Unitarian Universal

Anyone who knows me knows I am not a religious person. However, I believe that everyone has a right to belong to any church and praise any god(s) they choose as long as they don’t hurt anyone else. I have been to numerous services including Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Jewish, and Buddhist to name a few. In my opinion they all have their good and bad aspects.

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend a Unitarian Universal service for the first time. Out of all the services I have attended in my lifetime this was by far the most disappointing. I was at the service to attend a dedication ceremony for an infant. At first glance it seemed very promising. There seemed to be a fairly eclectic group of people at the service. That is usually a good sign.

The sermon was definitely not what we expected. Out of all the possible topics the clergy could have presented during the dedication service (i.e. welcoming a child, being part of a group or family, it take a town to raise a child, etc), he chose to make it an infomercial instead. He went on and on about how Unitarian Universal is all about tolerance and they accept all faiths. The only guidelines they have are tolerance and acceptance. He went on about how they only turn away bigots, racists, and misogynists (those who hate women, I looked it up after the service). So he finally ended the sermon making it very clear that regardless of your religious beliefs you are welcome to join their church.

Directly after he went on about religious tolerance, he made a very firm and emphatic statement that a “dedication service is a welcoming process and does not wipe out any imaginary original sin!!” I am certain that any Catholics in the service were not feeling very welcome or accepted at that point. Then they made all the children, other than the infant, leave the service.

My cousin arrived late due to a road closing caused by horrible storms that morning. She arrived just after the mass exodus of the children. When she attempted to join us at the service they stopped her at the door and told her that her child must remain downstairs with the other children. She tried to explain that they were not members of this church; they were there as invited guests of the parents of the child to be dedicated. Her child would not know anyone downstairs and feel scared and alone. She assured them that she would be quiet and well behaved. They would not hear of it, and refused to let her attend services unless she sent her child to the basement with the others. Does that sound tolerant to you? So what are the Unitarian Universal guidelines? Maybe they are, we accept all races, sexual orientations, and religions (minus the parts of your religion we find silly), but we do not tolerate children?! It doesn’t sound like a group of globally accepting people to me.

Well that is my rant for the day, thanks for reading!!