I recently took a religion quiz and was shocked to learn that I am not, in fact, an atheist, I am a Unitarian. I've read lots of blogs written by Unitarians, and they seem like very nice people, but it's a Religion, and besides it sounds a bit too much like Unarius , those people in El Cajon who dress mannequins up in funny costumes and practice hosting parades to greet our interplanetary visitors.
As far as I can tell, the Unitarians are a wonderful organization. They have meetings for all different types of beliefs, they celebrate the most fun holidays, and they can't be beat for community service. I have visited their web site many times, and have even downloaded the Sunday school curriculum, but we won't be going to the Unitarian church any time soon for one simple reason. I don't want anyone in our family to feel like church of any kind is the best/easiest/most complete source of community. This post and its comments really reminded me that habits are hard to break, so we should think very carefully about starting one.
Instead, we will focus on the hard slow work of building our own community; meet your neighbors, meet your local vendors, talk to them and help them out when you can. Expand the circle and start again. Repeat endlessly.
4 comments:
My wife and I went to a Unitarian church service once (we're atheists also) just to check it out and say that we've experienced it. Unfortunately there was too much of a wishy-washy "everyone's right and it's ok" attitude. Plus we had to stand and sing which was uncomfortable in a small group of about 30 strangers.
Oh, that's funny. Yours and Jason's reasons are the reasons my husband won't go to church with me. I'm a Unitarian, raised agnostic/atheist by my parents. And, with my "everyone's right and it's ok" attitude, I say, whatever works for you - church isn't for everyone! :)
I agree with Sara in that the 'everyone's right' attitude is exactly what I like about Unitarians! Or, should I say, I prefer the 'no one knows for sure, so shut up about one religion being better than another' philosophy. But, you are right, UU's ARE in a religion. We have Sunday School, group meetings, socials, etc. It isn't for everyone, but after being raised Catholic, it is such a breath of fresh air. (btw, just found your blog and love what I've read so far)
Thank you for writing this.....we struggle with UU mostly because we are so far from a "church." We do need to meet our neighbors!
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