Rev. Emily Wright-Magoon
March 13, 2016
In late January I was in South Texas at a retreat for area UU Ministers. The day I arrived at the retreat center, I knew the woman checking in at the reception desk in front of me was with my group because on her shirt was a logo of a heart on fire and the phrase popular in UU circles these days: “Love the Hell out of the World.” ((I believe that Rev. Joanna Fontaine Crawford is credited with originating this phrase.))
This phrase is related in particular to our Universalist history. Last week I talked about Unitarianism and this week Universalism.
Universalists were Christians who believed in universal salvation: in other words, they refused to accept the dominant belief of their time that God would damn some people to eternal punishment.
They believed that God was too Good to send people to hell. I’ve seen a historical photo of a Universalist tent meeting with a huge banner proclaiming “GOD IS LOVE.” This message was shocking for the time, when God was seen as a wrathful angry God.
Universalists were dismissed from juries because people thought you couldn’t possibly judge morality if you believed in forgiveness instead of hell!
A story is told about a conversation between a man and Hosea Ballou, a prominent Universalist. The man said, ““Brother Ballou, if I were a Universalist and feared not the fires of hell, I could hit you over the head, steal your horse and saddle, and ride away, and I’d still go to heaven.”
Ballou looked over at him and said:
“If you were a Universalist, the idea would never occur to you.”
Universalists argued that fear of an angry God is not necessary for morality.
And in fact, concern for morality played a big role in the Universalist belief in universal salvation.
Here’s the historical context: the strong communal nature of Puritanism was waning. The foundations of communal life were crumbling. The individual was becoming the building block of society. This is a trajectory that has likely continued, of course…Hear this historian’s words and consider whether the words also apply to our own time: “[loss of community was caused by] the shattering of religious consensus, the increasing complexity of economic relationships and the influence of the market, population growth, migration.” (Ann Lee Bressler, The Universalist Movement in America, 1770-1880, p 20)
In this context, “Universalists saw a growing emphasis on personal salvation, a narrow view that excluded genuine concern for one’s neighbors; [Universalists] believed that faith had deteriorated and become contracted and selfish.” (Bressler)
For Universalists, conversion was not about a private experience of God, but an understanding of salvation as social and communal. (Bressler p 14)
Lucy Barns, who published the Female Christian in 1809 explained the Universalist conversion experience: when Universalists accept that all people are brethren to be loved, they [quote] “have passed from death unto life.”
This message of universal love for all people led many Universalists to be early advocates for many social justice causes including abolition of slavery, women’s rights, & prison reform. Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman” speech was given at a women’s rights convention held at a Universalist church. Clara Barton, the first president of the American Red Cross, was a Universalist. The Universalists were the first to ordain women, and by 1900 had twice as many women ministers as the Unitarians.
By the early 1900s, Universalists were arguing that the hell we must concern ourselves with is not related to the afterlife but the hell we humans create right here on earth.
They argued that Hell comes in the form of unjust social and economic conditions. But they were optimistic about our ability to solve these social problems…with the help of religion. Universalist Clarence Skinner said:
Every social problem involves a spiritual content…It is the task of religion to furnish those life values and liberate those social impulses which will energize man and incite him to social [progress.] (The Social Implication of Universalism, 1915)
The Unitarian Universalist call to Stand on the Side of Love is a natural extension of this Universalist message to Love the Hell out of this World.
This is the call to go where Hell is, and Love it out of those places.
What is Hell?
Dostoevsky said that Hell is the “suffering of being unable to love.”
I’d argue when we are unable to love it is because we have been hurt.
And that pain, whether we are aware of it or not, has left us afraid, or numb, or angry, or addicted, or close-minded, or walled off.
And most of the pain in our lives comes from division – from seeing ourselves as separate from one another: rich, poor, liberal, conservative, black, white, educated, uneducated, male, female, Israeli, Palestinian, Catholic, Muslim, atheist, “normal,” other…
Being human in this world is hard enough without these divisions. As humans we experience small and large losses in our lives… Loved ones die, illnesses come, relationships challenge us…
The walls between us make it even harder to do the important work of making it through the beautiful but difficult journey of life.
The Sufi poet Hafiz said,
Out
Of a great need
We are all holding hands
And climbing.
Not loving is a letting go.
Listen,
The terrain around here
Is
Far too
Dangerous
For
That.
So we move out of our comfort zones to hold one another’s hands and hang on.
Loving the Hell out of this World isn’t easy.
It requires a tenacious promise to hang in there even when we have strong disagreements with one another, to not give up on each other even when we seem so different, so divided.
