On this day in the middle of the 18th century, the “Father of American Unitarianism” Reverend Jonathan Mayhew delivered a sermon on social justice that would later be called “the spark that ignited the American Revolution.”

The sermon itself had a rather cumbersome title, A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers, but its message was simple: rulers have the right to reign only so long as their reign is just.

The phrase “submission to higher powers” is a reference to Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans — a key text used by those who supported the Divine Right of Kings — which contains the language: “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.”

Mayhew used rational exegesis to demonstrate that this text could not morally bind people to unlimited submission to an immoral king.

Mayhew’s sermon was called the Spark by John Adams, himself named the “ablest advocate and champion” of American independence by Thomas Jefferson. Of course, Adams might be excused his enthusiasm for Mayhew as a fellow Unitarian Christian, but the critical influence of this single clergyman is undeniable.

Mayhew is also credited with the sermon that started the Stamp Act Riots, and for popularizing the talking point “No Taxation Without Representation” — perhaps America’s first soundbite — which now appears on the license plates of residents of our nation’s capital.

Fighting Rewritten History
&
Debunking Scriptural Arguments

The Spark sermon was even more cumbersomely subtitled With some Reflections on the Resistance made to King Charles I, And on the Anniversary of his Death, In which the Mysterious Doctrine of that Prince’s Saintship and Martyrdom is Unriddled, in reference to the 100-year anniversary of the execution of King Charles.

Many monarchists in Mayhew’s day were hailing Charles as a saint, and calling his execution “martyrdom.” Mayhew’s refutation of this, and of the Divine Right of Kings in general, was a run-away best-seller when published, both in America and Great Britain.

Before Mayhew, foes of the Divine Right of Kings made academic and philosophical arguments against it. However, the doctrine itself was not propped up by academic and philosophical arguments, and thus their assaults resulted in (to use artillery lingo) no effect. Essentially, the intellectual detractors of this tyrannical theory of government were talking past the bulk of the argument and, despite their claims to rationalism, failing to understand the psychology and sociology of rhetoric.

Mayhew’s surgical strike against the scriptural arguments used to insulate immoral government, however, resulted in a political bull’s eye. He didn’t sidestep or denigrate the source of the argument; he analyzed it respectfully and found a different and deeper answer than the superficial exegesis used to prop up systemic oppression.

It is a lesson from the 18th Century that those who seek justice, truth, and freedom in the 21st Century would do well to heed.

The bad reputation of Genseric and his Vandals is a good example of history being written by the victors.

This is not to say that the Spear King and his armies were saints, particularly by the moral standards of the 21st Century. However, compared to the “ecclesiastical mafia” of Trinitarian saint Athanasius* or the cultic totalitarianism of Theodosius “The Great” who declared Nicene Christianity the only permissible religion in the Empire, Genseric was a bleeding-heart liberal of the ancient world.

For example, when Genseric conquered Carthage, he exiled Catholic elites but allowed Catholics among the common people to practice their religion, and established a progressive revenue system that lightened the tax burden of the common people while taxing the conquered elites.

Not exactly the profile of a cruel, rampaging barbarian.

And, despite the nasty slanders his Vandals suffer for their conquest of the Eternal City, accounts of Genseric’s brutal sacking of Rome are little more than ethnic and sectarian propaganda on the parts of Romans and Trinitarians. In fact, Genseric’s forces seized only material goods, leaving the city and its inhabitants largely unmolested to honor a deal made with Trinitarian Pope Leo I.

Truth be told, Genseric’s navies did engage in piracy during his reign, a sad practice that survived among naval forces into the Early Modern era. Despite this blot on his character, however, Genseric is remembered as one of the last great leaders of Unitarian Christianity, relatively tolerant of Trinitarian lay worshipers in an age when their highly organized leaders were scheming to eradicate “Taproot” Christianity with the vicious force of Imperial violence.

Genseric died on 25 January 477, and the 7th Day of Action is set aside for his remembrance.

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* In the words of scholar of the early church Timothy Barnes.

But, Henry Knox was also a soldier during the American Revolution, commissioned a Colonel by George Washington and tasked with bringing 60 tons of artillery from Crown Point and Ticonderoga in upstate New York to the Seige of Boston, a journey of 300 miles over unimproved terrain.

