Ch. 5 The Quest (continued)
Unitarian (& Quaker) Universalism
Subsequent to my intense period of religious questing, I became acquainted with Quaker Universalism which may align most closely with my beliefs as I continue to remind myself to try to find that spark of God in everyone amid my commitments to peace, integrity, equality, and simplicity. Even so, I cannot find the motivation to embark on a 45 minute drive each Sunday to the closest liberal Quaker church to sit mostly in silence waiting for the Spirit to move me when I can do that in the comfort of my own home. For two years during my intense religious questing, I attended the Unitarian Universalist church. Once I mistakenly attended the Unity church thinking it was Unitarian only to be greeted with an opening hymn of “Believe It or Not (I'm Walking On Air)” which was the theme song to The Greatest American Hero television show. Tough to go from being Catholic to that!
The Unitarian Universalist in me embraced all seven of their 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; a free and responsible search for truth and meaning; the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within congregations and in society at large; the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all; and respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.
I no longer attend the Unitarian Universalist church because the members of our local congregation tended to be new-age or neo-pagan. Historically, Unitarianism had close ties with American Transcendentalism but those ties were not consistently evident in our local service. While Unitarian Universalism promoted a responsible search for truth and meaning, I found that acceptance was the more strongly held value. I assumed that the search for truth and meaning was responsible to the seven UU principles but I do not recall a UU minister discussing that responsibility. The search for truth and meaning tended to be individual while acceptance was communal so members rarely challenged each other's beliefs even in gently constructive ways. Instead of helping each other in a responsible search for God, we gave each other wide berth to believe whatever we felt like. I found it no more likely that the fellow next to me at a UU church had a similar vision of God than the guy next to me at the Roman Catholic Church which seemed, for me, to defeat the purpose of assembling in a community. Were we really worshiping the same God or were we just gathering together to celebrate everyone's right to worship the God(s) of their choosing? I did embrace the seven UU principles but that felt more like a sociopolitical matter than a religious one.
