As Rev. Dr. Sofia Betancourt says “We are the theological inheritors of teachings on universal salvation. There is no winnowing out of the supposedly unworthy that can be named sacred among us.” [Widening the Circle p. 15] That is to say, we believe in the inherent worth and dignity of every person. No one is left out, every being is sacred. This is why UUs were passionate about the abolition of slavery, why UUs preached tirelessly for women’s suffrage, and why we are continuously committed to the liberation of all from forces of oppression. The question before us now, as a people, is how does that heritage, that belief system lead the mouse to freedom today?
I grew up in a UU church that was mostly white, and it seemed most people had no trouble covering the basic costs of life. I believed that people were basically good, and honoring the inherent worth and dignity of each and every person would inevitably lead to an end to injustice and oppression.
Then my theology- the foundation of my beliefs about the world and how it worked-- started to quake. As a young feminist I learned to see systemic oppression- how there were forces bigger than the individual that kept us from being free. I remember hearing Ruth Bader Ginsberg say (quoting -Sarah Moore Grimké) “I ask no favor for my sex; all I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” And I could see the way that I, as a woman, was like the mouse trapped by the elephant of patriarchy.
My mind was blown when pioneers in our UU movement asked us to interrogate not only the pronouns in our hymnals (all he/him I can tell you) but also the fundamental UU theology that allowed Patriarchy to be perpetuated by our UU institutions. Whenever women are the right to vote, or to own property, or to make decisions about her own body, this is not a problem that one woman can be empowered to solve in her own life, it requires a collective solution that involves those people and institution who have that power to remove those oppressive structures. I can see that it is not enough to feel compassion for the mouse, we need the elephant to rouse itself form his comfort to roll over so the mouse can be free.
Well, I have been feeling that deep rumble in my belief system again, perhaps you too have felt it. The events of past few years have destabilized some deep foundation in what I believe. I have been roused from my own napping to notice my own privilege, to notice the way white privilege, or cis privilege or temporarily able bodied privilege is a heavy weight keeping others from being free. I have also seen the ways in which I am the giraffe- embedded in the status quo, and worried about the real dangers of an angry elephant waking up. As we observe Indigenous People’s day this week, I wonder how I can do better than the giraffe in our story-- what do I need to be doing to end the oppression of our first nations neighbors, especially the ongoing struggle with Clint Halftown, whom the US government continues to call representative of the Gayogo̱hó:nǫ⁷ Nation to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, jeopardizing the sovereignty of the Gayogo̱hó:nǫ⁷ nation.
I turn to my UU faith to help me discern what is mine to do, what is ours to do. Our UU faith must be part of this foundational shift of those beliefs and ideas on which all our other beliefs and ideas are built. Unfortunately many belief systems support the status quo. Dr. Betancourt asks us not to be lulled to sleep by this definition of Universalism. She continues: “It is our very Universalism that is at stake when we turn away from the impact that our institutions have on the same communities and groups that society encourages us to dehumanize and make small” [p. 15]
Something big and deep, something foundational has to shift if we are going to move towards freedom as a society and as a world.
Here is one way our UU beliefs, our interpretation of that Universalist principle, has sometimes kept us stuck in the status quo; we hear the point of view of the gazelle who wants to remain neutral, and we remember times when we chose not to make a complaint against those more powerful than us. And we think “isn’t the gazelle worthy too?”
We can even think of the elephant, who is sleeping comfortably, who doesn’t even know he has laid on a mouse. What about the worthiness of the elephant?”
But the sacredness of each and every individual does not mean that all actions are equal, does not mean that all beliefs are equal. And we as a movement are saying that now is the time for us all to bring our attention to the one whose tail is trapped, now is the time to heed the cry of the most vulnerable, the oppressed. Ours needs to be a faith that pays attention to those historically marginalized, and notices what each of us can do to support their freedom. That doesn’t mean we don’t love elephants, but each has our own responsibility for the freedom of all.
Tom Skinner, the preacher Kendi wrote about in How to Be an Antiracist [p. 16-17], declared that much of Christian theology is the theology of the elephant. It is justification why the comfortable elephant doesn’t need to roll over, doesn’t need to disturb his sleep. As th keynote speaker at our TPUC gathering John Leeker, Director of Library and Archives at Meadville Lombard Theological School, put so concisely: “One of the insights of liberation theology is that the experience of the oppressed communities must be privileged, and the acts of resistance and liberation must be imagined on terms understood and set by those communities.”
