Hi,
I thought I'd confuse things further (or maybe not). Anyway, I go to a United Church of Christ and by talking to others in that church I've come to the conclusion that quite a few share my viewpoints.
I wouldn't be Christian by many commonly held assumptions about Christianity. For a list: I don't believe: in the trinity; in the virgin birth or any miracles (perhaps some as they could be explained as placebo effects); in the literal resurrection of Jesus; in substitutional atonement ("Jesus died for our sins"); etc.
I believe Jesus was a prophet who taught a brand of ideas that were so controversial he was put to death. The ideas include a lot of statements of social justice and equality that I would be very happy to claim I believe in, if only I thought I could live up to them. Along with that I think the disciples following Jesus' death, began to see significance in the messages that would not die ("that's the resurrection").
Also I was brought up in a Christian tradition and am comfortable with many of the rites and rituals, but dont' feel entirely comfortable saying I believe them, or perhaps feeling that I need to interpret them differently. Perhaps if I were as young as some people here, I might be more likely to shed these althoghter.
I am also agnostic in the nature of God. I mean by that is that I don't think we mortals can ever know what the nature of God is. And dont' particularly like the term God, but dont' have a better one.
Does this make me a Christian? A Jew? A heretic? etc. etc.???
Or perhaps you could call me a Xian or a follower of Jesus or something like that?
I also think you need to separate Universalist from Unitarian. Unitarian strictly means you dont' believe in the trinity. Thomas Jefferson, for instance, was a Unitarian, and rewrote the Gospels to take out references implying that Jesus is God and miracles and the like.
Universalist would imply that you believe that all paths are valid. (I think.) I agree with both of those. I think Unitarian is the older term, and Universalist is the newer, and that's where you get pagans, agnostics, atheists,etc.
One doesn't imply you believe the other, but once you dont' believe Jesus is God, it makes you more inclined to believe that everyone's path is valid. I think that almost no one who believes everyone's path is valid, would believe Jesus is God, but you might find someone here and there, so I wouldn't discount it.
I hope that helps. ;-)
--des