How can you be a member of another religion and also a Unitarian-Universalist? Isn't it one or the other?

Question

Not saying I have a problem with other religions, but it seems contradictory to me that someone would claim to be Jewish and a UU, Catholic and a UU or Baha'i and a UU. Can you explain this?

Also, can you be an atheist and a UU?

Answer 1

The UU church is pretty open minded and it doesn't conflict with much.

Yes. I know atheists that attend their church.

Answer 2

First let's tackle the atheist question, because it is the easiest. Yes, you can be an atheist and a UU. Atheism is a theological position, not a religion or religious denomination.

The individual spiritual practices of our congregants take many forms. Many people come to us from other faith traditions when marriages have created a situation where the couple wishes to acknowledge and honor both traditions and their traditional places of worship make that difficult or impossible. They may also want their children to be religiously educated in an environment where they will eventually be able to make their own spiritual choice without undue influence from one or other of the parents previous religions.

Finally, just like there are Irish-Americans, Italian-Americans, African-Americans, etc. There are Buddhist-UUs, Pagan-UUs, Christian-UUs, Jewish-UUs, etc. Usually this indicates that the person's spiritual practice is heavily influenced by and follows closely the spiritual practice of the name before the hyphen.

I have know several people who held membership in a UU congregation concurrently with membership in another house of worship. This doesn't create a problem for UUs. I think this poem by Edwin Markham expresses the UU perspective very well.

"They drew a circle that shut me out:
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took them in."

- Edwin Markham, "Outwitted"

For more information about Unitarian Universalism, check the Unitarian Universalist Association website.

Answer 3

We UU's are united by our ideals, not our beliefs. Our first principle is to value "The worth and dignity of every person". We take "worth and dignity" seriously. That means even if he is black, white, brown or red; even if she is poor or a lesbian; even if he is gay or homeless, or she used to be a man, or he stammers because he has an IQ of 140 trapped in an 80-year old body that suffered some strokes, or her legs don't work. The gay or lesbian part usually upsets conservative people.

People who say they are (Catholic or Jewish) and a UU generally mean they were raised in that faith but are more comfortable going to a UU church. We have a couple in our UU congregation.

In practice, it is hard to be a member of two churches at once; you have to decide where to go on Sunday, how much to pledge to each one, which committees to join at each one and so forth. Very few people are active members of two churches at once.

You can be an Atheist or an Agnostic and a UU. You can believe anything you want about the nature of God and be a UU. You could, in theory, believe in the Father, Son and Holy Ghost and belong to a UU church, but in practice, if you would fit right in at a mainline Protestant church, you'd do better there.


A little extra:

If you leave this Q up long enough, someone will say we are a cult, and someone else will say we are “The church that doesn’t believe in anything.” Wrong!

Cults have three hallmarks. 1) They are relatively new, 2) they have a single, charismatic leader, and 3) they share a single mindset.

By the numbers:

1) We have been around for 200 years. President John Adams and his son, President John Quincy Adams, were Unitarians.

2) Our leader, the president of the UUA, changes every ten years. Sometimes we elect a person with charisma, sometimes we don't.

3) Some of us believe in God, some don't. That is the widest variety of "mindset" you'll find in any religion today.

We are not a normal denomination, but we are far from being a cult.


On to beliefs: There are Presbyterians who vote Democratic and Presbyterians who vote Republican. No one calls them "The church that doesn't vote". There are Lutherans who love lima beans and Lutherans who hate them. No one calls them "The church that doesn't eat anything". We UU's have no formal creed, beyond our seven principles. This confuses people.

If you join a Christian church, you have to say that you believe in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, that Jesus was born of a virgin, that Mary was born without Sin, that everyone else was born covered with Original Sin the way seagulls get covered with goo when an oil tanker springs a leak, and so on. We don't make you say any of that to join us. We assume you will make up your own mind about the nature of God, and we’ll provide interesting questions to help you.

We UU’s believe in a lot of things, but we don’t think in lockstep.