I am in the 2% of Unitarian Universalists that were actually raised
Unitarian. When I chatted with my mother and told her that I was
giving a talk on UU Evangelism, she was horrified. It was as if I had
admitted to wearing white shoes after Labor Day. Certain things just
are not done. "It goes against everything that being a Unitarian is about!" I could not disagree more.
Let me first draw a distinction -- a very important distinction -- between evangelism and proselytizing. To proselytize is to attempt to convert. An evangelist, according to the Random House college dictionary is "a person marked by zealous enthusiasm for or support of a cause." That's me. Evangelism literally (from the Greek) means to "spread the good news." And my fellow Unitarians, we have some
very good news.
The Rev. Dennis Hamilton of Horizon church in Carrollton states
unequivocally, "We are in the business of saving souls." And we are.
No, our goal is not to give souls salvation in the hereafter, but to help them find their own brand of salvation in this lifetime. As Rev. Bob Hill put it at SWUUSI 2001, the Southwest UU Summer Institute,
there are people out there that are trapped between fundamentalist
dogma on one side and empty rampant materialism on the other. Where is the church for them?
The song Amazing Grace says "I once was lost but now am found," and my friends, that is me. Like many "raised UU's", I unfortunately did not go to church for some time after becoming an adult. Mind the Gap!
And for many years, I hid my spirituality from my co-workers and all but my closest friends, believing that if they knew that not only was I not a
Christian, but that my beliefs were (horrors!) Pagan in nature, that I
would lose them as friends, and quite possibly my professional career.
We moved to Houston and we began going to Northwest Community Unitarian
Universalist Church. I steeled myself and decided from Day 1 that I
wasn't going to hide my beliefs or pretend to be anything I was not.
On that first day, I mentioned to a complete stranger who greeted me
after the service that I was kind of Pagan. "Mmm, well, you should be real comfortable here," he mentioned. He actually acted as if it were no big deal!
There are people out there, through those doors, that are hiding some
part of themselves. Atheists, Pagans and Gays, oh my! Buddhists, multi-ethnicity families, multi-faith families. And we need to find them and say to them, "Whether you believe in Jesus, or Socrates, or the Dalai Lama -- or simply believe in questioning, WE HAVE A PLACE FOR YOU!
Tonight, a father is going to tuck his 10 year old son into bed. His
son has been asking about the facts of life, but the father has been
doing okay, giving good, thought out answers. Tonight, though, his son
is going to ask about God. And the father isn't going to have an
answer. He doesn't want to tell him about the God he learned about as
a child. But he won't know what to say. Where is the church for
him -- and his son?
You know, there have been stories in the news about CIA and FBI agents
selling secrets. You'd think those organizations would get wiser.
I mean, if they really want people who can keep secrets, they ought to
hire UUs -- THEY know how to keep a secret! (UUism is the best kept
secret in America!!!)
So we feel good about ourselves -- no one need fear a Unitarian
Universalist. We content ourselves that we are here, and if people educate themselves, they can find us. After all, we have websites.
Just type in "Austin Unitarian." Of course, that means you need to know what a Unitarian is ...
There is a young woman out there. She was raised kind of generic Protestant. Her family went to church for Christmas and Easter, but religion was never really talked about at home. She's been reading some books on spirituality and world religions. She likes some of what she's read about Buddhism, and she's realizing that she sees God as
something that can encompass many religious beliefs. When she tries to talk to her family or friends about these new thoughts, they just look
at her blankly.
Where is the church for her?
We have to share the good news of our church and our religion not only
with folks we hope that will come visit us, but even those polite souls
who have already found a church that best fits them. We do not have to
duck our heads when asked "What church do you go to?" or "What do you believe?" Our goal should be not just to grow our church or grow Unitarian Universalism, but to educate the world about who we are.
Rev. Jonalu Johnstone, our district's Growth Consultant, talked about
her vision of the future in a workshop at SWUUSI. Imagine a new family
moving to town and the neighbor-lady from next door taking them a cake.
"And what church do you go to?" she inquires. (This may
seem familiar to some of you.) The wife stammers out, "well, we're actually atheist." "Oh, okay," says the neighbor-lady, "then
you'll be comfortable at the Unitarian church over on Manchaca."
There is a young man in college, beginning to question what he's been
taught his whole life. He comes home for the summer and confides to
one of his old friends what he's thinking. His friend yells over to some other boys -- "Hey, Tommy Fontaine doesn't believe in God.
Let's kick his butt!"
Where is the church for Tommy???
Now when I talk about evangelism, I don't necessarily mean knocking on
doors and handing out religious tracts. (Though, if you feel so
motivated...) Myself, I believe in what I call, "Stealth
Evangelism."
The art of stealth evangelism is to share information with someone
without them even realizing that they are indeed being evangelized to.
You've heard the term, "beg the question"? Well, that's what you do.
You set up ways to beg the question.
One very simple way is to wear a chalice necklace or a chalice lapel
pin. When your Avon lady says, "Oh, that's pretty," you say,
"It's a symbol of my church." When she says, "And what church is
that?" -- you're off to the races.
Sometimes you can beg a question WITH a question. For example, I'm on
a discussion list with other fairly liberal women in Houston. I wrote
to them about the service on Choice our church had last summer,
inquiring as to whether they had any suggestions of local pro-choice
organizations in town. I begged the question and was rewarded when I
got an email back (from an MD, no less) saying, "I'm intrigued.
What church do you go to where you have a talk on that subject?"
More ways to beg the question ... wear a UU t-shirt. Put a UU bumper
sticker on your car. Talk to people about an event going on at
your church, asking them for advice -- what kinds of things would they bid
on at a church auction?
