How did you come to UU?

[BrandonE]

As a new UU, this is something we covered within our NewUU class, and I was surprised at how different everyone's answers were. We had one woman who was raised in the Unitarian church before the merge; a couple of Catholics, including one who has since been involved in paganism before coming to our UU through our CUUPS group; a couple of people were raised basically without any specific religion. I had expected for most people to be (like myself) expatriate protestants.

How did you come to the UU?

For myself:
As I've mentioned before, I was raised in a fundamentalist Christian home, but started questioning the dogmatism in HS after reading Emerson (funnily enough, as this eventually comes full circle to UU). I broke from the church and didn't have much concern for spiritual things for a while. I can't remember exactly how I heard of UU for the first time, but my wife and I visited a few times, then kind of went back to non-participation for a long while. After the birth of my son, my parents began to raise the issue of getting him into a church. We weren't comfortable with them being the only ones with a religious stance, so we returned to visit the UU church in our hometown and felt right at home. After just a couple of months, we joined.

 

[Tigress]

I am a 'birthright' Unitarian Universalist. You can read about my spiritual journey here.

 

[Green Gaia]

I was raised in a church of Christ, but even though I grew up in that church I began to question things I was taught there that just didn't make sense to me and wasn't given answers ("just have faith and believe" I was told). About the same time my parents were unsatisfied with that church and we all left as a family. I attended a Presbyterian church for about a year while in high school, but only to sing in the choir. In college I went to a couple of Christian meetings on campus, but it wasn't what I was looking for either and stopped going. It wasn't until after my son was born and about a year old that I thought about finding a church again. Through a series of events I found the UU church in my city (I'd never heard of UU before then) and fell in love with values, the people, the building, the land: I'd found my spiritual home. I love it and I still love it. Although I've moved states since then and have found an equally wonderful UU church that I quickly emersed myself in and now they can't get rid of me.

 

[BrandonE]

Hey thanks for pointing out that other thread Tigress. I haven't gotten around much of the rest of the forum yet. There's so much of it. Guess I should look around more.

 

[BrandonE]

I was raised in a church of Christ, but even though I grew up in that church I began to question things I was taught there that just didn't make sense to me and wasn't given answers ("just have faith and believe" I was told).

Thanks for that reply Maize. I find it interesting to see how many people began to question their faith of origin at a young age (which was really apparent in that thread Tigress pointed out). It amazes me how different people are, even though I know it to be true already.

I didn't question much personally until late in HS. I totally bought into everything I'd been taught, and was sure that some of my school friends were headed straight to hell, even though they were some of my closest friends. Sure, there were times that I struggled with some teachings, but I clung tight to what I'd been taught and "just had faith". When I read Emerson in HS though, his concept of the Oversoul just resonated with me in a way that I didn't even fully undestand at the time. I stayed in my church for a few more years, but I was really beginning to question things at that point, until I eventually just fell away from it.

 

[uumckk16]

I grew up considering myself Christian, but that was only because my parents were both raised Christians and we celebrate Christmas - I was never baptized or anything. We attended a Protestant (I think) church for a year or so when I was very young but my mother got sick of some of the people there so we left. Anyway, I was too young to take anything from it religiously. My parents never told us what to believe spiritually, preferring to let us each find our own way. As such I never really thought about religion. I suppose I always believed in God, but I honestly just never thought about it.

Until last fall, at least. I began thinking about my beliefs a little, and wishing I had a place to call my spiritual home. In December my mom mentioned Unitarianism. I was curious, so I Googled it. After half an hour of searching around the web, during which I read about the acceptance of homosexuals (which is very important to me) as well as the original meanings of "Unitarianism" and "Universalism" (both of which I agree with to a degree), I'd fallen in love. My mother bought a copy of A Chosen Faith, which I read. By the time I'd finished, I was convinced I'd found a place for me.

I visited the UU church near my house for the first time on January 1st, and I'm still convinced. I love UUism and its principles. I love the church and its atmosphere. I love that I'm free to believe what I like.

