2009 Is Hitler in Heaven?

Speaker: Rev. Edmund Robinson, minister at Unitarian Universalist Church in Wakefield, Mass.

Prepared for UUA.org by: Mike McNaughton, Reporter; Margy Levine Young, Editor

Read the text of Robinson's presentation

A full house of about 100 people gathered to hear Rev. Edmund Robinson's reflections on Universalism, universal salvation, and the problem of evil. He did not offer easy answers but hoped some of his reflections may be helpful to contemporary UUs. The problem of evil is a large, emotional, and difficult question that involves the heart as well as the mind. To the extent one U represents head and the other U is heart, he hopes to reconnect head and heart and revive the spirit of Universalism within UU.

Traditional Universalism holds that God loves her children too much to condemn them to hell. Although popular in the nineteenth-century, Universalism became a victim of its own success when it influenced the mainstream churches to become agnostic on the existence of hell. Consequently, present-day congregations are not as concerned about hell as they were in the nineteenth century.

Nineteenth-century Universalism was a response to Calvinism, which holds that humans are inherently bad and only a chosen few go to heaven. In contrast, the Universalist Winchester Profession of 1803 declared that "...God, whose nature is Love, ...will finally restore the whole family of mankind to holiness and happiness."

In response to critics who predicted that Universalism would lead to immorality, the Winchester Profession continues, "...believers ought to be careful to maintain order and practice good works, for these things are good and profitable unto men." According to Universalism, humans can create their own hell on earth.

In the modern view, universal salvation means everyone has a right to be accepted and treated as a human being. We treat others as we want to be treated. We honor the holiness in each other. In this respect, the Universalist Bond of Fellowship (1933) places the onus squarely on humans by professing "A faith in . the power of men of good will and sacrificial spirit to overcome all evil and progressively establish the Kingdom of God ."

Our UU principles do not commit us to believe everyone has worth; rather, we covenant to treat others as human beings. The first UU principle challenges us to "affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person." Robinson believes every person has an inalienable right to be treated in this way.

If each of us has the capacity to commit evil acts, is it helpful to posit good and evil as two separate forces? Is it possible to draw a line between good people and evil people? In "Human Nature and the Nature of Evil" (1939), Clarence Skinner says "The line which separates the good from the evil runs not between men, but through them."

When we can look beyond evil acts, we may see ordinary people who in their own minds are pursuing good. In "Crime and its remedies" (1893) Olympia Brown says, "The transgressor . is his own worst enemy and he carries about his own condemnation with him. He is himself the principle witness, inexorable judge, and the merciless executioner. His condition appeals to our sympathy while his conduct calls for our condemnation." Universalism does not say we must tear down prisons; rather we should look to prisons for rehabilitation.

Our reaction to evil resides deep in the reptilian part of the brain. However, there is progress, each century is a little better than before. Albert Ziegler (in Foundations of Faith, 1959) writes, "Orthodoxy supposed a completed universe, a perfect, finished creation, and so finds a problem in the existence of imperfection in it. Reason, and any healthy fate that illumines it, must know that creation is moving on, not running down; that the universe is in process." Good and evil are human judgments, and in this respect Rev. Robinson looks for progress, not perfection.

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