Make self-deprecating jokes around your hip, cynical friends ... "Yes,
I've really turned into the church lady -- of course, it's the
Unitarian church, so it's okay."
BEG the question.
More stealth evangelism ... invite them to church functions. Not as a
church thing, of course ... merely, "oh, George, come to our Music
Covenant group this week -- we have a blast. And you are just a
virtuoso on the triangle." Or, "Mary Anne, come to the Second
Saturday dinner at my house this week, I have this friend who is so much like
you, I want y'all to meet."
Keep in mind, I'm not talking about manipulation or dishonesty -- if
you don't believe in what you're selling, you shouldn't be selling it.
But look closer at your friends and acquaintances. See the
similarities. See how they would fit in your church.
The point has been made by other UU Evangelists that this is simply
allowing ourselves to do what comes naturally -- talk about something
we love. If you buy a new car that you think is the greatest -- you
tell people. If you go see a movie that is just wonderful -- you tell people. We need not censor ourselves about this important thing is our lives.
Tommy Fontaine, whom I mentioned earlier, moved to a small Texas town
after college with his wife Jackie and his baby daughter Rebecca. They
began visiting different churches in that town, feeling that church was
a good thing and they'd meet nice people to be friends with. Word
quickly spread and a preacher from a church they hadn't visited yet,
came to call one evening. Somehow he had found out that Tommy had been raised in his denomination. They chatted for awhile and the preacher invited Tommy and his family to come to his church. Tommy thanked him and said they would, that they had been visiting different churches in town.
The preacher said to Tommy, "You were raised better than that."
Tommy politely tried to get his visitor to the door, "thanks for
stopping by," but the preacher would not be diverted. "You
were raised
better than that. You know that if you don't take little Becca to the
right church, your sweet little daughter will go to hell."
Tommy Fontaine and his family did not go back to any church for several
years.
Where was the church for them?
My parents were chatting recently with their old friends Bob and Sheila
--friends that they met back in the early 60's in a Unitarian Church in
New Orleans. They told them about their youngest daughter -- me -- and about how she speaks at UU churches and even does a talk about UU
Evangelism.
"UU Evangelism???" asked Bob, appalled. "She just doesn't
get it!"
With all due respect, Bob, No-- YOU don't get it. Back in 1968, there
were 177,000 UU's. Now, there are 154,000. In terms of percentage
of population, we've gone from being .14% of the population to being .08%
of the population ... not that either one is anything to write home about.
On Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, which is filmed in New York, the
audience was split practically 50/50 on whether the Unification Church
or the Unitarian Church is led by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. In New
York!
Here are our choices: we can be invisible -- which, right now, we
pretty much are -- we can have a reputation based on what others have
said about us (Do you want another denomination defining what we are?)
or we can spread the word, and define ourselves. We can get the
information out there so that those who want to find us -- those who
need us -- know who we are.
And how do we define ourselves? Well, being UU's, I'm sure we each
have our own definition, but for completeness and succinctness, I'll
use the quick reference guide of Rev. Tony Larsen who recommends that
we teach our children these three points for when they are asked, "What do you believe?"
We believe in:
#1: Loving your neighbor as yourself, which includes trying not to
hurt people in any way;
#2: Making the world a better place, which includes working for
justice, peace, and freedom for all people; and
#3: Searching for the truth with an open mind.
Three simple points we believe in: love your neighbor, make the world a better place, search for truth. To me, our Unitarian Universalist principles and purposes are beautifully written. Two of my favorites, I often use in my signature file on outgoing email. "We covenant to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person" and "We covenant to affirm and promote a free and responsible search for truth and meaning."
Speaking of searching for truth -- There are many things we take as
fact that aren't. My church recently moved into a heavily Hispanic
area. Would any Hispanics want to be Unitarians? I dunno, maybe we should ask two of our churches in Mexico that are in the Southwest UU
Conference with us.
What about African-Americans? I don't no, why don't we ask Bill Sinkford, the president of the Unitarian Universalist Association -- the first African-American president of the UUA.
What about Gays and Lesbians? Are we too suburban?
What about Christians? What about single-parent families? What about stay-at-home-Moms-in-tennis-shoes?
What unites us is bigger than what divides us. We believe in freedom
of belief. And that transcends any smaller differences of race,
gender, orientation, culture ...
Back to Tommy Fontaine. He and his family, that now also included two
sons, moved to New Orleans. His daughter Becca was now in school and
she came home asking how was she going to take communion since she
hadn't been to catechism class? Tommy got out the phone book. Back in college, he heard about this guy A. Powell Davies who had been
challenging this young fundamentalist preacher -- by the name of Billy
Graham -- to public debates about religion. This A. Powell Davies guy was a Unitarian and Tommy had read a book about Unitarianism. He
looked up a Unitarian church and called the minister and chatted. They went to the church. That was 1958. And yes, Tommy Fontaine is my father.
We are the lucky ones. We are blessed. Because we talked to the
right person, or read the right book, we have found the Unitarian
Universalist Church. We have found the freedom to be who we are. The
freedom to explore spirituality and philosophy, free from ridicule or
scorn. The freedom to stand up and disagree. The freedom to say,
"This is what I believe."
Where is the church for us?
This -- this church -- this community -- is our freedom land.
Please stand and join together in Hymn 116, "I'm On My Way."
Closing Words:
John Murray, the first Universalist minister in America, said, "Go out
into the highways and by-ways. Give the people something of your new
vision. You may possess a small light, but uncover it, let it shine,
use it in order to bring more light and understanding to the hearts and
minds of men and women. Give them not hell, but hope and courage."
So may it be!
=====
Joanna F. Crawford
Freedom, Reason and Tolerance in Religion
http://nwcuuc.org