Thanks for popping in. The short answer to your question — which would really require a coffee date (will you be at GA?) is that UU Christians worship the God-within Jesus, and those of us with a more Universalist bent may worship him as divine (don’t forget that UUism is a merger of two Christian traditions!).

Yes, classical Unitarianism was a move away from orthodoxy in many ways (and the one you mention regarding the divinity of Christ is an important one), but many of us still follow a Christian spiritual path and worship the God of Jesus’ vision, while also trying to be disciples of the path that Jesus taught. We love the old forms of worship, we pray in the Christian way, we observe Christian sacraments — all of which are central to original Unitarian and Universalist tradition.

Some of us are wacky mystical types and others are more rational. I would say that what we have in common is a commitment to Christian discipleship — just a fancy way of saying that we really honor Jesus as spiritual master (a friend of mine calls him his “guru!”) and take seriously his example and ministry, while also being comfortable affirming the resurrection message. Did the resurrection really “happen?” My own conviction is that whatever happened, we know for sure that the original community of disciples experienced something that transformed them from a terrified gaggle of political and religious fugitives to a group of passionate evangelicals who were more than willing to be martyred to share the incredible story they had experienced. That’s powerful for me. I am totally *there* for that.

My library is full of books and sermons by Unitarian and Universalist Christians — dating from the 1760’s to today. In the contemporary era, UUism is full of wounded refugees from other religions (especially those rejecting various forms of Xtianity), and so in its desire to be pluralistic and humanistic, has in many cases tried to ignore or erase its Christian roots. I think that’s a shame.

To show you that many of us aren’t just clinging to a “cherished memory,” it may surprise you to know that I grew up UU in a humanist congregation with two atheistic parents and didn’t feel I received anything substantive from my religion until I was a young adult and found out where we had come from. When I discovered our liberal Christian roots, I suddenly felt that UUism had something deep and worthwhile to feed me, not just negations of what “other people” believe. It was revelatory. I was baptized in 1999. I can think of a few dozen Christian UUs who actually became Christian as adults. That’s what can happen in a free faith tradition!

So there you are. One perspective. If you would like to know more about your wacky Christian UU brothers and sisters, you might want to read the book _Christian Voices in Unitarian Universalism_ edited by Kathleen Rolenz. I have an essay in there.

Cheers, PB

The answer for me is that we have to. We are Christians by baptism and by God’s grace, not by party affiliation or shared ideas about how to raise children or even doctrinal conformity. It’s not fun having so many ideological opponents in one’s own faith family, but for Christians, it’s an unavoidable challenge and tension.

Just right. Beautiful.