In the fairly delightful movie "Paulie Go!" The main characters ask a woman on the shore of a Minnesota lake about who lives in a certain cabin. The woman says, "A couple bought it last year. They're Unitarians." "What does that mean," asks one of the main characters. His companion answers, "It means they hug too much in church."😂

Any other good movie quotes about Unitarians come to mind?

https://www.uusc.org/three-reasons-why-juneteenth-is-the-united-states-true-independence-day/

By Mike Givens on June 16, 2022

June 19, 1865, was a watershed moment for Black Americans living in the American South. That was the day Union soldiers landed in Texas to inform Black men, women, and children that slavery had been abolished two years prior by 1863’s Emancipation Proclamation, signed by then President Abraham Lincoln. These people—who’d seen generation after generation of rape, murder, abuse, torture, dehumanization, and cultural decimation—were finally free to live independently and free from the shackles of an oppressive and racist system that benefited off of their labor.

The road ahead would be long and filled with adversity as former slaves and their offspring would be subjected to water hoses, literacy tests, lynchings, segregated restrooms, miscegenation laws, mass migration, and countless protests and demands for justice. The cultural genocide encapsulated in anti-Black racism is still prevalent in the United States—and in many ways, the fight for equity isn’t over—but Juneteenth is an acknowledgement of progress and liberation and beckons us to continue the fight for freedom.

Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021, and though this act is a tiny step toward addressing America’s “original sin,” there are still many more steps that need to be taken for equality and equity to be truly lived and felt in the United States.

Here are three ways that Juneteenth is the true Independence Day for the United States:

July 4, 1776 Was Never About True Freedom For All

Eighty-nine years prior the liberation of Black Americans in the South, the Declaration of Independence boldly advanced a revolutionary agenda to sever the ties between the 13 colonies and Great Britain. There was just one glaring—and hypocritical—conundrum: The practice of kidnapping African people and transporting them to the colonies was still alive and well. “Freedom” only truly extended to White people living in the colonies. People living under and within the confines of slavery were not treated as people, but property.

Twelve years later, the U.S. Constitution would be amended to include the “Three-Fifths Clause,” a political concession that counted a person who was enslaved as three-fifths of a person of a free individual. This clause was not a step toward recognizing the humanity of these people, but a means for southern states to have more political representation in the nascent American government. It was a compromise rooted in political gain, not human rights.

Black Liberation and Resiliency Are Powerful Metaphors for the Struggle for Human Rights

Countless times in American history, Black people have had to fight to ensure their humanity and personhood were acknowledged and respected. From the slave rebellions in the 17th and 18th Centuries to the Civil Rights movement in the 20th Century, Black Americans have fought hard and set a strong example when it comes to advocacy, activism, bravery, and persistence. Repeatedly, Black Americans have taken situations of oppression and turned their narratives against the oppressor. Some battles have been won, others have not, but what has always remained the same is the outspoken activism that calls attention to injustice and demands the United States do better.

U.S. history is filled with people and incidents that not only show the resiliency of Black people, but the oppression they’ve faced, the injustice that’s birthed from it, and the resiliency and beauty of Black culture.

• Frederick Douglass—A 19th Century Black abolitionist and suffragist who wrote eloquently of the hideousness of slavery and the need to end it as an economic and social practice in America.
• Henrietta Lacks—She died at the age of 31 in 1951, but her “immortal” cancer cells (HeLa cells) were used by White researchers to develop a polio vaccine, test treatments for cancer and HIV, study the impacts of zero gravity in space on human cells, and train thousands of scientists across the world in cell biology. There are almost 11,000 patents that involve the use of HeLa cells and science and medicine have benefitted tremendously from their use. Lacks never provided consent for her cells to be used and her family has never been compensated for their use.
• Tuskegee Syphilis Study—Between 1932 and 1972, roughly 400 Black men with syphilis were studied by doctors with the goal of understanding the disease. None of the men were informed of their syphilis diagnosis or consented to be studied. The pretense of receiving free medical care masked the true intention of studying the infection. Around 100 men died from the disease and it was spread to several participants’ wives. More than a dozen children were born with congenital syphilis. By 1947, penicillin had emerged as an effective treatment for the disease, but the participants were denied it for the sake of continuing the study. It is one of the most egregious examples of racism in medicine in the 20th Century.
• Modern Gynecology—J. Marion Sims was an American physician who in the 1840s performed gruesome experiments on enslaved women as part of his studies of the vagina. He did not provide any anesthesia for these women and no consent was given. His experiments helped advance the field of gynecology, but at the cost of the suffering and deaths of several Black women.

• Linnentown—In the early 20th Century, Linnentown, Georgia was a bustling Black town and home to 50 families in the northern part of the state. In 1962, the University of Georgia forcibly removed all of the families through eminent domain, razed all of the homes and buildings, and proceeded to build college dorms.

  These are just five of many lesser-known stories about the abuse and oppression of Black people. Despite slavery, medical rape, forced displacement, and dehumanization, the Black community has still advocated tirelessly for progress and justice. That day in mid-June in 1865 would be the impetus for many travails, but also many triumphs.

