UU History Month

Play written and presented by the Senior High RE Class of the
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at Stony Brook
under the direction of  John Lutterbie
Presented on October 21, 2001

Scene: A Sunday Morning RE Class in late October

Katie:  Hey, Gilly, what’s up for today.  Can we just hang?

Mr. Hanson:  I thought we could talk about Michael Servetus today.  It was this time of year when he was found guilty of heresy and burned at the stake.

Rick:  Yeah, I read about him for a coming of age project.  Man did he get a raw deal!  Burned just because he didn’t believe in the trinity.

Matt:  I don’t know.  How would you feel if someone said everything you believed in was a lie.

Rick:  I’d say, “Hey, whatever.  You believe what you believe and I’ll believe what I believe.  That’s the UU way.”

Delilah:  Sure, but what if they said, “If you don’t change your mind, I’m gonna kill you.  That’s how wrong what you believe is.”

Rick:  I’d say, “Hey, lighten up.  What’s your problem, anyway?”

Katie:  My problem, Mr. Servetus, is that this society is founded on certain beliefs…”

Rick:  Hey, what’s with the Mr. Servetus?  I’m not Michael Servetus.  He’s been dead for a coupla hundred years.

Matt:  Just play along.  Man, you’re lame.

Rick:  Okay.  Uh…where were we?

Katie:  Your recent book, states that there is no such thing as the trinity, that the Bible is wrong when it pronounces the existence of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

Rick:  It doesn’t say that in the Bible!  You find me one place…

Delilah:  When you say the Apostles’ creed, don’t you proclaim that “I believe in the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost”?  Isn’t that the law under which you       were baptized and confirmed? 

Rick:  I didn’t have a lot of choice about being baptized.  Force is not a basis for a system of beliefs.  People should be free to determine what they believe in and       how they choose to worship God.

Juliana:  Are you saying that people don’t need to believe in God.

Rick:  Don’t put words in my mouth.  I believe in God. 

Matt:  But if they are free to determine how to worship God, aren’t they also free to decide not to worship God at all?

Andy:  That does seem to be the logical conclusion of your argument.

Rick:  The existence of God is not in question.  God can be found in everything, because it is all part of his creation.  He invested everything with his love and soul. 

Katie:  Then the Trinity is all one with God, is that your Unitarian belief?

Rick:  Yes.  When we say we believe in the Son and the Holy Ghost, we are really re-stating our belief in God.  God is Jesus and he is the Holy Ghost.

Andy:  Is God then in the plague that ravishes the countryside?  Is he in the pox, that infects those who are promiscuous and fornicate outside of wedlock?

Rick:  Isn’t it all part of his creation?

Delilah:  God created diseases that kill and disfigure the creatures that he loves and sustains?  God is both good and evil?

Rick:  God is only good.  Who can say why he chooses to visit us with the plague and illness?  Are you questioning the will of God?

Katie:  Don’t confuse the issue.  You’re avoiding the question.  So you don’t believe in the dark angel?

Rick:  No, I don’t believe in the devil, unless you want to believe that God is in Satan.  Men have free will and they can choose to behave well or not, that is the       lesson of the Garden of Eden. 

Juliana:  Be careful, Michael.  You are treading on very thin ice.  Ice so thin that it may very well crack and pitch you into the eternal fire.  If God is in everything       and there is no devil tempting us, then is there any such thing as evil?

Matt:  How do we make a choice between what is good and bad?  If we see God in every choice, how can one choice be better than another?

Delilah:  If that is what you believe, then how can we build a secure society?  We need the values inherent in the Bible, the difference between good and evil, in       order for us to live together.

Katie:  Quite right.  What you are preaching is anarchy.  Not only do your beliefs threaten the church but they threaten the well-being of the State.

Rick:  You go too far.  The Bible is full of the teachings of God and lessons in how to behave.  We should live in accordance with those teachings.  I merely think       that we need not believe in the Trinity, especially since it does not appear in the Bible, to live within the grace of God.

Andy:  But according to you, we must turn the other cheek and demand an eye for an eye.  Both lessons are in the Bible, and if God is in everything, then both of       those laws – contradictory at they are – represent the will of God.  Does God contradict himself? 

Rick:  Those laws were written at different times, for different societies.  What is good for one time is not necessarily good for another.

Delilah:  Then God is not perfect, nor did he know what he was doing when he created us.

Rick:  You seem to lack the subtlety of thought that can see the difference between beings that are created in gods image and must be slaves to his word; and those       made in his image but are able to express themselves as free individuals.

Katie:  Arrogance and vanity are sins, Michael Servetus.  Mind what you say and take care for your soul, for it is in danger. 

Deanna:  You claim the law, what people have believed for centuries, changes over time?

Rachel:  Who spoke to you about these changes?  Was it God who came down and did he ask you to write a new chapter for the Bible? 

Juliana:  How can you be sure it was God who came to you?  Have you not been tempted and, in the sin of pride, put your desires above the word of God?

Rick:  I am not saying anything that is not in the Bible.  It is you, and those who proclaim the Trinity, who are changing what is said in the Bible.  I have read the       Bible from cover to cover and nowhere does it refer to the Trinity.

Delilah:  I, too, have read the Bible and it speaks to me of the Father who gave his only begotten son to earth to atone for our sins, of the tongues of fire that       descended on the Apostles infusing them with the Holy Spirit. 

Rick:  But as you say, those are merely extensions of God, part of God rather than three separate beings.

Katie:  These discussions are just going in circles and are getting us nowhere.  It is clear to me that Michael Servetus is a dangerous man.  He is a threat to the       church and he is a danger to society.  He is a heretic who will not see the error of his ways.  There can only be one verdict – he must burn.

 All:  Burn him!  Burn him!  (Continue)

 Rick:  (dropping the role of Servetus)  Wow, that was intense.  Okay, guys you can stop.  (They do.) 

Juliana:  Poor Michael.

Matt:  Yeah, all because of an idea.

Andy:  That was amazing.  I almost hated him.  He thought he was better than anyone else.

Rick:  No, he just believed he was right and couldn’t believe people wouldn’t listen to him, wouldn’t even accept that he might be right.