I have been trying to figure this out by looking at websites, but I can’t seem to find a good answer only generalities. Do they have any real beliefs? Are they Christian or not?
Anything & everything. I guess that’s something of a generality.
from the unitarian universalist association:
“We believe that personal experience, conscience and reason should be the final authorities in religion, and that in the end religious authority lies not in a book or person or institution, but in ourselves.”
The only thing that most UU’s agree on is the seven principles, found at http://www.uua.org/principles.html. I’ll go ahead and list them here:
[list=1]
[li]The inherent worth and dignity of every person[/li][li]Justice, equity and compassion in human relations[/li][li]Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations[/li][li]A free and responsible search for truth and meaning[/li][li]The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large[/li][li]The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all[/li][li]Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part[/li][/list=1]
As to whether UU’s are Christian or not…the short answer is that some are.
Sounds Baha’i to me.
There’s a pretty big difference between the Baha’i faith and UUism. Baha’i has scriptures, prophets, and dogma, much like you’d expect to find in a religion. In fact, it even teaches the existence of “one God” (see http://www.bahai.org/article-1-2-0-2.html). Furthermore, the official Baha’i teaching on homosexuality is that is a sin (I believe, although more knowledgeable persons should correct/confirm this).
UUism, on the other hand, has no scriptures, no prophets, and no dogma. An individual believer may be Christian, Jewish, Pagan, Atheist, Buddhist, or almost anything else you can imagine (I’ve never met a Muslim UU, but it’s difficult to believe that they don’t exist). An individual believer may also reject any or all of the seven principles, although in practice this very rarely happens, as the appeal of the seven principles is a major draw to the religion. As for homosexuality…as Esprix can tell you, UUism welcomes members of all sexual orientations, and seeks to promote understanding between people of differing sexual orientations.
Our interim minister was gay, and often had his significant other with him at services. The local fundies were upset with us, but that just helped us re-affirm our decision to select him in the first place!
Qadgop, UU
ultrafilter’s explanation of the current positions are a good description. Unitarianism and Universalism DID historically grow up from a Christian tradition, though. They merged, IIRC, back in the 60’s. The names came from the belief in universal salvation by Universalists, and rejection of the trinity by the Unitarians. Other than for historical interest, those particular doctrines don’t have much relevence in the UU church today.
How close Unitarians hew to Christian tradition varies from congregation to congregation. Some Unitarian services seem like sort of a broad-based, tolerant, non-demonitional Christianity. On the other hand, I used to go to a UU church that had a minister who would cheerfully and uncritically drag in and coopt every spiritual tradition he could lay his hands on. He would happily have shofars blown on Rosh Hashanah, and the next week take his sermon from the Baghavad-Gita.
It was introduced to me as “A church for people who don’t believe in God”, which may be a bit flip, but makes a relevent point - it provides the social structure of a church without dogmatic baggage.
My ex-wife had been raised Unitarian as a kid (she’s now been ordained a UU minister even though she’s not gay), and she told me UU jokes.
“Unitarians have the Ten Suggestions.”
“Unitarians burn question marks on the front lawn.”
Unitarians walk the fine line between confusion and indecision.
What do you get when you cross a Unitarian Universalist with a Jehovah’s Witness? Someone who knocks on your door for no particular reason.
You have to be gay to be a UU minister?
UU poster boy, here - found it right after I came out as gay, served on local, regional and national music and queer committees, been to many music and queer conferences, and was a choir director for seven years in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
Any questions?
Esprix
oops… and to think all this time I was confusing UU with Moonies (Church of Unification)… There’s a UU church in the town where I go to school. It looks like a protestant-type churh and everything and one time when we drove by it one of my friends (who’s catholic) said “are those the Christians who don’t believe in God?” Not knowing what it actually was I told him he was an idiot. heh. Guess I’ll know better next time.
One point of interest (at least to me) about the gay comments is that not only is this the first UU church I remember seeing, but Ithaca (where school is) is known as one of the most gay-friendly towns in the country. Interesting because it’s pretty backwoodsy.