By Gryffindor, the bravest werePrized far beyond the rest;
For Ravenclaw, the cleverestWould always be the best;
For Hufflepuff, hard workers wereMost worthy of admission;
And power-hungry SlytherinLoved those of great ambition— “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”
“Though I must fulfill my dutyAnd must quarter every year
Still I wonder whether sortingMay not bring the end I fear.”— “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”
But don't think I'm only picking on Christians; I've explored several other traditions.
A few years ago, my husband and I began attending local Jewish services. I was attracted to the Judaism portrayed by Tikkun magazine and the Network of Spiritual Progressives, which engages with God’s mandate to heal the world. We even considered conversion.
I was appalled one day when a Jewish couple, during a local book study group, blithely advocated killing every Arab man, woman and child.
William F. Schulz, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, served as executive director of Amnesty International USA from 1994 to 2006. An ordained minister, Dr. Schulz was president of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations from 1985 to 1993.
When writing the foreword to a book by Sharon D. Welch, “Real Peace, Real Security, The Challenges of Global Citizenship,” Dr. Schulz shared that during his 12 years with Amnesty International, he was required to hear, on a daily basis, about the most horrific violence: much of it religiously based.
In order to eliminate violence, he argues, you must first change the heart of a society. Legislation alone will not accomplish it, if people disobey the law with impunity.
“We are all tempted, in the face of our own failings, to lash out at others. But from a religious perspective, the appropriate response to a recognition of our own demons is not to demonize others. It is to seek out common bonds. It is to recognize that virtually all people, of whatever stripe, feel the need to be safe in their homes, to be treated fairly by the authorities, to pass on a better life to their children, and to enjoy their rightful share of the earth’s abundance. Part of the job of a government is to make it as easy as possible for its citizens to be their best selves, not their ugliest and most degraded, and part of religion's job is to help us understand what those best selves look like.”
Speaking from our personal experience, my husband’s and my searching led us to Unitarian Universalism.
“We do not require our members to subscribe to a particular theology or set of affirmations in order to join our congregations. Instead, we encourage individuals to garner insights from all the world’s great faiths, as well as from Shakespeare and from science, from feminism and from feelings.”
“Namaste makes no differentiation between affirming a sacred center when it’s easy and when it’s hard. Natural or difficult, with people we like and people we can’t stand, with people who inspire us and people who anger us, Namaste demands a common level of appreciation for the other’s life and respect for the other’s integrity. Appreciation for and respect of our own lives demand it, for what we share in common is more important than what divides us.
“Political party, nationality, race, religion, citizenship, sexual orientation, gender, all of those descriptive categories that define us as one thing and not another, all of them combined do not diminish the larger unifying presence of holiness in every one. For diversity to truly be virtuous, for diversity to be the fullest expression of the blessing that it can be, it must be held in a sense of unity.”
But because the UU is so welcoming of people from diverse religious faiths, I believe that we must be on guard, in whatever our mother faith, that we do not segregate ourselves into "Houses." Be ready and willing to share your mother faith with your larger UU community, as well as to learn from the riches that other mother faiths provide. It will help to strengthen our ties.
Returning to the lesson of the Sorting Hat, whose warning takes on prophetic reality when Slytherins break from the school and the death-eaters deliver what they believe to have been a crippling blow to the resistance.
The final image in the most recent film is worth dwelling upon. Led by Professor McGonegal, one by one each student who remains at Hogwarts — in Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff — defiantly lifts his or her wand, which emits a beam of light. Their combined force dispels the sigil of Lord Voldemort that hovers in the clouds above the school.
I wish to leave you with the immortal words of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts:
“We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided ... Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.”
to the Unitarian Universalist Community of Lake County
