So, dear Unitarian Universalists: today is Palm Sunday and Passover starts tomorrow. You’re probably busy, so I’ll keep this brief.
Do we have a gospel? Not a bunch of gospels, or pieces that can be grouped into a gospel, but a story that makes it possible for a group of disparate persons into a particular people? I don’t think we do. I think we have a context for ministry, where we bring gospels, but I don’t think that’ll be sufficient for long-term survival. And so the people will perish.
We may be too big to share a gospel (from this point) and too small to re-organize around multiple centers.
An unhappy thought, but not having the though won’t save us. The comments are open.
The gospel, or “good news” of UUism is contained in the First Principle, in my opinion. It’s a simple, but radical, concept that every human being has inherent worth and is therefore deserving of dignity and respect. Even if we identify as humanist UUs, Christian UUs, Buddhist UUs, Hindu UUs, pagan UUs, or any mixture of these and a multitude of other traditions and beliefs, we all hold true the “good news” that every individual is imoprtant and worthy of respect and love.
But we lack good news in the form of a coherent story that others can see themselves as part of. I’ve puzzled over this for years. The “First Principle” may be good, but is it good news where news is more like story and less like a fact on a list? There is a genius to sacred story, and its capacity to conduct meaning making in the lives of diverse groups of people. It feels thin to me to have good facts, that can not easily be assembled into a shared narrative for a diverse population of people.
There is work to do here.