Szabó Árpád (szerk.): Isten és ember szolgálatában. Erdő János emlékezete (Kolozsvár, 2007)

John A. Buehrens: A House for Hope. Liberal Theology and the Challenges of the 21st Century

Further away is Temple Beth Shalom, the first synagogue formed in Needham, after World War II. Because the Meetinghouse had only beautiful white walls, without religious symbols, and no stained glass with Christian stories, the founders of synagogue arranged for their Sabbath services to be held in the Meetinghouse for the first two years, until they could build their own temple. Each Passover, when we hold an interfaith Seder, we use a Seder plate given to us by the synagogue, inscribed on the back, „Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" [Psalm 133:1]

Too many religious people today bear false witness against their own neighbors. „Ours is a religion of love,” says Pat Robertson, „but Mohammed preached a religion of hate!” But before getting too self-righteous, I remember how often I have had to try to persuade fellow Unitarian Universalists that perhaps they have only a biased under-standing of the faith across the street, especially if it resembles a faith they left behind.

The late Wallace Robbins once said that the mission of liberal religion is simple: to make religion more liberal and to make liberals more religious. That may have been a good Hillel-like missiology for the modernist period. But I wonder if our mission in the post-modern period will not be more complex and require of us a deeper humility, as well as deeper reflection on both our distinctive gifts and our limitations as we enter the 21st century. It will not do to be simply a refuge for people fleeing orthodoxy or the consumer values of the globalized economy. If we are going to be a transforming religious force in the varied cultures where we operate, we are going to have to demonstrate a willingness to help catalyze interfaith cooperation across for urgent causes of justice and peace, and to do so without seeking to get all the credit. We will have to look with clear eyes and to speak with direct discourse to people who differ from ourselves as we discern who may be our allies in applying more progressive and liberating religious values in the world, and who are religious voices that we are justified in opposing.

Once, when I was serving a UU church in the American South, I found myself giving an exhortation to some UU colleagues about our participation in the civil rights movement - about Dana Greeley marching at Selma with Catholic, Jewish, Orthodox, and Protestant leaders that he had all persuaded to join with Dr. King - and about how this model needed to be extended and amplified. One of the older ministers replied, „Well,

I

agree, John, but in my town there’s a rabbi I can talk to, a Methodist or two, and one progressive Baptist. The rest of’em, well: I'm not sure we work for the same Boss!"

I know the feeling. But even Pat Robertson and I were once on the same platform together, speaking out about poverty. The deep characteristic of fundamentalist religion, however, is that it generally sees no need to dia181

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