Why I Go to Church

[lillibet]

People often ask me about my church and about why I belong to a religious community and regularly attend services there. It's not a very common practice among my friends and there's certainly been enough evil done by organized religions to make people reasonably wary of them. Some of my reasons apply only to my congregation and to my denomination

Comments

[dpolicar]

(nods) While I regret that my culture so often leaves this sort of community-building role to churches, I am delighted for my friends who do the work and gain the benefit of it in that context.

[frobzwiththingz]

There are quite a few folk in my social circles that are UU's, and I've been inside several UU spaces for various things, and it has always seemed to me (from the outside) that the UU's just aren't the same object as any of the other organized "religious" groups. They don't even mention "God" in their "seven principles

[lillibet]

Yes :) It's kind of funny how many UU's describe themselves as "spiritual, but not religious," or as "secular humanists," while regularly attending services and participating in a community that I think very much fits most meanings of "religious".

[dpolicar]

Something I notice a lot when trying to explain Judaism to white Americans who come from a Christian background that getting across the whole idea that a religious identity can be both a social/ethnic demographic and a theological/philosophical/moral framework, and that these things don't actually depend on one another and can be embraces or rejected independently of each other, is frequently an uphill trek.

I think it's a function of unmarked cases. Sort of like how middle-class WASPs so easily confuse economic and social class.

[muffyjo]

I don't think I consciously knew that what I wanted was community but I certainly know I am happier (and grateful) for it.

[muffyjo]

I don't think I consciously knew that what I wanted was community but I certainly know I am happier (and grateful) for it.