"The Theology of Jazz and Darwin"
by the Rev. Krista Taves
March 4, 2007
Reading
This reading is taken from the latest publication of the Unitarian Universalist Association's Commission on Appraisal:
Engaging our Theological Diversity: How Do We Understand the Universe?
"One of the primary functions of religion is to provide people with a framework for understanding the physical world and their place in it. The Principle that most clearly expresses contemporary Unitarian Universalist cosmology is belief in the interdependent web of all existence.
[Our cosmology] ... evolved from a theology that we can trace back through our Christian roots to the Old Testament book of Genesis. Genesis is the cornerstone for some of the basic cosmology evident in all three Abrahamic faiths - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam ... The most common interpretations of Genesis hold that human beings are the pinnacle of all creation. We are God's favored creatures, with everything in creation ... existing for our explicit benefit. ... Liberal interpretations hold that human beings are the custodians of creation, and that our role as custodians invokes great responsibility as well as privilege. ... Both interpretations create a human-centered cosmology – humans are the centerpiece of creation.
These traditional Jewish and Christian understandings of creation were called into question with the scientific revolution and the Enlightenment ... People began to believe in a "natural law" that governed all aspects of nature and human existence; the challenge for rational thinkers was merely to discover these laws, be they moral or scientific.
The ... development of new scientific understandings [pushed] Western thought even further away from the traditional human-centered understanding of the universe. Charles Darwin published The Origin of the Species in 1860. Darwin's book helped fuel a decades-long debate on ... the origins of the human species. Our location in an interconnected evolutionary chain implied a cosmology in which humans are merely one piece of creation rather than its centerpiece. Leaders from both the Unitarian and Universalist movements came to be important supporters of Darwinian evolutionary theory and all that it implied.
These legacies .... led to Unitarian and Universalist views of a universe in which humans are a part of an interconnected, sacred whole.... While ... our cosmology, is not unique to Unitarian Universalists, it is worth noting that [we] do have a cosmology, and that it stands in contrast to the most common interpretations emerging out of the Abrahamic faiths."
Sermon
You may be wondering why I chose the last hymn to precede a sermon on evolution. (Hymn #30, Singing the Living Tradition, "Over My Head") The lyrics almost seem antithetical to the subject matter at hand. As I prepared for this Sunday, and realized what hymn I had chosen weeks before, I wondered it myself. The lyrics, "I hear music in the air and there must be a God somewhere" somehow sound strange in the context of a service dedicated to Darwin's theory of evolution, but why should that be? Perhaps because in the fiercely contested cultural war surrounding evolution, pro-evolution types have been branded by anti-evolution types as godless atheists, a label that has become almost as much an insult as being called liberal, and anti-evolution types have identified themselves as the ones who are religious. Evolution has been set up as an immoral non-religious coldly scientific option.
But there's something wrong with this. In fact there is a lot wrong with this assumption. Firstly, the assumption that anyone who believes in evolution can't possibly believe in God is simply not true. Many theists and Christians have no problem reconciling evolution with their faith. Neither is it true that you have to believe in God to be a moral person. You can be an atheist and be deeply religious and deeply moral. I think perhaps we Unitarian Universalists get this on a deep gut level in a way that many others do not. In fact, we get many things. Many people in this room don't know if there is a God somewhere, and they are deeply spiritual people. Some of you hope desperately that there is a God somewhere, and you are deeply moral people. Some of you are absolutely certain that there is a God somewhere, but he or she or it is more likely to live in your heart and in your actions than in some place up high. And you are deeply moral people. And some of you do have a God somewhere that you pray to, that you have a deeply personal relationship with, that walks with you hour by hour, day by day. And you are also deeply moral people. We are in a religious tradition that provides for all these possibilities, and more. In fact, we know that these possibilities not only exist, they can and must co-exist. There are many paths to truth and heaven help the person who is arrogant enough to think they have figured it all out.
