I’ve heard that atheists are welcome at UU church services/functions, and was wondering if anyone here either is/was an atheist who attended UU church, or interacted with one. How was it? What would an atheist get out of the experience? Is it awkward interacting with theists in a churchy context/environment?
For obvious reasons, I don’t care to debate atheism in this thread. That’s what GD is for.
Yes, they are welcome. I’ve been to three different UU churches and all had a high constituency of atheists and agnostics. Mostly they get the fellowship of a church without the dogma. It’s not really awkward because the UU is basically an agnostic church- this isn’t to say nobody believes in or everybody questions the existence of the divine, but that they pretty much agree the exact answer is unknowable.
There’s an old joke that Unitarians would choose going to a discussion of heaven than to heaven. It is probably the most liberal of the mainstream religions and one that has many people who don’t quite fit in to other houses of worship. (The ones I’ve attended have had several liberal Indians as well who either don’t have a temple that represents their sect in a convenient drive and don’t want to attend a Christian church; I’m not sure whether the UU classifies itself as Christian but if they do then it’s ethically and not dogmatically [i.e. they do not insist upon his divinity]).
A similar one is that if a house of worship catches on fire, the devotees of other religions would rush in to save various holy books, while the UUs would save their coffee pot.
It’s worth noting that different UU churches tend to have different “flavors” to them. I’ve been told the one in my town is very humanist, so atheists and agnostics would be very comfortable. Others might be more neo-pagan, while others leaning “Jesus-lite.” If considering the UU church, you should check out your local congregation to see how you feel in it - like you should for any church.
They welcomed me, so I guess the answer is yes.
We are Unitarians, my husband is an atheist.
He goes more for the kids than for himself. The kids get a values foundation that we agree with in Sundays school. UUs have a very good sexuality program in their religious education. We also have a very good choir and a very good minister. We have active social events and active social justice groups - but neither of us makes time for those.
Ours is a fairly humanist congregation.
The way I’ve heard it, the Unitarians all agree that there is at most one god.
I go to a Unitarian Church - though I haven’t found one in my new location yet.
Telemark is close. But we don’t lock out the concept of many gods as well. In my experience there’s a lot of leeway in UU. That’s the beauty of it.
Heck, the main church I used to go to, in Marietta Ohio, was ardently inclusive of everyone and everything. But it also had a HUGE mural called 'Christ weeping over Jerusalem above the pulpit. We enjoy the contradiction.
The last time I went to a UU church someone talked about the Ekhart Tolle book that Oprah raved over a few years back. Then they discussed church business and that was it. I felt like it was more a social group just looking for a common bond. I didn’t need anything like that at the time so I never went back.
I’m an atheist and a UU. I would say that atheists are more than “welcome” within UU - to me, that word implies that atheists are tolerated, but maybe not thought of as authentic or valued as important voices in the denomination. Freethinkers have been major contributors to Unitarian thought since the mid-1800s and more than 30 Unitarian ministers signed the original Humanist Manifesto in 1933. There were a few other Unitarian ministers who declined to sign it because they thought it was too much like a creed. Our most recent minister (who just left for a new position) was an atheist and our assistant minister describes himself as an agnostic.
It is true that every UU congregation has its own “flavor” and there are some that are more Christian in belief or in their style of ritual, but atheists are definitely an important part of UU tradition.
(slight thread hijack)
What does the choir at a UU church sing? (I’m genuinely curious; I’m imagining that the sorts of hymns which are sung at Christian churches wouldn’t fly there.)
I’m curious too, being a choirster and organist myself!
“Onward, Unitarian soldiers, marching as to…war?”
Even Arthur Sullivan himself couldn’t append that. 
Great information, I really appreciate it.
I am an atheist, and I miss being part of a community, and do consider myself a humanist, so I was wondering if UU church might provide what I’m looking for. I found a local church through google and I think I might check them out next Sunday. =) Their website explicitly states that the church is pro-LGBT and tends toward a humanist perspective, so I think I could get into that even though I don’t do the whole god thing.
http://www.americanunitarian.org/hymns.htm
I’ve attended a few UU services in my time and the hymns sounded pretty standard to my Jewish ears.
