Monday, May 3, 2010

Beauty, Transcendence, and Mercy Ahead of the Curve

It doesn’t take long working as a hospital chaplain in a large urban hospital to see a great deal of mortality. Where I worked, we averaged eight deaths every twenty-four hours. Amid the gunshot victims, car accident victims, heart attacks and strokes, not to mention the slower deaths by cancer and what-have-you, the persistent question I heard from the dying and the bereaved was, “Why?”

Why is God doing this?

There were also of course the narrow escapes often called miracles.

I am a Unitarian Universalist minister. I came to that profession late in life, after being a Unitarian Universalist layperson for many years. I take seriously the commitment in my religious tradition to honor all religious traditions. It was through that lens that I comforted the dying and the grieving. Muslim, Buddhists, Hindus, Christians of every stripe; the atheist and the true believer. Young, old, and in-between.

Fact is, a pattern did emerge: all religions fail and all succeed in those difficult times. The difference is the individual. Some people handle their deaths calmly; others do not. Some people handle the deaths of loved ones calmly; others do not. The flavor of religion or irreligion matters not at all; it is the depth of commitment to one’s beliefs that matters.
To me, this is an important religious insight: it is the depth of commitment to one’s beliefs that matters.

The conscience must have integrity.

Being part of a creedless faith tradition, Unitarian Universalists have been a bit ahead of the curve in grappling with questions that people of all traditions will sooner or later have to struggle with:

What if no particular religious tradition has a monopoly, or perhaps even a claim, on Truth?

What do we do when we no longer find meaning in the religion we grew up in?

What if sacred scriptures are not divinely inspired, but are, rather, fallibly human?

What if there is no God, or at least a god of the type we wish there to be?

What is the meaning and purpose of human life?

Are we accountable to others and to the world?

A common answer to questions of this sort is to give up—to reject all religions and seek meaning elsewhere. This is one answer.

Another answer is to believe harder, rejecting all evidence contrary to our chosen belief system.

Perhaps neither of these, however, is the best course. As with other amputations, these reactions often lead to feelings of lack, not resolution or wholeness. If we choose materialist scientism, we cut away the ancient voices that resonate in us. If we choose unquestioning faith we must cut off. . .well. . . all the questions.

My chosen path is a middle way, between questioning rejection and unquestioning faith. I have learned to take mystery seriously.

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