In Darwin's day, this idea of many paths to one truth was less accepted. Throughout European history, whenever new ideas threatened established truths, the reaction was severe and swift. When Protestantism emerged in the late 1400s, the burnings began. When Galileo discovered that the earth was round in the 1630s, he was cruelly pressured until he recanted. But by the late 1700s, you just couldn't ignore the fact that discoveries left right and center were challenging the very bedrock of the western world. One significant development was the discipline of Biblical criticism. This was the process of questioning the origins of the Bible and exploring how it was written. Many scientific discoveries, archeological explorations, and literary studies of original scripture were unearthing new truths that challenged the way we understood the Bible, and the ripple effects spread throughout the western world. In fact, both Unitarianism and Universalism emerged in the United States in the late 1700s and early 1800s as part of the growth of Biblical criticism. We were some of the first to question the literal truth of the Bible. As you can imagine, though, others were incredibly threatened by this. In fact, the great majority of people were. In general society, there was little room for the idea that there are many paths to truth. The Bible was for the most part understood quite literally and held to be definitive in matters like how the earth was created.
When Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1860 is it any wonder that the outcry was fierce and sustained? As Jeff shared with us in our reading this morning, the Genesis creation stories put humankind at the pinnacle of creation. We are it. The highest form of life. And whether we are to dominate the earth or be its custodians, we are in charge. Darwin's theory of evolution, which states that natural selection and environmental factors combine to explain the diversity of life we see on earth, took humanity off of the pedestal we had built for ourselves. And the resistance began. The idea that humankind could have evolved from another species, like the monkey or the ape, seemed to cross that line that separated us from the animals. There was a certain morality attached to that separation, a morality that needed to keep us pure from what many considered an evil and fallen world. This outrage was often best expressed in political cartoons, and one that seemed to embody the crux of the outrage against him was a drawing of Darwin's head affixed to the body of a monkey. I don't know what was more threatening. The idea that the Bible might not be literally true, or the idea that we are not some special species created fully formed and ready to the rule the world. We are of the same stuff as animals, and it was natural selection and environmental changes taking place over millions of years, not creation by an intervening God in one day, that led to the development of the human race.
Would it surprise you to know that the emergence of jazz led to the same kind of moral outrage? Jazz first developed in the late 1800s from within the recently freed African American community. The only homegrown American musical form, jazz emerged as the fusion of European instrumentation with African rhythms. And with its unique beat, its unpredictable improvisation, and syncopated rhythm, it spread like wildfire through the country. It was especially attractive to young people, always hungry for whatever is new and on the edge. And when I say young people I mean all young people, black and white. And there was the crux of the issue. Some whites were threatened that their young people were connecting to music that had emerged in the black community. Slavery may have ended with the Civil War, but in the reconstruction that followed segregation was firmly put in place. White control was reinforced in a whole host of ways, and any indicator that the separation of the races might be breached was easily perceived as a threat to the moral order. It's as if that same fine line had been crossed, and just as evolution threatened the perceived purity of a species separated from the animal world, jazz and its popularity threatened the perceived purity of a race determined to hold itself apart from the others. You could get a sense of that threat from the way that African Americans were depicted in period artwork. They were often depicted in animalistic ways, often not unlike.... A monkey or an ape.
I have some pictures for you, and I warn you that one of them in particular is quite offensive, and the other one will become offensive when you learn more about its cultural context. I didn't want to put these in the order of service without first explaining them, because they are so explicitly racist.
The Evolution Controversy
Facts, Figures and History: The Evolution of Lynching
Jim Crow
One of the things we do in history, especially in cultural history which is what I specialized in, is look for patterns and themes that emerge between seemingly unconnected things. The emergence of jazz and evolution seem to be different things entirely. One is science. The other is art. But there are some surprising connections, revealed in the resistance to both. When I was researching this sermon, I came upon the picture of Darwin with the body of a monkey. And then I started reading the history of jazz, and because you can't understand jazz without understanding the black experience in America, I explored the black experience in the reconstruction era following the Civil War. And I found this drawing and others of black people drawn by white people, and suddenly the dots connected. When Darwin's head was drawn on the body of a monkey, his opponents were making a moral statement in more ways than one. Not only were those outraged by his ideas drawing on their understanding of the superiority of the human race, they sought to insult him by using an image that was used to oppress blacks.
