“It is an act of faith to imagine a world where oppression is either gone, or where—as is the case of Star Wars—oppression is challenged and ultimately defeated.”

Hello everyone. I have recently discovered UU and from what I've been able to look up online it seems as though you are very non judgmental and accepting in your beliefs and the beliefs of others. I think that's amazing. I've been looking for a church that embodies those things for a long time. Every time I go to a church it seems like they talk down about "others". I'm so sick of hearing things like that. To me religion/spirituality should be more about someone's personal journey.

I'm a very complicated person and my relationship with religion/spirituality has been quite a ride so far. I grew up non religious- my mom was raised Lutheran my Dad was raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They had a hard time getting married because everyone told them they were going to hell and/or just refused to acknowledge their relationship spiritually (they are still together btw). Obviously they were bitter about that for a while and that rubbed off on me in my childhood. I never saw the point of going to church. When I was in high school my mom had a heath scare and became EXTREMELY religious (Baptist/Non-denominational). All of a sudden I was expected to go to church/pray/read the Bible/etc. I checked out quite a few religions/churches but was always put off when they started downtalking people who might pray or live differently than they do. I kept an open mind. I tried reading the Bible just by myself, non denominational Christain churches, etc. Eventually I joined the LDS church and married a man who is very faithfully LDS (I would never want him to change because of my beliefs/lack thereof).

Now, many years later, I consider myself a spiritual agnostic; I attend the LDS church service a couple Sundays a month with my family; I'm bisexual and not interested in having to hide it anymore or be shamed for it; have some paegan leanings sometimes; a strong feminist; I do not believe in hell and am unsure if I believe in heaven; and I still really want to find a spiritual gathering/church of some kind where all of my family would feel safe attending (or at least not be judged unfairly). Would we be accepted by UU's?