Really nice piece explaining the history of Unitarianism

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/madmen-and-martyrs-unitarian-take-knoxville

[ColbertWatcher]

1. Excerpts...

"The UUs, along with the Congregationalists and Quakers, have been at the beating heart of American liberalism since before the country was founded. We've faced down the ignorant and the arrogant, the terrified and the unreasonable, the cops and the courts and the Congress so many times that it's not even news any more. Civil disobedience is built into our bones (yes, *sigh,* Thoreau was one of ours, too), and we've come to regard it as one of our more important sacraments. These days, it's not only in our defense of gay rights and our gathering fury about torture, but also in our leadership role in the New Sanctuary Movement defending immigrants from Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids."

(...)

"When you sign up to become a UU, this is the legacy you take on, and from then on attempt to live up to. It's not God's job to make the world a better place. It's yours."

[On the Road]

5. Well That is Interesting

I thought Unitarianism was founded by William Ellery Channing. Knew nothing about the previous European history. And that list of Unitarians is quite impressive.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. 'I trust there is not a young man now living in the United States who will not die a Unitarian.'

wrote Thomas Jefferson in 1822.

[gateley]

3. From the UUA website:

There are seven principles which Unitarian Universalist congregations affirm and promote:

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.


http://www.uua.org/visitors/6798.shtml

[valerief]

4. Wow. You don't have to believe in god? Now that's a tax-exempt organization

I can go for.

[Hekate]

6. I'm a lapsed UU -- must be time for me to return

They are a great bunch.

Hekate

[tavalon]

10. It also tickles me, that as a pagan, even I am represented by the UUs

CUUPs is an organization within UU.

[gateley]

11. I was certainly impressed with what little I read.

It seems like an ideal approach to life, your fellow human beings, and the world, without it being wrapped up in all the Sin/You Are A Bad Person/We Are The Only Way crap.

[starroute]

7. Don't forget the Universalists

My husband is a distant relative of Hosea Ballou, who founded the Universalist Church in America, so I've run into a little of the history. That branch of the family was a really impressive bunch of people -- generous, tolerant, and eager to throw off the we're-all-damned hysteria that had come down from the Puritans of a century earlier.

Just as America owes much of its essential character to the Founding Fathers -- and that has sustained us through a lot of really crappy digressions -- so the UU's owe much to the high quality of their own founders.

[Hekate]

8. Another excerpt...

"One of the dead, Greg McKendry, apparently took a shotgun blast full in the chest while trying to shield other members from the line of fire. Three other members of the congregation almost immediately charged the gunman and took him down, breaking his arm in the process. Still other members acted sanely and calmly to quickly get the dozens of children out of the sanctuary and summon the police.
Those are the Unitarians I know. Smart, tough, fearless, calm in a crisis, committed to right action. It could have been any UU church in America, and they'd have behaved pretty much the same way."

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

9. Sounds like the UUs represent and embody pretty much everything great

that this country was founded upon. Maybe this long-lapsed Lutheran atheist should give these good folks a long second look.

[gateley]

12. I wast just thinking the same about this WAY long-lapsed Catholic. nt

[LiberalEsto]

13. By all means, check us out!

I was raised in the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church, which meant Sunday services anywhere from 2 to 4 hours long, all in Estonian. I felt it was a church that looked backwards, and one that paid little attention to its youth and the future. It took me years to find the Unitarian Universalists, but I'm glad I did.