What does Unitarianism believe?

[seeker57]

UU will always remain small. Most people go to church to get answers. UU doesn’t offer very many hard-and-fast answers. For many, belonging to UU brings opportunities for community, service, and support for an alternative religious structure.

I agree that UU doesn’t provide hard and fast answers and that it offers opportunities for support, community service and an alternative religious structure.

All of these reasons are what drew me to my local UU congregation.

About always being small, well, maybe. One reason we aren’t larger may be because we don’t prosyletize.

I don’t know if that is good or bad.

Seeker

 

[CMatt25]

My local UU fellowship has services for Christmas Eve, Easter, Hanukah, High Holy Days, a Seder, among other services throughout the yr. Joining is simple from what I have read. To join requires signing a membership book. Which means you are joining a community in search for truth and justice. These 2 things though are recognized as can being elusive and unclear. For each to be free in faith they practice tolerance of varied understandings. Striving to love one another. They are diverse in thought in order to hold to the use of reason and discourse as the reliable path to truth.

To Unitarian Universalists here, is this generally representative of a UU fellowship?

 

[Publisher]

UU will always remain small. Most people go to church to get answers. UU doesn’t offer very many hard-and-fast answers. For many, belonging to UU brings opportunities for community, service, and support for an alternative religious structure.

This is true for most faith traditions that place the burden of finding one’s own answers together with the specific faith community one belongs to squarely on the shoulders of the believer.

Friends…mostly non-programmed Friends…haven’t grown too quickly…even though there has been a “resurgence” of interest in the last few decades…Seekers that are required to “work out their own salvation” find it difficult at times to belong to a tradition that won’t give pat, set, dogmatic answers to the questions of life they have…we seek the answers together…and often find that the Journey is more important than the Destination…IMO…most people want to be assured they’ll make it to the “Destination” with as little sacrifice as possible…they get no satisfaction in the “Journey”…

Many people want to be told what to believe by an “authority”…it’s “safer”…being a Friend or a Unitarian carries with it a great deal of personal responsibility…there is no act or ritual we can point to and say…“I’m a Christian because I’ve undergone XYZ initiation rite”

 

[Publisher]

One of the main reasons I’ve stuck with the UU church is that the second time I went there the pastor basically said**, “We don’t know why evil exists, or why it happens, but it exists and it does happen and the only thing we can do in the face of it is not lose our humanity”** (or something like that).

Most honest statement I’ve heard in any church - Catholic included.

I unite whole heartedly with the pastor’s statement.

 

[Roy5]

The major mainline Protestant churches - Methodist, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, UCC, Disciples of Christ, ELCA Lutherans and ABC Baptists - are ‘big tent’ denominations. They may have certain traditions, and some of them recite a creed, but they are open to a wide diversity when it comes to doctrine. The main reason is that they permit and even encourage open and honest discussion of scripture, and in doing so they in effect recognize different interpretations of various key verses. Contrary to Catholicism, they do not acknowledge the binding authority of any pope or church, or even any one interpretation of the Bible. While they are more Christocentric than Unitarianism, they have much of the spirit of Unitarianism, and many within these mainstream denominations are ‘Unitarianish’ - rather like the traditional Channing and Parker Unitarians who put a particular emphasis upon Jesus.

 This is one reason for so many splinter denominations, of course - this freedom of thought and belief. But for many Christians it is more important to exercise these freedoms rather than yield to the conformity required by Catholicism, especially when they find so many traditions to doubt, so many scriptural verses that seem to contradict other verses, so much in the Bible that they can't agree with. Take the first 11 chapters of Genesis as examples of stories that surely are legends and not history, or verses like Ex. 22: 18 and 20. Did God order Saul to commit genocide against the Amalekites? Did God arrange at the request of Joshua to have the sun stand still? And we could go on and on.

For those who love liturgy, the Episcopalians and Lutherans provide it. For those more interested in focusing on inspiring sermons and less concerned about ritual, other denominations provide such worship. The Methodists are sort-of in between, depending upon the local pastor and/or parish. For those who are ready to believe that the Catholic church is the one true church, that the Holy Spirit keeps it from error, that all of its doctrines are infallible - Catholicism is a fitting choice.   

 I've often asked myself: has religion as a whole done more good or more harm? It has done much good in 'good works' - hospitals, education, charity work. It also provides important communities where individuals can enjoy the benefits of an extended family. It helps undergird people with faith when they confront major challenges. But religion also has promoted bigotry and narrow-mindedness, yes even wars. It has closed millions of minds, stifled many discussions, undermined many relationships, fostered many myths as truth, etc. I recalk when it the CC considered it a major sin to attend a Protestant church, even to attend a baptism, wedding, or funeral! Such stupidity. Thank God for John XXIII and Vatican II!

