Hey folks. I'm here to ask you guys a question you may have gotten a bajillion times, what is the Unitarian Universalist Church, what do they belive and what makes it stand out?

For background, I'm a Deist but I was raised Catholic and in the Catholic Church, they believe in the Trinity, worship in Mary and saints, and also studying a little book called the Catechism, which talks about the beliefs of the church so you can be ready to be Confirmed and get ready to do Holy Communion, the latter of which are all part of something that reminds of one of your beliefs. Unitarian-Universalists believe in something called The Seven Principles and like in Catholicism, they also have a set of beliefs and practices in a group of seven called The Seven Sacraments and Confirmation and The Holy Communion (known as the Eucharist) is part of it.

So, what makes the church different to others?

Because of how open-minded, liberal and free you guys are to how one believes instead of sticking to rigid rules and fearing God and Hell, like many churches, as well as how I feel that the 7 Principles do match up with stuff I agree with, like a person's self-worth and how we should all be for the common good, I say that I wanna convert. How should I do it? I'm just asking so I don't mess up and I hope when the pandemic ends, I can attend a church as well.

When it comes to how I believe, I believe that more than one God exists but I stick to just one God, as in the one I've known since I was Catholic, I often pray to Jesus and I don't believe in the idea that God is this hateful being if you are gay or worship others. I feel God is more loving than that and that God gave us potential to do good in this world and if you do unforgiving and despicable acts, like abuse or rape, than you are wasting your potential to do good and will live a life of eternal torment and/or become an overall bad person as your potential withers away and it'll stop until the day you die. I also believe that the soul can live again in another body, as in reincarnation, to start over and bring a new life but I also believe if you do unforgivable acts, the afterlife won't be kind to you.

Are these worldviews and beliefs any good?

So I was watching on A&E the show where Leah Remini discusses how she escaped Scientology and then made a special episode where she later covers Jehovah's Witnesses and how they are a cult of repression, fear mongering, isolation, not allowing free will because it is "Satanic", emotional abuse, emotional blackmail, etc. Basically, a cult as repressive as Scientology and it got me thinking that with UUism being open-minded and allowing different religious ideas and backgrounds, is it okay to be critical of other religions because I have always been critical some religions as I personally don't like what they believe in, such as Christian Science for being anti-medicine and the Jehovah's Witnesses for what was shown in the Leah Remini series. Of course, Scientology is one I'm critical of, that's a given so almost no one likes them but even then, is it okay if you don't feel those religions practice stuff you don't like?

Am I the only one who's getting tired of people, especially from evangelical Christians, who claim we are nothing but a hippie, devil-in-disguise cult, just because our beliefs are not in line with theirs? Like, I saw a few UU sermons on YouTube and a good chunk of the comments were full of hateful Christians who claim we're falling for the Devil's temptation and Christ is the answer. I'm getting tired of it so, what are your guys' best rebuttals against these hateful and judgemental people?

Hey folks. I would say that after watching some sermons and reading things about the faith, I'm safe to say that I do consider myself a Unitarian Universalist and whenever I have the chance, I'm interested in going to a UU church whenever they have a service but because I've never been to one, what is the experience usually like?

I was raised Catholic so in those churches, the experience was basically full of stain-glassed windows, smells of candles and incense, and priests talking and singing in low voices about the sermons, while also donating money and doing communion, and singing mellow music. How different is it?

I was watching this really nice sermon from a UU church in Albuquerque and the comments were just heartbreaking as all it was is from hateful Christians shoving their beliefs down our throat, claiming that we have nothing to stand on, and an empty religion and it got me thinking, have you guys faced hatred for being UU? I remember that is what happened in 2008 when a psychopath caused a shooting at a UU and he spewed almost the same hateful rhetoric these Christians are preaching.

https://youtu.be/gVAHTRW8MB0