(Wow, Simon, did you steal Microsoft Word software or something? )
Well, today I did something that in most years past I would have believed would have resulted in me being struck by lightning; I attended a religious service other than the JW's. This is the first time I've ever been to another religious service. It was at a Unitarian church some distance from my home, for I still live with my JW parents and indeed if they knew about this, it would be a major issue. I decided to take this unprecedented step about two days ago, while I was on the internet. I was reading an article about the Unitarians, and realized that they were probably a pretty good group. I had actually taken a religious test on beliefnet.com a couple of months ago (from a thread on this board), and according to the test, the Unitarians actually came closest to my religious views than any other group.
I don't really consider myself "religious" in the sense of needing to be part of a religious group, or needing to connect with some "higher power", but I was curious as to what it would be like to attend a religious service other than the JW's, so I pretty much just said "what the heck, it can't possibly be worse the meeting I'd be forced to attend anyway", so I made up an excuse as to why I had to go out, and off I went this morning.
Well, the experience was somewhat as what I envisioned. On this particular day, the pastor dedicated his sermon to answering questions that people in the congregation had asked him. Some questions were tough, some easy, but he tried to answer them all. I really appreciated the fact that he never gave any answers as being "the answer", he even prefaced the entire thing by stating "all the answers I give are my opinion, and you're free to agree or disagree". During one of his answers to a question (I've forgotten the question), he stated that we humans must believe in our own goodness, and think for ourselves, a sentiment very much my own. There were even some questions that he simply answered with "this is a question that each of us must answer for ourself". Afterward, I was invited to stay for some coffee and fellowship. I talked to a few persons, all of who were very nice. The pastor even asked me if I wanted to be on some mailing list, but of course I declined. I was also impressed by the many charitable things the church was involved with (like many churches, of course), as opposed to JW's who believe that charity is knocking on your door on Saturday morning to offer you magazines that are mostly crap.
Overall, I was impressed with the place. It was very quiet and subdued during the pastor's sermon, there were a couple of musical interludes, and they open and closed the service with the congregation singing songs (from a songbook that somewhat resembled the JW's ). Not a bad experience, and I may do it again sometime in the future.