I first encountered Philip Gulley a couple of decades ago in the book he co-wrote with James Mulholland titled If God Is Love: Why God Will Save Every Person. In that book, Gulley and Mulholland set forth a Quakerly approach to universalism.
The current U.S. war in Iran has prompted me to seek out other pacifists. This is not an easy time to be a pacifist. While I’m hearing quite a few people who are opposed to the war, I’m not hearing people who are opposed to all war — only to this war. Or maybe they’re just opposed to the current administration.
So I was pleased to stumble across a blog post Philip Gulley wrote back in March in which he makes the case that all war is wrong:
“…We have mastered the ability to number the war dead with great precision. 175 schoolgirls killed when we bombed the school in Iran. Thirteen American soldiers dead thus far, thousands of Iranians and Israelis, the numbers growing every day. We have perfected the science of counting bodies. What we do not count, what we conveniently forget are the parents, siblings, and friends whose lives are also shattered when their loved ones die. What we do not count are the lives haunted by grief, those yet unborn who will one day bear the scars of their ancestors’ wars. And bearing those scars, are more likely to perpetuate and multiply the pain of war. We are never able to fully count the eventual casualties of war….”
And he adds a pacifist statement that is both Quakerly and Universalist:
“Friends, resist with all your heart the temptation to love only some.”
If you’re a Universalist pacifist like me, you might find Gulley’s post worth reading in its entirety.
Why did you write Universalist Pacifist? Unitarians had a history of pacifist clergy while Universalists not so much. I can’t recall a Universalist along the lines of Stephen Haynes Holmes or Charles Lyttle. Unitarians have never been a Pacifist faith but there is a tradition of Pacifist clergy. Best I can tell, Augutus Conant left the Geneva Church not because the congregation was pro-slavery but because the congregation felt the abolitionist’s best tool to fight slavery was prayer, while Conant was open to more John Brown style solution.
A footnote: I saw a Ukrainian flag on UU Pulpit after Russia’s invasion. It stayed there for over a year. I had never seen any national flag in a UU sanctuary before. I never asked about it but UU responses to War can be complex putting it kindly.
Bill, it’s complicated. I was born a Unitarian (just before the merger), raised a Unitarian Universalist, was introduced to Universalism at age 12 or so by Bob Needham, a lifelong Universalist — and eventually I began to think of myself as a Universalist. Actually, Lindsay Bates and I had similar religious journeys — she too was born in a Unitarian church, grew up Unitarian Universalist, and became more Universalist in her outlook. Lindsay and I used to argue about Universalism, though, because she was a restorationist, and I was a “death-and-glory” Universalist. Both of us, though, belonged to the unitarian (small “u”) tradition of Universalism. So at this point in my life, I guess I’d call myself a Universalist, or maybe a Unitarian Universalist, where “unitarian” is the modifier and “universalist” is the noun. Anyway….
As for Universalist vs, Unitarian pacifists, I’ve never really thought about it before you mentioned it. It seems to me that neither the Unitarians, and Universalists, nor the Unitarian Universalists have produced many pacifists. I can think of two Universalist pacifists, Clinton Lee Scott and Clarence Skinner — one Unitarian pacifist, John Haynes Homes — one pacifist who affiliated with both the Unitarians and the Universalists, Adin Ballou — and one Unitarian Universalist pacifist, Dana McLean Greeley (my minister in my teens and twenties).
When I said I was a Universalist pacifist, it was more of a feeling statement than a carefully-thought-out statement. I feel a small connection to Adin Ballou, because two of my mother’s great-grandparents belonged to Adin Ballou’s Hopedale community, and right down to her mother’s generation remained affiliated with the Women’s Alliance of the Hopedale Unitarian church. (They were originally Rogerenes, a pacifist religious group, and reportedly went to Hopedale when the Rogerene community began to fade away.) Even though Ballou ended up as a Unitarian, he started out as a Universalist, so irrational though it may be, I guess I think of him as Universalist. Maybe it’s the Ballou name, too.
There’s also some serious theological thought involved in calling myself a Universalist pacifist. My kind of Universalism is nicely summed up in the phrase that you see on the altar table of the outdoor chapel at Ferry Beach, the Universalist conference center in Maine — “God Is Love.” “God” has been interpreted both metaphorically and literally by Universalists. I like to trace the origins of the phrase back to the ethical teachings of Jesus, without getting into ontological arguments about the exact meaning of “God.” The theological point being that it’s all about love — the universal love implied in the word “agape” — and then I derive pacifism from that ethical underpinning of love.
But I also have to admit that one of the biggest influences on my pacifism was Dana McLean Greeley (whom I count as a Unitarian Universalist, since he was after all the first president of the UUA). Greeley made the point in his preaching that in the nuclear age, pacifism is really the only tenable position. This is a pragmatic pacifism, not an idealistic pacifism, that says figuring out how to end war is about the only way we can ensure human survival. Greeley worked tirelessly on building international cooperation, and that seems to be to be the best approach in this historical moment. And by pragmatic, I mean really pragmatic — I once knew a Unitarian Universalist naval officer who said he went into a military career precisely because he was a pacifist. Although we approached it from two very different starting points, he and I mostly agreed regarding our pragmatic pacifism.
I met Greely at the Bedford Church. He showed me around one evening. I was doing some work at nearby Hanscom AFB and stayed in Bedford. I was walking around after dinner and saw the lights on in the Church. I had been attending the UU Church in Arlington VA and was interested in Unitarian and Universalist History. Greely was gracious and gave me a tour. Pretty certain he was Greely.
I’m not a Pacifist but value the Pacifist stand. I don’t think many UUs understand the history within the Church. War’s happen and the story of Taft and Stephen Haynes Holmes recalled and that’s about the extent of it. Your post above the exception but maybe I haven’t followed UUs much lately.