"Universalism – Is it Still Relevant Today?"

The name of our congregation and denomination – “Unitarian Universalist” is quite confusing to some people. To some it even sounds a bit hokey. I can remember years ago; an acquaintance told me his son went online and became a “universal life minister” so he could perform weddings as a side business. “Isn’t that what you did,” he asked me. No, I said and then I explained what I had to do to become a minister. Most people are surprised when I tell them I had to obtain the same or more education, experience and credentials as those required to become a Catholic priest. And keep in mind, a major percentage of ministers in many very conservative Christian churches have no college or seminary education at all.

So where did our name Unitarian Universalist come from? Well – like many other denominations, the two names were originally rather pejorative terms. (Just like the Shakers, Quakers, Methodists, Papists, Mohammedans, dotheads, and buddhaheads. These were originally and, in some cases, still are insulting names for various religions and, of course, there are many more.

The name Unitarian came from a criticism that the original Unitarians did not believe in the trinity. The term actually has its origins in the Protestant Reformation which began roughly around the early 1500s when the Catholic monk Martin Luther protested about what he saw as corrupt and idolatrous practices of the Catholic church. Along with very real political reasons supported by European royalty, numerous religious groups broke with the Roman church and established many new Christian denominations. (Calvinists, Lutherans, Presbyterians and many more.)

Among these new Christian groups was a particular sect in Romania around 1600 who professed the unity of God and objected to the idea of a “Trinity” which included Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These people held that Jesus was the son of God but not God - hence the word, “Unitarian.” The Unitarians are still in Romania today – mostly in Transylvania.

The same word “Unitarian” came into use in the United States around 1800 when ministers in several Congregationalist churches in New England began to preach that Jesus was the son of God but not God – again “Unitarian” as opposed to Trinitarian. The name stuck and the two types of Congregational churches split. The “American Unitarian Association” was created in 1825. Although descended from the hardcore Puritans and still very conservative in the early 1800s, Congregational churches today are the most liberal of Christian denominations. They are banded together in what is called the United Church of Christ or UCC. Some people joke that today UCC stands for “Unitarians considering Christ.”

Universalism is a lot older than the Unitarian movement. To begin with, universalism found its way into Christianity less than two hundred years after the death of Jesus. In particular, it was Origen, a Christian theologian, ascetic and prolific writer who proclaimed that God was all merciful and hence the coming of Jesus was to redeem human beings of our sins. Origen lived in the late 200s into the 300s CE. Origen had a lot of very different ideas about God, creation and humans but he believed that all humans would eventually be saved and joined with God in heaven – hence the idea of “universal salvation.” Not surprisingly, Origen was condemned by the Emperor Justinian and a church council in the sixth century. But the idea of universalism did not die.

Fast forward to more recent times. In both the United States and Great Britian in the 18th century there was a tremendous amount of religious fervor. In both countries increasing wealth, material comforts, enlightenment ideas, and the rise of science and scientific ideas were causing a lot of people to turn away from traditional conservative Christian messages. This caused a backlash and a rise of ultraconservative ministers. This is what happens in a society when there is dramatic change be it social, technological or economic. This is what we are seeing right now in America today.

In the United States in the 1700s, this took the form of the so-called Great Awakening which largely occurred in the 1740s. Itinerant preachers would travel the countryside holding services and proclaiming the sins of humanity and the fires of hell that await. Life here on earth was seen as being nothing but the “workshop of the Devil.” Your main purpose in life was to ensure your own salvation. The supposedly Christian message of doing onto others was condemned. If someone was less fortunate than you and even down in the gutter – that’s because God put them there and if you try to help them, you are going against the will of God.

Perhaps the most famous sermon preached during this period was by Jonathan Edwards whose three-hour sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” had people literally writhing in the aisles.

Key statements in the three hours:

• If God should let go of the dam, all the flood waters would rush forth at once and kill all sinners – and he may yet do it.

• The wicked are held over the pit of hell by a mere thread – like a spider.

• God is able to cast wicked men into hell at any moment.

• The sinner is only kept out of hell by the mere pleasure of God.

• The wrath of God burns against (the sinner) and they are already under a sentence of condemnation to hell."

The Great Awakening scared many but decades later, life in Great Britain and the United States continued to improve financially and materially – at least for some, and these hellfire and brimstone messages made no sense. The world for many was actually pretty good compared to times past and religious people began to see God as a being of creative love not one of anger and hatred. These were the stirrings of Universalism. The poet William Blake was one such person and you can tell this from the reading earlier. The “Poetic Genius” he spoke of was, of course God.

