Midweek Faith Lift
July 5, 2023
Unity’s 5 Principles & Christianity
Rev. Deb Hill-Davis
Spiritual Reflection
June 26, 2023
Linda Zhang, a Chinese immigrant who came to the U.S. when she was eight years old and didn’t speak English, is now a chief engineer for Ford Motor Company and the lead designer of Ford’s electric pickup truck, the F-150 Lightning. The truck is being hailed as a major step in moving this country closer toward a no-gas automotive future.
“I believe in human ingenuity – that when we decide on a task to be done, no matter how daunting, we unleash the ingenuity and innovative capacity that takes us to a solution.” - Christiana Figueres, Costa Rican diplomat
Affirmative prayer: I am sourced by Divine Mind. My imagination is the play of Spirit’s creative expression, and I bring inspired passion and ingenuity to the conditions of my life. I am one with the Love-Intelligence that created the Universe, and I am strong enough, inventive enough, for the challenge before me. Thank you, God, forever. Amen.
Here we have a story of a young girl who clearly listened to her own inner wisdom and that inner voice that declared that she, Linda, would become an engineer, and an engineer for the future of the shift to electric vehicles, no less. We have been reflecting on Unity, it’s place in Christianity and the notion of a quantum leap, which opens up many possibilities for us individually and as a spiritual community. What does it take for us to move into a new consciousness? A quantum leap consciousness?
Well, one of the prescriptions of Dr. Price Pritchett in Quantum Leap Strategy is to quit “trying harder” and “try smarter.” That pushes us to do something that is out of the ordinary for us. The question we sit with is “What is that?” Continuing to do what we are really good at reinforces our “faith in the familiar.” And faith in the familiar is a comfortable place, for sure. He says, on p.7 of Quantum Leap Strategy:
Doing the right things, even very imperfectly, can bring you a quantum leap. Doing the wrong things, even if you do them to perfection, will never deliver your dreams. Our strengths often become weaknesses because we rely on them too heavily, habitually doing what we do best instead of seeking the best thing to do. Someone once said, “If your only tool is a hammer, you approach every problem as if it were a nail.” Put down your old, familiar tools for now, or else find a different way to use them.
In other words, if you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting! So what have we been doing in Unity?
In Unity, we teach the 5 Unity Principles and we have settled into a comfortable, routine understanding of what they are. They are statements intended to support all the “practical” aspects of what Unity is all about. It is interesting that our founders NEVER spoke of “the 5 Unity Principles” in their writing or speaking. It was in the ‘70’s that Connie Fillmore Bazzy, a grandchild of the Fillmores, formulated the “5 Unity Principles” in order to make it “easier” to teach, explain and understand. In retrospect, I wonder if doing that was really a good idea?! Maybe not!
So what are the 5 Unity Principles? The best acronym I ever heard for the big 5 was from a teenage boy, Johnnie Merryfield, who was running for the position of “Reggie” in the YOU, Youth of Unity Program in the South/Central Region . His talk was titled “1-CLAP” to help the kids in YOU understand and remember the 5 Unity Principles:
1-There is only One Power and One Presence, God the Good,
Omnipotence.
C-There is the Christ Presence in everyone, a spark of the Divine
L-Law of Mind Action-thoughts held in mind produce after their kind
A-Affirmations and Denials as a structure/formula for prayer
P-Put it into practice in your life, otherwise it is of no use or value.
It was so interesting to observe the kids “learn” these statements but much more difficult to discern what they actually understood about them and what that implied for their lives; how they would show up in life!
Later on in Seminary, I had a teacher who said that he wasn’t sure “codifying” Unity teachings was the best path forward because now people had something to argue about and disagree with which has proved to be true. The only one we all agree with for sure is the “One Presence and One Power.” All the rest are up for grabs! I thought that was insightful and hilarious at the same time, and it is true!
Our essential teaching in Unity is that there is “Only One Presence and One Power in the Universe and in my life, Good the Good, Omnipotence.” We say that every Sunday and you will hear it in most Unity Churches or Centers no matter how “woo-woo” and non-traditional they are. This one belief statement really distinguishes us from traditional Christianity, because we do not give power or energy or definition to satan, the devil or an opposing power. We teach that God is not a “Being” but “Beingness” itself and that everything is “in God” and God is in everything, which is called panentheism.
