Three Preachers

The Rev.Thomas Starr King who was raised and trained as a Universalist, yet served a Unitarian congreation was asked to explain the difference between the Unitarians and the Universalists.  Starr King replied that the Universalists believed that God was too good to damn man, and the Unitarians believed they were too damn good to be damned.  King was engaged in caricature, and caricature does not capture the depth and thoughtfulness of these two ways of understanding God's saving relationship to us.  The Unitarian who held that each of us had a divine spark that needed to be nourished and cherished was saying that God created good humans, and it was a responsibility to realize that potential.  Still all caricatures, if they are successful capture some essential characteristics of their subject.

I am no Starr King, but let me advance this tale.

Three preachers, a Calvinist, a Universalist and a Unitarian went to a meeting on some important community issue on night., but the meeting broke out into finger pointing and harranges.  The Calvinist left muttering about the sin of humanity.  The Universalist left thinking that these folks acted lovelessly. The Unitarian left indignant about the show of bad manners.

Now, looking at this parody we might say, ah the Universalists and Unitarians exhibit their weak understanding of sin and a just plain bad theology. But wait!  On Sunday, the Calvinist preached about how the finger pointing and harranging indicated that we as sinners could do nothing about our sinful condition, and we must accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and the grace that would lead to our salvation, God willing.  The Universalist preached that God's Love was there for all of us, and accepting God's love in our lifetime would nourish our souls and help us to love our nieghbor, even in the face of the finger pointing and harranging.  The Unitarian preached that God had given each of us the divine potential to be like our elder brother Jesus, and that taking up his way would help us become less likely to finger point and harrange,and in the spirit  that was in Jesus we could learn to love our nieghbor.

If I heard these three preachers, caricatures that they be, I wouldn't go back to hear the Calvinist again. 

It is true what they say, our theology is optimistic, and weak on sin.  It is good to know the weaknesses of our tradition, but I think God loves us despite our many pretensions, smiles at our weak theology, and has called us to witness the wisdom of Universalism and Unitarianism  with conviction.