When I first became enamoured with Unitarian Universalism. part of its charm was two ministers who were friends. Alan Deale in Portland and Peter Raible in Seattle. Both were PK's -- preacher's kids -- but nothing like the corrupt and debased children of Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell. Evangelical rabble-rousers are not connected to congregations, a body of agreeing people who support and guide their minister, certifying his or her value. These UU leaders had firsthand knowledge of congregations. The two PK's grew up in congregations, which some people say is like growing up in a small town, and knew both their dark and protective sides.
They had little use for the passionate emotions of a Big Daddy in the sky, having eaten breakfast with him for their entire childhood. In 1975 they had discovered Organizational Design and incorporated it into a Leadership School. It was congregation-based, which is a bit of a necessity in a church based on congregational polity and no dogma. (This means that their system of organizing is self-contained, not beholden to a larger denomination, but neither does it require a certain set of beliefs.) In time any effective minister can persuade most of the people to think his or her way, but the power remains in the pew.
Unless the minister were "enthusiastic," that is, inspired by his or her own transcendent mysterious-seeming direct contact with . . . "something". Those who can feel it say it is electrifying, totally different from ordinary life, powerfully convincing. Yet scientists say they can make people feel this exciting state with a bit of magnetic stimulation to certain parts of the brain. (In the 20th century there was a great fascination with electrifying parts of the brain, either to feel God or to become more sane.) Also, certain drugs or brain afflictions can evoke the same experience. This suggests illusion.
It is ironically logical to believe there is something more than humans can know. Any humble realist understands that there is far, far, far more "out there" that any human brain or even collaboration can grasp. Perhaps more than in any other era our technologies have revealed more vast, eternal, infinite entities and processes than any human has ever had to wrestle with before, from the tiny molecules of cells to the terrifying endless stretch of time and space; from the mystery of who we are to the disconcerting knowledge that there were all these others, disappeared hominins. So is something reaching down to us, in to us, or are we reaching out and up to find something?
More practically, from a minister's point of view, is it possible to call the Holy Spirit? It seems clear that carefully designed liturgy, beautifully expressed words and music, a setting both grand and safe, can set the people vibrating and weeping. What is that? How does one do it? Not to be obnoxious, but I have done it. Or seemed to. But in my experience the congregation did not enable or protect such experiences but rather ground them down and threw them out as distractions. As a minister, at least, calling the Holy Spirit was like being a whore, triggering an addictive response that cannot be personally felt. If I valued even closely thinking about anything like a Holy Spirit, it was necessary to be solitary. Not even talk about it much. To analyze it is in the face of peril, possibly destroying access.
Maybe what seemed like the landing of the Holy Spirit in the middle of a play, a symphony, an art museum, a long view across a deep mountain valley, was just a burst of emotion. Nothing to do with the Mysterium Tremendum. Once an organization begins to build on what seems miraculous and calls itself "religious" while trying to keep everyone from disssenting, we have entered the field of "organized" religion and all its justifications for bad behavior like war or oppression. Soon members will be criticizing each other for not genuflecting properly, not paying enough tithe, or trying to make indulgent parents of their minister or God. They exasperated even Jesus.
Congregations have their uses. Denominations can be a way to keep people more or less on the same page and have an impact on the even larger culture. But there is something that sweeps invisibly through our lives, a set of convictions, perceptions, morality, and aesthetic choices without thinking why. Why did our country, supposed to be built on honor and compassion, suddenly turn to murderous greed, and then defend it? Is it because the old system of values was based on a primitive notion of the world which smashed in the face of new knowledge? Is it because since God is dead of evaporation, we can do anything and don't care? Is it because individuals can do things that are monstrous and yet are never struck by lightning for it?
Can a sea change like this -- except positive -- be started by a new thrilling spiritual experience that seizes everyone with the inspiration to reform? Or must these be person-contained perceptions of something that most never know is possible, a felt revelation of empowerment?
Every time I preached about this kind of moment, people came around afterwards to tell me they had felt this, maybe multiple times, but didn't really know what it was, what it meant. They thought it was better to tell no one for fear of being mocked. When I brought up the subject, even in seminary, it was turned aside. People said it was blissful to have warm, safe times and a great satisfaction to rest after achieving something important, but it didn't mean there was another plane of existence that somehow reached through to us. Others told about a chimp regarding in awe a mighty waterfall, and said it was evidence that even animals could be spiritual, so how could it be a human privilege?
Since Descartes we've wrestled with an imaginary split between logical rationality and the empathic sharing of felt meaning. Perhaps we've let the first method overwhelm the second. After all, greed and rejecting transfiguration are sensible ways to survive in a confounding world. Take care of yourself and your own. Ignore the rest. Very possible. People do it all the time.
In the end both my PK heroes have died -- of old age rather than lightning -- but not before being betrayed by this impulse in order to get status and expensive toys, to use relationships outside social rules, and to turn away from both congregation and denomination. They didn't seem to suffer. Neither ever confided that they had felt the Mysterium Fascinans and Tremendum. Would it have made a difference?
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