While some people in our world preach division and fear, can we have the courage to stand for a faith that celebrates difference, a faith that preaches love in the face of hate, a faith that holds out hope even for those we might understandably despise?
Last year I heard a story about Loving the Hell Out of the World. This was a story about someone who encountered Hate and hung in there, bringing a commitment to Love.
This story happened on Twitter on Martin Luther King Day between two people: an African-American mother named Ijeoma Oluo and someone else who had clearly set up a fake profile. His profile name had obscenities in it. In a moment, when I and my volunteer read you this exchange, it will be clear to you that this guy was “trolling.” “Trolling” on social media involves writing hateful, provocative posts in order to rile people up and hide behind anonymity.
The common advice given on social media is: “Don’t feed the trolls” …meaning: “Just don’t engage them because you can’t change them, and by engaging them, you’ll just fan the flames.” But on this day, Ijeoma decided to engage this “troll.” I’ve removed some of the obscenities he uses. He does use the “n word” many times; I’ve included a few of those times, so apologies for its use. [I’ve abridged the conversation. See the whole conversation here.]
In honor of MLK day today, I’m taking a vow to use the word “nigger” as many times as possible and in the most inappropriate times.
“Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.
Oh, so you’re one of those nigger lovers, too?
“Hate destroys the hater…” ― Martin Luther King Jr.
your parents must have named you by putting every letter in a hat and randomly selecting 6 letters
“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
wow you are some divine nigger prophet!!!! And I believe you’re a stupid nigger
“We must either learn to live together as brothers, or we are going to die together as fools.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.
(racist obscenities I don’t want to include but you can read here)
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.
(racist obscenities I don’t want to include but you can read here)
“Carve a tunnel of hope through a dark mountain of disappointment” ― Martin Luther King Jr.
“I hope I get shot soon.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.
I wish you peace and love, and freedom from the hatred that hurts your heart.
Who’s that a quote from?
that’s me. Sending love and hope to you.
I have plenty of that.
not enough love to displace the hate in your heart.
no I’m just trolling. This isn’t an account to be taken seriously. You were saying all this serious stuff and I wasn’t complying.
it seems sad that you would troll a movement so many died for. I hope you can find hobbies that are less hurtful of other people.
I choose to care about people that say, fight for our country. Not people that just father welfare and burn American flags
I hope that one day the lives of black people will matter to you. Your life matters to me.
everyone’s lives matter. I just choose to not promote it … I don’t know that doesn’t make sense lol
[when you mock the civil rights movement], you mock every dead child, you mock every burned home, you mock every lynched father.
look honey. I’m 14 years old you need to chill.
my son is 13 years old, and he would never mock your murder.
well good for him. He must have a really cool mom.
he does. Does your mom know you spend your time on the internet trying to hurt people?
I doubt it. She’s been dead for a year and a half now so..
I’m sorry for your loss. And I hope you find a better way to honor her.
my counselor said to make a secret Twitter to let out all my weird horrible feelings so…
it doesn’t seem to be helping.
yeah you’re probably right. But it keeps me from going back into depression and taking so many pills I can’t count
there are ways to get those dark feelings out without hurting others. …remember that there is a good chance that someone coming across your hateful tweets is suffering from depression too.
yeah I just haven’t figured it out yet
you could even journal these things instead of sending them out into the world to hurt people
writing isn’t my strong suit haha
it’s just like tweeting – I promise!
easy for you to say haha
well I wish you luck. And I hope you will try to refrain from hurting others while you try to heal
you are so nice and I’m so sorry
thank you. Today is about forgiveness. People do [bad] things when they are hurting. Send me a msg if u need to talk.
[I’ve abridged the conversation. See the whole conversation here.]
Many people witnessed this interaction on Twitter and applauded Ijeoma for her patient, loving approach. Ijeoma responded, “You guys I’m a mom – you think I’m going to let some 14 year old outlast me? I got love for days.”
“I got love for days.”
What Ijeoma did was seemingly small, but I’d argue a good example of Loving the Hell out of this World.
As Universalist John Murray is attributed as saying, “Give Them Not Hell but Hope.”
Today Unitarian Universalists don’t typically consider themselves evangelists, but many of our Universalist ancestors were fierce evangelists, and the truth is we also have a life-saving message to share.
Ours is the message that all are deeply LOVED, no matter how different they feel, no matter the pain they have endured, no matter the pain they have caused…
LOVE is always available to us, LOVE is more powerful than we can imagine. LOVE tells us we all belong.
Let us share that message, let us do that work of loving the Hell out of this world.
May it be so. Amen.
-Rev. Emily Wright-Magoon