Unitarian Universalist TV Spot

Re: Atheist U*U Ideas Of God. . .

Thanks for resonding to my comment Galen. I see that you are a former President of the First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco. I visted the FUUSSF just over a year ago. I have posted about how I was welcomed at that “Welcoming Congregation” elsewhere on the internet. My question may not resonate with you and your Unitarian Universalist experience but it arises directly from my own direct experience of that mystery and wonder known as Unitarian Universalism. It is also solidly founded on the reports of numerous other God believing people about how they have been welcomed at Unitarian*Universalist “Welcoming Congregations”.

:The premise — the lack of God or only allowing an “atheist” view of God — is untrue.

Actually what is untrue is that I ever made such a premise Galen. Please read what I wrote again, enter into a free and genuinely *responsible* search for the truth and meaning of what I wrote, and you will see that I did not ever say that U*U churches are guilty of “only allowing an “atheist” view of God.” What I did suggest is that *some* U*Us, including some U*U ministers, are rather dogmatic atheists whose idea of God is that God does not exist and that believing in God “seems primitive”. Is that assertion untrue Galen? I think not. Indeed I know from direct personal experience of U*Uism that it is true.

:I know that Unitarian Universalist churches and ministers differ widely, but it would be difficult for someone to come away with that impression from our Sunday services.

And my point was that *some* Unitarian*Universalist “churches” are predominantly atheistic, or at least a good chunk of their membership consists of atheists, and that a subset of U*U atheists say things and do things that make God believing people feel considerably less than welcome in U*U “Welcoming Congregations”. My point was that “someone else`s idea of God” as expressed by some atheist U*Us, including some atheist U*U clergy, will make some God believing newcomers to U*Uism feel less than genuinely welcome in some U*U “churches”. I have only attended one of your Sunday services, over a year ago now, so I am not really in a position to make an assessment of just how welcoming the First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco is to God believing people. I can say however that I was all but totally ignored by San Francisco U*Us when I visited your church last summer, and even got the corpse-cold Unitarian shoulder when I said hello to some of your church members.

:Of course, your definition of “atheist” may be broader than mine, too.

My definition of “atheist” is pretty much the same as the dictionary definition of “atheist”. When I speak of particularly dogmatic, narrow-minded, intolerant and even outright anti-religious atheists I generally refer to them as “fundamentalist atheists” as a way of distinguishing them from the larger atheist community. Surely you must know that a good number of U*U churches have at least a small handful of such “fundamentalist atheists” and that when they express their idea of God it makes God believing people feel less than welcome in U*U churches.