Session Eight Quotations

What do you get when you cross a Jehovah's Witness with a Unitarian Universalist? Someone standing at your door wondering what in the heck he/she is doing there!

Unitarian Universalism is a fierce belief in the way of freedom and reverence for the sacred dignity of each individual. It is cooperation with a universe that created us; its celebration of life; it is being in love with goodness and justice; it is about having a sense of humor about absolutes…it is respectful of the past, but is not limited to it. It is a trust in growing and a conspiracy with change. It is spiritual responsibility for a moral tomorrow.

Social action without proclamation is like a signpost to nowhere. Evangelism cannot be separated from social action because mission takes place through relationships and relationships are multi-faceted.

Unitarian Universalists are notoriously nervous about being advocates, let alone ambassadors, for our free faith; it is tempting to minimize or bypass altogether the word promote. But in a world rife with political and religious fundamentalisms, it behooves religious liberals to engage in vigorous outreach, to spread our gospel to the ends of the earth. It is precarious and ineffective to affirm and promote merely as individuals. UUs need a unified, corporate witness affirming and promoting hopeful, inclusionary, and compassionate values.

We will win the world when we realize that fellowship not evangelism must be our primary emphasis. When we demonstrate the Big Miracle of Love, it won't be necessary for us to go out -they will come in.

Why should I apologize because God throws in crystal chandeliers, mahogany floors, and the best construction in the world?

Universalism began as an evangelistic movement. It had a mission, bringing a liberating concept (that God would save all humans) to a dried-up Calvinism that held to a stern belief that most of humanity had been doomed to everlasting hell before they were even born. All the early Universalists - Murray, Winchester, Ballou - operated as evangelists. They came into communities and promoted this new doctrine, the doctrine of universal salvation.

True evangelism, for liberal or conservative, is not about arrogance or absolutes, but about sincere devotion to a dream for the human enterprise that informs and transforms our own lives and other lives around us. Our Unitarian Universalist "good news" is a principled religious message that has the power to humanize society and persons in healing, saving, responsible ways - but only if it is boldly spoken, eagerly shared, and passionately lived by those of us who claim this proud heritage.