I go to a church which “doesn’t believe anything” or “believes everything” or “let’s you decide to believe whatever you want.”  People often say this when I tell them I am a Unitarian-Universalist. To a traditional, dogmatic church (TDC) each of these views might make sense.  None is true, however, from my perspective, and I have spent much of my life in the TDC.  The non-dogmatic religious community or spiritual path is simply something other than the TDC and trying to make comparisons becomes painful.  I want to have a go at understanding the differences, well, differently.

Poetry is better than doctrine in so many ways, but doctrine is so much more popular than poetry.  Let me count the ways.  I love to cook, and when I am preparing to cook a meal—one which promises to be delicious and to quench my current hunger or a particular longing—I have to find the right recipe.  Hopefully, someone has already created the recipe for me and with the internet, I can find exactly what I am looking for.

I read those internet recipes checking off whether I have the needed ingredients or whether I can find them at a nearby store.  As I read the recipes, they go to the box in my brain.  I turn them into pluses or minuses—judgments to be exact—yes or no.  Before long, I’ve gathered the ingredients, made the meal and enjoyed it with my family.  Final judgment:  I love this meal and it should be repeated again, or not.

Poetry does not work this way.  To date, I've never picked up a poem I immediately liked.  I tend to read poems like recipes, looking for ingredients to check off.  Poems don’t work this way, and if you find one that does, then it’s not a poem.

I have to read the poem aloud.  Poetry is never meant to be read silently—not any poem, anywhere, in any language, at any time.  Poetry requires the audible voice in order for human beings to begin to enter into what poetry is.  (Don’t take it from me.  Go find a poem and read it silently to yourself.  Then, read it out loud, three or five or seven times and notice what begins to happen.)  When I begin to read a poem aloud it does not go to the box in my brain.  In fact, I cannot tell where it goes.  Often, the poem goes all over me—all over my body.  A poem, maybe even a part of one poem, may be rushing around my chest and throat.  I cannot speak for the tears that are flooding my eyes.  Another poem may stir lower in my body and I feel like a stag in mating season!  Another makes me tender, or angry, or expands my vision beyond imagination.  Another makes me sad, and only joy can enter my interior space.  Regardless, a poem read aloud multiple times leaves me always more connected—to people, trees, animals, the sky, the earth, the sea.

Poems are always more trouble than a recipe.  They require a different effort and  willingness to be moved, unsettled and changed.

Religious communities and spiritual paths formed around doctrine are serving up recipes.  I don’t offer this as a criticism so much as an observation.  Doctrine works like a recipe.  People come to religious communities and spiritual paths hungry and with needs they want filled.  Doctrines can be read silently and they go straight to the box in the brain where we check things off—yes or no.  When we join TDCs we start cooking with the recipe and make our judgments—repeat, or not?

Enter the few religious communities who do not offer dogmatic doctrines—the non-dogmatic communities (NDC).  Examples include the Unitarian-Universalist Association, The Society of Friends (aka Quakers), some forms of Buddhism, some communities of modern Druids and Eclectic Pagans, new organizations like the Progressive Christian Alliance and even some of the so-called emergent evangelical churches. This is one strange mix to have something in common! These communities require more work than the TDC.  Much like poetry at first glance, they may not offer much appeal if one is viewing them from the TDC perspective.

The NDCs invite people into a space.  They offer them some tools to use in such space.  They are invited to explore: their own lives, meaning in general and in particular,  their history and anything which nothing else in life has been able to clarify for them.  The tools may be principles, stories, a stream of wisdom traditions, occasional or seasonal rituals, or perhaps even some symbols, but there is no recipe.   There are no doctrines and no requirements beyond basic human respect for self and others in the community.  NDCs invite the seeker into the art of their lives.  The seeker is then, at some point, put on the spot: what will I do with all of this?  Will I take up some of these tools and see what I can do with them, or is this just a bad idea?

NDCs often remain small communities, experiencing often the revolving door syndrome.  Too many people—on some level—are just too intimidated to pick up the tools to see what they can create in and for themselves.  They may claim boredom, or the NDC is not meeting their needs. NDCs offer poetry, not recipes.

The traditional dogmatic communities are the norm, and they are not going away.  They work for too many people, just like recipe collections in books and on the internet.  The doctrines give people something to check out in the box in their brains, and when it fits what they feel hungry for, they bite.  They experience an immediate sense of belonging, and because the doctrinal recipe has satisfied their current hunger or needs, they also experience less anxiety and feel “right” in the world.

The non-dogmatic communities  seem to me to be more prevalent these days.  A generation ago, only groups like the Unitarians, the Quakers and a few Buddhists fit this description.  Evangelical Christianity and post-modern Christians forming new non-dogmatic associations is a significant shift away from recipes and toward poetry.  I wonder if what happens for folks is what has happened to me:  after so many years in the TDC following the recipes, I found they didn’t quench my hunger.  I had a taste for something I couldn’t even name.  The NDC will not name it for them.  If it tried, then they wouldn’t be non-dogmatic communities.  This is the real temptation for NDCs, in my opinion.  As more individuals enter into NDCs and face the existential crisis around the tools presented to them, it can be tempting for the NDC to tell them what to do.  If the NDC slips and tells them what to do with the tools, they will without doubt create beliefs concerning the tools, i.e. doctrine.  When this happens, the poetry ceases.  I am convinced most traditional dogmatic communities once began as poetry and not recipes.

The traditional dogmatic community  may look at the non-dogmatic communities and say:  but you have no doctrine!  How can you expect to lead moral lives, find peace, salvation and meaning?  The answer is poetry.  The non-dogmatic communities do not have doctrine, and yet, they often lead moral lives, are peaceful people and find meaning in their lives.  Salvation is a doctrine recipe, but when a person begins to engage in the deep poetics of life he/she begins to discover salvation has always been theirs.  This self-discovery is what comes from working with the tools which the NDC provides for one’s life space.  In as many ways as there are poems, individuals begin to find a connection to all things, and in the connection there is an “in this moment” salvation.  They experience this.  The TDC will not at all understand.

In deference to some really gifted cooks, I must acknowledge there are those who do what they do with food much like poetry, creating the dish from some personal space they have long been exploring.  I love to cook, but more and more these days, I love my growing poetry collection.