Unitarian Universalists [UUs] have almost as many views of Jesus Christ as are imaginable, but most of them see Him as a good man with good teachings, not so different from the good and wise men in all ages. There is one consensus about Christ, however, which seems to find universal UU agreement; He is not a divine, atoning Savior.

Parker, who originally made the previous statement at his May 19, 1841, Boston lecture, actually began the lecture by quoting Luke 21:33, where Jesus said, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away"! For most UUs today Jesus’ words have passed away and have little if any relevance.

By accepting the discredited methods and findings of higher criticism and the Jesus Seminar, most UU ministers and laypeople today believe that they can know little if anything about the "real" Jesus. Therefore, they are free to reinvent Him in any form they wish. The average UU person is not interested in the compelling historic evidence for the biblical portrait of Jesus, but only in whatever he or she wants to believe.

The history of Universalism indicates continued disagreement among its members as to what sin is, whether it exists and whether it could or should be punished by God. Some early UU people insisted that the death of Christ made all punishment of sin unnecessary. Most contemporary religious UU people, if they believe in sin and the afterlife at all, think people are punished for sins only while on earth by the natural consequences of their own mistakes. Others may hold to a purgatorial view.

Regardless, in UU, salvation (if we may use the term) is not from sin and God’s wrath against it, but from whatever human conditions prevent individual self-fulfillment. This may be referred to in political, sexual, economic, environmental, gender, social or global categories. People need to be saved from the harsh realities of an imperfect world, not from an infinitely righteous God whose holiness demands a judgment upon humans that sin. In one sense (presupposing UU views on ethics and good character), salvation can be achieved by improvement in personal character through sincere effort.

In 1803 the Universalists adopted the Winchester Profession, which became the expression of Universalist doctrine. It used the phrase "salvation by character," which has continued to this day.

The UU view of "salvation," then, means complete trust in one’s own resources and ability to save oneself from whatever one does not like, while God’s concerns as to the nature and method of salvation are discarded (Gal. 1:6-9; Rom. 3:28). Argow argues: "The concept of original sin and the doctrine that human beings have to be saved from the consequences of that sin are utterly foreign to the thinking of religious liberals.... ‘Salvation by character’ as Unitarian Universalists sometimes call it... is at once their faith and their aim."¹⁰

Mendelsohn, referring to good works in general, and faith in man in particular, concludes; "This is what we mean when we say we believe in salvation by character. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say, salvation is character, for we do not mean that character saves a man from the flames of an imaginary hell or for the bliss of an equally imaginary heaven. We do not profess to know the precise dimensions of immortality."¹¹

Since UU has no absolute standard for right and wrong, "sin" can only be considered in relative terms. People decide for themselves what sin is or is not, or even if sin is real. What is sin to one person may be joy to another. For those UU who do believe in sin, sin is "atoned" for by character and good works. The good works typically involve social and cultural reconstruction: radical education; liberal ideas of criminal justice; animal, abortion, and homosexual rights; and so on. Unfortunately, they seem oblivious to the social and moral destruction that such ideas have wrought upon society.

Since many UU followers are secular humanists and materialists and believe that this life is all there is, such concern with social action, however misguided by UU philosophical premises, is understandable. However, with no clearly defined sense of God’s judgment upon sin in the next life, there is obviously little concern with "saving" someone’s soul in this one.

But UUs have no desire whatever for sharing the truth about Christ’s death on the Cross for our sins. The following statement by one UU theologian illustrates UU views on the atonement of Christ: "No scapegoat can carry away the sin and punishment. No Savior can carry away the sin and punishment. No Savior can bear the penalty in our place."¹⁸ Thus, "Salvation is universal. People are capable of infinite improvement, liberalism asserts. When we raise ourselves onto a higher moral and spiritual plane, through living the exalted precepts of our religion, we are achieving our own salvation. By striving we are capable to build in ourselves, through noble works, an increasingly better character."¹⁹

A leading Unitarian, William Ellery Channing, "the Colossus of American religious liberalism," declared in his May 5, 1819 address that the idea of Christ’s atonement was the most pernicious of errors.

Perhaps this was the problem: UU people never learned of the biblical Jesus.

For UU people generally it is apparently too demeaning personally to believe that they or mankind generally should ever need an atoning Savior. "We are never Christians as he was the Christ, until we worship, as Jesus did, with no mediator, with nothing between us and the Father of all."²³ This kind of spiritual pride betrays a pretentiousness and lack of trust in God. It illustrates why Jesus emphasized, "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 18:3). "If you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins" (John 8:24).

Emerson stated what is a common belief among many UUs today, concerned as they are with social action and justice.

Indeed, prefiguring New Age teaching, Unitarian Universalists believe that we only obey God when we obey ourselves. God has no meaning apart from Man. "For me, the Eucharist is experiencing what Christ experienced: the willingness to pay any price, even death to maintain integrity and to make the claim, ‘I am God.’"²⁸ UU minister Richard Fewkes asserts: "The divinity of Christ points to the divinity in humankind.... A difference in degree, perhaps, but not a difference in kind or nature.... Perhaps all of us can also learn to respect the same divinity in all people, including ourselves. Christ’s declaration, ‘I and my Father are one,’ becomes the birthright of all humanity."²⁹

For UU followers, human reason and logic provide the tools for judging what may or may not occur after death. Many UUs have attacked the idea of heaven and hell as immoral. This was the view of William Ellery Channing (1780-1842), the leader of New England Unitarianism. Seeming to deny that one can come to love God because of His love and holiness, Hosea Ballou, a contemporary of Channing and—according to UU historian Cassara— "the greatest thinker produced by the Universalist movement," declared that "the preaching of future rewards and punishments, for the purpose of inducing people to love God and moral virtue, is not only useless, but pernicious."³⁰

However, the Bible teaches that the very reason we love God is because He loved us first (1 John 4:19). In addition, many biblical passages teach that God is going to reward those who love Him far beyond what they can ever imagine, so the preaching of future rewards is also an inducement to love God. Further, preaching divine judgment is clearly an inducement to moral virtue and has been for 2,000 years. Even Jesus taught it!

Further, "Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness" (Heb. 12:10).

In a 1966 National Opinion Research Center questionnaire, only 10.5 % of UU people polled stated a belief in personal existence after death, reflecting their rationalist and humanist presuppositions.³⁵ Today this figure would probably be much larger, a result of the increasing influence of NDE (Near Death Experience) research, parapsychology, the New Age and Eastern religious and occult ideas on UU.³⁶

Regardless, the average UU member seems much more concerned with this life than any possible next life. Reflecting evolutionary presuppositions, he believes death is a normal part of life, not something abnormal. Whatever may be the case after death, man secures immortality in the lifestream of humanity, not necessarily in his own continued personal existence. Reverend Tom Owen-Towle, of the First Unitarian Church in San Diego, stated that "death is not only real and natural, but it seems to me to be eminently desirable." Speaking of the "glory of life" and the "majesty of death," he stated that "both forces are holy." (And in a typical caricature of heaven, he said that it was boring, being characterized by a "terrible constancy with no further growth nor change taking place."³⁷

The following statement by one UU minister suggests an openness to the occult through subjectivism and a responsiveness to generalized transcendence:

Other UU followers are more openly New Age, as indicated by the large percentage (46 %) classifying themselves as humanist (religious as opposed to secular humanism has a strong New Age connection) and over 20 % classifying themselves as theist, mystic or Buddhist.

40 Sermon transcript, "What’s Religious About Us?" p. 3, Rev. Thomas Owen-Towle, Feb. 4, 1979, First Unitarian Church of San Diego.