We are the Trolls: Unitarian Universalists in the movie "Frozen"

                Watching Disney’s latest, surprisingly progressive,  blockbuster movie “Frozen” I realized that the Trolls are Unitarian Universalists! Now stay with me for a moment and I’ll explain.

               Kristoff stumbles upon the trolls quite accidently when he is doing something else. So many Unitarian Universalists have done the same. We stumble onto this faith when we are doing something else. And finding our true home we have been adopted into this family as though we always belonged.

And since he belonged from childhood Kristoff knows what he is talking about when he refers to them as love experts shortly after he meets Anna, and when she is injured that is where he takes her. Unitarian Universalists try to raise our children to know they can come to us about anything. And we offer Our Whole Lives programs to teach children what it means to be a human and sexual being on a intellectual, emotional, and physical level. So of course one of our children could consider Unitarian Universalists love experts (and I mean not just a physical and sexual love but love that goes beyond the intimate).

                When Kristoff takes Anna and Olaf to see the trolls they don’t actually believe the trolls exist. How many times have you said you are a Unitarian Universalist only to have someone say: “What’s that?”

                The way to fix problems in people’s lives is with love. And not just intimate love (getting married) but they advocated a community based love.

Lyrics from “Fixer Upper” by Maia Wilson part of the “Frozen” soundtrack.

“Everyone's a bit of a fixer-upper,
That's what it's all about!

Father!

Sister!

Brother!

We need each other
To raise us up and round us out.
Everyone's a bit of a fixer-upper,”

            And we have a spiritual based recognition that no one is perfect but standing on the side of love is always the best option:

Lyrics from “Fixer Upper” by Maia Wilson part of the “Frozen” soundtrack.

“We're not sayin' you can change him,
'Cause people don't really change.
We're only saying that love's a force
That's powerful and strange.
People make bad choices if they're mad,
Or scared, or stressed.
Throw a little love their way.

Throw a little love their way.

And you'll bring out their best.”

            When Anna is first injured by the ice the troll king says heads are easy to convince. But to change hearts requires an act of true love. Love is where true change happens. How many sermons have you heard that could be boiled down to that very subject?

            And last but not least… the trolls are rocks. They don’t go anywhere against their will.

Dismissing the message

      I am Unitarian Universalist. I belong in this faith. I know this to my entire core. Yet there are ways I struggle with feeling welcome. I did not grow up in a household where the adults went to university. My parents divorced before I was a teen. We were fairly poor. So there are things I don't do well. Grammar is one of them. It has long been a challenge  I allowed myself to stop writing this blog out of fear of judgment. How often do we allow that to stop us?

       Communication is important. If I say or write something then and you don't understand what I'm trying to say we are not communicating. This is why grammar matters. It helps us transcend barriers created by written communication. When you and I talk face to face we communicate we are using many different levels of communication, including body language and tone of voice that helps get the point across. Grammar takes the place of all of that, but how often does it create barriers of its own.

         How often does it become a weapon we use against one another? I realized I was allowing it to be a weapon I used against myself. My fear that since my grammar is not perfect I couldn't communicate in this way was very real. How often does the culture we set up in our congregations become a  barrier to people being able to express the fullness of who they are in this faith?

        No one told me I couldn't blog because my grammar is not perfect. Yet I have heard so many little comments, assumptions about the intelligence and/or education of those with imperfect grammar that I stopped expressing myself so I could belong to this community I love. And in doing so I have robbed my community of my voice.

       We speak of a desire, that I believe exists, to be a diverse community, but when we create situations that make people feel ashamed for who we are; when we make it clear there is a "right way" to be Unitarian Universalist we are robbing our community of voices that could help us grow. There are identities that are made invisible in our communities. Every time we talk about helping the poor as though a poor person could not be among us, ever time we talk about people in ways that make someone feel like they are the other we are making them invisible.

       I will not allow my voice, my written voice, to be silent any longer. I will continue to work on my grammar because it is important to communicate as clearly as possible; but I will never be perfect, which is the best thing I have to offer this faith I love.

Mr. Beck's good advice.

Glen Beck gave some good advice recently. I don't know how you feel about him but for me it is the first time I have ever thought... "Hey good idea Glen!" I'll tell you what he said... Glen Beck advised his viewers to look for the words social justice or economic justice on a churches website...

This is where I would like to stop with his advice, because he goes on to counsel leaving a church that works toward social and economic justice. As you might imagine our beliefs diverge at this point.

I think you should look for the words social justice or economic justice on your church's website. One the the biggest things I love about being a Unitarian Universalist is find these words is as easy, if not easier, than finding directions to the church. Our principles call for social justice, and equality. Unitarian Universalism calls for us to hold a deep respect for all life.

The thing is... this is not one of the ways we differ from Christianity. Jesus was a radical! He called for social justice, for caring about people who were poor and mistreated. Jesus wanted us to help each other, to serve the poor and downtrodden. There are more than 300(!!!) verses that address this issue. Here is a sampling -

Luke 3:11. And [John the Baptist] would answer and say to them, "Let the man with two tunics share with him who has none, and let him who has food do likewise."

Mt. 6:2-4. "When therefore you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you."

Luke 4:16-21. And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read... "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He appointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD... Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

1 Tim. 6:10. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang.

Christianity has gone though a lot of growth and change over the years, but social justice and working toward the improvement of others has long been an important part of many Christian denominations.

I don't know what church Mr. Beck thinks you should go to. But I suggest you take his advice and look for the words "social justice" or "economic justice" on it's website. It's the best advice I've heard in a long time.

Tensions

One of the things I didn’t expect to think about (but should have) in seminary is the tension between Christianity and Unitarian Universalism. In my school there is a tension that lies beneath the surface of the school’s struggle to be inclusive. It possibly lies beneath tensions between students and asserts itself sometimes within the classes. Christianity and Unitarian Universalism have common roots, of course Islam shares these same common roots in Judiasm. However the Unitarian and Universalist branches are more recent.

Here is the tension. Are UU’s still struggling to break away? Do some of those who come to Unitarian Universalism do so only to get away from Christianity? Are we a stop on the path of those running from someone or a legitimate destination? Who gets to decide?

It seems like there are two Unitarian Universalisms. (Ever heard that joke, where ever you have 3 UU’s you have 6 differing opinions?) One is the Unitarian Universalism that people find. The other is the one they are born into. Our children, who grow up in the faith have a different experience than those of us who find UUism after having been some place else. In my experience talking to UU kids they don’t have the same kind of Christianity baggage that some of the rest of us do.

I believe that Unitarian Universalism is a path worth running to for some. So is Christianity for some. So why the tension? The ideals of both religions share a love of the neighbor. UU’s are very big on social justice. Jesus was very big on social justice. Believers in either religion do not obtain their own ideals but then who does? Like Unitarian Universalism there is actually a lot of diversity within Christianity. I think there is danger and restriction for both religions in deciding that there is something fundamentally wrong with the other one.

But these answers are easy. Every body play nice kind of answers that even kids don’t quite buy. So what are the answers? I read an article about honoring your parents by taking the best of what you learned from them. By recognizing they are human and without erasing the pain, you can honor their attempts. Maybe the answer lies somewhere in there, UUism as a child of Christianity can honor this parent equally as well as the other parents in our religion, by taking what we learned. By honoring the best that we see in each other. But maybe that’s not quite right either….