Unitarians, Come Out!

Must a Unitarian be a Christian? The question has bubbled through Unitarianism for years (temperatures reached new highs last May when the monthly Christian Register changed its name to the Unitarian Register). Last week another vote for the negative was cast when the temporary pastor of Washington's influential All Souls Church used his Sunday sermon to bow out of Christianity.

The Rev. Ralph W. Stutzman, 29, who came to Unitarianism from the Evangelical-United Brethren Church and served as assistant to All Souls' late, famed Pastor A. Powell Davies, rejected for himself even the loose definition of Christian as one who tries to follow the teachings of Jesus. "Which Jesus should I follow--the one who said 'Turn the other cheek. Love your enemies.' or the one who said 'Do not think that I have come to bring peace, but a sword'?"

Unitarians have "come out of" a Christian tradition, Stutzman admitted, "but now I think it is time for Unitarians to face the fact that we have come out ... If civilization lasts another ten years, the world is going to need a denomination like Unitarianism in the midst of the Christian western world. As the major religions of the world begin really to rub shoulders, men of foreign countries are going to find Christianity to have an obnoxious air of superiority."

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