First Unitarian Universalist Society Burlington
April 14, 2025
Part I
We celebrate that we are all sacred beings, diverse in culture, experience, and theology.
I want to talk with you first about pluralism – one of the essential values within modern day Unitarian Universalism, one of the values upon which we as a faith movement voted last year to formally adopt to describe 21st century Unitarian Universalism.
I wonder if you share this observation with me: of the six Shared Values with Love at the Center – Justice, Equity, Transformation, Pluralism, Interdependence, and Generosity – the hardest to grasp, is Pluralism.
What is Pluralism? Well, the language that we, as a faith movement, begins as follows:
We celebrate that we are all sacred beings, diverse in culture, experience, and theology.
As each of the values has an accompanying covenantal statement – a pathway for each of us to live faithfully into that value – the one for Pluralism reads
We covenant to learn from one another in our free and responsible search for truth and meaning. We embrace our differences and commonalities with Love, curiosity, and respect.
In this covenant, we hear language rooted in the Fourth Principle – the free and responsible search for truth and meaning.
And we hear that we covenant to learn (an action) and to do so with Love (not “I know better than you”), with curiosity (which has an active quality) and with respect (I commit to talking about a system of belief different than my own as if someone who holds that belief is in the room near me).
I remember when I arrived at one of my ministries, one of my new congregants, a man who was Jewish and married to someone raised Christian, described not just his family structure as “interfaith,” but Unitarian Universalism as such. I did not agree with him at that time (though I did not tell him so – that wasn’t the point) and I do not agree with him still. And yet, I understand what he was getting at.
I think what he was getting at is the pluralist nature of our Unitarian Universalist religion. I think what he was trying to say is that in coming from outside of Unitarian Universalism and coming with a family that had different religious backgrounds, he felt respected, seen, included. That he belonged.
I think what he was getting at is that there is a commitment within Unitarian Universalism to honor the wisdom that comes from many sources, including many ancient scriptures and also from sources not necessarily considered to be scripture in more religiously conservative traditions.
I think what he was trying to get across is that, in having his kids go through what was then the Neighboring Faiths curriculum (and what, when it was founded in 1947 was called “The Church Across the Street” and at some point was called Building Bridges and now has a Soul Matters option called “Crossing Paths” which we do here at First UU sometimes, perhaps even next year), there is an expectation within Unitarian Universalism that all of us, clergy and lay people alike, strive for a level of religious literacy that few other religious traditions expect, or even find to be beneficial.
Because we are pluralist, rather than interfaith, it does mean that, in my observation, we tend to be better at interfaith activities than some other religious traditions – as a chaplain, tending to any patient who comes through a hospital doors; bringing together different faith traditions to address a community injustice; offering a truly inclusive prayer in a secular or multi-faith setting.
However, we are sometimes our own worst enemy. We can lead with a kind of arrogance that is patronizing. We can be wonderfully welcoming to all religious identities… except Christians. We can be wonderfully polite to everyone except those who have a personal relationship with god. So while we can pat ourselves on the back, let’s not forget that there is room to grow.
Diana Eck, the founder and director of The Pluralism Project at Harvard Divinity School, describes four critical tenets of pluralism that we, Unitarian Universalists, can use to see how they are relevant to our understanding of pluralism in our own lives and within our faith movement.
First, pluralism is not diversity alone, but the energetic engagement with diversity
Second, pluralism is not just tolerance, but the active seeking of understanding, across lines of difference.
Third, pluralism is not relativism, but the encounter of commitments.
Fourth, pluralism is based on dialogue.
The focus of The Pluralism Project’s efforts is to foment the capacity within society at large to move beyond tolerance, calling tolerance “too thin a foundation for a world of religious difference and proximity” and naming the danger that “in the world in which we live today, our ignorance of one another will be increasingly costly.”
The Pluralism Project focuses “out there” – a worthy endeavor. This is a good framework which we can use to feel, and further define, the texture of what Unitarian Universalist pluralism looks like when it encounters peoples of other faith traditions.
In the second part of this sermon, I want to explore with you pluralism “in here”: within Unitarian Universalism, doing so through the tenet of what we call, “freedom of the pew.”
Part II
Before talking about pulpit ~ or pew ~ I want to talk about two forms of freedom: freedom to and freedom from.
I first learned to differentiate those two concepts – freedom from and freedom to – in an interview with Dr. Imani Perry, professor of African American Studies at Princeton University. You might recognize her name, as she gave the 2023 Ware Lecture (though the concepts I am conveying from Dr. Perry were not part of that lecture).
Dr. Perry calls the emphasis on freedom from “libertarian.” This kind of freedom says “leave me alone” or “don’t tread on me.” It says you can’t impose your values or religion or needs on me – I’m free FROM them. This is particularly important in a society with over-empowered majorities and disenfranchised minorities.
Dr. Perry calls the other kind of freedom ~ freedom to ~ “liberationist” because it is about undoing domination “that gets in the way of us living healthy lives…and [it is about how we can] actually create things that are meaningful and joyful.” With this form of freedom, we are called to engage, rather than disengage or defend against.
Think of it this way: freedom FROM oppression and freedom TO co-create justice. In a complex society, these go hand-in-hand.
While we can trace our “free and responsible search for truth and meaning” to the very first principles when Unitarians and Universalists merged in 1961, the long-existing tenet of our liberal religious tradition ~ “freedom of the pulpit” ~ has been around longer.
