Sermons by Reverend Don Beaudreault
CURTIS REESE: HUMANISM
THROUGH THE EYES OF ONE GREAT UNITARIAN
TEACHER
Rev. Don Beaudreault
Unitarian Universalist Church of Sarasota, FL
November 27, 2005
OPENING READING:
Look not to authority for the voice of God; Look to the flame of beauty in the heart, the insistent question, The creating that fails and tries again. For this it is to be a (human being), and in some sense to be God; To love, to imagine, to experiment, to try, to create; To stumble and go on in aguish and faith That it can be done.
Robert Weston
MEDITATION READING: “It’s Okay”
It’s okay to be ambiguous; to be uncertain.
It’s okay not to know and to say so.
It’s okay to know, then not to know.
It’s okay, you are human…You are human, like the wind is the wind,
The sea, the sea.
You are a part of the natural process,
Sometimes perfect, sometimes flawed...Seek not a box to hide within,
Embrace the gifts of joy and sorrow,
Experience the fullness of a life
Not limited by anyone’s commandments, including yours...It’s okay to be human, so be the best one you can be;
It’s okay to be incomplete, but carry on, anyhow.
It’s okay to be weak, and know that strength comes in different ways;
It’s okay to fail, but accept this as part of your triumph...It’s okay, you are human.
Don Beaudreault
SERMON: “Curtis Reese: Humanism Through the Eyes of One Great Unitarian Teacher”
The Reverend Dr. Curtis Williford Reese is hardly a household word, even in the households of Unitarian Universalists, but without his contributions to our liberating religious movement, we would be deficient in foundational ways. For truly, he and others (notably his contemporary ministerial colleague, The Reverend John Hassler Dietrich) were the prime movers for the Humanist movement in early twentieth-century Unitarianism.
This morning we shall explore some of Reese’s contributions, knowing that this very process – of understanding how, where, why and when and from whom we Unitarian Universalists create our individual and collective belief systems – is a benchmark of a so-called “free mind.”
So then, learning a bit about the thought and work of Curtis Reese will enhance our knowledge of why we have our present identity as a progressive movement that seeks to promote good in the world.
I want to dedicate this sermon to the memory of my former parishioner, Leone Webb, of the UU Fellowship in Charleston, WV. “Mrs. Webb” as everyone called her, lived to be nearly 100 years old. It was always a joy for me to visit this most ardent scientific humanist, who would discuss any and everything with me, including stories about her former minister when she was a little girl in Alton, IL, the Rev. Curtis Williford Reese.
Let us explore Dr. Reese’s message to us. Indeed, his life’s story is one of living out his beliefs – and is indicative of the words to the hymn we sang this morning:
A fierce unrest seethes at the core…
and:
From deed to dream, from dream to deed, from daring hope to hope, the restless wish, the instant need, still drove us up the slope.
Consider Reese’s upbringing. He was born into a Southern Baptist family in rural North Carolina on September 3, 1887. Many in his family had been clergymen. Writing of them, he said:
One of my paternal great-grandfathers was a Baptist preacher, one of my paternal grandfathers and two of my paternal uncles were Baptist preachers, my father is a Baptist deacon, two of my brothers are Baptist preachers, and a sister married a Baptist preacher.
He was so very devout, that Reese gave the first dollar he ever earned to the Baptist church to help pay the minister's salary. Accepting Christ as his “personal savior,” he was baptized at the age of nine in mid-winter in an outdoor creek with some other converts. Hopefully, they huddled together to keep warm!
A few years later he “received a call to the ministry.” He went on for theological education at Baptist College in Mars Hill, NC, served a church in Alabama, received his seminary degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY in 1910 while serving two churches, and then became the State Evangelist for the five hundred churches that made up the Illinois State Baptist Association. He received a further theological degree in 1911.
But consider what he wrote in his unpublished autobiography at this time:
During the years as State Evangelist, my heresies, which had begun even during my seminary days, due to the impact of Higher Criticism, began to grow apace.
“Higher Criticism” meant that
sort of criticism (that) deals with the larger aspects of Bible study; viz., with the authorship, date, composition, and authority of whole books or large sections, as distinguished from the discussion of textual minutiæ, which is the sphere of the lower, or textual, criticism. (The Catholic Encyclopedia)
Reese then accepted a call to a Baptist church in Ohio, believing it to be a liberal Northern Baptist group. It wasn’t – at least from his perspective. As he explained the situation, he felt that he could preach what he believed – but was unable “to say what I did not believe.”
Now Reese’s “conversion” to Unitarian Universalist thinking was not unlike other ministers’ or laypersons’ process because what is shared is the pursuit of knowledge that led to a different conclusion from how one might have started out! In other words, the more Reese read and thought about what he read, the less he believed what he had previously been taught, and the more he wanted to pursue even further knowledge.
He came to the conclusion that Unitarian theology was similar to his own evolving one. Part of this decision could have been because of the influence he had had from our strong “Social Gospel” message – i.e., our pragmatic belief that we are called to right the wrongs of society not merely bewail them. Indeed our methodology is one based on our fervent theological position that touts justice, freedom, equality, and love.
