Rev. Will Saunders, Co-Minister
Portsmouth UU
October, 2004

Among the central concerns of religious communities east and west is the question of authority. There are four essential sources of authority: tradition, scripture, intelligence and personal experience. One way to characterize religious communities is to refer to the status they give to each of these four sources of authority. Furthermore, tensions within religious communities can often be traced to conflict over issues of authority. In general, western religion has placed greater emphasis on extrinsic authority (tradition and scripture) and eastern religion has placed more emphasis on intrinsic authority (intelligence and personal experience). To find a healthy balance between extrinsic and intrinsic authority, between tradition, scripture, intelligence and personal experience is one of our tasks as individuals and as a faith community. An over-emphasis on one source of authority over the others leads to fundamentalism, whether that be derived from slavery to a tradition, a literal reading of scripture, resistance to anything that does not lend itself to rational explanation or the narcissism of me, me, me, my, my, my.

Unitarian Universalists struggle with finding a healthy balance as much as any other faith community. We struggle to find an inner authority that is well informed by history and culture. Inner authority comes from “experiencing our experiences” in community and making them deeply our own. Mahatma Gandhi said that the spiritual person is one with inner authority and compared that person to a rose. “The rose irresistibly draws people to itself and the scent remains with them. But the scent of a human being is even subtler than that of a rose and should, therefore, be imparted in an even quieter and more imperceptible manner.” A rose does not need to prove itself or convert you to its side. It knows it is a rose. If you have a nose and an eye for beauty, you will recognize the inherent authority of the rose. In fact, its inner authority might be so pressing and demanding that you say to the rose, as did Francis deSales, “Stop shouting!”

People with inner authority recognize their center within themselves. They draw life from this deep source, call it God, wellsprings, soul, whatever. They are called self-starters by educators, self-actualized in the schools of psychology, saints by the Roman Church. Those with inner authority draw life from within because there is a life within – not just laws, principles, ambitions, duties or fears, but life. And they know what wisdom has taught them: you can only build on life. Those with inner authority do not attribute this life to themselves. They know that life is a gift. They seek to give their life away and draw others into it since they know that it cannot be earned, diminished, hoarded or saved. It is not theirs. They do not possess it so much as it possesses them. Muse on the Buddha, Jesus of Nazareth, Gandhi, Dorothy Day, The Dalai Lama, Martin Luther King, Jr., and others that come to mind. Inner authority lets truth speak for itself, allows other ideas to live or die on their own merits, and like love, “takes no pleasure in the sins of others, but delights in the good.” Gandhi called this inner authority “soul force” or satyagraha.

Part of our mission as a faith community is to nurture, support and foster a sense of inner authority for everyone who enters our doors. Together, we encourage each other. We give each other courage to be ourselves, to tap our inner resources, to find our God, to hear a call, to live our faith. This is a mission for us as separate bodies, and it is a mission for us as one body. Would that our witness as a faith community be such that the larger Portsmouth community responds, “Stop shouting!”

See you in Church.