I finally gave in, and canceled my subscription to the magazine Christianity Today.

Christianity has been an important part of my personal faith journey, both as a resource to help me understand our nation’s religious culture, and also as one source of integrity and compassion in a world that often seems to work against these values. Unitarian Universalists often fall into the bad habit of equating Christianity with its most simplistic forms – dogmatism, anti-intellectualism, and fear of diversity. Unfortunately, Christianity Today confirms these worst fears, limiting Christianity to a narrow orthodoxy. For example, in response to the many Christians who are beginning to explore the spiritual paths of Islam, the authors criticized anyone seeking wisdom outside the strict boundaries of their definition of “acceptable” Christianity. And the last straw, which moved me to cancel my subscription, was a series of articles claiming that evolutionary thought was on the defensive in the face of the “intelligent design” movement.

“Intelligent design” theory claims that the appearance and development of the universe and life have been divinely guided according to God’s plan. Its typical claim is that the universe and all its components are too complex to have popped into existence by chance. As the latest attack upon science in the laboratory and in the classroom, it cloaks biblical creationism in pseudo-scientific terms in hopes of gaining credibility. Unfortunately, its hidden agenda, that all results must be in harmony with biblical creation, disqualifies it from the realm of science, or even from the realm of genuine and open questioning.

But the point of this is not to criticize biblical creationists, as much a burr in my saddle as they can be. What I see in their arguments is the very basic human need to understand, the same need that so many of us in Unitarian Universalist congregations struggle with. The desperation of their arguments, the unwillingness to see that which upsets their world-view, is not grounds for our smugness or pity, but for our compassion, because we are in the same boat. Blaise Pascal, that most rational of thinkers, wrote, “The eternal silence of these infinite spaces terrifies me.”

Many members of our congregation have struggled with life crises, and struggled also with the frightening presence of the unknown. Often the first question on our lips in time of crisis is “why?” We mean, “I need very badly to understand this; I need for it to make sense.” And we find our own desperate explanations to force meaning upon an experience: poor health choices, mistakes we’ve made, some genetic cause, anything that won’t leave us in the position of not knowing why. Often the reasons we grasp at are harsh, unforgiving and unnecessarily self-critical – we’re willing to be very hard on ourselves to avoid facing what we don’t understand.

Much of our lives will be punctuated by mysteries that will yield no useful meaning except the meaning we work to create in their wake. After we have struggled fruitlessly with the question “why?” we may then ask ourselves “how shall I live with this?” It is in our response that meaning is then possible.

Perhaps it’s a bit much to ask that we embrace the fearful unknown, that we always be able to love it, but we can strive to recognize mystery as an everyday presence in our lives.

In the trials of our very human lives, may we learn to handle ourselves gently.

Yours in Growing Faith –
Rev. Scott Gerard Prinster
Unitarian Universalist Community Church
Portage, Michigan