This tenet belongs not just to our religious tradition
and not even just to Protestantism – it can be traced back to the prophets in the Hebrew Scriptures. Freedom of the pulpit is defined, according to the UUA, as “the minister cannot be censured for [their] statements.”
A shorthand version of freedom of the pulpit involves words that begin with the letter “c:”
While the Minister should not be CENSORED (first “c” word) for what we preach, we must recognize that there are (here comes the second “c” word) CONSEQUENCES for saying what we say. While we ministers are expected to speak our CONSCIENCE (another “c” word!), were we to speak without integrity or were to lose the trust of the congregation too often, it may well come to a point that our shared ministry must (and a final “c” word) CONCLUDE.
While we can trace the origins of freedom of the pulpit far back, there is an accompanying freedom ~ at least within Unitarian Universalism ~ that may not be as old, but is just as important: freedom of the pew.
Freedom of the pew is the freedom of congregants (those in the pews) to have a difference of opinion with what is being preached from the pulpit. In fact, it can be seen not just as a right, but a responsibility of those in the pews to form and hold their own ~ YOUR own ~ religious and spiritual beliefs.
It is understood that each party – the minister and the congregation – has their own conscience that must be honored and followed.
I appreciate this succinct description of these two freedoms, found on the website of the First Unitarian Church of Oklahoma City:
Our ministers enjoy freedom of the pulpit, which means that no one dictates what they preach. Our members and friends enjoy freedom of the pew, which means that they need not agree with what is preached, but are expected to discern for themselves how they believe and live.
An example: if I were to preach on the topic of Palestine and Israel, and were to share that having searched my conscience, I have come to the conclusion that the war on Gaza is nothing short of ethnic cleansing, and that conclusion in no way associates with or supports the very real anti-Semitism in our midst, freedom of the pulpit allows me (some may say, requires me) to say such a thing. And freedom of the pew allows you to hold your own opinion without expectation of agreement, following your own conscience. (On this or any topic).
When it comes to freedom of the pulpit, I think it’s easier for us to name times when we see pluralism in action: a sermon that delves into a particular religious tradition; the wide array of religious language a UU minister employs in an attempt to meet the religiously diverse theological needs of the congregation. (attempt is a key word here ~ o the joy of this task!) Or when lay leaders share a Sunday service focused on their spiritual practice.
But what about pluralism and freedom of the pew? How does that show up? How could it show up?
I want us to make this freedom apply not to the relationship between pew and pulpit (lay person and minister) but pew to pew to pew – among lay people – pluralism in here (rather than out there, as Diana Eck’s work focuses on).
I want to invite us into that deepening by taking seriously the covenant we are being asked to make when it comes to pluralism:
We covenant to learn from one another in our free and responsible search for truth and meaning. We embrace our differences and commonalities with Love, curiosity, and respect.
How do we move from tolerating that our fellow pew-sitter ~ our fellow congregant, our fellow UU traveler ~ has a different theology than our own into a pluralistic engagement informed by Love, by curiosity, by respect? How do we see all the beautiful colors of our theologies, helping each to shine and be vibrant? Not just handing over that responsibility to the Director of Lifespan Faith Development or the Minister.
I wonder if we can follow the spirit of our closing hymn, “This Is My Song,” and apply it to pluralism “in here:”
This is my home, the country where my heart is;
here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine;
but other hearts in other lands are beating
with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.
What if those other beating hearts are not in other countries, but in other pews? What if each of us were to not just demonstrate tolerance for our theological diversity, but were to approach that diversity’s presence among us covenantly, showing Love, embodying curiosity, and going so far with respect that we defend the rights of others who have a different understanding than we personally do about the nature of god and the Universe?
What marvelous and juicy things might come from that living pluralism, where those of us who are convinced there is no god, began using words like “divine” and “holy,” not because it resonated for us, but out of a radical curiosity to respect someone with whom we share a pew?
What if we were to show up at a meditation class, not because it’s of particular interest to us, but because someone you met last week at coffee hour talked about how it saved their life?
What if we were to affirm that we are, in fact, a religion and have Christian roots, and not feel like we are giving away some part of our humanist essence?
What if those of us who have a personal relationship with a godforce were to speak up in defense of atheism and atheists, because even if that’s not your way in the world, it is an aspect of your faith’s way in the world?
This is my home, the SPIRITUALITY where my heart is;
here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine;
but other hearts in other PEWS are beating
with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.
My THEOLOGY’S skies are bluer than the ocean,
and sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine;
but other THEOLOGIES have sunlight too, and clover,
and skies are everywhere as blue as mine.
O hear my song, thou God of all the PLURALITIES,
a song of peace for their RELIGIOUS beliefs and for mine.
May we know not just in our minds, but in our hearts, that when the spiritual needs of someone else are being met by a reading that contains language that makes us wince, some part of our Unitarian Universalist identity is being strengthened.
May we know that when there is ritual that offends our sense of what is rational and reasonable, we can take solace knowing that the spirit of a fellow UU is being soothed and that they have access to a felt-sense of ease.
May we celebrate the joy a fellow pew-mate is experiencing in hearing a genre of music that we cannot stand.
May freedom FROM and freedom TO mix and intermingle in ourselves and in our communal spaces in ways that are generative and the best of what pluralism has to offer.
