Author Archives: unitarian reform

01/18/10

Martin Luther King Jr. – American Prophet

It is quite appropriate that the (actual) birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. falls on the 9th Day of Defiance in the AUR calendar, in the middle of Nika Week commemorating when competing factions stood together against oppression in the Byzantine Empire, just as multiracial crowds gathered before Dr. King stood together against Jim Crow oppression in the United States.

But Martin Luther King is significant to AUR for other reasons, not only in his ecumenical attitude, but also the purity of the way he spoke of God’s relationship with Creation and his commitment of character to the will of God.

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01/13/10

Nika Week – Bipartisan Defiance of Tyranny

January 13th is the seventh of the 12 Days of Defiance, commemorating standing strong against tyranny. The first day honors St. Lucian, who resisted Pagan oppression during his nine years in prison. The sixth day honors John Hancock, Unitarian and first signator of the Declaration of Independence.

The final six days are dedicated to Nika Week, in honor of a moment of defiance in Constantinople during Christianity’s slow slide into the Dark Ages following the adoption of Trinitarianism.

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01/12/10

Notional American Unitarian Reform Church No. 7

This is the seventh in a series of light-hearted signs for hypothetical American Unitarian Reform churches, created using an online image generator. We hope to show a range of attitudes and ideas all possible within the scope of AUR.

The sign for today’s notional church, First Church of Riverside, focuses on the universality of Christhood as explained in the Gospel of John.  The “Name” of God, understood not as a puff of air in the mouth of a humans but as a Divine theological entity, is key to this verse.  Promises to be an interesting sermon.

01/11/10

John Hancock Day – The 6th Day of Defiance

john_hancock_signature_civicsJanuary 12th is John Hancock Day for American Unitarian Reform, the 6th Day of Defiance on the AUR Interval Season liturgical calendar.

Not only was John Hancock a prominent Unitarian, but he has become iconic in American culture for a single, famous act that has out-shined (or over-shadowed, depending on your point-of-view) everything else he did during the Revolution: he signed his name almost absurdly large on the Declaration of Independence.

He has become so iconic, in fact, that his name has become slang for signature.

The moral lesson to be drawn from the icon of Hancock is the importance of committing oneself publicly to a good cause, regardless of the consequences. At the time, Hancock’s signature was an act of treason, and he was putting his own life at risk. By making his decision known in such a public and non-repudiable manner, he was enacting a sort of ritual, the same sort we see at weddings, confirmations, and in oath-taking like that in presidential inaugurations. Continue reading →

01/9/10

New Banner!

AUR is proud to present our new blog banner, combing symbols throughout our history that demonstrate dedication to true Christian monotheism.

The Two Trees symbol, drawn from the allegory of humanity’s dawn in the Garden of Eden, stresses Reform Unitarianism’s emphasis on complementary virtues, which are seen in the Two Trees of Eden, the serpent and dove of Jesus’ ministry, the twin cherubim atop the Ark of the Covenant, Faith and Hope, and the Lion-Lamb/Alpha-Omega imagery associated with Christ.  It is only by reconciling what seem to be contrary virtues that one can find the One God behind all things.

On the far right is an ancient Macedonian image of Jesus praying to God in the Garden of Gethsemane, not only a key passage demonstrating the subordinate relationship between God the Father and the Son of God, but also the climax of the moral and spiritual ministry of Jesus, the moment of “Thy Will Be Done.”

On the far left is an Arian church in Ravenna (now controlled by Trinitarians and called San Apollinare Nuovo) built during the reign of Theodoric, representing the continuation of original Christianity into the early Middle Ages before the complete suppression of Unitarian theology and the beginning of the Dark Ages.

Finally, at the bottom is a portrait of Jonathan Mayhew, the Father of American Unitarianism, who coined the battle cry “No taxation without representation” and wrote a sermon against the Divine Right of Kings entitled A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers, which president John Adams later called the “spark that ignited the American Revolution.”

01/7/10

St. Lucian’s Day

Today is the first of the 12 Days of Defiance that begin the Winterval Season, the feast day of St. Lucian.  Lucian was the teacher of both St. Arius and St. Eusebius, the bishop who baptized Constantine, finally Christianizing the Emperor after a lifetime of religious ambiguity.

He was also the subject of a Notional Reform Unitarian Church image here at the AUR blog.

Not only was Lucian tortured and persecuted by the Romans for years, but his teachings were corrupted after his death by conflationist heretics attempting to reshape the honored Church Father in the mold of Trinitarianism.  He was martyred on this day in 312 CE.

01/6/10

Joyous Epiphany!

In the ancient church, the 6th of January was observed in celebration of not only the birth of Jesus and the adoration of the Magi and shepherds, but also other events such as his baptism by John and the wedding at Cana.

Taking a narrative view of ritual, AUR collects all of the birth-related events together in the Advent/Christmas season, reserving the stories of Jesus’ adulthood for the more solemn Lenten season.*

For this reason, Reform Unitarian Epiphany — closing out the Christmas season — commemorates the Adoration of the Magi and Shepherds, celebrating the universality of the Christian message, from high priests to herders, and from Jesus’ fellow religionists to representatives of a completely different faith tradition.

The local Jewish shepherds create a spiritually and morally significant contrast to the foreign Magi, high priests of Zoroastrianism: both the breadth of cultural idiom and the heights of socioeconomic class are bridged in their Adoration.  As the shepherds were guided by an angel who spoke to them, while the Magi were guided by a star they studied, these two visitations also represent personal and impersonal idiomatic approaches to truth.

May you have a Joyous Epiphany!

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* The Temple-related events of Jesus’ childhood, including his presentation and later disputation, are collectively celebrated on Candlemas, the first Thursday in February.

12/31/09

Thanks to the Readers!

Thanks to the readers of the AUR blog, December was the most successful month on record in terms of readership.  Please keep linking and emailing, it truly does make a difference!

Happy New Year, and may your 2010 be more blessed than any year before!

12/30/09

New Twitter Feed!

American Unitarian Reform has now joined the tweeting masses on Twitter!

We will be publicizing the regular blog posts to Twitter, but also occasionally reposting old essays and information pieces.

So, follow the Reform on Twitter and tell your friends!

12/30/09

Resolution Day

New Year’s Day is a day for resolutions, often taking the form of freeing ourselves from slavery to addictions, obsessions, and other bad habits.  This renewal through promises to be stronger, healthier, and wiser celebrates one of the cornerstones of American Unitarian Reform: commitment of character.

AUR strives not to promote false salvation, moral justification, and consolation on the cheap, whether its the sort of “bow to dogma and your soul will be spared” comfort of many conservative churches or the “I’m okay, you’re okay, nothing we believe really matters” comfort of many liberal churches.

Spiritual peace and strength are not won by reciting a confession or catechism as if they were magic spells, or by impulsively tossing your life over to God like a hot potato for which you can abdicate all responsibility.

Nor is spiritual peace achieved through conflict-averse relativism or laissez-faire creedlessness, what Unitarian theologian James Luther Adams described unflatteringly as religion you can’t flunk.

Peace, strength, and freedom are achieved only through a resolute struggle, by committing of one’s character to moral growth and accepting a higher Good beyond one’s desires and instincts.  New Year’s Day, what AUR calls Resolution Day, provides a unique opportunity to stamp these commitments into our memory at the turning of the calendar.
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