Skip to main content

Humanist churches

What does it say about human nature in general, and Americans in particular, that there are such things as atheist churches. For most people this would seem like an oxymoron. I'm sure most people in Britain, the general public, and humanists, would consider it really really weird that Americans have atheist/humanist churches.
There are humanists organisations in Britain, but I'm sure none of them meet on Sunday morning, have 'sermons' 'leaders' and 'sunday schools.' What does it say about how much Americans love going to church, that even those that are entirely atheists, still go to church?
Why is American church-going culture so strong that it survives the complete removal of any metaphysical foundation?
Here's a fun party game: listen to an audio sermon online, and see if you can work out if it's a UU church or an Ethical Society. What does it mean if you can't?
A lot of questions.

Comments

Freespirit said…
Equating atheism and humanism opens a big can of worms. Humanism is such a comprehensive term that it embraces both religious and secular. I would argue that all Unitarianism (and UU'ism) has a humanistic thread, but not all of it is atheistic...because we place the center of the quest for truth and meaning in the hearts, minds and hands of unique, individual human beings.
3:14 pm
Anonymous said…
another stereotyping post... such a narrow-minded 'look at me I'm a liberal' viewpoint...

what happened to the INTELLECTUAL tradition of British Unitarianism? When was is taken over by Guardianistas?
11:10 am
Anonymous said…
When you get to Unitarian College Manchester, look in its little library section of Luther King House's for the Ethical Church liturgy book. Traces of it and inspirations from it are on my website.

Yes, I was at UCM. I see some of your comments to be similar to my outlook, including I note a rather recent "conversion" to Unitarianism. Are you sure you know what those Manchester churches are like? With a few exceptions, I found their conservatism like death warmed up, and they did not like me either. I see you are already theologically capable, and have an Anglo-Catholic element in your background. Have you not considered that liberalism in Unitarianism can be conservative, whereas the same liberalism and more can be radical elsewhere? I notice your dislike of Hymns of Faith and Freedom, an example of Unitarian conservative attitudes, and yet your liking for the eucharist. Why?
4:22 am
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Radical?

When I started this blog nearly 4 years and nearly 300 posts ago one of the labels I used for it/me was "radical." Perhaps I used it a little unreflectively. Recently I've been pondering what radical means. A couple of things have made me think of this. Firstly this blog series from my friend Jeremy, which explores a distinction between "radical progressives" and "rational progressives." There is also this definition of radical, liberal and conservative from Terry Eagleton quoted at Young Anabaptist Radicals : “Radicals are those who believe that things are extremely bad with us, but they could feasibly be much improved. Conservatives believe that things are pretty bad, but that’s just the way the human animal is. And liberals believe that there’s a little bit of good and bad in all of us.” What interests me is finding a way to express the tension I feel sometimes between myself and the wider Unitarian movement. One way to express this is to say I tend
3 comments
Read more

What does it mean to be non-creedal?

Steve Caldwell says "The problem here isn't humanism vs. theism for theist Unitarian Universalists -- it's the non-creedal nature of Unitarian Universalism" This is a good point. We need to think much more deeply about what it means to be a non-creedal religion. The first thing I want to say is that there is more than one possible understanding of non-creedalism. The Disciples of Christ are a non-creedal church, they say here : " Freedom of belief. Disciples are called together around one essential of faith: belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Persons are free to follow their consciences guided by the Bible, the Holy Spirit study and prayer, and are expected to extend that freedom to others." Quakers are also non-creedal and say here : Quakers have no set creed or dogma - that means we do not have any declared statements which you have to believe to be a Quaker. There are, however, some commonly held views which unite us. One accepted view is that th
3 comments
Read more

What is Radical Christianity?

Radical Christianity is about encountering the God of love . It is first and foremost rooted in the discovery of a universal and unconditional source of love at the heart of reality and within each person. God is the name we give to this source of love. It is possible to have a direct and real personal encounter with this God through spiritual practice. We encounter God, and are nourished by God, through the regular practice of prayer, or contemplation.  Radical Christianity is about following a man called Jesus . It is rooted in the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth, a Jewish prophet living under occupation of the Roman Empire two thousand years ago. It understands that's Jesus' message was the message of liberation. His message was that when we truly encounter God, and let God's love flow through us, we begin to be liberated from the powers of empire and violence and encounter the  "realm of God" - an alternative spiritual and social reality rooted in love rather th
Post a Comment
Read more