 I do not criticize Unitarianism. I admire it. But it is not for most people. It focuses mainly upon the intellect, which is fine. But most human beings have an instinctive desire for something more. They want more than a totally rational religion. This vast universe is an amazing creation, and some spirit of awe, a deep reverence for God - the heart and mind bend in this direction. But most mainline Protestants prefer doctrinal democracy - work out your own theology within a generally Christian context - rather than accept traditions and beliefs so often inherited from centuries ago when there was so much less knowledge than we have today, before modern telescopes and microscopes, when Christians believed that the earth was flat, that heaven was up in the sky somewhere, when we all had guardian angels, when there were demigods (saints) in heaven to help us whether we were soldiers or saddle-makers, when disease was usually caused by demons - and we could go on.

 

[mackbrislawn]

There is the story about the Jehohah’s Witness who converted to Unitariansim, but she still kept going from door to door for no particuar reason.

 

[seeker57]

One of the main reasons I’ve stuck with the UU church is that the second time I went there the pastor basically said, “We don’t know why evil exists, or why it happens, but it exists and it does happen and the only thing we can do in the face of it is not lose our humanity” (or something like that).

Today, at our services, we were all much saddened to learn the son of a couple who belong to our fellowship was murdered by a 17-year-old,. The boy confessed not only to bludgeoning the 57-year-old victim after ambushing him in his home, but gave the authorities lurid details of how he attempted to hide the body and the crime from discovery.
The vicim’s father spoke to the congregation today about the killing, which occurred two days ago.
He said he could not describe his feelings about the loss of his son and how his son had died.
“All I can say is I have lost my son, my son is dead,” he said.
Then, the father said he was concerned about notoriety of both his and the confessed killer’s families and that he was fearful there would be repercussions against the parents of his son’s killer.
He said he hoped the community did not level any antagonism toward the parents of the killer, because they would be wrong to do that.
The confessed killer’s father is the local city manager and is part of a prominent local family, as was the victim, who was a well known local physician.
I believe that exemplifies this quote quite well.

. . . the only thing we can do in the face of it is not lose our humanity.

Peace,

Seeker

 

[seeker57]

My local UU fellowship has services for Christmas Eve, Easter, Hanukah, High Holy Days, a Seder, among other services throughout the yr. Joining is simple from what I have read. To join requires signing a membership book. Which means you are joining a community in search for truth and justice. These 2 things though are recognized as can being elusive and unclear. For each to be free in faith they practice tolerance of varied understandings. Striving to love one another. They are diverse in thought in order to hold to the use of reason and discourse as the reliable path to truth.

To Unitarian Universalists here, is this generally representative of a UU fellowship?

Generally speaking, yes, I would say this would be representative of the fellowships I have known.

We also incorporate humanist teachings in our discussions, just to make things more confusing.

There is a joke about Unitarian Universalists and heaven:

A Unitarian Universalist dies and is given a choice of two paths, one maked “heaven” and the other marked "discussion about the concept of heaven. The UU chooses the latter.

Peace,

Seeker

 

[CMatt25]

Generally speaking, yes, I would say this would be representative of the fellowships I have known.

We also incorporate humanist teachings in our discussions, just to make things more confusing.

There is a joke about Unitarian Universalists and heaven:

A Unitarian Universalist dies and is given a choice of two paths, one maked “heaven” and the other marked "discussion about the concept of heaven. The UU chooses the latter.

Peace,

Seeker

Seeker, your joke made me chuckle. On a serious note, my heartfelt sympathy goes out to the family belonging to your fellowship whose son was killed along with the family of the confessed. And my prayers for all concerned. Peace.

 

[OrdinaryMelkite]

One of the main reasons why I go to the UU church in my city.

No answers-------except in areas where it agrees with one’s political, moral beliefs.

From my experience with Unitarians/Unitarian Universalists, I have yet to meet one who was pro-life, anti-gay marriage (or at least sympathetic to traditional marriage and natural law) and who believed in ANY sin.

Another thought----
A Muslim-turned-Protestant that I occassionally listen to and read once gave a definition of what a cult is-----
“If they deny the Trinity, it’s a cult.”
Hmmmmmmmmmmm. I can see maybe Mormons and JWs fitting that description—but do Us and UUs fit that? Probably so…

 

[Zooey]

Today, at our services, we were all much saddened to learn the son of a couple who belong to our fellowship was murdered by a 17-year-old,. The boy confessed not only to bludgeoning the 57-year-old victim after ambushing him in his home, but gave the authorities lurid details of how he attempted to hide the body and the crime from discovery.
The vicim’s father spoke to the congregation today about the killing, which occurred two days ago.
He said he could not describe his feelings about the loss of his son and how his son had died.
“All I can say is I have lost my son, my son is dead,” he said.
Then, the father said he was concerned about notoriety of both his and the confessed killer’s families and that he was fearful there would be repercussions against the parents of his son’s killer.
He said he hoped the community did not level any antagonism toward the parents of the killer, because they would be wrong to do that.
The confessed killer’s father is the local city manager and is part of a prominent local family, as was the victim, who was a well known local physician.
I believe that exemplifies this quote quite well.

Peace,

Seeker

I think that this father sounds like a very kind, caring man.

My prayers are with both families. They must all be suffering greatly at this sad time.