Blake did believe in God but he saw God as much more complicated than the anthropomorphic being depicted in the Bible. In fact William Blake was hostile to organized religion. He saw all of humanity and all religions as one.

It was during the height of the Great Awakening in America in the 1740s that John Murray, was born into a strict Calvinist family in Britian where sermons on the fires of hell and the wrath of God were the norm. He became a very conservative minister. Once a believer in a hateful, wrathful God, Murray had a personal encounter with a young woman whose professed logic against a wrathful God caused Murray to change his beliefs. He became a Universalist.

Slowly, he began to preach a universalist message that God was a God of love who would never condemn his children to an eternal damnation. He was roundly criticized by his church for proclaiming this and he was eventually excommunicated. Shortly after, his wife and son passed away. Unable to pay his debts, he was sent to debtor’s prison. To say the least, Murray he was in a bad state. In 1770, at the age 28, his brother bailed him out of jail and Murray decided to immigrate to America. Through an error in navigation or, perhaps a storm, his ship ran aground on the New Jersey shore. Murray was sent ashore to buy supplies for the ship.

Upon his arrival on shore, Murray happened upon Thomas Potter, a farmer who had built a chapel on the farm and was waiting for a minister to arrive and preach a universalist message. Potter asked Murray if he was that minister. Despite his great reluctance, Murray agreed to conduct a service in Potter’s chapel. His message in that service was “universal salvation” – and with it, American universalism was born. Sometime after, the ship was freed because of wind and tide and the ship proceeded to New York. (This has been called the one and only Universalist miracle!)

Murray went on the become an itinerant minister for several years, mostly in New England, as he carried the universalist message around the American colonies. At one point he settled in Gloucester Massachusetts and in 1779 established a congregation called “The Independent Church of Christ.” This was the first Universalist Church in America.

To say the least, ministers far and wide condemned Murray’s universalism. One of his fierce critics in Boston was a Reverend Bacon. At one point some of Reverend Bacon’s followers attacked Murray and threw eggs at hm. He is said to have responded, “these are moving arguments but I must own at the same time, that I have never been so fully treated to Bacon and eggs before in all my life. In 1793, Murray became minister of the Universalist Society of Boston where he remained for 15 years. It was also in 1793 that the Universalist Church of America was established. John Murray suffered a debilitating stroke in 1809 and passed away in 1815.

During the early 1800s both the Unitarian and the Universalist movements began to attract more people – individuals who were tired of the hellfire and brimstone of most denominations. Both the Unitarians and the Universalists still considered themselves Christians but with key differences. The Unitarians were generally upper middle class, wealthy people with substantial education while the Universalists were mostly farmers and rural folks with limited education. The Unitarians started Harvard Divinity School in 1816. Eventually, the Universalists founded a seminary at St. Lawrence University in 1856.

As noted earlier, the Unitarians initially believed Jesus was the son of God but he was not “God” They were labeled, therefore, as “Unitarians” as opposed to “Trinitarians.” The Universalists, on the other hand, were, in the past, more conservatively Christian. They believed in the Trinity – father, son, and holy spirit and they accepted that atonement of Jesus – the idea that Jesus came into the world to suffer and die for the sins of humankind.

A quip became common that - Universalists said that God was too good to damn humans while Unitarians said that they (humans) were too good to be damned by God!

Both the Unitarians and the Universalists early on in the 19th century became active in social action, social justice issues but it was actually the Universalists who were first by participating in the abolitionist movement against slavery in the 1790s. Universalists were also the first to promote women’s right and ordained their first woman minister, Olympia Brown in 1863. The Unitarians did the same eight years later. Both denominations became known for helping to establish charities, becoming involved in the temperance movement and in many social reforms. These activities continue to the present day. Although both denominations remained relatively small in the 20th century – they punched well above their weight in helping to enact major liberal changes in American society.

What definitely influenced both the Unitarians and the Universalists was the rise of Humanism in the early 20th century. Humanism is a philosophy that emphasizes the dignity of every human being and calls for reason and rationalism and the use of science in determining truths. Many Humanists accept the importance of spiritual growth and suggest there is a spark of divinity of human beings. In general, Humanists are skeptical of religious creeds and dogmas. As the 20th century progressed, both denominations found common ground and decided to merge. The merger into Unitarian Universalism became effective in 1961. The Universalist Church of America was slightly larger at the time than the American Unitarian Association.

