When I was growing up there simply wasn’t any wiggle room in the plan for salvation. No plan B, no exemptions for goodness or kindness offered, no allowances made concerning your family of origin or just where on the planet you happened to be born. It was a black and white faith, and there were definitely winners and losers. There was also a great deal of anxiety, conformity, and judgment.
For me, this was illogical. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Jesus. I loved all the stories in the Bible concerning his teachings and miracles. I read the Beatitudes over and over and pondered his parables. And that was my problem. I couldn’t find Christ’s love in the damnation of so many of God’s children, for if God truly made all these diverse people, why did he decide to play favorites? I believed that God was above this cruelty. I experimented with many different expressions of Christianity, trying to find one to alleviat these worrying thoughts. Discouraged, I wandered into the Unitarian Universalist faith, and something quite amazing happened. I felt the familiarity of God’s love hiding here among the open hearted willing to worship beside others of different spiritual faiths or secular beliefs.
Embracing pluralism means we finally understand that we cannot know everything. We are not infallible beings and neither are our beliefs. We can turn away from the definitions of damnation and salvation that separate us from one another. Instead we are free to practice a pluralistic faith rooted in our individual commitment to the greatest love we can each imagine, the love that abides within and between us.
~Lisa Kiel
Love this reflection, Lisa. Thank you for sharing. I always so enjoy your writing
Thank you Lorena.
This! The whole reason a slowly drifted from Christian Church attendance was the inflexibility. I often said only half joking, “There’s a lot of good stuff in the bible.” I just couldn’t get over the preaching of damnation for all those who didn’t follow Christ, no matter how kind a life they lived.
I’ve yet to attend a UUC church as there’s not one close to me, geographically. But these words of wisdom sometimes make me realize there are others who share my view of pluralism.
Cheers!
What a beautiful story of faith expanding to encompass more and more! I felt the same frustration and puzzlement over that limitation on God’s love implied by the idea of “salvation for some but not for others”–though, to be fair, in the Methodist congregations of my childhood, there was a lot more talk about how we were to live in the world than about would happen to us after we died. I love how you capture the liberation in our faith, Lisa, and the humility! This part is delicious to me:
“Embracing pluralism means we finally understand that we cannot know everything. We are not infallible beings and neither are our beliefs. We can turn away from the definitions of damnation and salvation that separate us from one another.”
Thank you!
I appreciate your honest post.. This was my childhood also. I am so glad you shared this now as it really resonates with me and has inspired me for my service on June 2nd. Thanks!
Thank you Lisa. My sentiments on salvation and faith exactly.
Lisa,
You arrived at the same conclusions I did after abandoning Christianity’s narrow scope of the world. I was so happy to find UUism, and I am so happy you made your way to it, too!!