Point/Counterpoint: The YRUU Fish T-shirt
Point
By Sam Trumbull
As a lifelong Unitarian
Universalist (UU), I have worked with many different communities of UUs. My home
church (Bull Run UUs, Manassas, VA) was founded by a group of humanists, and has
often been home to those in loathing of their Christian and Catholic upbringing.
Over the years I have
noticed a tendency of UUs to put down Christian faiths (many of you may have
noticed that the words in our
hymnals have been changed to suit the humanist
UUs). You also may have noticed that Young Religious Unitarian Universalism (YRUU) has taken a stand against cultural
appropriation.
As YRUUers we try to educate ourselves about oppression and how it perpetuates itself. I have heard many workshop leaders speak on appropriation of tribal cultures, Cultures of Color, and many others, but never of appropriation of Christian culture. It's hard for me to go out and tell others about my religion of "respect" and "dignity," because inevitably when I bring someone to a UU church, there is Christian-bashing. It is particularly worse for me at youth conferences.
The biggest offense that I've seen so far was when YRUU started selling a t-shirt this year at General Assembly which mocked a religious symbol used by Christians and others for thousands of years. Some of you may have purchased a green "YRUU-fish" t-shirt. To my current shame, I did too, and I liked it. I liked until I really thought about it and did some research.
The Christian fish symbol come from the Greek Acrostic "ICQUS" which translates into English as "ichthys," the Greek word for fish, and which to many Christians means "Jesus Christ, Son and Savior."
Acrostics were used by religions to identify themselves. In times of Christian oppression (such as during the early Roman Empire), Christians used the fish symbol to designate safe places. Upon meeting one another, common folk who were Christians would first draw one arc in the dirt, and if the other person did so as well (and formed the basic fish shape) they knew this meant they were safe. Beyond that, there are many more symbolic meanings involved with Christianity and the fish (water baptism, etc.); however, it was used by pagans as a fertility symbol centuries before. Some even suggest that the evolution of the Christian fish was from an Egyptian god.
Whatever the case, the fish is not a symbol that Unitarian Universalists as a denomination have any attachment to. The fish that we all see on the backs of cars today, sporting "Darwin" or "Evolution" only serve to degrade a religion's way of expression.
Last time I checked, "respect for the inherent worth and dignity of all people" included Christians too. I want to be able to bring my Christian friends to church, and I want the Christian UUs not to feel like they are excluded from our churches. If YRUU is ever going to help end cultural misappropriation, we need to start with one of our biggest problems--anti-Christian sentiment. Remember, religions do not hurt people; people hurt people. And not all people of a group are the same.
Sam Trumbull, a bridging youth from Dale City, VA, was a member of the 2002-2003 YRUU Steering Committee.
Counterpoint
By Annie Powell
As a lifelong Unitarian Universalist, I've always been aware of my faith's Christian roots, despite how I might feel about contemporary Christianity. Growing up, I was reluctant to explain what UUism was, because I would invariably come to the line, "It used to be two Christian denominations, but it isn't Christian anymore! We don't believe in God or anything." I always made it clear to my friends that UUs aren't evangelists, don't have a dogma, and aren't brainwashed—all of the things that I thought defined modern Christianity. From my peers, and even elders, I learned a sense of repugnant distaste for the words and rituals of strictly theist religions. Many of the adults in my church are former Catholics and Protestants, and they object vehemently to the use of words like "God" and "holy," to the point that Christian symbols and terms have become merely things that we "enlightened” UUs poke fun at.
In my later years of high school—and now in college—I have found a new appreciation for the residual Christianity of our traditions. It's true that many, such as the chalice, flower and water communions, and our open attitude toward sex education are uniquely Unitarian Universalist, but many are based either in the Christian faiths of the people who wrote them or on concrete Christian traditions like bread-and-wine communion. Try as I might in my younger years, it is impossible to deny that Unitarianism and Universalism grew from Protestant Christian roots. We have always been a revolutionary group— the fledgling Unitarians in 19th century America are partially responsible for the Second Great Awakening—and are apt at exploring other paths of faith and holding very different interpretations of them.
While it was difficult for me to come to terms with the Christian heritage and tendencies of my religious home, both in terms of my bad associations and the laundry list of oppression and violence that many denominations have accumulated, it was amazingly rewarding to explore some of the most basic lessons of the man called Jesus and his followers. Wrapped in archaic metaphor, much of the sentiment behind the most famous biblical stories parallels our modern-day Principles. It is easy to see, upon analysis and personal interpretation, how our basic beliefs grew from a liberal, humanist interpretation of biblical parables. Many, like the story of the loaves and fishes, have underlying themes of the importance of community and of giving thanks for what little we have.
In Matthew, chapter 15, Jesus and his disciples come upon a "multitude, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others" in the mountains of Galilee. After healing the injured, Jesus asks his disciples for food with which to feed the assembled crowd, refusing to send them away hungry. Although they have among them only seven loaves of bread and a few fish, Jesus gives thanks for that little amount, and breaks it into enough pieces—miraculously—to feed all of the "four thousand men, beside women and children."
This is one of many sources of the symbol of the fish bearing the word "ICQUS" (translated into the English alphabet from the Greek, this is "ICHTHUS," ancestor of the word "icthus," our English root meaning "fish") The so-called "Jesus fish" is seen today as a popular logo on bumper stickers and jewelry, and holds different meanings for different Christians. Many see it as a symbol of Jesus' divinity, but others take it instead as a symbol for Jesus' teachings on community and thankfulness. It is this interpretation of Christian philosophy - the spirit instead of the letter of the word, if you will - that has lasted through decades of persecution and suppression in the hearts of Unitarians and Universalists. This often unpopular, loose interpretation, along with the beliefs of many others of neighboring faiths, has served as a basis for many of the things that we think of as contemporarily UU. A fish with the letters YRUU replacing ICQTS [on a YRUU t-shirt] reflects the civil union of revolutionary, modern thought and ancient Christian ideals of community that UUism embodies.
Many UUs come to our faith from very non-Christian backgrounds, or simply do not relate to UUism's Christian past for any number of personal reasons. However, Unitarian Universalism is derived from Christian traditions, and many of us claim those roots, good and bad. There is a place in our religion for every faith, Christians very much included. Perhaps by educating ourselves about our history and its philosophical significance, we can draw out an appreciation for the elements of Christianity that survive in our faith, and what they mean.
Annie Powell, a youth from the Bethesda, MD, was a member of the 2003-2004 Steering Committee and currently attends college in Boston.
For more information contact youth @ uua.org.
Last updated on Friday, April 18, 2008.
