"Secular Faith?"

Unitarian Universalism offers a welcome refuge in a world afflicted with the tragic consequences of religious belief. Though no one is safe anywhere these days, there is security and comfort for us in our tradition, which remains rooted in human values and practical ideals. We take hope when others, such as the new members we welcomed this morning, confirm that our message is relevant and healing. We remember that a faith can be strong even for those who do not believe.

For we are not believers, at least not in the conventional religious sense. Theological beliefs are not what hold us together as a community Rather, it is our agreement that religion is about how we live our lives that calls us together as a people of faith.

For this reason, our tradition is different from many others. It is not exclusively linked to a defining scripture, doctrine, or sacramental ritual. And it includes any insight, example or inspiration that can teach us how to be better people. Our faith draws freely from all sources, including our liberal Christian roots, in the search for understanding a world that grows more complex and pluralistic every day.

How we got this way can be traced through our history. Our Unitarian and Universalist predecessors openly questioned rigid and unchanging beliefs, choosing instead to open their faith to all the learning the world ? and their hearts and minds ? had to offer. As they did so, they developed a new kind of religion, a religion that evolves along with knowledge, that lives and changes as we do.

Some would say this is a secular worldview, unhinged from the fundamentals of religious tradition and inextricably tied to modernity. It is. But it is also a faith. For there is something that holds us together and gives us hope and it is just as strong as ever.

Call it a secular faith; what we have can survive even in these scary modern times. In her book The Battle for God, Karen Armstrong observes that militant fundamentalists these days "are conducting a war against secular modernity." Fundamentalist of all kinds view secular society as godless and sinful. They "recoil [from it] with visceral disgust," Armstrong writes. Their mission is to bring their religion back into a world which they believe is "inherently hostile" to it.

The drama of these clashing worldviews dominates the daily news. We who reside comfortably in the modern world now confront a very different global reality from the one we thought we inhabited. No longer is it possible to dismiss or ignore the message coming from those who see the world so differently.

There is much to learn and much to take seriously from our differences. There is understanding ? if not agreement ? to be gained as well. For anyone can be offended by how the modern world trivializes religion.

The Boston Globe recently reported a story that tells just how twisted the strands of religion and modernity can become. After freshmen at the University of North Carolina completed a controversial assigned reading of the Qu?ran, the University Chancellor there quipped, "There were no known conversions: Carolina?s religion remains basketball." Just by coincidence, I happened to be reading this article while sitting on a plane descending into Knoxville, Tennessee. We looked down at the huge stadium, which dominates the University?s campus. And I was reminded that fervent UT football fans refer to this building as "the temple."

Whether these are casual insults or admissions that religion has permeated every aspect of daily life, I cannot say for sure. Most likely it?s both. For both attitudes are hallmarks of secular culture.

Unitarian Universalists have something important to say about the intertwining of religion and modernity. We have hundreds of years of experience with it. Having chosen to live with the secular world, we have learned how to discern between the temple of football and the temple of faith. The practice of discernment is essential to a spiritual life in the modern world. This is how we shed what is no longer relevant and evaluate what is new and untried. We test the authenticity of our sources; very few make the cut. But we are also prepared to see that spiritual uplift can come from some unlikely places. And when it does, we are ready to receive it.

The secular world is an eclectic environment. Its shifting loyalties and seductive novelties provoke distrust in those with traditional views. But there is much to be valued in it, if we are open to what is good.

I recently read an article in a serious religion journal about the spirituality of Oprah, talk-show host and media giant. It makes a convincing case for Oprah as pastor, preacher and spiritual guide to countless viewers and readers of her publications. She?s on a mission, "dispensing a gospel of health and happiness," the author writes. Oprah is the real thing, according to the feminists, theologians, and religion editors who were interviewed for the article. And why shouldn?t she be? Good advice and good works can come from anyone. The loss is ours when we do not notice.

Traditional distinctions between sacred and profane are dissolving in the modern world. That reality offers danger and possibility ? the danger that we will ignore our roots, but also the possibility that we will find new insight, new truth that we need right now. For followers of liberal religion, the work involves understanding that both the sacred and the profane, the danger and the possibility, are fundamental to our spiritual lives.
We have to trust ourselves and our instincts to guide us in our judgments.

That is how a father finds himself explaining to his young daughter that there is something inside her that is holy, because god can be female too. You can only arrive at that idea if you have searched beyond what much of the world calls sacred. You can only arrive at that idea if you look deeply into the soul of a child you love.

The children?s story, "Old Turtle" may have seemed like an odd choice for today?s theme. Arguing about God, as the animals did in that mythical world long ago, is still one of the big problems in the world today. We should be trying to move away from that, not deeper into it. But the story teaches how the argument is resolved. Old Turtle explains to the animals that God is not in just any one place. God is "close by, yet beyond," says Old Turtle, God is "all that we came from and all that we can find."

That almost settles it back then. And that almost settles it for us. A secular faith witnesses to the sacred aspect of all life ? the insights discovered in unlikely places, the hope found where we least expected it. The sacred can be anywhere.

But the story continues: Old Turtle tells the animals that human beings will soon come to earth. And these human beings will be "reminders of all God is." And they are, until they forget who they are. And then they start to argue too ? about who knows God and who doesn?t. The arguments grow so fierce that the people hurt each other over them.

So Old Turtle speaks up one more time, to remind the people of who they are. When the people listen they see God in one another. And all is well once again.

A secular faith can look at the world and see the sacred in it. And it can teach its people to see what is sacred in one another. Our secular faith can help the world to understand that there is nothing to fear when we see the sacred in different ways, so long as we see the sacred in each other.

We will not forget. We will have hope. And we will live by our secular faith in our modern world, making our lives a witness to all that is good and holy in it.

References for this sermon come from The Battle for God, by Karen Armstrong (New York: Ballantine Books, 2000); "Oprah on a mission," by Marcia Z. Nelson, in Christian Century, September 25-October 8, 2002; the Boston Globe, August 31, 2002.