This early striving after knowledge, indeed, in his being open to receive new truths from wherever they might come, became a benchmark of the man’s call to the liberal ministry; that, and the fact that he put his beliefs into action.
For Reese in 1913 this meant accepting the call to the Unitarian Church in Alton, Illinois where he was to stay for two years, and where our friend Leone (nee Duvivier), then a young girl, was to be influenced by his teachings. It was also the time in his life when he became a newlywed. He and his wife Fay were to have three children.
This move from the Baptist faith to the Unitarian one caused him great personal stress, especially since it caused a break with his family of origin. He wrote of this:
My mother said very sincerely that she would rather have seen me dead. This is understandable, for had she heard of my death she would have had the satisfaction of knowing that I was flying around with angels in heaven. But now she was sure that if and when I died, I would burn in hellfire and brimstone forever and ever.
One of Reese’s sisters had named her son in honor of him: Curtis Williford, but when her brother became a Unitarian, she renamed her son "Bruner Truett" in honor of two well-known and solid Southern Baptist ministers. But the family somewhat “came around” to accept Curtis, despite his “change” – and even his sister attended a Unitarian church for a bit and might have become a member had her husband not continued to be a deacon in the Baptist church.
In these early days of his Unitarian ministry, Reese would describe his views on religion as these:
a Universal Father: God
a Universal Brotherhood: Mankind
a Universal Right: Freedom
a Universal Motive: Love
a Universal Aim: Progress
Now, despite the Christo-centric and male-dominated language he was using at the time (remember this was nearly 100 years ago), it is interesting to see how his use of language changed as the years went on, although the general concepts did not.
Let us come back to this in a moment.
Reese was in Alton for only two years, but during this time he had a major impact on his church and community. For one thing, he inspired other fellow religious leaders in the community to eliminate gaming houses and brothels. This resulted in a new mayor who came in on a so-called "clean-up ticket."
It should be stated that Reese’s actions caused him to be shot at several times by those who did not agree with him – hopefully not by parishioners. One time, in fact, when someone was coming after him, he had to hide in a church member’s attic. And he was actually injured once by such attempts to hurt him – in a railroad depot. Of course, these events were widely covered by the local press, which only helped the mayoral election campaign go the way Reese wanted it to go. Still, Reese and his wife had to escape to a parishioner's home on the night of the election because a mob had gathered in front of his home and lit several fires.
Reese next served the First Unitarian Church in Des Moines, Iowa, 1915-19. Here, again he got thoroughly involved in community life, to the extent of being appointed the state’s first Housing Commissioner.
From 1919-30 he served in the administrative capacity as the Secretary of the Western Unitarian Conference, headquartered in Chicago. Historically noteworthy are the facts that Reese was the one who made it possible to relocate Meadville Seminary to Chicago, and was the one who arranged for the finances that built the First Unitarian Church in Chicago, which is directly across from our UU seminary. He also was a key person in having Lombard College (originally a Universalist school), become part of Meadville Seminary – thus producing the current name: Meadville Lombard.
Certainly during this time and throughout the rest of his life, Reese served on innumerable boards and committees associated with Unitarian Universalism or other activities during this time, and represented our movement around the world.
From 1930-57 Reese was the Director of the Abraham Lincoln Centre. Founded in 1905 by Unitarian clergyman, The Reverend Jenkin Lloyd Jones (and still active today), the Centre had been an outgrowth of the church Jones served: the Church of All Souls in Chicago. It owned a six-story building. Reese lived in an apartment in the Centre that had been designed by that UU favorite, Frank Lloyd Wright. The programs for the Centre included forums, where outstanding speakers with varied opinions were given a platform from which to be heard. We can say that this forum concept is one to which we in our own congregation and in other UU congregations are the heirs. Also, the Centre published a journal, “Unity” with which Reese was to be associated with for 40 years.
A racially integrated organization from the start, the Centre sponsored a variety of programs including classes, music, art, dramatic training, a planned parenthood clinic, a counseling clinic, and a summer camp for youngsters. By 1951 it served the needs of 140,000 children and adults.
Reese described the Centre in The Christian Register as "a social center at the heart of which was a spiritual message and program.” http://www.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/curtiswillifordreese.html
Today, the mission of the Abraham Lincoln Centre is:
to serve Chicago's greater south side communities by assisting the residents in their efforts to become self-sufficient and to live healthy, productive lives.
It meets the needs of people regardless of religious, ethnic or cultural background. There are 30 programs at 30 sites on Chicago’s south side. Indeed, Curtis W. Reese’s work lives on at the Centre today.
*****
Let us now turn to his statements about theology in regard to his Humanist position.
In his The Meaning of Humanism, 1931, he wrote:
The trend in modern religious developments is away from the transcendent, the authoritative, the dogmatic, and toward the human, the experimental, the tentative; away from the abnormal, the formal, the ritualistic; and toward the normal, the informal, the usual; away from the extraordinary mystic expression, the exalted mood, the otherworldly; and toward the ethical, the social and the worldly; away from religion conceived as one of man's concerns, and toward religion conceived as man's one concern.
