• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Search results

  1. applewuud

    Is "Occupy Wall Street" using UUA GA techniques?

    The democratic methods the protesters are using in New York to come to consensus on various issues sound like tweaked versions of what UUs do at General Assembly every year...in fact, they're calling some meetings "General Assembly"! At GA debates, there are three microphones: Pro, Con...
  2. applewuud

    Ordination in the UUA

    The key to having a healthy ministry is to know that "what other people think of me is none of my damn business". Some people will think the minister is fabulous, others an incarnation of evil; 90% of that is just their own projection, not what you do or don't do. It is important to recognize...
  3. applewuud

    Ordination in the UUA

    I'd hang out at your church and be a lay minister for quite a while before taking the emotional and financial plunge of studying for the UU ministry. Become a member of the Board of Directors of your church for a year or two, at least. Ask the worship committee to let you preach on a Sunday or...
  4. applewuud

    Which Comes First?

    What organization do you think has the best chance of making a positive impact on society? March with that one.
  5. applewuud

    Can a Communist become a UU member?

    The answer to the title question is "yes". There are some Unitarian-Universalists who consider themselves small-c communists, believing that collective ownership of the means of production is a more just and equitable way of organizing an economy than laissez-faire capitalism is. But...
  6. applewuud

    My decision

    Congratulations, Matthew. May your enthusiasm grow over time, and I hope the UU church there helps you realize the greatest depths of your potential.
  7. applewuud

    "Spiritual Warfare" on tolerance?

    Fresh Air on NPR yesterday had an interview with Rachel Tabachnick, who researches the "New Apostolic Reformation" movement. The NAR is a far-right evangelical group that believes in "dominionism": that fundamentalist Christians should take over all institutions of society and government (the...
  8. applewuud

    What happened at General Assembly?

    GA debates are much more fun if you're actually there; on video you can't capture the whole vibe. However, endlessly debating about details is part of the mix, unfortunately. A real democracy, which GA is a rare example of, can be tedious. It's sort of like a town meeting where everyone who...
  9. applewuud

    What happened at General Assembly?

    It is a lot more difficult to find videos from the GA website this year. After a sidetrack to Vimeo, I finally found them on: UUA General Assembly 2011 in Charlotte, NC - live streaming video powered by Livestream Don't be put off by the advertisements (for beer!) or the "OFFLINE" color...
  10. applewuud

    Is UU a form of religious Humanism?

    Here's a pretty deep article "Reason and Reverence" that gets into the various threads of theistic and non-theistic Humanism existing in the UUA, from the World magazine: uuworld.org : the emerging religious humanism It looks like the online archive of The Humanist magazine doesn't have the...
  11. applewuud

    Unitarian Universalism Questions

    There are many, many regular attendees at a UU congregation who never officially "join". I went for seven years, even taught classes, but never formally joined the church. Like you, I had a problem with labels. It became kind of a joke after a while. It's not a religion that separates...
  12. applewuud

    "The Unfulfilled Dream", from UU World

    This is a good article, thanks for bringing it up. So many UUs have traumatically split away from other more-orthodox religions that we tend to define ourselves by what we DON'T believe. The damaging outreach attempt of saying "you can believe whatever you want" is a clumsy attempt to...
  13. applewuud

    What happened at General Assembly?

    I missed going to GA this year...had to work. I really like being part of a "megachurch" once a year, for the services, the workshops, and the rare chance to hear reasonable debate about important issues not screened by the corporate media. So, how was it? We can get the info off the UUA...
  14. applewuud

    Is UU a form of religious Humanism?

    You've tapped into one of the current "live wires" in Unitarian Universalism. In a very general sense, I'd answer your question with "yes":eek: That's a problem for many traditional humanists in our denomination who see growing interest in "spirituality" among UUs as backsliding into...
  15. applewuud

    Unitarian Universalism Questions

    If you do have to drive 50 miles, and bring the folks, you should see what's scheduled. During the summer especially, a lot of UU churches "take off" and the services, if there are any, are really just gatherings of members without a speaker, etc. :thud: Go to their website and look at...
  16. applewuud

    UU, Atheism, and "Church?"

    You know, it's not that different: every Sunday at 10 AM we spend about an hour hearing words, singing songs, and being silent. It's just that the words we hear and the songs we sing aren't reinforcing One Way of looking at things. My church holds a fairly standard Christmas Eve service, but...
  17. applewuud

    UU's and Politics

    No, they're not crossing the line. The Latter Day Saints gave millions to the pro-Prop 8 campaign, for one. And, as AmyLeona points out, the UUA campaigned against it with "Standing on the Side of Love". It is ironic, but understandable...the role of churches is to provide moral guidance...
  18. applewuud

    Thomas Paine and UU

    Yup, he certainly would check it out. This makes him a fellow-traveller of the Universalists who believed that God was too good to send people to everlasting punishment. Now it would depend on which UU church he checked out. If he walked into one that was dominantly Humanist, he'd be...
  19. applewuud

    My Search for Meaning

    Hang in there, everyone. I'm glad you're finding something interesting. :candle::chalice: Sometimes people have an expectation visiting a church or fellowship that we have everything all together. But, we're just a variety of people who are drawn to the same atmosphere as you are. Some of...
  20. applewuud

    Converting from Catholic to UU: How to get over fear of Hell?

    I'm a little surprised that a contemporary Roman Catholic would have had a big emphasis on hell in their background; that's more of an evangelical Protestant emphasis. The truth is, there's not a lot about hell in Christian scripture, or in the Hebrew bible either. Most Catholic theologians...
Top