Freedom, Reason and Whatever

The Unitarian Holy Trinity: Freedom, Reason and Whatever

So the Christians have Father, Son and Holy Ghost and the Unitarians have, well, “Freedom, Reason and Tolerance.” 

Not as well known a threesome as “Faith hope and charity,” “Peace, order and good government.” or the French revolution cry of Liberté, égalité, fraternité or the American call for “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  When you type the first two words of most of these into your search bar, the third shows up. Not so with “freedom reason” – 

Good things come in three’s they say, like the three unnamed witches in the Scottish play. 

Fairy tales are rife with three wishes, three brothers, three pigs. But seven dwarves (like the seven colours of the rainbow), but I’ll leave that for now and get back to trinities. 

A few months ago I was watching the Sunday service over youtube and the minister invoked, “freedom, reason and,” she paused and said “welcoming.”  Odd, I thought. I know that ministerial students have to read and often complain about Earl Morse Wilbur’s history of Unitarianism so I was pretty sure she knew what the third word was supposed to be.  When another congregant noted it, I said, “I think she just went blank for a moment.” That happens. It’s happened to me.  Most parents have called one of their kids by the other kid’s name. Same thing. He thought not. And now I think he was right. 

I just forgot about it, and then last month, from the same pulpit, a different minister, I hear the phrase, “freedom, reason and … acceptance.” What? 

Maybe you’ve heard this too?  If you have, I’d love to hear about it. 

Tolerance is, admittedly, a low bar. Of course I’d rather people were welcoming or accepting of me rather than (perhaps barely) tolerating me. But I’d rather they tolerated me if the choice is between that and “shaming, gaming and blaming,” of which there seems to be a fair bit of going on these days.  I’m a very social person and there are people I welcome, accept and, frankly, tolerate.  

I’d be ok with a sermon pulling apart the etymology of the various words, and proposing we update the phrase.  Turns out I’m something of a traditionalist when it comes to Unitarian history, so if it came for a vote, I’d probably be on the side of keeping tolerance, but I’m open to listening to others’ viewpoints. 

Perhaps it could be an open-ended brainstorming activity: What does everyone think the third word should be? Or even more open, what do you think the best three words are? 

Before we actually had an 8th principle (Only in Canada, you say? Just like Red Rose tea?) ministers sometimes preached about what an 8th principle would be. One of our ministers suggested “Beauty,” and it began a rip-roaring coffee hour conversation for weeks following with many other suggestions.  

But to just switch out the word without any mention of the historical significance of the phrase; without explaining why? Nope. That definitely doesn’t fly with me.

So – If you were going to get to choose the third word to follow “freedom and reason”, what’s your suggestion?

Makes me think of the Alice in Wonderland quote by Humpty Dumpty.  

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.”

Like many Unitarians I’m something of a word-nerd. I’m really impressed with people like, say, Shakespeare or Carl Jung, who invent phrases or even words that then make it in the court of public opinion and enter our language and perhaps even the O.E.D.  So I’m not totally opposed to change. I’m just really fond of process, transparent process.

Reference

“The Unitarian Church Matures and Finds its Mission” By Earl Morse Wilbur