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I attended UU churches for years, that is how my parents raised us
my favorite definition is, "it's the least you can be and still be something"
my personal experience: lovely people, kind and caring and accepting of everyone, non-critical, non-judgmental
secular humanists
active in many political and social causes around the globe related to human dignity, equality, justice
very focused on making the world a better place for all people
and very little God, i left because there was not enough God and prayer
when i asked about God and prayer it made the adults very very uncomfortable, deer in the headlights response
i wanted a relationship with the Divine, that is not on offer at UU
Last edited by Tzaphkiel; 10-13-2015 at 01:27 PM..
Though that's changing. Back in 2001, a prominent UU minister called for a resurgence of a language of reverence in our congregations. It's 14 years later, and there has been a lot of progress learning to foster relationships with the divine, though admittedly there is more work to be done. You don't reverse 50 years of abject secular humanism overnight.
I am a politically moderate, heterosexual, Anglo agnostic who leans more conservative the older I get. (I was a "hippie liberal" in my youth.)
UU is something I have felt I might like for some time, but when I Googled the UU church in my area, it seemed that it was extremely ULTRA liberal and very much focused on the LGBTQ and black community, even though it is located in about a 95% Anglo neighborhood filled with "straight" families.
My fear is that although I DO believe in tolerance and acceptance of almost everyone (I draw the line at violent felons), the local church's website gave me the feeling that although they believe that all lives have value, they think that LGBTQ and non-Anglo lives matter MORE than Anglo lives do. I fear that I just won't feel comfortable there, even though most of the photos on the website showed people who were almost exclusively middle class Anglos such as myself.
Can anyone comment about I have written, as far as whether you think I would feel welcome there?
I am a politically moderate, heterosexual, Anglo agnostic who leans more conservative the older I get. (I was a "hippie liberal" in my youth.)
UU is something I have felt I might like for some time, but when I Googled the UU church in my area, it seemed that it was extremely ULTRA liberal and very much focused on the LGBTQ and black community, even though it is located in about a 95% Anglo neighborhood filled with "straight" families.
My fear is that although I DO believe in tolerance and acceptance of almost everyone (I draw the line at violent felons), the local church's website gave me the feeling that although they believe that all lives have value, they think that LGBTQ and non-Anglo lives matter MORE than Anglo lives do. I fear that I just won't feel comfortable there, even though most of the photos on the website showed people who were almost exclusively middle class Anglos such as myself.
Can anyone comment about I have written, as far as whether you think I would feel welcome there?
it depends where you live, in what part of the country. the UU groups in Berkeley California in the 70s that I attended were what you describe, very hippie liberal leaning
in western North Carolina in the 60s in a small town it was largely retired folks, very educated, liberal
in the Seattle area in the 1990s large LGBTQ population, including the minister himself, very educated, very active, very liberal
follow your comfort level, visit different congregations of different faiths and see where you feel most comfortable and "at home"
Since this thread was started I have flirted with attending at a UU society locally but have recently pulled the plug on it, largely because of extremely off-putting toxic behavior that has spilled out in public of late. I would not suggest this is normative for all UU groups, but they certainly aren't immune to the same sort of pettiness I used to see in my theist days.
I am a politically moderate, heterosexual, Anglo agnostic who leans more conservative the older I get. (I was a "hippie liberal" in my youth.)
UU is something I have felt I might like for some time, but when I Googled the UU church in my area, it seemed that it was extremely ULTRA liberal and very much focused on the LGBTQ and black community, even though it is located in about a 95% Anglo neighborhood filled with "straight" families.
My fear is that although I DO believe in tolerance and acceptance of almost everyone (I draw the line at violent felons), the local church's website gave me the feeling that although they believe that all lives have value, they think that LGBTQ and non-Anglo lives matter MORE than Anglo lives do. I fear that I just won't feel comfortable there, even though most of the photos on the website showed people who were almost exclusively middle class Anglos such as myself.
Can anyone comment about I have written, as far as whether you think I would feel welcome there?
I think you would Be welcome there -as I would myself. but you might not Feel welcome. I don't feel that I would fit in there either, which is why I have not the slightest inclination to go along and see what it's about.
Like anything run by and for people, there can be wide variation. It's not like the Catholic church that has to follow a strict doctrine and protocol. There actually are Christian Unitarians, but not many. More likely to be outnumbered by pagans and atheists. The vibe of a church is largely due to its minister and members.
I was a UU for 10 years. At the church I attended, the spirituality was quite watered down. A lot of the services were more educational/personal development than what could be considered transcendent. Occasionally there was something that almost could have been spiritually uplifting, but it never quite reached that for me. For example, on Easter, many UU churches have a flower communion where flowers are exchanged and life cycles discussed, but even that missed the mark for me. Eventually I realized I got more out of walking by the river on a Sunday morning.
