Reading #652 in our hymnal Singing the Living Tradition, tells us that The Great End in Religious Instruction is "not to stamp our minds upon the young, but to stir up their own."

My objection to William Ellery Channing's instruction to us is not so much his advice to avoid dogmatism in our religious education, as to the use of his advice as a tool to avoid teaching our children anything definite about what Unitarian Universalists believe.

We know a lot more about psychology and culture now than in Channing's day. Some of his exhortation seems a bit grandiose. Half a dozen UUs in any congregation on the continent can tell you how they resisted having their minds "stamped" or having been stamped, how they nevertheless arrived at their own conclusions. History is full of such examples, and it is narcissistic to assume we can make up our own minds and that our children won't eventually make up their own, too.

Every organization looking to make a buck or sell an ideology or persuade for good cause is in some way seeking to influence our children to their way of thinking. Everybody from McDonald's to Disney, Barbie to Elmo, the retiring Mr. Rodgers, even our in-laws– all have a world view they promote directly or indirectly to our children.

When UUs occasionally point to Channing's reading (or similar ones) as a way of saying, "we're not going to give our children anything definite to believe about UU-ism," then they essentially abandon our kids to economic market forces, religious fundamentalists, and anyone with a strong opinion. They throw up their hands saying "it is too difficult" or "not our place," and thereby abdicate their responsibility, and our children come to learn we are not a real religion.

The next line exhorts us "not to make them see with our eyes, but to look inquiringly and steadily with their own; not to give them a definite amount of knowledge but to inspire a fervent love of truth."

We should and do try to make our children see things through our eyes: how we view TV commercials, hate speech, constructive criticism, the irrational behavior of other drivers on the road (to mention just a few). We might as well admit it is a good thing, and not something to be avoided.

Yes, we promote our children's need to look inquiringly and steadily with their own eyes. But they look to us as models also. To avoid figuring out our common beliefs or to not teach our history is to fail as a religion: it is to squander our heritage, and it is to punish our children for our own spiritual torpor.

Further on we read "not to bind them by ineradicable prejudices to our particular sect or peculiar notions, but to prepare them for impartial, conscientious judging of whatever subjects may be offered to their decision."

Of course we should "not bind them by ineradicable prejudices to our particular sect or peculiar notions." Frankly– it is doubtful if we could bind anyone permanently to ineradicable prejudices. But we should ask our children & youth to explore in depth our particular sect and our peculiar notions. Broadly speaking, that is the first and foremost mission of religious education. For our religion doesn't mean much if we are unwilling to let it be taught to and then examined by some of our most insightful, loving critics: our children.

This kind of textual analysis could go on, but instead, let me offer a 21st century update to Channing's vision. Our ends in Unitarian Universalist Religious Education are to:

impress our minds upon the young, so they may have a healthy starting point with which to determine their own mind;
• to help them see with our eyes, so they may learn to see another's view;
• to give them a definite amount of knowledge about us, to reinforce our memory, and so they will know something of their heritage;
• to form a regularity of good spiritual habit;
• to give them the roots of our particular sect and the wings of our peculiar notions;
• to bind ourselves together for mutual hope & courage, to make claims upon ourselves and one another: to covenant together to further the causes for which our particular sect & peculiar notions impel us– a commitment to something larger than our self;
• to set the boundaries of our religion, and actively invite their moral discernment about these boundaries, acknowledging that they in their turn reset them anew.

In a word, the great end is not only to awaken the soul, to excite and cherish spiritual life, but to make a lasting contribution to the religious home that nurtures them, so that new children and strangers not yet met, will sustain the continuing vision.

Daniel
(Rev.) Daniel Simer Ó Connell, D.Min.
Parish Minister, West Redding, CT