“Aweism is the one true religion. All the other native and historical religions merely build upon this primal awe that bows before everything.”
More and more people in the U.S. are switching or leaving their childhood faiths and institutions. (According to the latest Pew survey, more than 35% of Americans have switched since childhood. In Boston, 47% identify as Christian, 12% as other religions, and 40% as religiously unaffiliated!) Some of those unaffiliated folks are still seeking to feed the spiritual or soulful side of their lives. Most of them don’t know about us or “get” what we’re all about. So I’ve decided to start lobbying for a nickname Unitarian Universalism, namely “aweism.”
The Franciscan priest Richard Rohr coined the term but I think it’s a perfect fit for what we’re about. No matter what your theology or lack thereof, we UUs draw from “direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life.” That’s the first “source” of inspiration listed in the 1984 statement of Sources and Ethical Principles of our faith.
This past week, my UU ministers’ study group discussed a book by Dacher Keltner called “Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Change Your Life”. We shared photos of places where we’ve felt awe, listened to a playlist of “awe-inducing” music, talked about various routes to awe and its role in our religion and our congregations. Some of us are lucky enough to meet in buildings that inspire awe; others have absolutely no awesome visuals whatsoever. (One colleague’s building is like a “big shed”. Feeling lucky now?)
Regardless of the container it’s practiced in, I still think that “aweism” would be a good nickname that conveys much more than just “UU”. What’s your opinion?
Yours, often in awe,
Rev. Lee
P.S. Some of you were asking me about some of the numbers I shared in the sermon last week in my story about the De-Escalation Training. We learned that historians have determined that when nations head toward autocracy, about half of them can make a U-turn back to democracy IF (and only if) there is a widespread, visible, sustained, non-violent civic uprising. (Without that, only 7½% make that U-turn.) For success, you need 3 ½ percent of the population to be visibly, consistently, actively engaged, which is about 4 times as many people who showed up on April 5th across the country. In a nation like ours, that would be about 12 million people. If that consistent civic resistance is maintained, it takes an average of 10 years to turn back to democracy. The good news: it can take as little as 2 years… so showing up matters. See you at the Meeting House- for one thing or another!