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Monday, July 28, 2008

Thoughts on the Tennessee Valley shooting

My primary reason for writing this post is to answer the question: "What is the Unitarian Universalist church?" I was asked this yesterday and couldn't give a clear answer. All I knew is that they are a very liberal group, but I didn't know really what they believed.

It turns out, they don't really believe in anything. Maybe better said is that they believe that whatever you want to believe is okay. This link will take you a web site that provides some facts and figures concerning this "church," and also gives a summary of their "faith" and a good, biblical response.

The danger in my response is that you may think that I'm being sympathetic toward the murderer. I'm not at all. A man walks in through the open doors of a gathering where people are enjoying a children's program, and he begins shooting. What this man did was horrible. There is no excuse for his actions, and he deserves to be punished to the maximum extent of the law.

I feel terrible for the victims, their families and this church. I also realize that the same thing could easily happen in the church where I pastor, and it could easily happen in just about any church anywhere.

In fact, his rampage causes serious problems for any who would dare to speak out against the Unitarian Universalist "church" for whatever they do or don't believe. I run the risk of being accused of stirring up an environment of hate by saying that I oppose what this "church" represents. I realize that some will see this man's action - and view anyone else together with him who thinks this "church" is false - as being intolerant, hateful and bigoted. Homosexual activists will try to persuade the public and legislators alike that speech and/or action taken against the pro-homosexual views of this "church" must be silenced. They will attempt to create an atmosphere of fear among the public. They will try show that conservatives on this issue are violent and must be stopped.

Anyway, you can see for yourself on their own web site that the Unitarian Universalist "church" is obviously not a true, biblical church by any means. They have no doctrinal belief about God. He/She/It can be whatever you want he/she/it to be. Or you can choose to not believe in a god at all. Or you can believe in many gods. It doesn't really matter.

They describe themselves as a "religious community that encourages you to seek your own spiritual path." That's a long way from Jesus saying: "I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except by me" (John 14:6). It's a far cry from Jesus declaring: "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it" (Matthew 7:13-14).

Of course, to this "church" there's no point in referring to the Bible because it's just one of many religious books on their shelves which you may or may not look to for inspiration. One member is quoted on their web site: "I claim the Bible as one more chapter, among several religious texts, in the Unitarian Universalist guide to living." (Laura Spencer)

And Jesus certainly holds no special place in this religion. You can find inspiration in Him if that's what you like, but there are various views concerning Jesus, the Bible and Christianity within the UU faith. Obviously, none of them refer to Jesus as Savior and Lord.

There's room in this community of faith for people who claim to be Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Pagans, Atheists, Agnostics, Humanists and others. To quote again from their site: "As there is no official Unitarian Universalist creed, Unitarian Universalists are free to search for truth on many paths."

I could continue indefinitely describing this so-called "church" as a false church. Again, for more details see this helpful site for information on a wide range of religions, cults and denominations.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

As a UU, let me just add on that sure, our church or lack-there-of as you pointed out may not emphasize the teachings of the Bible or the belief in one single all-powerful God, but our church does embody the same feeling of safety, acceptance, and freedom to learn and grow as any other "church" does. UUs do study the teachings of the Bible to find good values in the stories. We do appreciate other religions. We learn from other people's beliefs and are always open to change.

That's one of the reasons we're the "Cut and Paste" Religion--every person in our church has different beliefs. There are no rules to being a Unitarian Universalist. We have Athiest-Unitarians and we have Muslim-Unitarians and we have Christian-Unitarians. All sides of the spectrum are welcome. And for those of us who are floating around inbetween, unsure what we really do believe, we learn from various religions and "cut and paste" what makes sense for us as individuals and paste it onto our page of beliefs.

We are sometimes misunderstood as people who don't know what they believe so they believe everything. But that's not the case. We're merely people who are so open and accepting of other faiths that we don't discriminate because of what other people think. Our beliefs are complied of certain aspects of other faiths, but we aren't afraid to edit them if we learn about something that makes more sense to us.

Rob Gallion said...

I appreciate your comment. I pray that your "studies of the teachings of the Bible" will lead you to see that you shall "Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only" (Deut. 6:13) - the one, true, all-powerful God who revealed Himself in the flesh as Jesus.

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well" (Jesus' words in John 14:6-7).

By God's divine revelation I hope that "makes sense" to you, and in love I pray that you will "edit" your beliefs to the faith of the one true Gospel of Christ Jesus as given in the Holy Scriptures.

Rob