In seminary, each class was opened with a short devotion. This usually was a short prayer, sometimes a guided meditation followed by silence; and sometimes it was similar to our candles of joy and concern where students shared their problems or success. Lee Barrett, professor of theology, had his own special way of starting a class. Here is an example:
“Well, God, here we are again, confident that we are pretty profound spiritual athletes. After all, we must be heavy duty religious dudes, because we are enrolled at this fantastic seminary. It is a well-known fact that the admissions office has a special screening process to deny acceptance to the spiritually immature, the superficial, and the worldly-minded. Our admissions officer knows spiritual quality when she sees it, and for this we are thankful. We are especially grateful, Lord, that your spirit has protected us from becoming smug or complacent. Or has it . . .? Admittedly, sometimes we gnash our teeth when our classmates receive more accolades on their exegetical papers than we do. And sometimes we get depressed when our friends’ sermon stir more passion than our own. And by the way, we do want a church with a big steeple . . .
Well, okay, so maybe we aren’t all that spiritually advanced. Maybe we are pretty much just like everybody else, capable of envy, pettiness, and ambition. Give us your spirit, Lord, to remind us that we are just like the people to whom we minister. Amen”
Professor Barrett used humor in his devotions to “wake us up” before class starts. He always started with a hilarious introduction that had us laughing out loud. But before we knew it, we were in the middle of a very serious prayer. This “wake-up call” is in my opinion the best example for the use of humor in a religious setting.
There is an old saying “The devil can’t stand the sound of laughter.” Logic would imply that God laughs the sound of laughter! Already in the 16th century, the English parson and philosopher Robert Burton observed that “Mirth purges the blood, confirms health, causeth a fresh, pleasing and fine colour, whets the whit, makes the body young, lively and fit for any kind of employment.” He continues: “The merrier the heart, the longer the life.” The Burton describes the three greatest doctors in history as “Dr. Quiet, Dr. Diet, and Dr. Merryman.”
Let’s see if this works for you: Listen to my favorite UU joke and tell me how you fell afterwards.
“A traditionally catholic man saves all his life to be able to afford a sports car. Finally he has enough money to buy himself the latest model Lamborghini. He is very happy with his new acquisition, but he has one more wish: he wants his new car blessed. So he drives up tp his church and asks the priest whether he could bless his Lamborghini for him. The father asks: What’s a Lamborghini? When the parishioner explains it, he explodes in anger: “Don’t you know that blessing is a holy sacrament? No way could I bless a profane object like a car!” Unhappily, the man drives off. Although he understands the priest’s reasoning, he still wants a blessing for his life’s dream. So he decides to try a mainstream protestant church – after all, they are supposedly more liberal. However, he gets almost the same reaction. First the pastor asks “What’s a Lamborghini?” and then angrily refuses to bestow a blessing on the car because it would violate the meaning of the sacrament. Desperate, the man now drives to a Unitarian Universalist church. He knocks on the minister’s door, and explained that he has this new Lamborghini, and that he wants . . . But before he can finish the sentence, the minister exclaims: “Wow! Really? A Lamborghini? Can I see it, please???” The man is somewhat surprised, but he takes the minister outside and the walk all around the car. The minister confesses that he had always dreamed of a car like that; and finally asks the man whether he could take it for a ride around the block. “Just once, pleeeease?” Well, the man agrees, and when the return from the drive, the minister is beaming with delight. He turn to the man and asks him what it was he had come to see him about. When the man explained that he wanted a blessing for his car, the minister responds: “I’d love to oblige you – but what’s a blessing?”
Do you feel better or more relaxed now?
Some people are uncomfortable with humor, and feel that in church it is too irreverent. But we do not have to see humor and religion as antagonistic. Humor reminds us of our fragility, our weakness, our humanity. It helps us learn humility. It really is threatening only to the proud, the self-righteous, and the pharisaical who even today are inclined to crucify people who express joy and wit. By the way, an interesting bit of research I came across when writing this sermon: Kids laugh 400 times a day, adults 15 times! What happened?
There are many very appropriate uses for humor in the church. For example, you can use jokes and funny stories to point out when people exaggerate, for example in this joke:
A man was given a tour of hell by the devil. “This is the area where we keep people who have violated the food taboos of their religion” says the Devil. “Behind this door are the Catholics who ate meat on Fridays. Behind the next door are Jews who ate pork. And behind the third door are Unitarian Universalists.” The man looks puzzled. The Devil clarified “They didn’t drink fair-trade coffee.
The exaggeration which makes this story so funny serves as a kind of mirror in which we recognize ourselves. I have another story that reflects a fairly typical UU behavior:
“A visitor to a Unitarian Universalist church sat through the sermon with growing incredulity at the heretical ideas the minister expressed. After the sermon, a member of the congregation asked the visitor: “so how did you like it?”
“I can’t believe half the things the minister said” sputtered the visitor.
“Oh good, then you fit right in!”
Or the following quip on UU Philosophy:
To have a few doubts is normal for the member of any religion.
To have many doubts is a crisis of faith.
To have constant doubts is a conversion to Unitarian Universalism.
By poking fun at something, we might gently raise the awareness of where we might even be a little extreme. For example this famous two-liner:
“Why does the Unitarian Universalist cross the road?”
“To support the chicken in its search for its own path.”
Thus jokes can make you more aware of exaggerations and extremes. It’s a well-know fact that the jokes we like best—or hate most—have at least some truth in them. The following story is a good example:
The copy machine at a UU church is broken. A disaster! It was Sunday, and no repair person could be found. But they desperately needed more copies of the Order of Service! Finally, a technically talented member found the problem. “It’s just out of paper. The flashing box says right here: Replace paper in tray 2. Sheesh, can’t you follow a simple instruction?” If we were the kind of people who follow instructions, we wouldn’t be UU’s!”
