When Is a Person a Unitarian?
Being a Sermon Preached by the Minister
W. Waldemar W. Argow, Th.D.
In
The
(Unitarian)
1934
Published by
THE WOMEN'S
THE
The May Memorial Pulpit, by tradition and practice, is a free platform,
dedicated to the ideal of truth. Its addresses and sermons in both their
spoken and written form, are the utterances of the speaker, who accepts for
them exclusive responsibility.
When Is a Person a Unitarian?
By way of contrast, one may ask, when is a person an
American? The law says that one becomes an American when one is born under the
American flag. But being an American is something vastly more than a matter of
birth. Shall we say that one is an American if he believes in the infallibility
of the Constitution; or that he believes
When, therefore, one asks the question, when is a
person a Unitarian, one begins to see, that, like being an American, it is not
a matter of birth, nor of formality, nor yet again of belief, but a disposition
of the soul and an attitude of the mind. This makes Unitarianism a living
thing that is not dependent upon any age, nor any place, nor
yet again on any race.
Unitarianism is a living and growing thing. Its roots
go back into the earliest dawn of history. Indeed, Unitarianism is as old as
civilization. This does not mean that the Unitarian Church has had so long and
venerable a history. What it does mean is that the attitude of mind which
formed the
It is well, therefore, to
bear in mind that thruout all history there ran these two contending
forces--the liberal and conservative. If we bear this in mind it will be much
easier to understand what Unitarianism is. For Unitarianism is a modern name
for something that has been at work in the world for countless centuries, yea,
even since the dawn of human history.
As one travels backward over the centuries, one of the
first liberals we meet is the great Hammurabi of Babylon, whose code represents
the first attempt to codify a growing sense of justice in its application to
human rights. When one stops to consider that in 2400 B.C. one man dared to
challenge the legal and ceremonial laws of his day, when for ages upon ages custom had dictated that the individual had no rights,
it is indeed refreshing.
In the 16th Century B. C. we meet another liberal.
This time it is the good Akhenaten of Egypt, who in turn rewrote the code of
Communication and all interchange of ideas in that faraway
day was most primitive. It was therefore with great
difficulty that ideas filtered from one land into another. But they did! For
over in
When we go back to the Jewish tradition we meet
Isaiah, Amos Micah, and at last, Jesus, each successively crying out against
narrowness and demanding that what really mattered was to "do justly and
love mercy," and to forget the detailed observance of the letter.
Thus far we have seen that all down thru so-called
ancient history two contending forces have vied with one another; always did
the liberalizing force prevail, but sometimes only at great cost. Naturally
these two attitudes of mind gave birth to two distinct professions, which again
became distinct attitudes of mind. The conservative attitude produced the
priest, while the liberal attitude produced the prophet. These two, the priest
and the prophet, represent the function that certain types of men assumed in
state craft, in religion, in social custom, in domestic relations and in all
the realms of human endeavor.
The priestly function is to keep things just as they
have always been. The priest concerns himself first and last with ceremonies,
ritual, belief, dogma, and refuses to digress one iota from the letter of the
law. He always tries to cut the baby to the pattern. Ever and always he wants
regularity, conformity and docile obedience to custom and tradition. Any
attempt at individual expression is frowned upon at once.
The prophet on the other hand is the direct opposite
of the priest. He is interested in searching and experimenting with the hope
that improvement in methods may be found, and that thru this the mind and
spirit of man may come to a larger expression of the powers within it. The
priest is concerned with the perpetuity of institutions, no matter what happens
to the individual; whereas the prophet on the other hand is concerned first and
last with human beings. He insists that institutions must be changed to assist
the emancipation of men, and then he proceeds to do that by an orderly
process.
Let us bear in mind that after the death of Jesus and
the birth of the Christian Church these two tendencies, the priestly and
prophetic, came into conflict, one with the other, and thus determined the kind
of Christianity that has come down to us. After all, it is nothing more than
the two contending forces of liberalism and conservatism which we traced from
early dawn down to Jesus, making itself felt in two
distinct functions.
With the death of Jesus, and the subsequent dispersion
of the Disciples, there appeared the priest who insisted upon conformity to
certain rites, rituals and ceremonies which had been practiced. Likewise, then
appeared also the prophet, who demanded that as the mind of man found new truth
then old beliefs and practices should be changed. So the first of these
prophets we meet is Polycarp, who was a Disciple of the Beloved John, the
Disciple of Jesus. He was succeeded by Irenaeus and Eusebius, each of who
demanded a wider charity in the application of the teachings of Jesus.
Then the contest waxed hot between Orgin, the prophet,
and Tertullian, the priest, with the latter winning the day. It was not however
until Arius appeared with his widening charity that we see him challenged by
the youthful Athanasius, who had convinced the Roman Emperor, Comstantine,
that the issue must be decided by a council. The work of this council resulted
in the banishment of Arius and the subsequent foisting of what has come to be
known as the Athanasian Creed upon the church. From that day forward the priest
or conservative was in the ascendancy, and the slow but certain doom of the
dark ages began to settle upon western civilization.
There happened then, as always has happened and always
will, that here and there the prophetic or liberal spirit could not be crushed.
For here and there, we find men and women who braved the fires of persecution,
and dared to follow the dictates of their minds. And so we find a youth by the
name of Succat, Who since has been called St. Patrick, going into what is now
Ireland and bringing a more liberal Christianity to these people. Here it was
that he grafted upon the Druid worship of these people a new human religion.
He in turn was followed by Thomas Aquinas in
We must not assume that only in the Christian
tradition were these prophetic souls alive; for over in India Nanak was busy
trying to bring the prophetic spirit to Buddhism, which like Christianity, had
degenerated into a priestly religion.
