In Memory: Knoxville Unitarian-Universalist Church shooting

[tcpip]

Two weeks ago a gunman walked into a Unitarian-Universalist church in Tennessee during the performance of a children's play. With an shotgun and a belief that all liberals should be killed, he fired rounds into the congregation, killing two, before being wrestled to the ground. The Unitarian-Universalist community on livejournal is using this incident to explain, from our own individual and subjective opinions, who we are. The following is my personal attempt to explain the religion I adhere to.

Unitarian-Universalism is a living tradition which incorporates a heretical rationalism and moral universalism and as a result, a democratic and congregationalist approach to the management of our assets. Our historical origins are Judeo-Christian but our contemporary expression is far more diverse, recognising important contributions from all perspectives (including atheists). I have in the past described my own perspective as "an empirical atheist, a normative agnostic and an aesthetic pagan". But of course, that's not the only perspective and nor would any UU want it to be. The search and discovery of a sense of wonder at nature, personal reflection and the establishment of solidarity with others is considered far more important than the espousal of doctrinal loyalty to a supposedly infallible creed.

Historically, there is much that we can be proud of. The earliest known guarantee of religious freedom in Christian Europe is a direct result of the Unitarians. The U.S. Declaration of Independence, expressing equality and the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, is a document both inspired and co-authored by unitarians along with the dedication to the separation of Church and State. During the horrors of Nazi persecution, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee was formed in 1940 to directly aid those fleeing that regime. The organisation continues to this day and is active in carrying out relief work in worn-torn Dafur.

The Melbourne Unitarian Church was established in 1852, chaired by Victoria's first chief justice Sir William a'Beckett. In 1873 the congregation elected Martha Turner to ministership, being the first woman in what was then the British Empire to achieve such as position. She joins fellow Unitarian and suffragist Catherine Spence as one of the great Australia women of her generation. The Melbourne Church was also famous for its heavy involvement in the peace movement during the Vietnam war.

It is not as if expressing the opinions of unitarian rationalism and moral univeraslism haven't resulted in violence in the past, from 1533 Michael Servetus was burned at the stake on the advice of Calvin for his heresy to 1965 when Unitarian minister and civil rights advocate Rev. James Reeb was beaten to death by racial segregationists.

The words of Peter Gabriel's "Biko" seem most appropriate here to remember those at Tennessee.


You can blow out a candle
But you can't blow out a fire
Once the flames begin to catch
The wind will blow it higher

Comments

[mundens.livejournal.com]

A Wellington couple who are friends of mine (and of several other people on your flist) were involved in the Knoxville shooting. You may be interested to read bekitty's post on the subject. Thanks for the thoughts!

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Thank you for that. I am incredibly pleased that you provided that link.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

You see, this is why no one has ever heard of your church. Your message is to airy-fairy.

You need to boil it down ala:
Christianity - believe or go to hell.
Scientology - Praise Xenu! (or Cleanse yourself).
Islam - Allah Ackbar! (Trans: Admiral Ackbar says it's a trap)

Absolutely no one is going be be sold by an idea presented that an be summed up as "incorporat(ing) a heretical rationalism and moral universalism and as a result, a democratic and congregationalist approach to the management of our assets.".

More seriously, I hadn't heard about the shooting, but then the Olympics is on and it's hard to hear any signal above that noise.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

It has been mentioned that we're have a "pessimistic theology". Others offer eternal salvation through obedience. We offer no more certainty that what is available to any reasoning person; a clear and resounding "I don't know".

It's not much is it?

That said, people do hear of us and find us. People like Kurt Vonnegut Jnr, Ray Bradbury, Rod Serling, ee cummings...

[djayha.livejournal.com]

I hate that events such as the shooting at the Knoxville church are moments which help UUs stand back and define ourselves. Yet at the same time I recognize that they are terrible reminders of the values we stand for and the price which good people sometimes pay for upholding those values.

I thought after the shootings attendance at church among my congregation would drop somewhat, but I was surprised and pleased that as many, if not more, people attended the following Sunday.

BTW, if you're wondering how I came to wander over here, you can blame Forwrathandruin. ;)

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'll blame him for plenty of things :)

What I find interesting is that UUs would almost intuitively understand that man's frustration and violence, even if it was misdirected against those who were mostly likely to help him and others in his situation. Not one post have I found from UUs that condemn the man for his actions (albeit there has been one parody post which I think many people have misunderstood).

