Remarks upon Receiving the 2011 Charles Fillmore Award

My notes say, “Be sure to thank Unity Worldwide Ministries, your family, your co-workers and students at Unity Institute, the people who read your books and columns… etc. Unity is a vast pool of spiritual wisdom and love. A lot of great people have received this award in the past; so make humble noises.”

I want to thank my students—past and present—who are here tonight. How many members of the "Order of the Tiger are here?" (Loud cheering) They’ll explain to you what that means later.

I also want to thank the members of my twice-monthly congregation at Unity of the Lakes, Warsaw, Missouri. And I promised Toni Lapp I would urge everybody to subscribe to Unity Magazine.

If you have read my column in Unity Magazine, you know I make it very clear that I do not speak FOR the Unity Movement. But tonight, I’m going to lean out this window of opportunity you have opened for me, and speak TO the Unity Movement…for a few minutes. For better or for worse, you have given this year’s Charles Fillmore award to a theologian, and I want to speak to you about the value of doing theology in everyday life.

Theology is critical reflection about spiritual ideas, especially those which originate within a community of faith. We are Unity. We believe in the One Power/One Presence, and that gives us common ground. But if we think that means there will be uniformity of thought, we have not learned the lessons of history. What religious or spiritual movement has ever been able to define itself so adequately that everyone says, “Yes! That’s who we are and what we believe!” and the next generation, and the next, and the next—all agreed?

Even when our best thinkers write their books, all they can give us is a snapshot, a comprehensive expression of the ideas current in their time. We learned about human equality from Martin Luther King, Jr., even though Jesus and the Apostle Paul proclaimed the fundamental oneness of all people two thousand years ago. “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”

We learned about women’s right and gay rights from folks who challenged our thinking. When we reflect on what all that means for a person of faith, we are doing theology.

The historical record shows that Unity’s co-founders reveled in theological dialogue about their spiritual goals. We actually have the Fillmores on record engaging in theological discourse in the early stages of their developing thought, even before they were married. When Charles Fillmore courted Myrtle Page late in the nineteenth century, they carried on a zesty cross-country correspondence. Today they would have exchanged e-mail and text messages. Across the miles their letters traveled, and sometimes they sparred about religious ideas.

One letter to Charles, dated September 1, 1882, contains the following eyebrow-raised retort from the future Mrs. Fillmore. Myrtle writes to Charles:

"You question my orthodoxy? Well, if I were called upon to write out my creed it would be rather a strange mixture. I am decidedly eclectic in my theology—is it not my right to be? Over all is a grand idea of God, but full of love and mercy."

I like that. “…decidedly eclectic in my theology…” Meaning she reserved the right to pick and choose those ideas which worked for her. I wonder if Charles ever questioned her orthodoxy again?

We have a glimpse of the way Charles Fillmore did theology when teaching a class. In The Story of Unity James Dillet Freeman says:

Often in his classes, a student would be answering a question and Mr. Fillmore would ask, “Where did you get that idea?”
The student would reply, “I read that in such-and-such a Unity book, Mr. Fillmore.”
“Are you sure?”
“Certainly, Mr. Fillmore, that is right out of page so and so.”
“You know,” he would say, “that is not exactly right,” and then he would go on to explain the point in a way that clarified it.”

Freeman continues:

“Often in his classes, he would interrupt his students, when they were quoting him, with the question, “But what do YOU think about it?”

James Dillet Freeman summarized Charles Fillmore’s teaching style with these words:

“The main aim of his teaching was to get his students to think Truth through for themselves. He knew that only out of free discussion would students arrive at an understanding of Truth that was in their own language.”

Mr. Fillmore stood firmly in the tradition of progressive thinkers who understood the need for ongoing theological dialogue. The great 20th century liberal minister, Harry Emerson Fosdick, challenged mainstream Christianity to continually re-think its deepest beliefs. Fodsick wrote:

"The fact that astronomies change while the stars abide is a true analogy of every realm of human life and thought, religion not least of all. No existent theology can be a final formulation of spiritual truth."

Astronomies change, the stars abide. Biologies change, but evolution presses onward. Religious ideas change, and God—One Presence, One Power—expresses through us, and in us, and as us, in eternal truths which are eternally re-thought. That is what theology is all about. It give you the tools to re-think the great questions…and the little ones, too.

I challenge you tonight with the same words I address to my students at Unity Institute: Follow the example of the Fillmores. Be “decidedly eclectic” in your theology. Describe before you prescribe. Think critically and honestly. Turn every idea upside down to see if there is an expiration date stamped on the bottom. Learn the joy of disagreeing agreeably.

Do not seek uniformity; it is not possible.

Do not attempt to find THE Unity answer to every question, but find A Unity answer that works for you. Be "decidedly eclectic" in your theology. It is your right to be.

Express your credo with complete freedom of thought, centered in the One Presence, One Power. And remember, there are many, many ways to understand what that magnificent idea means.

We are not a set of doctrines; we are a movement.

We are not a teaching; we are a way of life.

We are not limited to our Christian heritage; yet we are under no obligation to abandon the Christian heritage just because some of the noisy friends of Jesus have decided they get to define what it means to be a Christian. Do not let the conservatives define the faith for you.

Unity is Practical Christianity, which is the term Charles Fillmore used for his work all the days of his life. I like to say we are culturally Christian, spiritually unlimited.

So, be not afraid.

Trust your gifts.

Pray any way that works for you. No one has been appointed the prayer police. Talk to God or as God or from God—whatever works is true for you.

And “the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

Thank you for this great honor you have given me tonight. I pray to be worthy. Amen. Shalom. Maranatha. Allah u’ Akbar. Namaste.