Unity School of Christianity

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Does anyone know about the Unity Movement? How does the Catholic Church view this movement?? Thanks!
 
It’s a feel-good, watered-down, new age amalgam of whatever beliefs you want to incorporate, just as long as none of those beliefs upset anyone or put too much responsibility on a member. All the members of Unity I’ve known have been fairly affluent professionals who have had very good hearts but haven’t been willing to make the commitment to more-restrictive mainline religions. Unity sponsors a lot of philanthropy and often opens their meeting rooms to non-member support groups (like AA) at no charge.
 
I hope I didn’t just foul up with my post. I believe you’re referring to the Unity Church, but maybe you’re not and if not, I apologize. If you’re not, what I wrote may not apply to your question at all.
 
It’s basically Quimbyism, a species of Christian Science with an emphasis on what would be called New Age ideas today. Their chief text is A Course in Miracles which is, essentially a psyched up exposition of gnosticism,
 
Unity is a new-age religion that is pantheistic. The bible is not their holy book, they do not believe in original sin, Satan, or evil. They think of Jesus as a “wayshower”, meaning he was not the son of God but instead was a regular person who “realized his divine nature” that they believe we all have, since God = everything. Belief in reincarnation is pretty common in these groups. Despite their Christian roots, they are not Christian today.

They believe in the “Law of Attraction” which basically means everything you think of you get. Which sounds alright until you realize that means children who are abused or killed “attracted it” into their lives by thinking about it (yeah, right).

The Catholic opinion of this religion is very negative, I’d wager, like most other New Age movements, because from what I can tell New Age “Law of Attraction” is sucking people away from Christianity in the West like there is no tomorrow. It’s happened to plenty of people in my family and my circle of friends (one of my friend’s religion is Unity actually).
 
A Course in Miracles isn’t their chief text; that only came out in the 70’s and Unity’s been around for awhile. However, they cabbage on to whatever suits their purposes. For one, it may be ACIM; for another, it might be the teachings of some “ascended master” or other. It just depends on the local pastor and what the people in that church want. It’s very fluid.
 
FickleFreckled said:
A Course in Miracles isn’t their chief text; that only came out in the 70’s and Unity’s been around for awhile. However, they cabbage on to whatever suits their purposes. For one, it may be ACIM; for another, it might be the teachings of some “ascended master” or other. It just depends on the local pastor and what the people in that church want. It’s very fluid.
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Thanks. I live in Detroit where Marianne Williamson ( particular guru of Oprah’s ) was “pastor” of the local Unity Church. It’s hard not to be dismissive.
 
Ohhhhhh, yes. Marianne Williamson, who wrote a bunch of books that kinda-sorta sounded Christian if you read them backwards by the light of a quarter moon on Tuesday, but which were all based on ACIM.

Dismissive? Nooooooooo…I wouldn’t say so at all…😃
 
FickleFreckled said:
Ohhhhhh, yes. Marianne Williamson, who wrote a bunch of books that kinda-sorta sounded Christian if you read them backwards by the light of a quarter moon on Tuesday, but which were all based on ACIM.

Dismissive? Nooooooooo…I wouldn’t say so at all…😃
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Yes, sometimes its the better part of brevity to just call kooky, kooky.
 
If only it were just kooky. I was a student of ACIM, as were a lot of other Catholics and former Catholics back then, including priests and religious. It’s very intelligently-written. Unfortunately, it’s also blasphemous and very dangerous. Ascended masters, Law of Attraction, reincarnation and all that other nonsense is light-weight compared to ACIM.
 
thanks for the help guys. i was talking about Unity Church so you did get it correct. i guess what lures people into it, in addition to the Law of Attraction, is the spiritual aspect of it. i went to a service with my friend who goes to a Unity church and they heavily emphasized getting in touch with the Holy Spirit and focusing on how the Holy Spirit is working in them. it seems to me what is sucking people from Christianity into Unity is that some Christians struggle with living a spiritual, sacramental life. i may be way off, but that is my take on it
 
schoester1 said:
thanks for the help guys. i was talking about Unity Church so you did get it correct. i guess what lures people into it, in addition to the Law of Attraction, is the spiritual aspect of it. i went to a service with my friend who goes to a Unity church and they heavily emphasized getting in touch with the Holy Spirit and focusing on how the Holy Spirit is working in them. it seems to me what is sucking people from Christianity into Unity is that some Christians struggle with living a spiritual, sacramental life. i may be way off, but that is my take on it
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Yes, you are right, also these types of people are very sensitive and don’t like the idea of hell or evil. Trust me I understand because I was one of them (never joined unity but I got sucked into the new age stuff. bad idea).

I think plenty of people who believe in this sort of thing aren’t willfully rejecting the Christian God out of some sense of spite or something, despite how repulsive their beliefs are to Christians (including myself). As an atheist once told me, “spirituality is natural for our species”. They don’t believe in the supernatural revelation of organized religions yet they hungrily grasp for a sense of the transcendent.
 
the_hazel_nut said:
Yes, you are right, also these types of people are very sensitive and don’t like the idea of hell or evil. Trust me I understand because I was one of them (never joined unity but I got sucked into the new age stuff. bad idea).

I think plenty of people who believe in this sort of thing aren’t willfully rejecting the Christian God out of some sense of spite or something, despite how repulsive their beliefs are to Christians (including myself). As an atheist once told me, “spirituality is natural for our species”. They don’t believe in the supernatural revelation of organized religions yet they hungrily grasp for a sense of the transcendent.
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Ya I guess its just a melting pot of beliefs. No one wants to offend anyone, so they accept everything. I was walking around in their bookstore and there were Bhuddist devotionals and artifacts here, Native American spirituality books there, and a Bible reference area over there. It was just a conglomerate of different religions. But then again they don’t believe in organized religions. It was just a very different experience.
 
They have a tendency to go from one thing to another, too. No one belief system is the ‘final answer.’ I used to know a lot of people who did new age and it seemed that everytime I’d talk to one of them, they were doing something new, following some new teacher or discipline, without ever having gotten deeply into the last one. They just can’t seem to settle anywhere, as though on some level they really do know the stuff has no real substance.
 
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