My assessment of this statement in light of where our current Unitarian Universalist movement is that we have a much broader foundation than what Reese assumed 74 years ago. It is true that during his time, there was such a turning toward redefining what it meant to be “religious” – meaning a fervent desire to address the needs of a hurting world; to be prophetic in our calling, not merely pietistic; to be outward turning not just inward turning.
I think today, many of us are attempting to be both – not either/or – whatever our “theology” might be. Granted humanism is a noun before which one might apply any number of terms – not merely agnostic or atheist or secular, but any term describing a religion or philosophy.
So one might very well be a “mystical humanist” – in fact, you are looking at one! The two concepts do not have to be at odds in post-modern day, self defined “religion.”
True, there are those who are connected with humanism a la Reese, Dietrich, et al today. There is even a subset within the Unitarian Universalist Association called the “UU Infidels” – and I was quoted by one of them in one of their national publications – to the effect of my being one of the last humanist ministers left in the world (or some such overstatement). This despite the fact that I publicly affirm that I am a mystical humanist – in other words, an amateur theologian who hedges his bets.
At any rate, rather than going after each other theologically today, it is a mature person within our UU ranks who can say: “I embrace the rich theological diversity of our movement and accept each person’s right to think for her/himself on these and other matters…and as for me, I think…”
Reese’s quote from his The Meaning of Humanism must be viewed, too, as his defense against the traditional, prescribed, and creedal aspects of Christianity. Here, Reese is expansive in his definition of “humanism” and “religion”; there is an acceptance of the individual’s creative input in deciding what one is going to believe and how one will act upon those beliefs.
The crucial point of this discussion is to realize the clarity of his intent: his bringing into written and spoken formulation the concept of humanism that indeed has had a major impact upon the Unitarian movement of his time and until now. We should not underestimate the power of his thought to influence the generations of Unitarian Universalists and others who have been affected by his statements.
Let us turn now to his belief about “God.”
Might it be said that the religion of Curtis W. Reese was a religion without God? Well, Reese disagreed with the traditional theists of his day who referred to humanists as atheists. His thoughts on the subject go like this:
The radical Unitarian Humanist is inclined to say, 'Very well, if Humanism be Atheistic, so be it.' But in point of fact, there is not the slightest ground for calling Humanists Atheistic. The Unitarian discussion might be summed up as 'Theism or no Theism,' but not as 'God or no God,' since most of the Humanists hold some one of the several non-Theistic theories of God."
He explains this in his book Humanism (1926) when he says:
The liberal recognizes and zealously proclaims the fact that purposive and powerful cosmic processes are operative, and that increasingly man is able to cooperate with them and in a measure control them. What these processes be styled is of but little importance. Some call them cosmic processes, others call them God. http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/unitarians/reese.html
This is really a very postmodern concept of the term “God” (although we must not include the literalists when we say this). But the concept “God” can be “imaged” in anyway once so chooses in this eclectic, electronic, shrinking world in which we live. God need no longer be limited to the Unitarian Brahmins of 19th century Beacon Hill, Boston, or to the Brahmins of New Delhi. God can be, if one chooses, a verb, rather than a noun (and I think this is what Reese did – he took “God” to the streets – made “Him” a process for improving the world, rather than an abstract father figure on a distant cloud).
In doing this, Reese used science and reason, observation and experience, not dogma and creed, dictum and doctrine.
In 1933 humanist thinking was epitomized in the Humanist Manifesto, 1933, signed by several Unitarian ministers as well as by prominent scholars and philosophers. Reese contributed to its composition. The manifesto stressed that theism is "past", that the universe is "self-existing and not created," that the "traditional dualism of mind and body must be rejected", and that religion "must formulate its hopes and plans in the light of the scientific spirit and method."
In 1941 he helped to establish the American Humanist Association and was its first president, 1941-54. In 1959 the AUA honored him with the Holmes-Weatherly Award, for outstanding service to the cause of liberal religion.
Reese retired after a heart attack in 1957. He and his wife went to live in Kissimmee, Florida. He died on June 5, 1961 while in Chicago attending a meeting of the board of trustees of the Meadville/Lombard Theological School. A memorial service was held at the First Unitarian Church in Chicago.
Indeed, Curtis W. Reese was a major thinker and doer within our Unitarian Universalist ranks – and although many did not agree with him and many would not today, he certainly was a man who made you think and feel and urged you to do. Indeed for him theology or philosophy without good words, was not being fully “religious.” This is his lasting legacy to our liberating religious movement.
Let me end with a quote with which I think Reese would agree. From Edward Everett Hale comes this:
I am only one
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something.
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the
Something that I can do.
CLOSING WORDS:
This is humanity, that in (our) heart and eyes has wonder; That can look upon the barren tree and see beauty; See mighty engines in the formless ore; Atom-smashers in the flash of lightning, And truth on the other side of doubt fearlessly explored.
Robert Weston