I'm thinking of becoming a Unitarian Universalist.?

I was born into it. I'm a seventh generation Universalist.

Through the years I had adventures with other religions. My parents sent us to Chalk Talks at a local Congregational Church near our home. More for the hour or so of entertainment than the message I think. But I won a prize each week for memorizing my bible verse. (Still know John 3:16)

I took what was called "The Church Across the Street", now "Neighboring Faiths", when I was in 7th grade. That is our denominations curriculum which teaches our children about other faiths.

In high school I taught Sunday school at several different levels. I had a girl friend who was a Lutheran. I attended Luther League meetings with her. So, I got a little peek at the Lutheran faith.

Later in college I was "saved" but shortly after recanted. I think I was more taken in by the beauty of the young woman doing the evangelizing than the actual message. I know that some of our hard core Christian brethren will say that I wasn't sincere, but I believe that I was. It just didn't make that miraculous difference they claimed.

I hung out with the gang from the Christian Fellowship a lot in college because they did fun activities. My best friend in college, who happens to be Christian and was a member of that group, told me that I scared lots of the kids in Christian Fellowship. I asked her why, since I didn't really think of myself as scary. She told me it was because they had been told that to have the "good life" they had to believe in Jesus Christ as their savior. I didn't and yet I seemed to have all the things in my life that they wanted. That seemed to frighten and confuse many of them.

In grad school, I became one of the leaders of a UU church in Columbia, SC. Worked with the youth group and served on several committees, even preached on some Sundays.

As an adult in my current congregation I have served on the Board of Trustees, Search Committee, taught Religious Education, served as Auctioneer on our Goods and Services auction, worked with Buildings and Grounds, supervised the Homeless Shelter and filled the pulpit on numerous occasions.

My faith now is stronger than ever. I believe that the world needs a religion like Unitarian Universalism, a denomination that seeks to include rather that exclude people and ideas. I like the fact that my religion evolves and is not stuck on some ancient passed down wisdom, that new information and discoveries can be incorporated and evaluated in the light as we search for truth. I like being part of a religion that calls on me to use the best of my mind and conscience to make the world better. That's why I stay.

Take a good long look at our seven principles. They are the rock upon which we stand together. Our individual expressions of spirituality may differ, but we hold onto and value these seven tenets as the central core of our beliefs.

I hope you find what you are looking for among us. If not, I wish you well on your spiritual journey.

Raised Southern Baptist, I was taught the priesthood of the believer. This means that I can talk directly with God. I don't have to ask a priest or a saint to intercede for me. I can read the Bible myself and figure out what it means as applied to my personal situation. I don't have to rely on someone else's interpretation. But then I'd be told all the limits on what God and I could say to each other, on what the Bible could mean. So priesthood of the believer seemed to hold true only as long as I walked in lock step with everyone else.

And that didn't work for me.

My decision to join a Unitarian Universalist congregation is a very long and complicated story that I can't write here. The short version is that it seemed like a place that really practices the priesthood of the believer. Each person is empowered to seek their own faith path, encouraged to do so, and invited to tell each other about it.

On more challenging days, we scratch our heads and say, "I don't get it." But no one is kicked out or even kicked off a committee simply because of theological heresy.

On our better days, we all learn spiritual insights from each other, even when our faith paths appear to be radically different. Imagine an Atheist and a Christian swapping stories about their personal mystical experiences!

This is a priesthood of the believer that works for me.

Jasmine

I've got 2500 words on the theme of "My spiritual journey" if you'd like to write to me via my profile. It won't fit here.

In a nutshell, I realized in high school that most religions were different paths up the same mountain, and I was an agnostic. I visited a Catholic church, a Greek Orthodox church and a Jewish Synagogue while I was in college. Two years in the Peace Corps, in Sarawak, where I lived with Muslims, Chinese (That's a religion as well as an ethnic group, in Malaysia; it is a blend of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism), Animists and Christians reinforced that idea.

Came back, college girlfriend joined the Moonies, I told her they were crazy as hoot owls, she said "Well if they are wrong, who is right?", I remembered that I'd heard UUs were the church for smart people, figured I'd fit right in. I went out one Sunday, did fit right in. I've been a member since then, and that was 1974.

On that subject, I was at a Buildings & Grounds Committee work party one day. Looked around, five middle-aged guys lumping 2x2 pre-cast concrete "pavers" off a pickup to extend our patio. Three of them had PhD's.

"Gosh", I said to guy #5, "We're outnumbered by the guys with graduate degrees".

"Ahem", he said, "I have an MBA".

We went out for pizza and beer afterward. None of the men or women at our church who have PhD's are stuck up about it. With one exception, when they give a guest sermon they use ordinary words. One of our members did some of the fundamental work that made GPS possible. He told us about it one Sunday, in a way people without a PhD in geophysics could understand.

merely bypass to their church. advance into area of their activities and study what they're all approximately. you rather ought to make an effort to particularly study before transforming into an respected member of their congregation. What you pay attention approximately it ought to no longer be rather what they're all approximately. I belong to a Congregationalist church and we are lots greater liberal than Catholics are, yet we are plenty greater conservative and believing than i think of the UU church is. you could locate that a center floor is greater favored till you renounce God thoroughly and prefer to bypass around calling Christmas "solstice" as most of the UU human beings i be attentive to do. via the way, that factor era irritates me, undecided why. genuinely, i be attentive to why, it rather is approximately Jesus, who's the Christ, and not on the subject of the photograph voltaic gadget and pegan fairs. the two you're of religion or you at the instant are not, yet do no longer mock my faith and belittle it. At any fee, do in spite of makes you chuffed and in no way turn returned on your very own ideals. I even have observed, because of the fact the priest scandal interior the Catholic church, many have been unhappy. My church in all hazard has some million/third of it rather is club made from former Catholics ideal now. they want God, Jesus, and a few of what they have been reported with. We proportion the comparable bible and countless the comparable hymns, yet we bypass away out a lot of what has advance into "previous" and "inflexible". those human beings have been a great deal stricken via the intercourse scandal and a lot of of the Catholic rules and that scandal advance into the straw that broke countless camels backs, interior the tip. My pastor accomplished a gay wedding ceremony ceremony, to illustrate and the Catholics does not ever do this, to my wisdom. we don't genuflext and we don't have confession with a pastor, yet a generalize 2d of silence and prayer of confession and asking forgiveness at each service, we understand that we are all sinners, etc. I dislike how the UU church seems to randomly bypass alongside and not probable embody any faith in any respect. you have to be something from Muslim to Jewish to Christian and get alongside merely advantageous there because it rather is this variety of lightened version. it rather is no longer for each individual.

http://www.wayoflife.org/gospel/