To make Knox’s mission even worse, as he made his way toward the coast, snow began covering the ground. Knox refused to see the heavy snowfall as a hindrance, instead seeking in it some opportunity. Rather than plowing through the snow, he put the cannon on sleds and slid them over it.

It may seem out of place to celebrate a military maneuver as an act of piety, but by accommodating providence rather than resisting it Henry Knox exemplified the spirit of “Thy Will Be Done.” The arrival of these cannon in Boston a mere 56 days after their departure has been described as miraculous, but it was in fact the wise action of Henry Knox that achieved what many believed could not be achieved, by applying his God-given reason to a God-given blessing that others might have seen as a curse.

Today, on the 6th Day of Action, we celebrate Knox’s achievement.

According to legend, this family immigrated to Rome to give aid to persecuted Christians, including providing proper burial for those martyred.

For this offense, they were tortured and, when they refused to turn away from Christianity, executed: the men were beheaded and burned while Martha was drowned in a well.

This holy day is particularly honored for bringing together peoples of different cultures, nationalities, and social circumstances; for commemorating a marriage based on a mutual sense of mission; and for exemplifying (in the fire/water imagery of their martyrdom) the symbolism of complementary virtues so central to “Tap Root” Christianity’s moral system, yet usually glossed over in what could be called Shallow Root and even Deep Root churches.

Remember this day their bravery in the face of oppression, and their devotion to each other, to their convictions, and to universal justice.

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[This is a repost from an earlier Feast of the International Family]

But Martin Luther King is significant to AUR for other reasons, not only in his ecumenical attitude, but also the purity of the way he spoke of God’s relationship with Creation and his commitment of character to the will of God.

The Unity of Moral and Natural Law

Dr. King is important to AUR not merely for his clearly God-inspired I Have A Dream and I’ve Been To The Mountaintop speeches, not merely for his powerful work for the poor and oppressed, but in his insistence that moral and spiritual laws were as much a part of the structure of the universe as physical law. For example, after visiting India he said:

In a real sense, Mahatma Gandhi embodied in his life certain universal principles that are inherent in the moral structure of the universe, and these principles are as inescapable as the law of gravitation.

So many who claim monotheism nevertheless speak of God as an alien in His own Creation, where moral law is in constant bitter conflict with natural law. This Manichean vision of religion confesses the falsity of its “god” and its ignorance of the God of Creation.

For true monotheists, God’s law is the law by which Creation is made, and its progress toward righteousness is inherent in the fabric of nature. While never denying the harsh realities of the world, Dr. King nevertheless asserted* that “the long arc of history bends toward justice.”

God’s law and natural law are ultimately one. For the true monotheist, they must be.

Before his assassination on Thursday, 4 April 1968, Martin Luther King also exemplified the commitment of character which is central to AUR soteriology. During his Mountaintop speech, King recognized the bitter cup before him, was honest about his desire to have it taken from him, but drank it down nevertheless.

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will.

Memphis was King’s Gethsemane, and his emulation of “Thy will be done” was impeccable.

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* Paraphrasing Unitarian minister Theodore Parker, who said: “I do not pretend to understand the moral universe, the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways. I can calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. But from what I see, I am sure it bends toward justice.”

The final six days are dedicated to Nika Week, in honor of a moment of defiance in Constantinople during Christianity’s slow slide into the Dark Ages following the adoption of Trinitarianism. 

This year, Nika Week begins on the Ultimate Thursday of the dozenal, an extra special occasion!

During the Byzantine Empire, there were four major factions, based not only on political and religious differences but also focused intensely upon sports teams, particularly charioteers. These factions were identified primarily by colors: Whites, Reds, Blues, and Greens.

By the time of Emperor Justinian in the 6th Century, the only factions with any influence were the Blues, who favored the Emperor and the wealthy, and the Greens, who supported the common people. Another critical distinction was that the Greens were Monophysites, meaning they believed that the human will of Jesus was absorbed in the divinity of Christ, while the Blues held to the Chalcedonian dogma being imposed on the common people from above: that Jesus was simultaneously fully human and fully divine.

In 532, both the Blues and Greens had become so dissatisfied with Justinian that they joined forces, first to demand the pardon of a Blue and a Green accused of murder. Then, during a chariot race in Constantinople’s Hippodrome, the two sides set aside their partisanship, exchanging their competing shouts of “Blue!” and “Green!” for a unified chant of “Nika! Nika! Nika!”

