Unitarian Universalism

I was once again searching the wonder of wikipedia - this time it began with Joe Hill (not the Swedish activist and songwriter) but the writer. Who if you did not already know has written his first novel "Heart-Shaped Box" - which I have but have not read as yet. I plan to have a day (by day for those that don't know me I mean maybe an hour - if I can fit it in) of reading on the morrow I have a Tad Williams to finish and a John Scalzi to start then Joe Hill's after that.

As usual I loose track...

Joe is really Joseph Hillstrom King - son of (drum roll) Stephen King. It was kept a secret for a long time - at least until he got his first Novel out but once a picture of him was release it was obvious who his father is... poor guy - good thing he can write.

So after checking out Joe's stuff I went to check up on Stephen. I have a few (insert heaps) of his books and know a little about him and his life so it was more a bored, time wasting thing to do and low and behold I found Unitarian Universalism.

It seems that Stephen Kings Daughter is a Reverend in this Church. I had never heard of this particular religion before and so I had to go and check it out.

I was not disappointed.

"Our faith, Unitarian Universalism, is a spiritually alive and justice-centered religion." I found this on the UU site. Could I have uncovered the perfect religion - something that is really truly able to be say it is there for everyone and everything. Or is this religion just trying to be too much for everyone and not settling down on a belief.

They seem to stand for everything, free speech, gay/lesbian/transgender rights, environment you name it - if it is an under dog they are for it. Is this really a religion? Is it really Christian based? WTF?

I am somewhat shocked and disturbed by all this talk of religion actually taking up issues I believe in. I think I might need to lie down for a while bury my head until it all goes away. This just goes against all I believe about religion!!!

A quote to which I stand shocked and full of dismay;

"Unitarian Universalism is a liberal religion that encompasses many faith traditions. Unitarian Universalists include people who identify as Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Pagans, Atheists, Agnostics, Humanists, and others. As there is no official Unitarian Universalist creed, Unitarian Universalists are free to search for truth on many paths.
To quote the Rev. Marta Flanagan, "We uphold the free search for truth. We will not be bound by a statement of belief. We do not ask anyone to subscribe to a creed. We say ours is a non-creedal religion. Ours is a free faith."
Although we uphold shared principles, individual Unitarian Universalists have varied beliefs about everything from scripture to rituals to God."

As I mentioned in the previous post I believe that Beliefs and I suppose Faith are a personal thing. you cannot have someone or indeed something tell you what you believe. Plenty try but I think that true free thinkers can wade through the mess and come to their own choice.

I have often thought about a belief, if I have to have one and if I have to turn it into words to describe it to others I would say a lot of what UU seems to say. I believe that IF there is a God out there, it would be made up of all the different Gods that we currently and have believed in throughout our human history. The pagan gods and goddess of the stream and tree and sky, the Hindu Gods, Christian, Jewish and Islamic and even the many parts of Buddha and others. Something about UU has me worried though. This is in America and it all seems a little too good to be true.

So I dug some more.

It seems that the Orange County Churches Review and Guide do not like them - they marked the church as one to avoid and that it was a Cult! (and not in the good way!) Of course I do not know what criteria this review blog works under and to be honest I was afraid to look too closely into the site itself - a little to Right Wing Christian for me. Surprise the RWC do not like UU - A vote for them from my books.

I told you it was all to good to be ture... I found this page. Here is the heart of the matter;
"Contrary to popular belief, when you join a Unitarian Universalist congregation, you cannot “believe anything you want.” You must believe, with all your heart and soul and mind, that love can transform the world."

What if MY belief has nothing to do with changing or transforming the world. After all I can only change myself, that is all that I have control over. Unless I am allowed to lock up people at my will I can do nothing about them or their beliefs. If by changing the world they mean change my out look on the world then yes I can do that - through love? Maybe, but love of what? Self love is important, universal love is something totally different. I can respect other people and other views but can I truly say I Love them if I do not know them?

I am not sure that UU is a religion for me but if one day I was forced to take a religion and follow it, UU would be on the short list. I would just need to know more.

In the mean time I will trust in the time honoured belief that has held me good for the past 30 something years. Or at least keep thinking what I want and believe in that instead.