boston: Skinner House Books.
Howlett, D. (1984). The critical way in religion. Prometheus Books.
Korten, D. C. (2006). The great turning: From empire to earth community. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Lerner, M. (2006). The left hand of God: Taking back our country from the religious right. HarperSanFrancisco.
Loeb, P. R. (1992). Soul of a citizen: Living with conviction in a cynical time. New York: St. Martin's Griffin.
Loeb, P. R. (2004). The impossible will take a little while: A citizen's guide to hope in a time of fear. New York: Basic Books.
McAdams, D. P., Josselson, R., & Lieblich, A. (2001). Turns in the road: Narrative lives in transition. Washington: APA.
Nelson, C. (2006). Thomas Paine: Enlightenment, revolution, and the birth of modern nations. New York: Viking Press.
Rasor, P. (2005). Faith without certainty: Liberal theology in the 21st century. Boston: Skinner House Books.
Swimme, B., & Berry, T. (1992). The universe story: From the primordial flarting forth to the ecozoic era—a celebration of the unfolding of the cosmos. HarperSanFrancisco.