Darwin's theory of evolution was so threatening not only because it crossed the line that had been drawn between humanity and animals. It threatened the line between black and white because for centuries blacks had been associated with animals, and that association allowed whites to justify slavery and segregation. It allowed whites to treat blacks like animals, like possessions that could be bought and sold. Darwin's theory of evolution, which said that the human race evolved from animals erased that line and put whites in the same place that whites had been putting blacks for centuries. Right in the heart of the animal kingdom. Which meant, we are the same. We are all caught up in the same interconnected web of all existence. We are all caught up in the same evolutionary process.
When it became apparent that evolution wasn't going away, some whites tried to keep their control by arguing that whites were more evolved than blacks, and for a while it worked. And it worked so well others tried to use it too. Rich people said they were more evolved than poor people. Protestants claimed to be more evolved than Catholics. Europeans said they were more evolved than North Americans. But the power of this scientific theory refused to be chained to such ugly agendas. And to this day, it stands as a powerful challenge. It challenges our arrogance. It challenges our petty sense of self-importance. It topples any pedestal we try to stand on. And that is why evolution threatens so many.
As Unitarian Universalists we affirm and promote the interconnected web of all existence. This has become our cosmology. We really are one. And that is not just an abstract concept, a poetic idea or a feel good philosophy. It is grounded in a deep understanding that we are radically interconnected in this physical world. And when you instill that understanding deep in your consciousness, you can never be the same again. There is a reason that many people continue to be terribly threatened by Darwin's theory of evolution. It's not just because it runs counter to a literalistic understanding of the Bible. Evolution is threatening because when you truly approach the reality of how interconnected we are, all those cosmologies rooted in control and dominance have no moral or scientific justification. It threatens the way we do government, the way we do business, the way we do education, the way we do family, the way we do justice, the way we do life itself. That is the real threat here.
In the face of the truth of this interconnection, what are we called to? First and foremost, we are called to a great deal of humility. Humility in the face of this awe-inspiring creation out of which we emerged. Humility when faced with the reality that we are but one small part of a vast creation that was meant for all of us, every one, and every species. It is truly daunting.
The Unitarian Universalist cosmology of interconnection has had a strong impact on our moral values. We have consistently worked to break down the barriers that separate us from other humans and from the earth. Unitarians and Universalists were in the forefront of the movement to abolish slavery. A century later many Unitarian Universalist ministers and laypeople supported the Civil Rights Movement. Unitarians and Universalists have been in the forefront for gender equality. We were the first in North America to ordain women, prominent Unitarian and Universalist women activists worked to secure equal access to education, to the vote, and to the workforce. We were in the forefront of legalizing birth control. In the 1960s concern for the environment entered our consciousness, and many Unitarian Universalists have come to understand environmental justice as a deep spiritual practice, and consciously restructure their lives to have a smaller footprint on the earth. And since the dawn of the Cold War, many Unitarian Universalists have been in the peace movement, which calls for a dramatic reshaping of how we understand safety, security, and otherness. All of this is rooted in a cosmology of interconnectedness.
Not that we're some wonder religion. Trying to live a cosmology of interconnectedness in a society and culture that is pretty much shaped by cosmologies of dominance and control is no easy thing. A large part of our faith practice is about learning how to withdraw from ways of living that reinforce patterns of dominance and control. Whether that be in the cars we drive, the jobs we do, the children we raise, the marriages we enter, the political parties we support, the friendships we build, who we split our collection plate with, the way we treat each other in this religious community, the way we treat ourselves, and our commitment to honor diverse beliefs and religious practices. This is all rooted in a healing cosmology of interconnectedness.
Although the initial response of whites to jazz was overwhelmingly negative, the power of jazz to break down barriers was undeniable. A musical form that gave every instrument time in the spotlight, that insisted on spontaneity and dialogue and improvisation as its core, that counted on every member to provide a foundation of harmony and rhythm, no system of dominance or control was strong enough to suppress its relentless creativity. It has become much like the heartbeat of this restless nation. Always standing just a bit on the edge while buried deep in its core. Our commitment to a cosmology of radical interconnectedness has just this kind of power. Let us enter it fully.
Amen and blessed be.
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Send Questions or Comments to Rev. Taves: Minister@EmersonUUChapel.org
Updated: 03/31/07