Should my kids go to a Unitarian Universalist church?
I grew up Unitarian, and have gone to several UU churches. They are comprised, mostly, of liberals disaffected by whatever religious tradition they were brought up in–ex-Jews, ex-Catholics, etc. Nevertheless, they have a profound concern with ethics, and the church provides them an opportunity to build a community of people with the same concerns. In the church I grew up with, about 40% of the “sermons” were concerned with ethics, 40% with politics, and 20% with sex or sexual politics. I love Unitarian “types,” and though I now am a practicing Buddhist, I sometimes think about connecting with my local community’s UU church, just because I like the people.
UU churches have members, with kids or no kids, that range from atheists to humanists to earth-based worshipers to moderate theistic Christians. My best advice for you is to attend local UU churches and see which, if any, you can feel comfortable at. I see your in MA, so there’s probably quite a few around. They vary a lot church to church. Most ministers, in their sermons, assume some level of higher/spiritual power. But again, that varies. In terms of children, I’ve never attended or heard of a Sunday school class at a UU church that indoctrinates into a particular set of believe–even about the existence of god. To answer your first question, I’d say it’s slightly more the first, but definately the latter as well. As curtm says, a fair number of UUs are the outcasts of other religions. My guess is that that will be less so in Massachusetts since there’s been such a long history of Unitarianism there (for example, the original Pilgrim church house in Plymouth, MA became a Unitarian c
My husband is a dyed-in-the-wool atheist, and I’m slightly less dogmatically so. We’re both very leftist in our politics, interested in moral/ethical issues, and try to be connected to our community. We met at our UU church. That said, the biggest warning I can give you is that the level of humanism, spirituality, etc., depends very strongly on the individual UU church, its minister (if there is one) and its members. Age of members often matters–I understand that the bigger UU churches about 45 minutes away from my tiny one have a lot more older members who are die-hard humanists and allergic to any kind of “god talk,” so their services focus a lot more on social action and ethics (no “Dances of Universal Peace” for them, thank you–which they might find at a younger or more “crunchy” UU church). I see that you’re from Massachusetts, tom_g, which is pretty much the hotbed of UU-ism, so you may have several options within a decent radius; check out a couple churches and see what might
Personally, I’ve been very much not impressed with the UUs I’ve interviewed. It may not exhibit the strong form of religious indoctrination wherein some revealed truth is drilled into children, but it does bear some strong similarities. The uniformity of the membership, the need to emulate various traditional religious poses (ministers, hymns, confessions), and, most disturbingly of all, the not-critical-or-skeptical-everything’s-ok attitude towards traditional religions. There are stories, though admittedly no real stats, of UUism serving as a gateway drug for your more classical religious kookery. Also (and the Wikipedia article confirms this for what it’s worth) there is a growing theistic trend in UUism, especially as more and more Pagans show up. So, I’d say keep the kids far, far away. I wonder if your wife really wants community. There are a lot of places to get community. Instead of spending your Sundays listening to a ‘minister’ I’d say either do volunteer work as a family or,
Thanks everyone. I’m going to have to go this weekend to see what it’s all about. I can’t imagine how a place called a “church” that has a “minister” and has “sermons” isn’t going to make me nauseous. However, we’ll see… Regarding some of the comments above – I actually don’t want to hide religion and superstition from my kids. However, I want them to learn about it like they would learn about any myth, social ill, or illness. This is my job, and I feel that it could be undermined by a bombardment of spirituality and “religion is good” stuff.