So that brings us to today’s Unitarian Universalism which, as I noted before, sometimes puzzles people when you try to describe it. “What do you mean you have no common theology, no common creeds,” some ask. “You mean someone who believes in God can go to the same church as someone who does not?” Well, yes, is all we can say.

It takes a bit of explaining to tell people who we are. And then we have to put up with the jokes – although these are mostly offered in good humor.

“All dressed up and no place to go” is the usual joke I hear about UU funerals, from members of other faith communities. OR

Unitarian Universalism is where you go to get your answers questioned. OR

Something I've noticed: at the points where in other churches I'd expect to hear a loud "AMEN!", at UU churches I hear a "Hmm..." OR

UUs are notoriously poor singers, because they're always reading two lines ahead, to make sure they agree with the words.

And so it goes. So – is Universalism as it used to be still relevant in Unitarian Universalism? Well, yes and no. I certainly wouldn’t say UUs still believes in the Trinity – although there is nothing in our beliefs that says you can’t. Perhaps there are some UUs who believe in a universal salvation? If not in heaven, then somehow, someway, perhaps. I for example, do not believe in heaven or hell, but I don’t believe our own personal conscious existence ends with death. I think Universalism speaks to this but this is a sermon for another time.

In a way, I kind of think the word Unitarian in Unitarian Universalist is mostly about a rational, reasonable, scientific based approach to spiritual development and truth. On the other hand, I think Universalism is more focused on the concept of love and how love plays a major role in our spiritual development and our search for truth. To me, the Unitarian part of us is the head. The Universalist part is the heart. This is because Universalism originally pointed to a loving God that would save all his children and bring them to a heavenly kingdom. For me, it is not about this belief but the idea that the universe itself was created out of love and one of our responsibilities in life is to mirror this love by projecting it into the world as best we can. This means using our own gifts to make a difference in the world, big or small, in a way that is possible for us.

 I also think Universalism speaks to a view of all humanity. Despite racial differences, the hundreds of different countries, cultures, languages and histories, we are all the same species. We are all homosapien. We are all human. We are, so to speak, universally one kind of creature. Given that, why in the world do we create so much anger, so much hatred, so much evil against each other. We should all view each other with the same dignity, respect, care and concern and this is what the word Universalism in our name suggests. It points to the interconnectedness of all humans and the universe itself.

Then of course is the other possible meaning of “Unitarian Universalism.” Unitarian comes from unity or the word “one.” Universalism come from the word “all.” So our name suggests the meaning “One and All.” I like that and I think its speaks to who were are, our values and our spiritual outlook. One and All is about all of humanity and that means all humans on earth. If you look at our principles and purposes and what we say is “the living tradition we share,” it draws from many sources – it draws from “universal human spiritual experiences.” Listen to them. What we believe comes from :

• Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life;

• Words and deeds of prophetic people which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion and the transforming power of love;

• Wisdom from the world’s religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life;

• Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God’s love by loving our neighbors as ourselves;

• Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit;

• Spiritual teachings of Earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.

If you think about these – they just about cover all of the possibilities that describe the human spiritual experience. It means we as UUs have a “universal” outlook on what humans have discovered, believed and thought about throughout the spiritual history of humanity. It means we as individuals have the ability to develop our own belief systems based on our own knowledge and experiences and we can do so in the welcome company of others who are also on a spiritual search. To me this is pretty powerful.

Frankly, I can think of no other religion in the world that is so open, accepting and inquisitive and one that welcomes people with vastly different religious and spiritual ideas. Honestly, this is why I became a Unitarian Universalist.

In many ways, I think we owe our thanks to the many men and women who, for more than two hundred years have enabled this denomination to evolve and grow into what it is today.

And I would humbly suggest that it is the responsibility of all of us to tell people who we are and what we stand for. Too many times I have met people and when asked, explained who we are. And so often I am met with the response, “Oh, that’s kind of what I am and what I believe. In a world that is crying for spiritual sustenance and joy, we as Unitarian Universalist need to do a better job reaching out to others with our inclusive, encompassing, and embracing message. I know in this congregation, we are trying to do this!

Reverend Christopher McMahon

UUMH

February 23, 2025