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Karen Gold's avatar

As a lay person I have been concerned about some of the anti-Christian sentiment I have seen in fellow UUs. I belonged for awhile to a small fellowship that was firmly in the humanist camp. There were people who hated the use of the G-word or the J-word, even in hymns. I tried to soften their antagonism by pointing out that both Unitarians and Universalists came out of the Protestant reformation.

I also had a chance to speak up at GA in Portland when we were in small group discussions about the Article II changes. Someone in the group asked how a UU with a Christian background would react to the central value being Love. I replied that the message of the New Testament is "God is Love" and I thought it was an excellent foundational value.

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PeteM's avatar

Thanks - I thought this was great. I'm a congregant not a minister so fortunately do not receive any holiday screeds, but it strikes me as odd that someone would think that a Christmas (or Easter) service is antithetical to UU teachings.

In my view, at least, being non-creedal doesn't mean excluding all religious traditions from our services, but instead simply recognizing and respecting that we don't all believe the same thing. In fact, I would suggest that, at a certain level of intensity, opposition to all language or ritual resonant of traditional religion is at odds with we UUs say we believe. A "free and responsible search for truth and meaning" indicates that we may find that truth and meaning in different sources and beliefs including but exclusively humanist teachings.

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