The Unitarian-Universalist Buddhist Fellowship will hold its third Convocation in Oceanside, California from March 27-29. The featured presenter will be Shinzen Young, talking on “The Science of Enlightenment.” Register by July 15th for just $60; by February 15 for $80; or regular rate at $100. More details, and the registration form, are [...]
A post here yesterday described how the Universalists also used to call themselves the Universalians, which prompted Philocrites to amusingly wonder whether UUs might today be called Unitarian Univers-aliens, a rather out-of-this-world moniker. There are other terms that have dropped out of use, but were once popular as self-descriptions in the annals of Unitarianism [...]
There are persistent grumblings about the length, tongue-twisting, and Unity/Unification-like nature of the term Unitarian-Universalist. Right after the two denominations consolidated there was a strong push to change the name to the Liberal Church or Liberal Christians, but the proponents were outmaneuvered and the name Unitarian-Universalist hasn’t been challenged on the institutional level since.
It’s worth [...]
And now for something completely different. Is your church haunted? Do you ever encounter the apparitions of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, or Adlai Stevenson?
There’s a show on Sci-Fi Channel called Ghost Hunters, and in their first season they investigated a (former) Unitarian church that had been converted into a residential home. Apparently the owners [...]
A new type of spam is starting to show up here: UU political ads. This blog has long had more conventional spam, such as bots that drop in posts full of links to products and/or malware, as well as trolls with a chip on their shoulder who compose self-righteous arguments and then go out onto [...]
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life conducted a major study–the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey–that reveals data about huge numbers of Americans and their religious inclinations. The first part of the study, released in February, looked at the number of adherents within religious groups. This blog reported on the surprisingly high number [...]
The Pew study also looked at social and political views, not just religious ideals and practices. Here’s how the Unitarian-Universalists answered:
10% of UUs are Republican in political orientation
77% of UUs are Democratic in political orientation
9% of UUs are political conservatives
32% of UUs are political moderates
51% of UUs are political liberals
96% of UUs believe homosexuality should [...]
So says the Pew U.S. Religious Landscape Survey. The last blog post suggested that UUs affirm the importance of religion but don’t practice it all that much–but that’s if you take group worship as your model. If you look at more individual practices, a different pattern emerges. A huge majority–77%–of Unitarian-Universalists answered [...]
Though not as important as it is to many other Americans, the Pew U.S. Religious Landscape Survey discovers. A healthy majority–61%–of UUs consider religion to be somewhat or very important in their lives. On the other hand, 34% said that religion isn’t important. The overall American population, meanwhile, considers religion important 82% of the time. [...]
One of the proposed Congregational Study/Action Issues that will be discussed at General Assembly later this month is “Ethical Eating: Food and Environmental Justice.” In the official proposal is a section that describes the issue’s significance to UUism. Here is what it says:
“Unitarian Universalists have a vision of environmental justice. One of our principles acknowledges [...]
