Unitarian Universalist....anyone know anything about it?

[cewfa]

I've been thinking about visiting a UU church for a lot of years now, and want to know if anyone on the board knows anything about it or could tell me a little bit about what to expect. I've always been curious about them, but have had this (ridiculous, I admit it) notion that I would lose my Christianity, and thus burn in hell if I did visit, so I have been afraid to go.

Now I am at a spiritual crossroads in my life and am willing to try something different, just to maybe get some answers that I am seeking. To be honest, mainstream Christianity and even the Bible doesn't really satisfy me spiritually. The Bible to me provokes more questions than it does answers, and I just have trouble believing that God is really the way he is portrayed in the Bible.

The basis of my faith is Christian, and I believe in both God and Jesus Christ, but the older I get (I'll be 30 in October) and the more I live life and compare it to what is said in the Bible, the more something just doesn't add up. That, however, is for another thread.

[BlaqueKatt]

they have a website that lists the beliefs and principals.
there are also spiritual humanist churches*(as opposed to secular humanism), which believe in a non-specific higher power.

*this one is online actually, because jesus was against churches.

[Rageaholic]

I don't know much about Unitarian's, but I know Universialism believes that no one burns in hell forever. Makes a lot more sense to me than a "God of love" who condemns people to eternal torment.

[s_stabeler]

Originally Posted by Rageaholic

I don't know much about Unitarian's, but I know Universialism believes that no one burns in hell forever. Makes a lot more sense to me than a "God of love" who condemns people to eternal torment.

I've mentioned this, but I'm 99% sure that the Bible doesn't actually say you burn in hell. I believe the official line is that hell is simply the absence of God- completely. That, and the God of love part is that you are only condemned to hell if he really has no other choice.

[Hyena Dandy]

My family are UUs. And we also visited a UU church in another town. Funnily enough, it really seems to vary from church to church. In general, though, UUs aren't super "Faith-y." They have principles they believe in, but they don't hold 'Specific' beliefs. We had Christians, Jews, and Buddhists at our church, and we had a Wiccan pastor for a while. They're often liberal, occasionally a little ostentatiously so. They tend to be open-minded as a group, like I said, with more 'Principles' than 'Beliefs.'

[cewfa]

I think I am going to go check them out this Sunday. I make no commitments either way, but maybe it will be a good learning experience.

[Hyena Dandy]

Definitely a good plan. You can't really categorize all UU churches in one way, I just know the one I was at, which is the kind of liberal not-really-religious-more-spiritual thing.

[Shangri-laschild]

I used to visit with a friend and I always liked it there. I felt that if I ever decided I wanted a sort of community that I felt had a sense of morals but was not as heavily religious as most churches that I might start making a habit of going and that if I ever decided to have kids, that's where they would get raised as far as church. It always felt like a much more inclusive environment than any other church I had visited.