Black Activism Makes American Democracy Work For All of Us

From the Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives Matter, the advocacy of Black Americans has continually kept progress and the fight for justice moving forward. The Civil Rights movement played an instrumental role in so many other movements for change, from women’s rights to the LGBTQ+ and anti-war movements. Even today, Black activism is responsible for a range of social justice and human rights victories, including:

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• Reforms in the criminal legal system
• Increased scrutiny of federal and local law enforcement
• Hate crime legislation
• Efforts to stem the tide of mass incarceration
• Laws protecting certain groups from discrimination in housing, employment, public spaces, and education

As we celebrate Juneteenth, we commemorate the abolition of slavery, but also Black liberation and the many advancements Black activism has ushered around the nation. As we reflect on this day and its role in history, we understand that “freedom” never really is freedom unless each and every one of us experiences in all of our personhoods and identities.

I have recently been getting re-interested (I'm always interested!) in esoteric Buddhism and Christianity, but when I try to talk about these concepts with members of their respective religions, I sometimes am confronted with more conservative concepts (on in the worst case, outright dogma)

Like "no, that's not the way, do THIS" which is not very open...I'm more than willing to be wrong, but I want to explore faith! Which I guess why I love UU so much.

I'll admit that some of my viewpoints are far from conventional - such as how I experience God while playing video games, how I also believe that video games can be "Upaya" (skilful means, in Buddhism) but I'm also interested in how different religious and spiritual concepts work together, like "be in the world, yet not of it" and the Buddhist/Hindu views of emptiness and non-attachment. The core of all religions has always seemed to me to be the same, not different, and there is so much to learn from all the faiths.

However members of these faiths tend to only speak from their faith, which is understandable but a bit constricting. How do you all reconcile this?

I got great replies the last time I made a post like this, so I am asking again.

The Infinite Jeff is a book that I think the UU community would love. It is currently on the bestseller lists on Amazon for UU. Both the paperback and hardcover are on sale and the sale ends today.

Full disclosure: This is a series I wrote but I wanted to let people here know before the sale end just in case they would be interested.

Hi all. I will be in Seattle this coming Sunday and am interested in finding a church to visit. I know nothing about the area and I see there are three congregations in town.

Which is a good one to visit as a first-timer in the area? Bonus points if one of you is a member of one of them and wants to make a connection.

Have patience, please, it's still a little rough--

I'd heard that UUs value diversity of opinions, so when I found three of them together I asked: If you have three UUs, how many opinions are there?

The first said, "Three, of course."

The second said, "At least three."

The third said, "It depends on what you mean by 'opinion.'"

howdy! i know you probably get inundated with "am i welcome" questions, so my apologies in advance for adding to the pile.

i'm a universalist christian (episcopal) and my partner is a humanist atheist. we'd like to attend services together and thought a UU church might be something affirming for both of us.

what i'm hesitant about is that, while i'm universalist, i'm not explicitly unitarian - by which i mean i do believe in trinitarian theology. i think i'm fairly liberal in my interpretation of it, and not at all to the exclusion of other religious paths, but my faith is pretty squarely centered on triune deity.

i know that UUs are able to welcome just about any religion, but on the website it actually explicitly emphasizes the unitarian-ness of UU christians, to the specific exclusion of trinitarians.

obviously i understand that "unitarian" is in the name, and i'm familiar with the history of the unitarian (pre-UU) church. i also understand that just about every mainline christian church in the usa is trinitarian, so i do feel a little silly asking about ~special accommodations~ or inclusivity when just about any christian church would affirm my trinitarian stance.

but i guess what i'm asking is: if i'm comfortable being in community with people of varying beliefs, and comfortable making broad & shared statements of faith, and in agreement with the 7 unitarian principles, will it matter to the congregation if i remain trinitarian, and if that remains core to my perception of god? or is that too disingenuous?

(should also clarify that in no way am i asking the UU church to change to accommodate me - i'm just throwing darts trying to figure out the best arrangement for my partner and i. UU seems to be pretty close, but i don't want to insert myself if i'm fundamentally at odds with a majority of the congregation. i don't want to be disrespectful.)

The UUA's website says, “Because of our strong respect for each person's beliefs and values, each wedding is custom-crafted with a couple to reflect their personalities and relationship.”
I have some genuine questions about this: Would a church conduct a group marriage for polyamorous members? If a man sincerely wanted to be married to more than one wife (polygamy), or if a woman wanted to marry another husband (polyandry), would this be viewed as something that could be done religiously, not legally, speaking. A person may legally be married to one other person, but they may feel like they are spiritually married to others. Have you ever attended a ceremony like this?

https://www.questformeaning.org/clfuu/

Wherever you are in the world, wherever your truth takes you on your spiritual journey, the Church of the Larger Fellowship (CLF) is here to keep you connected with Unitarian Universalism (UU). Our 3,500 members and friends, with their children, live all over the world. What brings us together is the desire to connect, seek, share and grow in our faith journey.

Quest for Meaning is a program of the Church of the Larger Fellowship (CLF).

As a Unitarian Universalist congregation with no geographical boundary, the CLF creates global spiritual community, rooted in profound love, which cultivates wonder, imagination, and the courage to act.

Connect // Deepen // Act

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This is as close as UUism would ever come to televangelism. And anyone can join it, even if on the other side of the world!