This way, humor might even be used to affect change. For example, UU’s sometimes seem to forget that we are a religious movement, as the following story illustrates:
It is show and tell day at the school, and the children were requested to bring an item that represented their religious beliefs. David stands up and says: I am a Jew, and I brought a star of David. Dorothy stands up and says: This is a crucifix, I am Catholic. Jimmy gets up and says: I’m a Unitarian Universalist, and I brought a coffee urn . . .
It is a reality that children are often affected by our lack of religious definition, as we can learn from this story:
A UU family moved into a new neighborhood. Their little girl soon finds a playmate, and they are happily getting to know each other. One day, the playmate says: “We are Episcopalians, what are you?” The UU child thinks for a while, and then says: “I’m not sure, but I think we are League of Women Voters.”
Or a discussion that was overheard at a diner:
Two young people were talking, expressing their dissatisfaction with some aspects of their church. Finally, one of them said: “well, what do Unitarian Universalists believe in?” Without missing a beat, his friend answered: “Recycling.”
Isn’t it much better to use humor to get a message across? Of course I could preach a twenty minute sermon on UU identity, but I’m willing to bet that you will remember the jokes a lot longer than the message of a sermon . . .
Another use for humor is to counteract negative approaches from people of more traditional religious persuasions; for example in the following dialogue:
Person A, a mainstream protestant, says: I hear that you allow all kinds of weirdos in your church, atheists, Buddhists, Pagans . . .”
Person B, a Unitarian Universalist, answers: Oh yes, and Christians too, we are very open-minded.”
Finally, when talking to outsiders who don’t know much about Unitarian Universalism, you can use a joke to explain UU thoughts and actions. You know, what president Sinkford calls our “Elevator Speech.” The light bulb story is a perfect example;
How many UU’s does it take to screw in a light bulb?
We choose not to make a statement either in favor or against the need for a light bulb. However, if you, in your won journey have found that a light bulb works for you, that is fine. You are invited to write a poem or compose a modern dance about your personal relationship to your light bulb and present it next month at our annual light bulb service. We explore a number of light bulb traditions including incandescent, fluorescent, and three-way, long-life and tinted; all of which are equally valid paths to spiritual luminescence.
A famous spiritual advisor of the 19th century, the French abbot Henri de Tourville, gave depressed and stressed out clergy who sought his council the following advice:
“Don’t take yourself too seriously; don’t dwell on your past; don’t look back; don’t waste time and energy analyzing yourself.”
I think what he means is that it’s a good idea to laugh about yourself occasionally. You won’t loose any of your dignity – and you will feel better! By the way, do you know what you get when you cross a Jehovah’s Witness and a Unitarian Universalist? Someone who comes and knocks on your door for no apparent reason.
Of course, it goes without saying that any time you use humor in a presentation or conversation, you want to make sure that your jokes don’t offend or hurt anyone. You can actually use our seven principles and purposes as guidelines. For example, the inherent worth and dignity mentioned in the first principle will obviously steer clear of ethnic jokes and discriminating language. Jokes that are offensive to a group of people, from “dumb blonde” jokes to those with ethnic or racial overtones would definitely violate this principle. Harmful humor also includes jokes that ridicule beliefs and values.
The principle of “acceptance and encouragement to spiritual growth is where our UU jokes come in. Of course, like anyone else, Unitarian Universalists definitely do not like to be categorized as one homogeneous group. However, as we have seen, humor can point to bits of truth and allow us to laugh at our own idiosyncrasies.
That reminds me, we were are talking about coffee earlier. I have a question for you: If you drink decaf coffee, does that make you a UU-Light?
You can use humor to express a concern without reinforcing stereotypes, attacking opponents, or putting down people’s rights to their own beliefs, when you affirm and promote the principle of the “rights of conscience and the democratic process.”
One of my concerns as a minister who has to write sermons for a very diverse, and usually very educated audience, is that there is a danger of being too intellectual. The following story illustrates this quite well. It also might help to explain why some people have a hard time with us UU’s:
In this story, Jesus asks his disciples: “Who do you say I am?” And behold, a Unitarian among them answered and said: “You are the kerygma behind all myth. You are the incarnate logos. You are of one substance and co-eternal with the Father or the Mother, as the case may be. You are the eruption of eternity into the space time!”
And Jesus looked at the Unitarian and said, “What?!”
You can find countless religious jokes on the Internet. Many of them poke fun at UU’s, but no denomination is exempt. The fact that there are so many of those jokes is a clear indication in my mind that there is a spiritual side to laughter.
Rabbi Marc Gellman, you might know him as the funny rabbi in the “God Squad” TV program, and as a Newsday columnist, talks about the necessity for spiritual balance. He says that spiritual balance is more a practice than a belief. His suggestion is this: for every moment you spend thinking of your burdens, your shortcomings, your worries—spend the exact same amount of time thinking about your joys, blessings, and gifts. That’s spiritual balancing.
Rabbi Gellman calls spiritual balancing one of the three secrets of life. I haven’t had time to research the other two, but I won’t worry about it . . .
But can we really relieve our burdens by laughing at religion? Miss Manners, and the “Police of the Politically Correct” might issue a stern warning. But please consider this:
In a world where fundamentalism threatens more than religious freedom, aren’t we compelled to spread the message of tolerance through as many means as possible? And I just know that humor is one really great way to do that.
