can anyone explain UU to me?

[agricola]

Background: our synagogue building is being remodeled extensively, and for the past several months we have been having services at the local UUF church. I think it is called 'church'. Maybe not.

They are very nice. It is a nice space.

Also I took a Tai Chi class which was held there also - anyway - I'm in the building a lot in consequence.

They have classes, they have services, they have nice art and a scrabble club and mens drumming circles and events and talks and all kinds of - really - cool stuff. Plus they DO things in the community, which I highly value.

My housecleaner goes there, and tells me some things about UUF.

So they are perfectly nice, do good stuff etc which I value highly, but I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THEM.

Boy, do I not understand them.

They are sort of 'all faiths are right' and 'we look toward uplifting things' but there seems to be absolutely NO 'theological positions' you can point to. Like AT ALL.

Yet they'll include a cross in their iconography, but Jesus isn't God. I'm not sure UU HAS 'God', exactly. Or not exactly.

This is SO not how I was brought up! (laugh now)

So - absent some kind of god-idea, why the DEVIL do they 'do church'? Why not - oh - join the Elks Club or something?

Because they have clergy and clerical robes and they do rituals of some sort - and how on earth does that even WORK when you basically view the idea of 'god' as some kind of loose notion of happy love nice? What do they teach in 'Bible school' is the Bible is just one among many pieces of uplifting literature?

Not that there's anything wrong with happy love nice.

Who doesn't like happy love niceness? But how does that sustain something strongly resembling a 'religious community' (aka 'church')?

My current impression is, outside of 'what is god' (theology), this faith (faith?) is like THE most positively OPPOSITE of Judaism you could ever hope to find. Where Judaism is - trust me - ALL ABOUT making distinctions (sometimes insanely particular ones), the UU seems to be all about NEVER MAKING DISTINCTIONS.

Is that right? Or am I just running on some kind of misunderstanding?

My only vague knowledge of UU is probably forty years out of date, when it was a mostly Christian group which was unitarian instead of trinitarian - they still HAD 'God', they still HAD 'Jesus' (he just wasn't divine) and now - well, that doesn't seem to be the vibe I'm getting currently. This seems more - oh I don't know - hippy Buddhist? Without Buddha? Maybe? Pagan? REALLY pagan.

It's like they threw out every existing faith in the world, and put 'be nice to others' in place of God. (This may not, in the grand scheme of things, be a bad thing, really).

If all I had to go on was the 'coming events' and the 'our schedule' stuff, and didn't see the sign out front, I'm PRETTY sure I'd assume they were Wiccan. Except I don't think Wiccans are quite this organized!

'An it harm none, do what thou wilt'

They are perfectly nice I think. But I'm all confused.

Has anybody gone this route? what drew you in?

[Ivy]

Sounds like the UU is blowing your very logical mind, Agri.

I don't know much about it. Google might be your best bet, unless we have some UU adherents here on the board.

[agricola]

I've gone through the 'look them up', which is okay for 'what' but not so great for WHY??

Don't like to interrogate near-strangers, however nice, about their personal spiritual journeys.

You know what UU reminds me of, though? All those 'I'm spiritual but not religious' people. Like what does that MEAN, exactly? All 'religion' is, is a kind of structure to support your chaotic, undefined, blobby 'spiritual feelings'.

I can feel quite 'spiritual' watching a sunset, but it isn't a RELIGION unless I turn it into some kind of meaningful ritual act.

'Meaningful ritual acts' include 'attending church'. The way 'religion' differs from 'spirituality' is that you do it with OTHER PEOPLE.

[Cootie Brown]

UU is a place for people that are spiritual but not religious. I looked into it briefly after leaving Christianity. When I got to the part about their list of “beliefs” I clicked off the page.

My wife’s cousin is an atheists and also a member of the UU. She is neither religious or spiritual but she is on the extreme far left politically. Her political views seem to match up well with the UU’s perspectives and thinking.

They strike me as being more like a social club than a religious organization.

[agricola]

Well yeah but that's kind of my problem, Cootie. They FUNCTION as a 'religious institution'. Their clergy are - clergy. They have a hymnal. They have services and Sunday school. So it is 'like a social group but' - BUT it doesn't think of itself as a social group, and it doesn't (entirely) FUNCTION as a social group. It functions like 'church'.

(granted,a church with Tai Chi classes and a Scrabble club and a drum circle, but still - it 'acts like' a church).

[Ivy]

They strike me as being more like a social club than a religious organization.

Most of them seem like that to me, Cootie.

[Cootie Brown]

They strike me as being more like a social club than a religious organization.

Most of them seem like that to me, Cootie.

Are we still discussing UU’s or are you referencing something else?

[agricola]

Isn't there anybody here who goes to a UU? Because, seriously, I can see a whole lot of attraction here for an ex-coc person!

[Ivy]

They strike me as being more like a social club than a religious organization.

Most of them seem like that to me, Cootie.

Are we still discussing UU’s or are you referencing something else?

BAM!!

[Ivy]

Isn't there anybody here who goes to a UU? Because, seriously, I can see a whole lot of attraction here for an ex-coc person!

We need to do some outreach!!

Here's something interesting:

h**ps://rachelheldevans.com/blog/ask-a-unitarian-universalist-response