The energy and Presence of God is not limited by or limited to creation. And while there is evil in the world, it happens because of a “willful misinterpretation of God’s Good rather than as a force in an of itself.” As Rev. Roach states it on p. XV of Unity & World Religions, “God, as Absolute Good is beyond the dualities that appear in the manifest Universe….there is no place for an opposing power of evil and therefore, no devil.” This is in stark contrast to more traditional Christianity and more in alignment with the idea of the Divine’s Oneness in the mystical aspect of the world’s religions.
The Second Unity Principle is that human beings have a spark of divinity within them, the Christ Spirit within. As humans our very essence is of God and therefore we are inherently good even as we often fail to realize or understand this Truth. We forget this, or perhaps we were never taught this and hold a consciousness of “original sinfulness” rather than original blessing or goodness. We have to come to an awareness of this, which is the classic hero’s journey of return, a journey we all have to make to realize our true divine nature. We call this the Christ Consciousness, but there are many names for it: Buddha-nature, the Tao, Inner Light, Great Spirit and so on. There is no “fallen nature” of humans, just the lack of awareness of who we really are. That is a really different take on the Christian message!
The Third Unity Principle is the Law of Mind Action, essentially, that humans create their experiences by the activity of their thinking. As Fillmore stated,
“Everything in the manifest world has its beginning in thought.” The emphasis is on the power of thought to shape our reality and experiences. The real significance of this teaching is in the recognition that the mind and body are not separate, they are of one energy. What our mind thinks and tells us impacts our body and our experience of life. This was called “New Thought” because it was very different from typical Western philosophy/spirituality, which is anchored in mind/body dualism or separation. The activity of mind or consciousness is how we intersect the energy of the Divine from Charles Fillmore’s perspective. When used for healing, for positive purposes, it is a way of connecting with the Divine. As Paul said in Romans 12:2 “Do not be confirmed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.”
While it is called New Thought, this unified understanding of mind/body oneness is actually an ancient understanding of the Hindus and Ayruvedic medicine. This is a Unity teaching that has been most prone to misuse and magical thinking and one that has caused a lot of suffering and problems for Unity. It is powerful, subtle and tricky and easy to misunderstand and misuse, but more on that in future talks! It is one of those situations where codifying a teaching leads to oversimplification and misuse.
The Fourth Unity Principle is about Affirmative prayer, which again can become formulaic and is often misapplied. The practice of affirmations, while a very positive prayer practice, is not a magical incantation. The prayer practice is of both affirmation and denial, a process of deciding where you want to put your focus and energy and what you want to release, no longer giving your energy and focus. Rev. Roach says, “Prayer is creative thinking that heightens the connection with God-Mind and therefore brings forth wisdom, healing, prosperity and everything good.” However, you have to be willing to recognize and release whatever is not for the highest and best good for all, and that can often be a challenge for us.
It sounds simple, it is effective, but it is NOT easy, which is often the catch. Prayer “works” to change us and no one else, which is the hard part. Again, this can be misunderstood and misapplied in practice in Unity, for sure. The real power of prayer is the connection with Divine Mind, which happens most often in the Silence. This practice was the core experience of Unity that the Fillmores provided in their “Society of Silent Help” which eventually became Silent Unity. Practicing time in the Silence is in alignment with the practices of all the major world religions and taps into the energy of the Perennial Philosophy.
Finally there is the Fifth Unity Principle, which says that talking about all this, learning the principles by heart, and quoting chapter and verse of Fillmore, Butterworth et al is useless until we begin learning how to live into the spiritual “Truth” that is at the foundation of it all. The essence of that foundation is to love one another, which is the “golden rule” that is in every spiritual tradition. Some kind of practice of loving kindness, caring for and accepting one another is at the heart of the true spiritual journey inward and outward. It has to be both, or it is not really useful, practical or transformative.
Where does that leave us, as we consider our Quantum leap possibilities? Well, that is not yet clear, but it will become clear over time. Just as our young Chinese immigrant was not always clear that she would be designing electric engines for trucks, we are not yet clear about discerning how to share Truth principles to empower deep spiritual growth for all. It is a journey of faith in the processes, the power of the practices, and not the familiar or predictable. Therein lies our Quantum Leap—more will be revealed!
Blessings on the Path,
Rev. Deb