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Religious Refugees

My Quakerism 101 class discussed Universalism this last week. There was a lot of talk about Universalists being open to any religion so long as it isn't Christianity. Many people seemed to have had bad experiences with Unitarian Universalist congregations that were not accepting of Christian leanings.

I grew up as a Christian-leaning Unitarian Universalist in a secular humanist congregation. I did run across some people who were anti-Christian or at least anti-specific-Christian-sect. But for the most part, there was a positive relationship with Christianity.

The congregation still celebrated the major Christian holidays and there were occasional sermons based on new testament sources. So as not to offend non-Christian members these sermons were peppered with, "Some people believe..." before each strong statement about Jesus or God.

There were also some people who wanted to bring traditions into the church that weren't a natural fit, in my book. They missed communion so they had something they called "apple ring commonion" where people could come up and get a piece of dried apple and pretend that this was a spiritual experience.

I attribute both the Anti-Christians and the Silly-Ritualists NOT to Universalism but to the problem of religious refugees.

I am not a religious refugee. I have chosen freely to immigrate from Unitarian Universalism to the Quakers. I did not flee my faith community in pain. Instead I sought out something that was missing in my life right now. I found a better fit for myself.

Refugees did not leave by choice. They fell out of their faith or were pushed out by intolerance or narrowness or any number of other things. They bring their damaged selves to more accepting churches.

The most potently anti-Christian people I have met are ex-Christians or people who were raised in a Christian home. Over time many of them relax their views once they have some distance and once they have found a new faith community.

Universalism should not be blamed for accepting these people into the mix. Refugees and Immigrants are both welcomed in religious liberal faith communities. But with this comes the burden of absorbing new biases and intolerances.

Most people in the Unitarian Church were not born to it. I am a rare "cradle Unitarian." There is a constant flow of people from other religions. The same is true of the Religious Society of Friends.

This may mean that both groups will need to actively combat Anti-Christian bias in their congregations, but I maintain that Christianity has an important role in both the Unitarian Church and the Society of Friends.

posted by Kiara at 4:42 PM