I couldn't go along with everything the members did/wanted. Someone started a pen pal program with people who were incarcerated. While I realize the humanity of prisoners, I didn't see why we should be focusing our time and energy on them while there were lonely elderly and disabled people who would have enjoyed a letter just as much, if not more (at least prisoners live with lots of other people!). But elderly people aren't quite as "sexy" as prisoners.
We were a "welcoming congregation" in that LGBTs were very much welcomed without judgment, but we had few of them in our congregation, since it was out in the 'burbs. We every much wanted to be inclusive and didn't want to be lily-white, but we were. The minister got a brilliant idea to attract blacks (or so he thought). He wanted to hang portraits of famous black Americans in the sanctuary! There weren't even portraits of white Unitarians! How clueless is that? African-Americans have a rich spiritual heritage, with great music and lots of warmth in their churches. They are suddenly going to flock to a "white" church because some black portraits are hanging up? Well-meaning, but clueless.
In my church, I saw the biggest social division to be between the wealthy and not-so-wealthy. Like in so much of organized religion, money talks. The biggest contributors were the bigwigs of the church. They got invited to special functions and were always being touted. One young single woman, a refugee from Afghanistan, was admonished for not contributing more money and she quit. We would attend dinners where members donated goods and services to be auctioned off to profit the church. We just weren't in the class where we had a private plane and could donate plane rides in it!
We met a few people and made some friends (none of which we are in touch with after quitting), but I think there are better ways to meet people and better ways to be spiritual.
Some places have humanist churches and Ethical Culture; don't know if these would be a lot different. There is a new movement of a "godless church" called the Sunday Assembly. On the surface it appears to be like UU churches, but services are a little more exuberant (especially the music). This Unitarian article admits that the Sunday Assembly is a lot more fun and not just coolly cerebral, as are UU services:
I attended a couple of Sunday Assemblies, but didn't think it was worth the drive. As this article notes, it is fun but doesn't feel like you are in a sacred space or experiencing sacred time:
I get my spirituality and personal growth through mindful activities like meditation, yoga, and tai chi and reading Buddhist writings. This doesn't give me the sense of community that church life at its best can offer, but as introvert, I'm good with that!
Nadia Bolz-Weber, the Lutheran pastor of the House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver says:
" "We've been given social conventions, we've been given basically the Elks Club with Eucharist, or we've been given a place to gather on Sundays where basically what we hear is the same as the platform of the Democratic Party," she says." That's pretty much what I think of the UU church, from what I see in my local paper regarding the activities there. Still, I guess it works for some people. Pastor Leads A New Brand Of Church For 'Sinners And Saints' : NPR
Don't blame us that the party of those less self-centered co-opted our policy perspectives for use in their party platform.
It does sound like jazzcat's minister missed the point a bit. For example, this document explains at the beginning what the Flower Communion is actually about: http://www.uua.org/sites/live-new.uu...rcommunion.pdf
Sunday Assembly is a lot more fun. It also calls out one of the biggest problems with UU, which the leader of our faith actually already highlighted back in 2001: UU is a religion, and so the knee-jerk, categorical anti-spiritualism that many of our members practice is counter-productive. Sunday Assembly is the way that the feel-good "help often wonder more" approach should be done - as a show... effectively as a really cool club to join. UU effectively castrates itself when it chooses to eschew a language of reverence (in the way jazzcat's minister evidently does). Many UU congregations got the message; they realized that they were letting their petty fears govern and chose instead to be bold in the face of excessive secularism. Some congregations have not yet to get the message, and are still weighed down by mid-century, reactionary baggage. It's a process.
Don't blame us that the party of those less self-centered co-opted our policy perspectives for use in their party platform.
It does sound like jazzcat's minister missed the point a bit. For example, this document explains at the beginning what the Flower Communion is actually about: http://www.uua.org/sites/live-new.uu...rcommunion.pdf
Sunday Assembly is a lot more fun. It also calls out one of the biggest problems with UU, which the leader of our faith actually already highlighted back in 2001: UU is a religion, and so the knee-jerk, categorical anti-spiritualism that many of our members practice is counter-productive. Sunday Assembly is the way that the feel-good "help often wonder more" approach should be done - as a show... effectively as a really cool club to join. UU effectively castrates itself when it chooses to eschew a language of reverence (in the way jazzcat's minister evidently does). Many UU congregations got the message; they realized that they were letting their petty fears govern and chose instead to be bold in the face of excessive secularism. Some congregations have not yet to get the message, and are still weighed down by mid-century, reactionary baggage. It's a process.
I think the Rev. Nadia's point is that religion is more than politics. And doesn't the "religious left" foam at the mouth about the religious right getting mixed up with politics?
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