 

[uu_sage]

I was raised in the Conservative Baptist Church of America (CBA, www.northhills.us, www.cbconline.org) and the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS, www.soth.org). Never once did I believe in any of the dogmas they were preaching so in a way those years in being brought up in these two denominations could be considered my closeted Unitarian years. At 18, I decided to sever my ties with the church and orthodox, dogmatic Christianity. A year was spent was working on how I would come out of the heretic closet (especially to my parents). Often I was found crying and fearful over how they would react. In August 04, I came out to my parents confident in my new found beliefs. I told my parents that although I respect them, and honor their right to believe, I could no longer in good conscience believe in the dogmas of my childhood. Then I told that I am a Unitarian Universalist and explained to them what that meant. My father who could be considered a mainline to liberal Christian(and I'm forever grateful for it), accepted me and wished me the best of luck in the purusit of truth, beauty, love, and justice. My mother being the fundamentalist she is ripped me a new one but told me to "Go to Hell". I shocked and appalled. How could my mother believe in a God that condemn his own creation to a place of suffering and pain? How un-Christ like of her. With my beliefs revealed, I took the next step in locating a UU congregation near me. I started attending as a visitor. From the moment I first set in the doors of Monte Vista UU (www.montevistauu.org), I finally realized that I was home, being welcomed by kindred spirits. At our Dia De Los Muertos service (Nov. 7th, 2004), I and three other people signed the book signifying our entrance into this free, liberal and awesome faith tradition. It's been a year now since I first became Unitarian and am very proud of it!

 

[BrandonE]

Interesting that two stories from relatively similar (protestant) background are so different. Thanks for sharing uumckk16 and uu_sage.

I can sympathize with your anxiety uu_sage, as I've not told my parents yet that we have joined the UU church. I've tried to be open with them in the past, but they made very clear that they were disappointed and felt that they'd failed as parents because I was not a christian fundamentalist. I have been mulling over it for a while now, and I have prepared myself to tell them in the immediate future, but I'm not sure what the outcome will be. I can only do my best to be honest and not patronizing and hope that they can at least accept this as my choice, even if they can't actually be happy for me.

I hope that time has healed or will heal the pain that your mother and you must both feel.

 

[Mathematician]

Very interesting thread! I'll try to expand on what I have written before on RF.

_____



My parents divorced before I stopped using diapers, which split my life basicaly in half. Most of my time was spent with my grandmother, mom, and great uncle, all of which were and still are agnostics-leaning towards deists. Every other weekend I visited my father and his parents. They consider themselves practicing Catholics, though they don't attend church. As it would happen, I wouldn't go to church until 8+ years later.

Well, when my mom re-married, we moved to Texas, where I got a taste of religion being shoved in people's faces. I was originally from New Jersey, and I can't remember once hearing someone attacked for their religious beliefs, though to be fair when you're in second grade you're usually talking about Donkey Kong and Hop-Scotch.

Yet here I was listening to kids make fun of a Jewish kid in my class, claiming he would go to hell. It disturbed me to witness such negatives come from something I assumed to be positive, and in 6th grade (the following year) I started actually reading the Bible for the first time in my life. It must have been peer pressure that made me continue to call myself a Christian that year. Besides from asking my first girl out that year, and reading my first Narnia book, I can only remember dressing out for P.E. and overhearing people talk about how many times a year they attend church. Wanting to fit in, I lied and said I went about every month.

That summer I actually did attend a church. It was Protestant, though I can't remember if it was Baptist or what. Needless to say, I instantly found myself disagreeing with how they taught about salvation. I kept on thinking, why can't everybody be saved?

Over that summer, I also started thinking about if I actually do believe in God. I called myself an agnotic-on-the-go, meaning I was looking for a new religion. As it happens, I continued to call myself an agnostic for three years. After researching further, I declared myself an atheist.

That is when the trouble started. Living in a fairly conservative area where making gay jokes is always cool (except for hot lesbians, of course! :sarcastic ), I started being questioned by some students--- even my biology teacher once. I look back and laugh now. That teacher was actually a coach, and I tallied at least 20 mistakes he made teaching science that year.

Luckily, people have matured, and everyone who actually knows me hasn't a problem. Sure, I'm still given the "you should convert" thing from my friends, but it's more of a joke now. My best friend is actually a Baptist, and I don't have plans on ending our friendship any time soon.

Getting back on track...

I came to ReligiousForums and nearly blew up when I saw all these people here! When I started looking into Unitarian Universalism (about the time I lost the bad-boy-atheist attitude), I realized how much I wanted to keep exploring with other people.

In a nutshell... ha

 

[lilithu]

How did you come to the UU?

Assuming that you have the patience to deal with my verbosity:
http://www.wizdum.net/confessions/?permalink=1