Norman Lear Says Churches Too Self-Absorbed Argues That People Seek Spirituality, But Are Rebuffed By Doctrinaire Views

The man who created Archie Bunker produced another archetypal American male for a crowd of 3,000 Unitarian Universalists at the Opera House on Sunday night.

Donning a Pittsburgh Steelers cap and a blue-collar accent, Norman Lear became “Bill,” a middle-class factory worker striving to make ends meet, devoid of any spiritual intention and wondering why life is so unsatisfactory.

Lear made it an art form in the 1970s to capture the humor in the everyday struggles of the average person. After creating “All in the Family,” the writer-producer brought “The Jeffersons,” “Maude,” “Good Times” and “Mary Hartman Mary Hartman” to television sets across the country.

Through Bill, Lear pointed out what is wrong with churches and religious leaders in America.

“It should not be surprising that people like you, Bill - and you are everywhere - seek desperately for spiritual connection,” Lear said. “And yet you say the church doesn’t speak to you anymore? I suspect that’s because the church isn’t listening to you.”

Lear spoke to the Unitarian Universalist Association’s general assembly, a six-day event that ends Tuesday and is being held in Spokane for the first time.

Delegates from more than 800 churches nationwide decide matters of policy and faith for the liberal denomination. Unitarian Universalists believe that each person must create his or her own theology with the help of a community.

Founded on both Jewish and Christian principles, Unitarians embrace traditions of many other religions in their worship services.

Lear pointed out that he is Jewish and that his qualifications for discussing the spiritual state of the country are “appallingly thin.”

“I am that Hollywood guy who brought you Archie Bunker, George Jefferson, Mary Hartman and Maude Finley - some of the least spiritually inclined characters ever to appear on television,” he said.

Lear said that through his work in television and film, he has developed the ability to appreciate the troubles and joys of ordinary families. That’s how he came up with Bill.

Bill knows there’s something missing in his life, Lear said. He used to go to church, but it seemed irrelevant. He sees the happy people on television and wonders why their lives are so different from his, Lear said.

All around Bill, people are searching for meaning. His wife is selling Mary Kay cosmetics because she heard the company would change her life.

Her friend is studying Tibetan philosophy. His neighbors are meditating. His buddy is learning Zen.

“What I wanna know,” Bill says, “Ain’t all this stuff designed to stir up the same feelings the church was suppose to be stirring up? What happened?”

Religions and denominations within various religions have become so entrenched in their own doctrine and theology they fail to see the larger, more heterogeneous realm of human spirituality, Lear said.

“Too often (religion) is used as a lethal weapon against fellow human beings,” he said.

The Bills of the world should feel welcome - not intimidated - when they seek meaning in churches, he said.

“Don’t let him be shamed or coerced out of the conversation,” Lear said.

“Our diverse religious identities and experiences and rituals, while certainly giving us structure and sustenance, are not the be-all and endall,” he said. “What matters more, perhaps, is our personal experience of the divine, in all its glorious diversity.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo