Unitarians?

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Oni Koneko Damien
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Unitarians?

Post by Oni Koneko Damien »

Okay, I saw something mentioned in the Fundi Camp for Gays thread about how all sects of christianity, including or excluding universalists, believe suicide sends you straight to hell. I'm not really concerned with the suicide portion of it right now, though. I was wondering, since I don't have much knowledge on the sect, are Unitarian Universalists considered a part of christianity? I have quite a few friends who go to a Unitarian church, and as far as I can tell, their beliefs have little to nothing to do with anything remotely resembling christianity.

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Rye
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Post by Rye »

No, unitarian universalist churches are not christian, they're an extremely liberal general church with no real creed or dogma, and their services are usually made up of a mixture of other religions' rites and ceremonies. They welcome people of all faiths and none.

The closest thing UUCs have to a creed or dogma are their "principles" which focus on compassion, tolerance, humanism and acceptance.

Unitarian can also mean non trinitarian christians and non-abrahamic monotheists, but the UUC is what I described above.
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Sriad
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Post by Sriad »

UU churches (as might be expected of an almost absolutely non-doctrinal religion) vary widely in the nature of their services. My understanding is that in the Eastern United States UU services have significantly more Christian content.

However, Unitarian UNIVERSALISTS (the two churces merged in 1960 or so, after centuries of seperate but dovetailing development) believe in universal salvation (to the extent that they believe in it at all) which was thrown out of the Christian dogma in some early council or other. So some UUs would say they consider themselves Christian, but almost all of Christianity would disagree.

Whew, writing about Unitarians takes a lot of qualifiers. :wink:

PS-
The Seven Principles
# The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
# Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
# Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
# A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
# The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
# The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
# Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.
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wolveraptor
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Post by wolveraptor »

Sounds like a bunch of hippie pot-head nonsense to me. :P

But really, I always wonder why people even bother to follow religion when it has been this distorted. If you think 99% of the Bible is incorrect, how is that the basis of your religion?
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Post by sketerpot »

wolveraptor wrote:But really, I always wonder why people even bother to follow religion when it has been this distorted. If you think 99% of the Bible is incorrect, how is that the basis of your religion?
This is what I find baffling about UU churches as well. My best guess is that they're into "spirituality" and the community of a church.
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Post by Sriad »

sketerpot wrote:This is what I find baffling about UU churches as well. My best guess is that they're into "spirituality" and the community of a church.
Exactly. Not everyone who realizes Christianity has too much baggage and crap will choose to abandon religion all together, and it's perfectly reasonable to want to hang out with people who've drawn the same conclusions you have.

And frankly, there are dozens of religions which won't have enough of a presence on their own to maintain temples in most American cities, UU churches give them a space to pull together.
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Post by Oni Koneko Damien »

Okay, that's what I thought. One of my best friends is Unitarian, and has invited me several times to the gatherings she attends. Apparently, during some fundy gathering against gay-marriage, her and a few others in the church distributed a pamphlet entitled 'What Jesus said about gay marriage'. The inside of the pamphlet was completely blank.

It was from her I learned the ever-popular Jesus-song. It's sung to the tune of 'If you're happy'. You stick your arms out, spread-eagle style, and sing, "If you're Jesus and you know it, clap your hands!" Then do the one-handed clap (slapping your fingers on your palm).

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wolveraptor
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Post by wolveraptor »

...that's just disgraceful. People, if you're gonna believe in an all-powerful deity...don't do this to it. :)
"If one needed proof that a guitar was more than wood and string, that a song was more than notes and words, and that a man could be more than a name and a few faded pictures, then Robert Johnson’s recordings were all one could ask for."

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