[djayha.livejournal.com]

We have a tendency to condemn a man's actions, without actually condemning the man. How can we? A person, and that person's actions, are not one and the same. I know there are those who believe that a person is largely a composite of their actions and thus his or her worth as a human being can be judged by those actions, but... well... I just don't buy into that, and I suspect many other UUs don't either. ;)

[ironed_orchid]

Thanks for posting this.

I didn't realise the Unitarian Church went back so far. I've only come across references in relation to 19th C humanists looking for alternatives to unquestioning belief in the bible after Lyell and Darwin, so I guess I assumed Unitarianism started about then as well.

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

To be fair, there's a definite distinction to be made between this and this; it's always a little iffy how far one qualifies people as one's spiritual precursors.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Particularly difficult when one is comparing specific church membership to adherence to a set of ideas.

Thomas Jefferson, for example, was never a member of a U or U church (he said that none were nearby) yet also said that it was his dearest wish that every American become one.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

My first discovery of the UUs was through reading Habermas! (Beacon Press being the prime English-language publishers of his works)

As zenicurean there is a distinction between contemporary UUs, rationalist Unitarian/Universalists and the biblical version thereof. Certainly one could go back to Origen for the universalists and Arius for the Unitarians in the Christian tradition.

[layniapetrovna.livejournal.com]

But (with all due respect to your spiritual research because I used to be an atheist fascinated by Baha'ism and Theravadin Buddhism), I am not sure I understand what tolerant and agnostic UU would add to our modern "Secular Humanism".

Maybe the functional social role of belonging to a Community?

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

UUs contributed enormously to secular humanism in the twentieth century and this is ongoing. In a survey conducted in 2001, 54% of UUs surveyed described their beliefs as "humanist". But of course, we're not just secular humanists. We're also secular christians, secular pagans and so forth.

[jonathankorman.livejournal.com]

an empirical atheist, a normative agnostic and an aesthetic pagan

Ah. A succinct description of a complex perspective, not far from my own frame of mind, and a handsome turn of phrase.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the kind words. I was pretty happy with it when I penned them. It's surprising how simple expressions can become when one things of pragmatic boundaries.

[mr-figgy.livejournal.com]

People sometimes think it's bold to have these steadfast convictions on one side or another, to have this fanatical view, and I hear the occasional complaint that agnostics (for another example) just can't make a choice. I've been attacked (verbally) on that count before.

I think it's incredibly bold to admit that you don't know. I also think it's a clear and reasonable choice if it's true.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I think it's incredibly bold to admit that you don't know.

I worry about a society which seems to promote knowledge as a sort of competition where if you don't know something it considered a sort of weakness. I believe it leads to an unhealthy aggressiveness in discussions, and in particular politics, and is ultimately counterproductive. After all, the purpose of learning is to acquire knowledge and one can only acquire it with the admission that their knowledge is incomplete. Once there is an disposition that even partial ignorance is 'bad' then people stop learning.

And that's beside the even more general theological question of reaching the ability to admit that there are some things that perhaps cannot be known by our species.

[nvcarnie.livejournal.com]

Beautiful post. I've been struggling in my mind to make this all make sense in my head since it happened. So glad to have been participating as a UU again (after the slight break earlier this year). The sense of community I've felt here has been beautiful for me.

Thanks for sharing,

Jessi

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

It does make unfortunate sense; a person of ingrained prejudices who struck out pathologically with a particular trigger event (the cutting of his minimal welfare benefits)

There's been a great ad placed in the NYT.

http://www.uua.org/news/newssubmissions/117829.shtml

[bibsy.livejournal.com]

That's awful. :(

[iosef.livejournal.com]

Another question: why wasn't this reported in the press. I neither saw nor heard of this before.

Violence against those who accept others so readily is one of the greatest of crimes.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Well, it was "only" two people killed so it is unlikely to make much news internationally. There were two people shot dead at Sydenham yesterday; I don't think that will make it to the U.S. news.

[iosef.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, school and church shootings usually make the news, no matter the toll. Random or other crime related, and offences against family planning don't.

[eclexia.livejournal.com]

It made some news in Nashville, a couple small segments in local news, and a larger discussion in the GLBT community.

[bdsmbarbie.livejournal.com]

You know, I live in Knoxville and had always considered going to that church, but its too far of a drive for me right now (since I'm on the west end) But I remember waking up to the news, and the outpouring of support from the community here is amazing. Its still hard to drive by and see the flowers and think about what happened.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I think the coming weeks would be a good time to visit, even if was not for a service. They'd be really appreciative of well-meaning strangers visiting.

Very pleased to hear about the response of the community. I worry slightly that in situations like this a handful of individuals will say "Good, they had it coming" etc. So far I have only seen this as a parody.