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.
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.
Thanks, Kimberley! Yes, “until we were blue in the face” is what I was thinking as I read your good words. Happily, many people got the message. At least I encounter fewer reactive anti-Christian UU’s now than I did when I was starting out almost 40 years ago. Am sorry to learn that those who didn’t get the message are still writing screeds to their ministers. Willful ignorance is apparently still a thing.
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.
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.
Thanks, Kimberley! Yes, “until we were blue in the face” is what I was thinking as I read your good words. Happily, many people got the message. At least I encounter fewer reactive anti-Christian UU’s now than I did when I was starting out almost 40 years ago. Am sorry to learn that those who didn’t get the message are still writing screeds to their ministers. Willful ignorance is apparently still a thing.