This is going to require a change in how we define freedom. Lately when I hear the word “Freedom” it is used to mean the freedom of the individual to choose which products to buy, freedom to pursue profits, freedom to bully those who disagree with us, freedom from responsibility for the health and wellbeing of our community. Why, isn’t that elephant free to lay where he choses? Isn’t that antelope free to remain neutral? It’s time to image a new definition of freedom – what would this sacred freedom look like? One that prioritizes the liberation of a mouse over the freedom of the elephant to sleep? As Emma Lazarus wrote “Until we are all free, we are none of us free.”
The second shift emerging in our UU theology right now is seriously questioning what we mean by “we.” I know there are moments when our small rural congregations have felt like the UU “we” does not include us- like when our discussion guides use words we’ve never heard, or when folks assume we all have good internet, and they don’t realize that some technology just does not reach all the way out to our homes. I think all of us gathered together today would agree that any UU “we” needs to include us. Our speaker yesterday reminded us about the women, people of color, queer people, poor folks who have been erased from our UU history, erased from our collective image of ourselves, erased from our “we.” I wonder now if my childhood church was not who I thought we were, if the mirror we held up to ourselves did not really show our whole “we?” Did not privilege the voices of those of us who were Queer, Bipoc, or economically disadvantaged?[i]
As our Commission on Institutional Change reports “We rarely seek to return to the literal U or U of the 17th century except in the broadest sense. That is because the influx of other voices, including the early women ministers, Transcendentalists, humanists and feminists and people from earth-centered and other traditions have enhanced our faith. In the same way, embracing diversity, equity and inclusion and the spiritual discipline’s they require will further enrich us.” [p. 14] [ii]the report encourages us to “center the theological work of Black scholars, Indigenous scholars, and scholars of color, both professional and lay, whose knowledge is resonant for our times.”
As I have grown in my awareness of the world, I am asking more from my theology- we need our UU theology that wakes us up when we are elephants. We need a UU theology that interrupts our neutrality when we are giraffes, and most of all we need a theology for when an elephant sitting on us right now. We need a shift like the one that happened to Kendi’s parents as they could “... [stop] thinking about saving Black people and [start] thinking about liberating Black people.” Our theology must address not only those getting by with the status quo, but those who oppressed by it. We need a UU theology that says not only “You have inherent worth and dignity just as you are” yes, but also “the spirit of life is a force of liberation. God wants you to get free, life wants you to get free. Freedom is a quality of the divine, it is holy.”
And here is the good news, friends, the work has already begun. Our UU faith is already changing as we notice more carefully who we are, that we have always been a larger “we” that was expressed in the theology transmitted by white guys at Harvard. Remember Hosea Ballou, who grew up in a rural farming family, and whose grassroots Universalist preaching had a powerful influence on our faith, and on the hearts of many. His theology was only later put in books and assigned to grad students to interpret. The abolitionists and suffragists, the grassroots uprising of the civil rights movement met in houses and church basements. Let us be a universalism that believes in the wisdom that rises up through each and every one of us, and especially the wisdom that comes from other vantages than our own. Certainly, what the mouse experiences, what the giraffe experiences, and what elephant experiences are different things. And we will know we are moving in the right direction when we see one another getting free, when we see freedom from oppression growing in our communities. Particularly freedom of those most vulnerable, who Betancourt called “communities and groups that society encourages us to dehumanize and make small”
The good news is that we already know something about what it is to be an elephant, to be a gazelle, to be a mouse right here in our local communities, the context where each of us works and lives. That is the freedom of thought our ancestors died for- that our UU theology must reflect the realities of our own lived experience, and it must result in liberation, in freedom for all, most especially those who are oppressed.
What is this new kind of freedom which liberates a larger “we” then the individual pursuit of happiness and property? And what is this new Universalism, grounded in our history and tradition, that will lead us to freedom? It is one we will make together.
Notes
[i] In 2020 the COIC asked us to listen to the voices of the [Widening the Circle p. 15]
[ii] “A renewed focus on our theological history and its actors, including the actions and teachings of the leadres of color whose voices have been largely erased can help make this clear. This clarity and the ability to see the liberatory change of our heritage shoudl be the basis of activities.” [Widening the Circle p. 15]
