Not sure.  For a few weeks my wife and I have visited a local Unitarian Universalist (UU) church with the goal of establishing a communicative link with someone other than ourselves.  The reason we have selected a church atmosphere over any other venue is because of our faith.  We are followers of Christ, but our peculiar form of doctrine (or lack thereof) makes us not quite comfortable with the plethora of churches available — both denominational and non-denominational (which is really just a title; they mirror other denominations).

Our spiritual journey has been both exciting and somewhat lonely.  We were steeped in Christian fundamentalism, but after 35 or so years of our married walk together, we began to question some of our doctrine.  Like the validity or purpose of the Rapture and Tribulation, how the world will end (if it ends) and why is an eternal torture in a burning hell necessary?

We started taking Jesus at his word.  He prayed to God and called him his father, so we wondered how he could be God at the same time.  Sure, he said “my father and I are one,” but that could just mean that they were of the same mind, like “my father and I are just alike.”  So there goes the trinity.

And we struggled to find definite comments or teaching from the Son of God to support the main stream salvation/end times position that so many promote.  The only thing that we could come up with is that Jesus wants us to be nice (pardon the oversimplification).

We went from organized church to house church to no church.  We tried a couple of Methodist churches because they seemed rather innocuous.  But we felt that getting involved outside of worship service might put us in a position of revealing our beliefs, thereby making us and them uncomfortable.  Our next stop – the Unitarian Universalists.

We had done some research on the UUs and learned that they were tolerant of all religions and were big on encouraging human kindness.  So far, so good.  We have attended three “worship” services:  one on remembering UUs who have passed on; one on doing your own thing; and the last one could have been titled, “Is is possible that I’m a humanist?”

We stayed for coffee after each service, only to be approached by a few from 100+ congregants.  Just like most newbies at a regular church.  The smattering of information that we got is that they weren’t dissatisfied with their individual religions but wanted to be involved with those more open and tolerant. This is somewhat confusing to me because it seems that you would have to remain extremely neutral in order to get along.  One thing that binds people, especially with regard to faith, is the commonality of beliefs.

The hymns appeared to be specifically written to not offend or persuade.  The service comes across more as play church rather than real church, but I have to keep reminding myself how indoctrinated I have been since childhood.  I have held several positions in the organized church and have even taught the doctrines that I now challenge.

I thought Unitarian Universalism might be the answer, because I believe in one God (who happens to have a boy named Jesus), and I believe that nobody is going to burn forever for not accepting Jesus as their personal savior, rather that God loves all of his creation and will perfect them through a lengthy process involving love and discipline.  However, I’ve yet to hear teaching on true Unitarianism or Universalism.  Maybe that’s because I haven’t been to Sunday School yet — I mean Religious Education.

I’ve been told by someone close that the above comments may be construed as judgmental.  That may be true.  In the words of television’s Jeopardy, maybe I should put them in the form of a question.  That might take the edge off.

Stay tuned.