This is the Internet. Nothing is as it seems. I always Google the author before reaching a conclusion. It turns out that Perry Marshall of the 7 lies is the same one who is a big wheel in Guerilla Marketing.
See http://religion.coffeehousetheology.com/
then http://www.tannah.net/religion/index05.htm
then http://www.tannah.net/
which takes you to http://www.perrymarshall.com/

So maybe this whole course is a money making scheme. As anonymous has already said “Philocrites here: My ads work! They inspire! They bring revenue! Hoorah!”

“Dixitinsipiens” from said board here. Have been lurking.

Frankly, I think the levels of knowledge, discussion, sincerity, respect, and wit are all noticeably higher in the emerging UU blogosphere than they have been at beliefnet.

the UU blogosphere: “It’s the youngest, established, permanent, floating crap game on the Web!”

CC

I’m probably never going back to being a Presbyterian.

CC
who is probably still a self-destructive nincompoop. She likes to think she hides it well, but fausto may be on to her.

Of course, at the same time, they’re leaving the scout troop they’ve been in since they were five, quitting the flute they spent years learning to play, forgetting their plans to be a doctor, starting a punk band, and sitting out on the roof smoking when they’re supposed to be in bed.

OF course we all know they will get over everything else that goes with youth.

What makes you think they won’t outgrow their attitude about organized religion?

For me, attending church was part of a carefully-constructed facade that hid from my parents that I was a self-destructive nincompoop. I remember the phase. Took four years of not being a presbyterian to get over it.

Once I was, I came right back.

CC

Seriously, though. As I was thinking about some of the points you all have made, it occurred to me that most UU youth of my acquaintance would not hesitate to label ChaliceChick’s hypothetical blog ad for a course on the Healing Power of the Bible as sheer nonsense…. while regarding Mr. Marshall’s claims with an affirmative nod of “mmmhmm, I hear you, pal!” Why? Because they don’t go to church (where they’re often not welcomed), they don’t get acquainted with the tradition of inquiry and criticism to which they are heir, and they come into *and leave* our movement without knowing that heritage,holding forever to the notion of themselves as lone rebels, and to the concept of churches as preservers of the status quo. It hurts them. It hurts the movement, immeasurably.
Sorry to belabor the Loss of Youth Thing again (as we dragged on and on about on Philocrites some time ago, but it weighs on me mind lately.
Of COURSE there are ways other than church life to engage in a free and disciplined and responsible search for truth and meaning and Philocrites is right: if our congregations want to compete, we have to do it better or best.

However, I disagree to some extent with Peacebang’s sweeping criticism, both here and on the “Spiritual but not Religious” thread, of folks who don’t go to church to pursue such concerns. For example, the “spiritual but not religious” wedding guest against whom PB rails may not realize that such honesty and support is in fact available in UU or other churches. We don’t exactly do a great job of proselytizing, at either the personal or institutional level. To reject such inquirers may be to lose potential converts.

Moreover, there are indeed large swathes of the country where it can be difficult to find any local church that encourages such openness and honesty — even (regrettably) within our own UU denomination. Mr. or Ms. “SBNR” simply may not be familiar with what we offer, or may even have visited one of our more intolerant or spiritually dissolute congregations and found it, too, wanting. (”Spirit of Life” knows, we have such congregations.) Likewise, Perry Marshall’s own personal experience may indeed have given him the sincere impression that there is no place in any organized religion (at least none he has seen) where such questions are honestly embraced.

Wherever such inquiry is discouraged, or even perceived to be discouraged, a seeker may find more integrity in a lonesome personal search than in a misleading or unfulfilling collaborative one.