Nika (νίκα) is Greek for “Conquer!”

The united Blues and Greens assaulted the palace, demanding Justinian unseat unpopular appointees. Finally, from their gathering place in the Hippodrome, they declared a new Emperor, Hypatius, from among the Greens.

Fearing for his life, the Emperor nearly fled the city. Instead, however, Justinian sent a bribe of gold coins to the Blues with a reminder that the man they had chosen to replace him was a Green. After conferring among themselves, the Blues suddenly fled the Hippodrome in the middle of Hypatius’s coronation. After the Blues were gone, Imperial troops flooded in, slaughtering the Greens.

About 30 thousand were killed during the Nika Riots, which ultimately failed. After nearly a century of (not always peaceful) coexistence between Chalcedonian and Monophysite Christianity, Justinian had books that were believed to support Monophysitism condemned to force the people to submit to Chalcedonian ideology. In order to consolidate his control, Justinian forcibly detained and eventually banished Pope Vigilius, partly for his refusal to participate in the Second Nicene Council of Constantinople which affirmed absolute Imperial command over the church and its doctrines.

Still, the Nika Riots stand out as a moment of unity against tyranny that should be honored and remembered, even as we also remember the fragility of such an alliance in the face of greed, partisanship, and the lust for ecclesiocratic power.

Not only was John Hancock a prominent Unitarian Christian, but he has become iconic in American culture for a single, famous act that has out-shined (or over-shadowed, depending on your point-of-view) everything else he did during the Revolution: he signed his name almost absurdly large on the Declaration of Independence.

He has become so iconic, in fact, that his name has become slang for “signature.”

The moral lesson to be drawn from the icon of Hancock is the importance of committing oneself publicly to a good cause, regardless of the consequences. At the time, Hancock’s signature was an act of sedition, and he was putting his own life at risk. By making his decision known in such a public and non-repudiable manner, he was enacting a sort of ritual, the same sort we see at weddings, confirmations, and in oath-taking like that in presidential inaugurations.

Having good ideas and good intentions are not enough for progress. Life is a contest, and one must be willing to go further in the pursuit of good than those who are pursuing evil and oppression.

Putting one’s name on the line, so to speak, is an important first step: a no-turning-back moment in which today’s courage and commitment helps us weather tomorrow’s doubts and fears. It also can be seen as freely and consciously volunteering for peer pressure, bettering one’s future self by enlisting the help of others and one’s natural, human social instincts.

By signing his name in such a bold and defiant manner, John Hancock was engaging in the 18th Century version of a life hack, but a life hack with a moral end in mind. By putting pen to paper, he was also putting his person to purpose.

Today is a day to remember the importance of public ritual, the dynamic relationship of freedom and commitment, and the necessity of engaging ourselves and human nature in the pursuit of moral progress.

Happy John Hancock Day!

[This post has been published previously]

St. Lucian was also the subject of a Notional Reform Unitarian Church image here at the AUR blog.

Not only was Lucian tortured and persecuted by the Romans for years, but his teachings were corrupted after his death by conflationist heretics attempting to reshape the honored Church Father in the mold of Trinitarianism. He was martyred on this day in 312 CE.

[Defiance Thursday will be on 31 January this year.]

Taking a narrative view of ritual, Unitarian Reform collects all of the birth-related events together in the Advent/Christmas season, reserving the stories of Jesus’ adulthood for the more solemn Lenten season.*

For this reason, Reform Unitarian Epiphany — closing out the Christmas season — commemorates the Adoration of the Magi and Shepherds, celebrating the universality of the Christian message, from high priests to herders, and from Jesus’ fellow religionists to representatives of a completely different ethno-religious tradition.

The local Jewish shepherds create a spiritually and morally significant contrast to the foreign Magi, high priests of Zoroastrianism: both the breadth of cultural idiom and the heights of socioeconomic class are bridged in their Adoration. As the shepherds were guided by an angel who spoke to them, while the Magi were guided by a star they studied, these two visitations also represent personal and impersonal idiomatic approaches to truth.

May you have a Joyous Epiphany!

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* The Temple-related events of Jesus’ childhood, including his presentation and later disputation, are collectively celebrated on Candlemas, the first Thursday in February.

[An earlier version of this article was posted on Epiphany, 2010]