Hi Friends,

Last September I sent out an email inviting people to join me in a class that would, I said, “Turn Your Life (and your Church) Outward.” Please click on the image above or here to watch the promotional video for the class. I promise you it’s worth 90 seconds of your time.

Take note that the difference between “being inward” and “being outward” depends on whether we see others as people or as objects. And note further that there are three ways we see people as objects: seeing them as opportunties to use for getting our way, seeing them as problems who prevent us from getting what we want or disregarding them as irrelevant to our private world.

I did not know back in September that we would be entering into our present disagreement about identity. But I was certain that the class had the potential to transform our Unity culture in ways that are vividly portrayed in the video. It certainly changed me. And, now that nine Unity ministers, two Licensed Teachers and two lay persons have finished our course, I am more confident than ever about our ability to overcome divisions.

I don’t know anyone in Unity who wants Unity to identify as Christian more than me. I have devoted nearly 15 years to providing a gateway so that people in churches find and explore the teachings of Myrtle and Charles Fillmore. Regardless of how Unity branding may affect your ministry, Unity’s explicit rejection of Christian identity didn’t help my ministry at all.

I asked to be ordained three years ago. I didn’t ask to be ordained because I agreed with what Unity was teaching. Nor did I ask to be ordained to teach all sorts of non-Fillmore materials that others were teaching. I asked to be ordained so I could help Unity ministries be more attractive to people in churches. So I threw myself into getting the Fillmore Study Bible out, I spent $40,000 getting them printed and I have chosen to make Unity ministries the primary distribution channel.

But it makes no sense to see UWM board members as opportunities for me to get my way. It makes no sense to see Unity universalists as problems who prevent me from being a better metaphysical Christian. And it makes no sense to be in a community where I see large groups of others as irrelevant. If I see others as objects then I have lost any authentic claim that Fillmore teachings have something to teach people in churches.

Further, I have learned that the Unity movement itself is not an opportunity, nor is it a problem or irrelevant. The course taught me that Unity is not a marketplace to sell books, to provide an income or to promote a non-Fillmore teaching. Nor is it a place for me to throw rocks at people with whom I disagree. If I see Unity as an object then I can no longer claim, as I have claimed, that Unity is a Sacred Canopy.

So I’m stuck. So are you.

Here is my point. The task before us in Unity is setting aside our judgments long enough for us to be able to see the humanity in each other. Our problem isn’t Christianity. Our problem is judgment. It is as simple as that.

Most people think Myrtle Fillmore was healed of tuberculosis. I don’t see it that way. What really healed Myrtle Fillmore was her release of judgment impressed upon her from excessively negative 19th century evangelicalism. Once EB Weeks convinced her that she did not inherit that sickness—judgment—Myrtle Fillmore experienced healing.

All of us should do the same.

Here is a Forgiveness Prayer from Brenda Takahashi, one of the two lay people in the class we have just concluded:

God Almighty creator of the Universe, I come to You seeking harmony, holding no one in bondage to a duty or desiring penalty for their errors.
Whatever the error, it resides in the past, and I live forever in the now.
I want no revenge or vengeance.
I seek to conduct myself as a channel of Divine Love, Life and Light.
Harmlessness is now the keynote of my life:
   —Harmlessness in thought and speech.
   —Harmlessness in emotional reaction.
   —Harmlessness in actions.
Let the thoughts I broadcast to the world help, heal, and hasten spiritual harmony.
I forgive everyone who has ever trespassed against me.
I free all those for whom my selfhood declares they owe me debts of duty and love.
I release everyone: my parents, spouse, children, relatives, friends, colleagues, and society.
Going forward, no one owes me anything; my relationships are non-binding commitments for Thy greatest good.
What others give out of love and purpose, I cheerfully receive, without mandates of obligation.
God Almighty! I forgive myself as you have already done.   — Amen

Thank you, Brenda.

Wednesday, January 24, 2024

1. 10.28.2023 | Bren Takahashi