I have studied different faith traditions as a Unitarian Universalist (UU) minister. I am able to negotiate a marriage ceremony, a memorial service, or counsel as a chaplain for people of other religions. I love being able to draw from all these traditions to give people the experience they need at that moment. Unitarian Universalists do not share a creed, and we honor other faiths as a path toward spiritual deepening. We are often called an interfaith religion, and I sometimes identify as an Interfaith minister (it’s how I define myself for this blog).
I have felt honored by the interfaith label and felt it was a part of my identity. Therefore, I was surprised when I checked out what interfaith actually meant in multiple dictionaries. Here is a representative definition: Involving persons of different religious faiths. (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). It’s true that I involve ‘persons from many different religious faiths’ when I produce a ceremony that allows them to participate together. In that way, I am an interfaith minister.
However, I also carry those faiths around in me. When you honor all faiths within your own being, it changes your relationship with them. I have always used interfaith to describe that feeling of multiple faith connection. But that is not what interfaith means. I think we need a new word for the common feeling of personal multiple-faith connection.
In a 2005 poll, CBS news asked Americans what they thought was most important for a religious person.
Forty-five percent of Americans said the most important part of religion is following the teachings and traditions of their faith as closely as they can. But 38 percent say the search for spirituality – no matter where that takes them – is more important than sticking to those traditions.
When asked if they ever mixed practices from more than one tradition, 36 percent said, “Yes.” Now, the poll I am quoting is an 18-year-old poll, and I would guess even more people would say yes to this question now.
Americans are split almost down the middle on so many things. Not too surprisingly, according to the poll, we have another classic conservative vs. liberal split here. Most of you reading this blog are probably liberal (am I right?), but let’s look with a little more depth at what the conservatives have to say.
Some conservatives would say that what we liberals are doing is just plain wrong. However, another gentler criticism is more serious. The faithful warn us that they are worried about us. Mixing practices will leave us in a spiritually shallow place. If you want to go deeper, they say, you have to stick to one religion.
I have heard this criticism before, and it makes me nervous. It doesn’t just come from conservative Christians, either. For example, the Buddhist teacher, the Venerable Kalu Rinpoche, would tell people that practicing two different religions was like trying to sew with a single needle with two points. In other words, there's no place for the thread that would join the cloth together. Kalu Rinpoche is not the only one who says things like this. Many respected religious leaders dismiss this approach.
The open theology of my UU faith has many gifts. It gives you the freedom to find your own way. Many new UUs feel a sense of homecoming and relief when they first start coming to UU churches. They feel they can be themselves. However, for some UUs, it eventually leaves them hesitating before taking the next step toward a deeper spirituality. How to take this ‘next step’ is a growing conversation within the UU tradition.
Recently I took a ‘next step’ and became a Buddhist and layered that faith on top of my Unitarian Universalist ministerial identity. It has transformed my spiritual life. Buddhism has given me a daily practice and a community to practice with. Right now, Buddhism is filling in the gaps where the open structure of Unitarian Universalism was leaving me wanting more.
But, sometimes, I notice I am sewing with a two-pointed needle. How do the two faiths work together? How can I honor both Buddhism and Unitarian Universalism?
Into this recent confusion, I was invited to volunteer at our Unitarian Universalist annual General Assembly — at the UU Buddhists Fellowship booth. (UUism has affinity groups for people who are strongly in another tradition. They have a group for Pagans, Christians, Jews, Humanists, and Buddhists).
I jumped at the chance. What an opportunity for an uneasy Unitarian Universalist minister wanting to fully integrate Buddhism and UUism. I enjoyed talking with all the folks who wandered up to the booth and just wanted to see what we were about. I was also hungry to meet ministers and higher practitioners who were grounded in both traditions. Often, the UU Buddhists were held to Unitarian Universalism by longstanding ties. They loved their UU communities. At the same time, many were priests or teachers in a Buddhist lineage.
They were deeply in both traditions.
Did I get answers to all my questions? No, I didn’t. But I was reassured to meet people who were able to integrate two faiths into their lives. Overthinking didn’t seem to have much to do with how well they were doing. The key was opening wholeheartedly toward both traditions.
Let me close this with more about Kalu Rinpoche. Apparently, while telling the story of the two-pointed needle, he was also telling Westerners that they could not only practice Buddhism but also take refuge vows--which is pretty much becoming a Buddhist--without giving up their prior faith. Some of his followers noticed this discrepancy and brought it to his attention, but he dismissed their concern. It could be done.
He seems to express exactly my opinion! Yes, you can, well maybe no, you can’t! Ah, heck, do what you want. You are going to do it anyway!
(I will be coming back to this topic in the future. I feel like I have just scratched the surface — comments welcome — always!)
Prayer can be sent anywhere don't you think. Higher power, the Universe. Sometimes I want to pray to my genetic material -- that it will express in a certain way. So glad to see you reading my posts Avis and getting something out of them.
Through the years, I have found the need for prayer. (I attended Presbyterian churches nearly all my life), but fell away from the Bible as written and found UU to be so much more comfortable for me. But, to whom do I pray? I have settled on a 'higher power."