Trust And Diversity

March 31, 1985
Lakeland

The preceding two Sundays I have spoken, I have tried to highlight and affirm Unitarian Universalist positions toward authority in religion and the nature of human salvation. There has been emphasis on how we differ from the usual beliefs and assumptions of the overwhelming majority of Christian churches and most other religious institutions. Because we are seekers, not dogmatists, we are denied the absolute assurance and confidence possessed by the followers of an unquestioned faith.

Relying on principles rather than creeds makes us a tiny minority. Tuesday morning, it was reported [on radio news] that over a million people world-wide viewed the Academy Awards on TV Monday evening. I said to myself, “Here I am in another tiny minority.”

In religion, I have from time [to time] wondered if life would be any better or have more meaning if I simply made the jump of faith to a formula[ic] religion. Would I enjoy the confidence of certainty more than the insecurities of the constant dynamism of search? But I always return to the search. The confidence and assurance others may cherish are based on assumptions and premises that are not true for me. In that vein, I’m reminded of the story told by John McKay, the former coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, about the late and famous coach of Alabama, Bear Bryant. McKay tells it: “When I went duck-hunting with Bear Bryant, he shot at one, but it kept flying. ‘John,’ he said, ‘there flies a dead duck.’ Now that’s confidence.”

But such unreal confidence I cannot possess, share, or recommend.

Thus in the far more important matter of what religion is and does, and the principles governing our gathering together, my reliance is on diversity and trust.

Writer John Updike once noted, “My first thought about art as a child was that the artist brings something into the world that didn’t exist before, and that he does it without destroying something else. A kind of refutation of the conservation of matter. That seems to me its central magic, its core of joy.”

What Updike wrote about art expresses some of the feelings I have about diversity and trust in Unitarian Universalist fellowship. Something is brought into the world that didn’t exist before without destroying something else.

First, our diversity: our diversity exists because we are willing to share differing opinions, unlike perceptions, and various convictions. The key word is “share,” not just sit with unexpressed beliefs.

There was a cartoon in a recent NEW YORKER where a visitor is shown with his host in an underground vault. There is a massive steel door, TV monitor, and other protective mechanisms. The room is filled with sturdy, sealed packing cases of various sizes. The crates are stenciled “Rembrandt,” “Vermeer,” “Bonnard,” “Picasso,” “Matisse,” “Gauguin,” “Van Gogh,” “Klee.” The visitor says with an awed expression, “I had no idea you were so passionate about art.”

But here we want the treasures of your mind and the convictions of your experience to be open and shared, not crated away in stored isolation. Disagreements have a tart taste when the temptation is to have everything sweet. As Sydney J. Harris once wrote, “Agreement makes us soft and complacent; disagreement brings out our strength. Our real enemies are the people who make us feel so good that we are slowly, but inexorably, pulled down into the quicksand of smugness and self-satisfaction.”

My opinion and your opinion may differ on a given matter. How we arrive at what seems true to us can flow from different springs.

In his speech accepting the 1957 Nobel Prize, Albert Camus said, “Truth is mysterious, elusive, always to be conquered. Liberty is dangerous, as hard to live with it as it is elating. We must march toward these two goals, painfully, but resolutely, certain in advance of our feelings on so long a road.”

Acknowledged diversity is the basis of truth and freedom in the atmosphere of trust.

Harry and Bonaro Overstreet, [in] their book, THE MIND GOES FORTH, noted (p.83) “The devotee of democracy adopts a life-long assignment in human relationship.” One can accurately paraphrase, the Unitarian Universalist adopts a life-long assignment in human relationships. Human relationship would not be a phrase in our language were it not for the reality that there is diversity in human perceptions and goals. To deal with diversity in good will is assuredly both a constant need and a rewarding virtue.

Trust is the necessary other side of the coin of diversity. We can entertain our differences because of trust. We are more than a clubhouse of the complacent. We have different perceptions and perspectives. But an authentic life together is where burdens and joys are shared. We trust that here we learn more about what makes men and women persons, not objects. When we forget that, may our words be as ashes, our proud convictions as the chaff which the wind drives away.

Here, because of trust, we may know the wisdom of an old story and the joy of a new child.
Here we may join arguments about the social order.
Here the shared meal is made savory by fine conversation.
Here, we cherish the remembrance of things past.
Here we have the hope of new and good experiences to come.
Here we stand together trustingly so that elsewhere, if need be, we can stand alone with courage.

Let me conclude with a recent Hagar the Horrible cartoon. in the first panel, Hagar is going out the door and saying to Helga, “I go to seek wisdom, truth, and to discuss the real meaning of life.”

In the second panel, he adds, “If you need anything, I’ll be at the tavern.”

I just wish he had said, in the second panel, [“I’ll be at] the Fellowship, come alone with me.”