Is Unitarian Universalism more than a social organization?
Comrade Kevin raises this question that's regularly asked by others, and once again an automatic "no" doesn't immediately come to my lips."Every Unitarian church is a blue oasis of souls who feel as though the only people who can understand them are them", he says, and I certainly can't disagree with that. Who understands us besides us? And certainly not all of us understand us.
I've raised questions similar to this with the minister of my congregation and with associate ministers and ministers-in-training. It amazes me how easily they're able to reassure me that no, we're much more than just a social organization. And I believe them. Until I start to forget the reasons they gave.
But: I keep on going to my church. Why? In part it's the social aspect. In part it's because of something a fellow UU blogger said some time ago. I forget who said it (Philocrites?). But it was something along the lines of "it's ok to go just to listen". Perhaps it's the reassurance of familiarity. I know what's going to happen ... I know we'll sing 3 hymns and hear a 20-25 minute sermon that sometimes might lead me in a direction of being a slightly better person than I was before I walked in.
Comrade Kevin's words have more than a hint of despair. I wish I had the words to make him feel better.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 1:45 PM
4 Comments:
May I ask: What is there to "understand"? Your "statement of faith" is a mishmash of "we believe whatever we feel like."
W/ that as a statement of faith, is it any wonder that you can't even figure out what you/y'all believe?
Whence do you derive your beliefs?
The question isn't what do we all believe, because there's no answer to that question.
From the Unitarian Universalist Association website ...
'Unitarian Universalism is a liberal religion that encompasses many faith traditions. Unitarian Universalists include people who identify as Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Pagans, Atheists, Agnostics, Humanists, and others. As there is no official Unitarian Universalist creed, Unitarian Universalists are free to search for truth on many paths.
To quote the Rev. Marta Flanagan, "We uphold the free search for truth. We will not be bound by a statement of belief. We do not ask anyone to subscribe to a creed. We say ours is a non-creedal religion. Ours is a free faith."
Although we uphold shared principles, individual Unitarian Universalists have varied beliefs about everything from scripture to rituals to God. '
Many of us come to our beliefs through our Principles and sources.
Are you ever going to post my comment? Just no time to do so, or are you dodging?
Peace,
ALAN
OK, this time I'll save the comment in case BloggerJaws strikes again. Sorry 'bout that.
You seemed to be responding to my characterisation of UU-ism as a "mishmash" and yet your answer simply reinforced it to any fair-minded person.
Xtianity and Judaism are incompatible systems of belief. If that is true, how much truer for Buddhism and Islam, Xtianity and Hinduism, etc!
Since all of these religions mentioned have, at their cores, contradictory doctrines, how is it possible to hold any rationally coherent system of thought w/in UU-ism, which "encompasses many faith traditions"? Why complain that your statement of "faith" is nonsensical? Is it not irrational and self-inconsistent by its own admission?
Peace,
ALAN
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