What’s a Cult Wednesday returns! We rather neglected any introduction to the idea behind this series of posts in our original, so we’ll try to explain our vision for them and then, this week’s installment: Unitarian Universalism!
How do I get to Heaven? Does everyone go to heaven? What is the nature of God? Where should I look for guidance and revelation on this life? These are central questions to any set of theological and philosophical beliefs for dealing with life, but they are especially important when evaluating whether a position or group is orthodox in their beliefs. For a brief explanation of orthodoxy see this post. A quick answer is that orthodox Christianity agrees with the Nicene and Apostles creeds. A cult is any form of religion which takes from Christianity but does not follow scriptural doctrine as explained in these creeds and the Bible. What’s a Cult Wednesday will hopefully help you to evaluate whether a group is a cultish or orthodox. Hopefully, it will equip believers to discern between truth and falsehood as well as searching scripture to know the Truth. (Gal 1:6-10, Acts 17:11)
Before we critique this view, we wish to express our humble appreciation for such a loving worldview - one in which each person ends up in paradise. Although we’ll argue true love must coincide with justice, the idea of people being punished is sad and heart-wrenching. In no way do we aim to put-down or belittle anyone holding these views - we merely intend to love well and 1 Corinthians 13 tells us love does not rejoice with wrongdoing, but rather with truth. The following is taken from Unitarian Universalist Association website here.
There are seven principles which Unitarian Universalist congregations affirm and promote:
1. The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
2. Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
3. Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
4. A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
5. The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
6. The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
7. Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.
Unitarian Universalism (UU) draws from many sources:
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;- Words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love;
- Wisdom from the world's religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life;
- Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves;
- Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit;
- Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.
Our goal in discussing ‘cults’ is twofold: 1) Show disparities with orthodox Christianity. 2)Show inconsistencies logically.
I. Universalism and Christianity:
The theological belief of universalism is distinct from the denomination or cult of Unitarian Universalism (UU). The easiest way to examine universalism (or just the simple claim “all people go to Heaven”) with respect to Christianity is to check scripture directly. In Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount, he claims:
The theological belief of universalism is distinct from the denomination or cult of Unitarian Universalism (UU). The easiest way to examine universalism (or just the simple claim “all people go to Heaven”) with respect to Christianity is to check scripture directly. In Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount, he claims:
Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. (Matthew 7:13-14)
The key to this teaching is “leads to life,” a common New Testament euphemism for salvation. It isn’t the teachings of Jesus that gives salvation, but His life. This is clear in the exclusivity of Jesus claim in the Gospel of John 14:6 “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; nobody comes to the Father except through me.” These two passages alone give us very good reason to believe that Jesus taught Christian Exclusivism, or the idea that only disciples of Jesus Christ will be saved. (note: this does not [necessarily] cover everything completely - a post for another day, email with questions).
II. Unitarian Universalism:
Beside the 7 tenets above, their presuppositions include:
- There exists an All-Powerful God (created the Universe)
- There exists an All-Powerful God (created the Universe)
- There exists an All-Loving God (hence salvation for all)
- There exists an All-Just God (tenets 2 and 6)
Can the view “everyone gets to heaven” be logically viable based on these presuppositions?
Here is something about how their theology begins to go wrong. What is “evil”? Is the claim, “only believers in x get into Heaven” evil? If it is, then why should they go to Heaven, and there would certainly be a contradiction between the view of UU’s and the other religion. If it isn’t, then why believe anything, including UU? Why be moral at all?
The whole concept of “justice” is what irrefutably falls in this worldview.
1. If everyone is saved, apart from action, why not do whatever you want (kill, steal, etc)? Is there ANY justice from God in this view? No. It would be impossible for God to be All-Just if wrongdoing was left unpunished.
2. What is “right” or “wrong”? If humanist teachings combine with, say, Christianity, there are serious contradictions. The greatest commandment to Christians is “love God with all your heart, all your mind, all your strength, and all your soul.” This would certainly be violated by any non-Christian view. Similarly, every conflicting nuance between religions with respect to matters moral would render something uncertain - good or bad. This LITERALLY undermines each tenet founding their belief system. For example, what is “dignity” without an objective moral stanard? (1) What is a “just human relation” (2)? Do I kill the dissenters, or ignore them? It wouldn’t matter. What IS justice? It’d be meaningless. Do people of opinions contrary to the moral rules voted on in UU have to change? It wouldn’t seem so - the ends are the same.
In other words, UU logically stops at a morally relative world, where distinguishing between murder and charity is a matter of imperfect views’ votes. There cannot be both “justice” and “all aren’t punished.” It’s simply definitionally contradictory.
Here is something about how their theology begins to go wrong. What is “evil”? Is the claim, “only believers in x get into Heaven” evil? If it is, then why should they go to Heaven, and there would certainly be a contradiction between the view of UU’s and the other religion. If it isn’t, then why believe anything, including UU? Why be moral at all?
The whole concept of “justice” is what irrefutably falls in this worldview.
1. If everyone is saved, apart from action, why not do whatever you want (kill, steal, etc)? Is there ANY justice from God in this view? No. It would be impossible for God to be All-Just if wrongdoing was left unpunished.
2. What is “right” or “wrong”? If humanist teachings combine with, say, Christianity, there are serious contradictions. The greatest commandment to Christians is “love God with all your heart, all your mind, all your strength, and all your soul.” This would certainly be violated by any non-Christian view. Similarly, every conflicting nuance between religions with respect to matters moral would render something uncertain - good or bad. This LITERALLY undermines each tenet founding their belief system. For example, what is “dignity” without an objective moral stanard? (1) What is a “just human relation” (2)? Do I kill the dissenters, or ignore them? It wouldn’t matter. What IS justice? It’d be meaningless. Do people of opinions contrary to the moral rules voted on in UU have to change? It wouldn’t seem so - the ends are the same.
In other words, UU logically stops at a morally relative world, where distinguishing between murder and charity is a matter of imperfect views’ votes. There cannot be both “justice” and “all aren’t punished.” It’s simply definitionally contradictory.
In the Truth,
Athanasius
Excelsior
P.S. Sorry this post wasn’t actually posted on Wednesday. We wanted to make sure to include everything. :) Here’s an incredible gif as an apology:
No comments:
Post a Comment