In a few centuries we find the brave Nicon busy in
Then came the period of the reformers whose names
stand out like beacon lights against a terrible darkness: Luther, Zwingly,
Calvin, John Knox--names that hush us to prayer!
But something else was happening, too! A springtime was dawning upon the world. The dark night was
now being fretted with a coming morn. The Renaissance had just begun to send
its first gleams upon the horizon, and the liberal prophetic spirit was in the
bud. Soon we find Sir Francis Bacon daring to ask questions which a few
centuries ago would have cost him his life. Thus, with the appearance of Bacon,
the so-called age of science began. What the story is from now on ought to be
familiar to most of us.
Suffice it to say that this growing liberal or
prophetic spirit made itself known in
As time went on, the priest and prophet appeared in
this new land, and the old round of struggling for freedom had to be carried on
again. And so we find the liberals founding colleges and all kinds of
societies that had as their objective the widening of justice and the
broadening of the humane spirit.
It was now that in matters of religion men of the
prophetic spirit began to demand that the old doctrines of the reformers, and
especially Calvin, were not in keeping with the growing knowledge of men. Hence
we find a new group of dissenters within the churches, making themselves felt. Out of them was born what has come to be
known as the
All that has been said of the liberal and prophetic
tendency in history constitutes the background of the
There is one fact we in
All this somewhat lengthy consideration of the background
of the Unitarian tradition was necessary in order to understand what being a
Unitarian is. No one can read the graphic story of history without realizing
that as Emerson said, "It is not merely the records of events, but the
story of human lives writ in letters of fire."
Every now and again someone asks,
why does the
Thus, briefly stated, being a Unitarian is to cherish
a progressive attitude of the mind and a reverent disposition of the heart. For
such who have this characteristic, the
If however, one wishes a more detailed statement of
"When is a person a Unitarian," we may say that when he is
intellectually honest. One of the saddest spectacles is to see a man who
confesses that he is a progressive-minded person, then to discover that he
refuses to identify himself with those movements that seek to promote a
liberal view of life. This is true no less in politics than in religion. When
we stop to consider the men and women in this city, as in every other, who are
intellectually dishonest, confessing one thing with their lips and then
supporting institutions which are the direct opposite, one wonders how long it
will be before this intellectual dishonesty becomes a moral dishonesty,
wherein they will confess one moral standard then practice another.
To be intellectually honest means that one values
truth more than tradition. It means also that one is open-minded to all truth
in every realm, and that one seeks the good in every field and in every
religion. It means that one values moral integrity more than social approbation
or social respectability. So long as one is willing to count the price of what
it will cost, rather than what is gained in self-respect; then of course one
gets exactly what one has paid--which is the price of one's own integrity.
A person is a Unitarian when he is morally daring. It
is not sufficient to know from an intellectual point of view that certain
things are wrong; one must do something about it. This can be done in two ways:
attack the evil single-handed; or identify oneself with a group that is attempting
to create a social conscience which in turn will demand the overthrow of this
evil. It is this moral daring that has characterized most Unitarians. The
history of Unitarianism in
A person is a Unitarian when he is sensitive to all
human values, and likewise sensitive to all human hurts. That is why Unitarians
have never bothered themselves about creeds and doctrines; they were, and still
are, interested in whatever hinders men from enjoying the abundant life.
Today, as in former days, the Unitarians are seeking to bring to men and women
a new standard of human values wherein injustice, inequality and inhumanity
shall be lessened, and all men, women, and children shall have an equal
opportunity to develop to their full capacity.
A person is a Unitarian when he is actively trying to
cast out fear. Fear is man's greatest handicap. People are afraid because they
do not understand what kind of a Universe they live in. They are afraid
because of the kind of God they have been taught from their youth. They are
afraid of new ideas because they imagine that the truth will prove to be
dangerous and take from them something precious. Therefore, to labor at the
task of trying to rid oneself of the fear of thinking, the fear of daring, the
fear of adventure and the fear of death, is to be a self-reliant, mature
person--in short it is to be a Unitarian!
Nothing has been said about believing in God, in
Jesus, in heaven and hell, and in immortality as conditions that make one a
Unitarian. There are all kinds of stages and degrees of Unitarians. They
differ just in proportion as people differ one from the other, and as flowers
differ from each other. There are some who believe much,
and some who believe little; but in the great essentials of what makes life
wholesome and worthwhile they are all agreed. They are united not in beliefs
but in action. Having an open mind and a reverent heart they have associated
themselves together in one common desire, namely to make life as wholesome
and as beautiful as it can be made on this earth. To that end they encourage
research, investigation, experimentation and co-operative action; being
assured that with intellectual honesty and moral daring the truth, even as the
good must at last prevail.
There is another aspect to this matter of being a Unitarian:
it is its glory! When one knows there is nothing to fear, then
one can meet any experience with a calm self-possession, assured that nothing
evil can happen to a good man in life or in death. One will then have courage
and enthusiasm to labor for the gradual enthronement of the better, being
convinced that the very stars fight for one in their courses. It will give one
a sense of patience, because one has come to see that the Eternal Spirit is
never in a hurry to fulfill His plans in which "a thousand years are but
as yesterday." But greatest of all is the boon that comes when one at last
closes one's eyes upon earthly scenes, with the assurance that all's well here
and hereafter for ever more! For a religion that teaches men how to die happy
and unafraid is one that helps men to live courageously, effectively, and
triumphantly!
"Call him not heretic whose words attest,
His faith in goodness by no creed confessed;
Whatever in love's name is truly done,
To free the bound and lift the fallen one,
It's done to Christ, Who so in deed and word,
Is not against Him labours for our Lord.
When He who, sad and weary, sought the sisters' door,
One saw the heavenly, one the human guest,
But who shall say which loved the Master best?"
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