Herban Sprawl

We are a small denomination, so when Sunday’s shooting occurred, word spread throughout our community of religious liberals. Some may arch an eyebrow over the fact that the Rev. William Sinkford, the president of our denomination, showed up PDQ to offer solace and comfort. Perhaps he understood that the minister of our church in Knoxville needed to be ministered to just as much as the congregation he serves. Whatever his reasons, he got there quickly because we are a small denomination and this is what happens when everyone knows everyone else.

It amazes some that we bandy about the first names of the leaders as though we are bosom buddies, but the truth is, we do form relationships with them. Our immediate past president, the Rev. Dr. John Buerhens visited SUUSI several years in succession, as he got to know congregants from our neck of the woods. We had great dinnertime and walking-to-dinner conversations with him about our own church. Each year he remembered our names and picked up the news as though we’d last seen each other a few weeks ago.

The Rev. Liz McMaster once observed, “We don’t name-drop; we really do know everyone!” And it’s true. Her mentor was the president of the denomination years ago. When I first attended the Roanoke church, the Rev. Dr. Timothy Ashton introduced himself and asked my name. When I told him, he declared, “Oh! You’re Neil Gerdes’ friend!” (The Rev. Dr. Neil Gerdes is a buddy of mine from my time at University of Chicago.)

Each year at SUUSI, we are treated to worship services led by ministers and lay-people whose provenance dots the map like a case of the chicken pox. We get to know them as they lead workshops, or as they hang out at meals. In some cases, such as that of the Rev. Michael Tino of New York, SUUSI serves as the fertile womb for hatching the call to the ministry. Because there are usually about a thousand of us at SUUSI, we get to know a lot of people. Hence, when having lunch in the courtyard at the Valentine Museum in Richmond several years ago, it wasn’t unusual to see someone I knew, prompting my then-young nephew to exclaim, “She knows people here, too?!” Yeah, I guess I do, and well enough that if he’d like to use Unity Temple for his upcoming wedding, I know who to call.

When I learned the news about the Knoxville church, I wept. We still don’t know the names of those who were injured, but it wouldn’t be odd if we knew them from a workshop at SUUSI, or from our annual meeting of congregations, General Assembly.

When any church is attacked, it is pause for thought. Other denominations who number their members in the big digits feel a great deal of sorrow, as do those of us who read about it in the paper. But when it hits your own religious community –and especially one as small as ours – it’s particularly frightful. We religious liberals squabble among ourselves in a very lively fashion, but when it comes to defending rights, our denomination has a rich history.

Where would our country be without John Adams, Thomas Jefferson or Paul Revere? How about P.T. Barnum, Ray Bradbury, e.e. cummings, Buckminster Fuller or Fannie Farmer? Don’t forget Paul Newman, Pete Seeger, N.C. Wyeth, or Christopher Reeve. Oh, yikes, we can’t leave out the Peabody sisters, Julia Ward Howe, Maria Mitchell, Beatrix Potter or Jane Addams. A list without Clarence Darrow, John Marshall and Albert Schweitzer is no list at all, and it’s unthinkable to forget Josiah Wedgwood or Alexander Graham Bell. See? These were all good people, so we hang onto this heritage and we try to live up to the example they set for us. We don’t need to worry about sin or hell. Trying to live a life that would make Luther Burbank or John Dewey proud is hard enough!

When we lose a fellow religious seeker to a violent crime, as happened on Sunday or a few years back at a Florida abortion clinic, all UUs feel violated and vulnerable. When we recall the life of Michael Servetus, perhaps that, too, is one of our traditions. It won’t stop us, though. Religious liberals have the uncanny ability to rise from the ashes and keep making history.