Unitarian Universalist: Anyone Familiar?

Darkknight757

Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well.

Has anyone had an encounter with a Unitarian Universalist? My wife has a friend who invited us to their church a few years ago. We never went lol.

More recently on a YouTube video, a commenter mention this group again.

Going over their site, it seems kind of interesting, but as any site it’s hard to know what the real deal is.

They don’t seem to have many churches. The closest one to us is over a half hour away.

Anyone have experience with this group care to share any insights?

GrreatTeacher

Yes. I had a short foray into Unitarian Universalist land about 15 years ago.

In short, they are very liberal Christians to the point that they're not exclusively Christian or even religious.

It's mostly a feel good meeting place for agnostics who still like the the comfort and ritual of meeting together at "church."

The one I visited a few times had Christian groups, Jewish groups, and pagan groups meeting separately. There was a feel good generically inspirational service on Sunday mornings as well as children's Sunday School.

I only met one person I knew there. After the meeting I saw my sister! We had both left the witnesses a few years earlier. I think it was an obvious step down from JWism to non attendance.

I now don't feel the need to go to any services and am rather atheistic. I think there was an element of buying in to societal expectations that "good people go to church."

I'm beyond that now and enjoy my relaxing Sunday mornings at home snoozing in and making homemade pancakes.

Darkknight757

I was getting the impression that a lot of different religious people meet at those churches just as the website shows. Thank you for the confirmation.

I agree that having Sunday free to make yummy breakfast is probably way better than going to any church.

If anything, I personally liked having a community but that can easily turn cult-ish again.

GrreatTeacher

Yeah. I think Introversion vs. Extraversion can explain a lot about people's preferences, too.

Extraverts need people around them. Introverts can find them exhausting and need a break from them. Both can be very charming and "social."

I'm willing to bet a lot of church people are extraverts.

I'm an introvert. Especially after working all week and being "on," I just need some peace and solitude on the weekend.

Darkknight757

Haha that’s funny. I am also an introvert. I liked the church atmosphere as it helped with my social anxiety.

Thats been the catch-22 of leaving the cult. No more large gatherings on a weekly basis.

Not all bad.

I agree with many church goers being extroverted. Unless they are being forced 😂😂

Abraham1

What one should be doing is given in Mathew 5:13-16; 25:31-40; 1 Thessalonians 2:10 + 1 Thessalonians 4:11, Romans 12:15 which say ‘Lead a quiet life, mind your own business, and rejoice at the joys of others, be compassionate to the needy, thus be like salt and light with your life.’ Such a living is called “pure religion.” (james/1-27.htm) In all these, association with any Church is not mentioned. Changing another’s belief is not anybody’s business. θρησκεία (thrēskeia), the word James used for religion is also translated as “worship” in colossians/2-18.

smiddy3

An interesting post DK757 ,I guess I`m a bit of an introvert as I`m quite happy in my own company.Though I`ve got into the habit of going to one of two clubs everyday now for 2 beers that I`m happy to spend about 2 hours quietly drinking before heading home again.

I have a few different friends / acquaintances who I have come to know at each club and if there I will socialize with them but if they are not there I`m still happy being on my own , in my own thoughts.

Organised meetings of any sorts now are not my cup of tea.

As far as the spiritual aspect is concerned ,I do find wonder in the complexity and divergent of all life forms that exist on this planet and I find myself wishing ? that their was some higher power nurturing and protecting what there is.

But then I come back to reality.Just about every living thing on this planet survives by living off the death and destruction of some other living thing on land sea and in the oceans IMHO .

Darkknight757

Smiddy,

That sounds like a nice idea from time to time, going somewhere on my own for a sip.

I’ve been trying to get out a little more which can be hard with a 4 yr old at home but the wife has her moms club for social stuff and I still have no outlet.

Church always sounded like a nice place to meet people but not really being religious anymore may make that kind of hard haha.

truth_b_known

It's mostly a feel good meeting place for agnostics who still like the the comfort and ritual of meeting together at "church."

Great teacher hit the nail on the head. There is one of the churches near me. I discovered it because I was looking for a place that gave instruction in Buddhist meditation. Once a week the local Unitarian Church hosts a mediation class lead by a Vajrayana Buddhist monk.

I also saw there is an atheist church that started up. There is at least one congregation that meets in my state. This is just a group of likeminded people who meet on Sundays. There is usually one scheduled speaker who gives a discourse on a topic dealing with science or history.

careful

SBF hasn't weighed in on this one—I'm shocked! He must be offline or something.

Unitarian Universalist: Anyone Familiar?

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