Unitarian Universalist Church at Washington Crossing

The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. upheld and popularized the vision of the Beloved Community during the stormy years of the Civil Rights Movement. Writing about Doctor King’s address at the 1963 March on Washington, James Baldwin said, “That day, for a moment, it almost seemed that we stood on a height, and could see our inheritance; perhaps we could make the kingdom real, perhaps the Beloved Community would not forever remain that dream one dreamed in agony!”

Doctor King believed the Beloved Community was achievable, not only for a small group or for even a religious organization. He believed that, if only enough people were trained and committed to the spirit of love and justice and to the nonviolent life he professed and lived, it could become a reality in the world.

The Beloved Community concept existed in the minds and lives of numerous religious social activists long before Martin Luther King, Jr. popularized it by how he lived and in the words he so elegantly spoke. In the very early years of the 1900’s, “The Beloved Community” was a term used by philosopher-theologian Josiah Royce. Royce helped form the Fellowship of Reconciliation. The F.O.R., as it is called, was an organization that began working for peace in 1914 when a religious conference was forced to break up and disband because of World War I.

John Haynes Holmes, a Unitarian minister, was one of the earliest American leaders of the F.O.R. My friend, Richard Diets, was a long time executive director of the F.O.R. He is now a fellow board member of the Kirkridge Retreat center. Richard wrote that Reverend Holmes said that most people generally believe war is wrong, but nonetheless they go on justifying each particular war placing the claims of the nation state below that of religious faith. Holmes wrote, “No one is wise enough, no nation is important enough; no human interest is precious enough, to justify the wholesale destruction and murder which constitute the science of war.” The Unitarian congregation in Manhattan, New York, which Reverend Holmes served, changed its name to Community Church because of the importance he placed on the Beloved Community.

An interesting personal connection is that thirty years later my wife Alison’s father was a member of and worked for the F.O.R. prior to his being sentenced to five years in prison because he refused to go into the military during World War II. He then refused alternative service based on his belief that he would be aiding the war effort. They also sentenced fellow F.O.R. staff person, Quaker and friend of my father-in-law Bayard Rustin to prison.

In the 1950’s Rustin became an important connection between the F.O.R., the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and King’s adoption of nonviolence as his signature principle. The F.O.R. became King’s active supporter in the earliest years of the Civil Rights Movement. The fascinating connection among these inspiring and courageous leaders always strikes me. (Gary Herstein, The Roycean Roots of the Beloved Community, The Pluralist – Vol. 4, # 2, Summer 2009, pp. 91-107)

When preaching about the Beloved Community, the Reverend Tom Owen-Towle, a retired Unitarian Universalist colleague, said, “I’ve often thought when folks come to worship on Sunday, we should hand out orders of service with a smile, to be sure, but also dispense hard-hats and life-preservers, because our liberal religion isn’t risk-free, but a dangerous zone, where we’re going to be challenged to halt bad habits and make healthy choices. Come as you are, yes, but… we’re encouraged to grow toward who we might best become!”

Having a hard-hat could have been helpful this past Thursday. I was at the Trenton State House bringing a message to our legislators about the importance of granting full marriage equality to gays and lesbians. One senator was upset because so many of us had come to an open committee meeting that was not about same sex marriage. We came specifically because the senate had not yet agreed to bring the issue of marriage equity to a vote. We were there to let the senators know clearly that we wanted such a bill voted on. We were there to urge senate members to consider introducing a marriage equity bill. We wanted the senators to see and hear us.

The senator who was upset complained loudly that we were taking up too much space. He told us that we were getting in the way and did not belong there because no bill had yet been submitted for marriage equity. Then, a news photographer walked into the senate conference room. He was not part of our group, but he was very familiar with the senate and the various senators. On his way into the room, he abruptly turned back around, pointed at the senator and said, “Stop being such a bully, they have every right to be here.” Then he added, “I have always wanted to tell you to your face that you are a bully, and that’s what I’m doing right now. You’re a bully, stop it.”

Living by your principles is not risk-free. If you really live your principles, you may put yourself in a danger zone. That is what we are called to do. The poet Adrienne Rich was feeling a deep and abiding call to live her principles when she wrote:

My heart is moved by all I cannot save:
So much has been destroyed
I have to cast my lot with those
Who age after age, perversely,
With no extraordinary power
Reconstitute the world.

My question to you; is your heart moved by all you cannot save? Are you ready to cast your lot with those “who age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power reconstitute the world?”

A great Unitarian minister and professor, James Luther Adams, reveled a great deal about his theology when he said, “By their groups ye shall know them.” With what groups do you hang around? Adams, born in 1901, was a strong believer in the importance of belonging to groups and a community. He taught and wrote a great deal about the importance of voluntary associations. He stressed the importance of our “free church tradition” as being a group of believers who of their own choice join together in the spirit of love. He believed that our community with its value of inclusiveness and dissent was governed not by creed or doctrine but by the importance of freedom of dissent within the community, thus the need to remain non-doctrinal. Adams often warned, “People can die from hardening of the categories.”

Our Beloved Community is built on the shoulders of all those who are not afraid of inclusiveness or dissent but who are willing to be governed by the spirit of the love that individual members have for one another and by an overarching commitment to build a society in the spirit of love and justice.

We are called to build our liberal religious community right here into a stronger, more vibrant and powerful force. Why the need to be powerful? Because the spirit of love needs to expand to include more and more people here in our area, here in our country, but also throughout the entire world.

The Beloved Community of which we are one part is much larger than any one ethnic group, one race or one color. The Beloved Community is much larger than any single political party, economic class, city, state or nation. The Beloved Community is much larger than any one church or one religion. We must widen our vision of the Beloved Community so that our strength can be renewed.

Thus, our Beloved Community is emboldened by love and empowered by a rage against injustice. Our Beloved Community can aid your personal transformation and the transformation of our society. Our Beloved Community is a dream of how life might one day be with a firm grasp of the reality of the continued oppression that exists around us. Our Beloved Community is our deepest hope for the human family, while at the same time we are aware that we are being called today to help end oppression.

We are called to join with others to help transform our small individual communities by living according to the spirit of love and justice. We are called to join in with others to help transform our society to one based on justice, equality and compassion. Our Beloved Community is present here and now, but it is also a vision of what is yet to become.

We definitely need one another and others need us. Therefore, I invite you to come to our Beloved Community as you are, but know, we will challenge you to be open to growing and expanding to exemplify the core principles of our Beloved Community; the inclusive spirit of love and justice.