Church

[herazade]

Boy it's been to long since I've written a blog post. I need to write more

Comments

[opadit]

I'm super late chiming in, but have you considered a Unitarian church? Instead of putting up with dogma, you end up having to put up with New Age woo (Unitarian churches select for people who hold beliefs like anti-vaccination, homeopathy, the philosophies behind Waldorf schooling, etc.). But the whole point of Unitarianism -- in my experience -- is that you get the advantages of belonging to a church without having to believe in anything at all, really. It ends up being impolite to challenge anyone's beliefs at a Unitarian church, so you won't get challenged for not being religious.

The code word is "spiritual." It's like church for atheists who miss the spirituality, ritual, and incense, but who can't buy the belief.

So you get the weekly get-together, you get the lip service to higher/universal/unknowable/whatever powers of some kind, you get a more extended circle of friends, and the kids get an out when their peers bug them as to where they go to church. But you don't get patriarchal dogma, or pay-as-you-go rates for ascending in the hierarchy, or the pressure to recruit or witness to people outside the church.

I think, if you have to go to church, you can't go too wrong with a Unitarian congregation.

[herazade]

Oh yes, you anticipated my next post. Well done. More on this when I build up my writing energy.

[opadit]

I look forward to seeing what y'all do. Eleanor's in a Quaker school, so she has to go to Meeting for Worship, but what you worship is the inner light inside everybody, and it's not cool to pressure anybody's inner light to participate in the service if they don't want to.

Rule of thumb: if Garrison Keillor hates it (Episcopalians, Quakers, Unitarians, gays), it's OK by me.