Our choir sings songs written by other UUs (sometimes fellow congregants), popular songs, other non-religious but uplifting and inspirational songs, and occasionally a song from the UU hymnals, Singing the Living Tradition and Singing the Journey. Our choir doesn’t sing at every service, though - we often have other kinds of music. We have a couple members who are members of our local symphony orchestra and they often perform. We also quite frequently have guest musicians. My son is in the children’s choir. This year, they’ve sung Jingle Bells (written by a Unitarian), a welcome song written by our music director, and Do Re Mi for a evening event.
This was my experience on a UU church I attended a few times, using the term Father- Mother God, when at a conventional christian church you would hear Father God in a similar context.
In some ways the UU church was closer to “God is Love” scripture then many conventional christian churches.
I gave a UU sermon at our local congregation (of which I’m a member) once, about healthcare in prisons. The hymn I picked out was Die Gedanken sind frei, an old german tune about free thinking.
Die Gedanken sind frei
My thoughts freely flower
Die Gedanken sind frei
My thoughts give me power
No scholar can map them
No hunter can trap them
No man can deny
Die Gedanken sind frei
It’s got a nice beat and UUs can dance to it.
Unitarian Athiest checking in, though I haven’t really been to my congregation in quite some time now.
Anyway, like others have said, it really can depend congregation to congregation, how much of a god-specific slant a sermon might have. Heck, at my current church we have a rotating group of people who lead services, including current UU ministers, a retired Presbyterian army chaplain, and some hippie-dippie Earth Mother types (meant with the utmost respect, of course). So, even week to week you’d get a very different experience.
It’s never been awkward, because the basic ‘gist’ is that we’re all pursuing our own needs and truths with regards to our spirituality. If you’re an atheist who gets upset when people talk about divinity and supernatural elements as having truth, or who can’t participate in conversations about god(s) in a constructive and respectful way, then it might not be the place for you. But, if you can be around people with belief in the supernatural without needing to insist that they’re wrong, and if you can use the belief of others to inform your own belief, then it can be a great place!
As to the music thing, there are also some slightly (and not-so-slightly) re-written lyrics to some standard hymns in the afore-mentioned Singing The Living Tradition. The one that comes to mind is the hymn “All Creatures of our God and King” with the titular phrase rewritten to “All Creatures of the Earth and Sky.”
I’ve attended UU services a couple times, and remember them playing that melody but with different words. A quick google found these which seem to be what I remember…
“Forward Through the Ages in unbroken line,
move the faithful spirits at the call divine.
Gifts in differing measure, hearts of one accord,
manifold the service, one the true reward.
Forward Through the Ages in unbroken line,
move the faithful spirits at the call divine”
I’ve attended four different UU fellowships and a UU church. They were all slightly different in this regard, but not radically so. The minister of the church was an atheist, he was a bit of an idiot though so the congregation booted him out. I think the rest were all basically agnostics.
The thing is, there are fanatical atheists who are intolerant of people that don’t share their fanaticism, and they technically cannot stick around the UC because tolerance is pretty much the one golden rule in UUism and no forms of fundamentalism, exceptionalism, or exclusionism are likely to be acceptable. But the non-douchey, non-evangelical types of atheists are totally welcome. Likewise, fundamentalists of any faith who are broadly intolerant of other faiths are not compatible. Anyone else from agnostics to pantheists are fine. There is no rule that there is “at most one God”, lol, not that I’ve ever heard and there were pagans galore, basically, and various type of spiritualists, illuminists, deists, and even chemo-gnostics. You can believe in fairies and mushroom if you like, as long as the next guy can do his thing. I have not attended a UU meeting in a whole lot of years, but as a kid it was super and I was allowed to become the natural agnostic that I wanted to be. I even liked all of the flaky supernatural types, the EST-weirdos, the TM-weirdos, and the whole lot. There was one guy who sometimes came to church in plate-mail, and at other times he wore a dress. Nobody minded. It was all good! These people were seriously self-secure.
rachelellogram, one thing that just occurred to me - some UU churches take the summer off and services might not be going on or may be different than what happens during the rest of the year. At my fellowship, we have all lay-led services during the summer, so it’s more of a mish-mash of topics and varying degrees of quality of speaking.
If you decide to visit your local UU church during the summer, you may want to call first to make sure they’re having a service and, if they are, you may want to find out if that’s the normal thing they do all year long or if they do things differently during the summer.