Don't Know Your Religion? Take The Test

We all believe. For many people, their beliefs come with a name attached. Often, their beliefs match the beliefs of a particular religion. These people can easily find others who share their beliefs. But others have a harder time defining what they believe in, and so, have a harder time finding others who share their beliefs.

Which brings me to the Belief-O-Matic quiz, found on the beliefnet web site. If you belong to a church, this quiz will likely be nothing more than a curiosity. You know what you are already. But if you know more or less what you believe in, but don't know what to call your beliefs, the quiz may well tell you. And the rest of this epistle is for you.

To continue, let me tell you a bit about me. I've thought about the great questions of life, universe, and everything for a long time. There are some things I know for sure, such as the importance of treating others as I want to be treated. There are other things that I doubt, such as the existence of a supreme creator being. In some ways, I consider myself a spiritual person. Like Einstein, I find spiritual inspiration in the fundamental principles governing the universe. In particular, I find something mysterious and magical about Euler's Identity:

What label would you give to my beliefs? Atheist? Agnostic? Secular Humanist? Would those terms describe you? Before continuing on, do the Belief-O-Matic quiz, if you haven't already done so.

Now to get to the point of today's missive: If, like me, you identify yourself as a secular humanist, you might be a bit surprised to find a few other faiths on your Belief-O-Matic results, such as Liberal Quaker or Unitarian-Universalist. The latter is what I'll focus on here. As a secular humanist, you may well think that there's no church where your beliefs would be welcome, or no church where your particular spiritual needs may be met. If that sounds like you, you know there are others like you. But in what church (if any) can they be found? They may be in your local Unitarian congregation. Yes, there is a church that may well be for you!

Just to be fair, Unitarians aren't all secular humanists. Some Unitarians are atheists or agnostics. Some Unitarians are Christians or Jews. And some are Buddhists or Wiccan. Almost all are on a journey of religious exploration. We all have different beliefs, and we all accept and encourage each other in our individual spiritual growth. If you come to a Unitarian service, you won't be told what to believe, unlike other churches. You are accepted no matter who you are, no matter what you believe, and no matter who you love.

If you want to learn more, start with the Canadian Unitarian Council or the Unitarian Universalist Association web sites. If you live in the Kingston, Ontario area, check out the Kingston Unitarian Fellowship. Some people who learn about Unitarianism for the first time wonder: What's the catch? There's no catch. If you are intrigued but have doubts, make an appointment with the minister of your local Unitarian church, and ask the most difficult, challenging questions you can. Or just show up at Sunday service and see what it's all about.

By the way, here are my own top three Belief-O-Matic results:

1. Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2. Secular Humanism (89%)
3. Liberal Quakers (81%)

Cheers! Hans

PS. If you want to check out the Kingston Unitarian Fellowship, note that the church takes a break over the summer. Services resume in September.

Join us on April 15

Back in December, our church, the Kingston Unitarian Fellowship, moved to a new building. And next month, on April 15, we will celebrate the official opening of the building and welcome visitors to an open house. Since the new building can accommodate more people at our Sunday service, some of us feel we should let more people know about our church and our religion. (To be clear, I'm writing now on behalf of myself, not KUF.)

One problem is that Unitarians don't proselytize. Although many of us are quite opinionated on a variety of topics, when it comes to our church, most of us keep a low profile. As our minister, Kathy Sage, pointed out in a recent sermon, Unitarianism was actually outlawed in England for a while. It wasn't legal in England until 1813. Before then, keeping a low profile was essential.

Dissenters have always had a hard time. For example, back when the King James Bible was being written, the authors knew that 1 John 5:7 was a gloss and considered omitting it. But, in spite of the scholarship, they kept the verse in since they didn't want to be seen as pandering to the Unitarians.

Another problem is describing our religion. If you talk to a number of Christians, for example, you'd quickly see what that religion is all about. But if you talk to a number of Unitarians, you might get different answers from each. Unitarianism doesn't preach a specific creed. Strictly speaking, it has no creed. We all recognize that many of us are on a spiritual journey, and that we all have different spiritual needs. We all have different approaches to understanding the world around us, and we all can share and learn from each other.

That said, we generally follow a set of seven principles. The first principle is to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. You can read the rest at our web site: About Us. Looking at these principles, to me they seem self-evident. How can anyone argue with these principles? In fact, these principles look very much like the eight points of Progressive Christianity.

If you look to church or religion for definite answers to the great questions of life, universe, and everything, you probably won't find them at a Unitarian church. Or maybe you will. Either way, you will be welcomed at a Unitarian congregation, just as you are, no matter who you are. We won't tell you what to believe, or how to live your life. But we'll support you in your own search for spiritual meaning.

Again, the open house is on April 15. I hope to see you there!

Cheers! Hans

Church Pickets

Yesterday while reading the Toronto Star, I was drawn to one particular front-page story. A story involving the Covenant Reformed Church in Toronto. Some of my relatives were once members of this church, and I sometimes went with them to Sunday service at this church when visiting them back in the 1960's.

Here's the story: Love thy neighbour, protest thy neighbour, be sued by thy neighbour

In a nutshell, one church member, Jack van Halteren has a business dispute with Gary DeBoer. In order to try to resolve the dispute, van Halteren went to his church for help. You might wonder, why would someone involve their church in a business dispute? Van Halteren justified his action by quoting from the Bible. Matthew 18:15-17 in particular:

¹⁵ “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. ¹⁶ But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ ¹⁷ If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector."

Unfortunately, when the church was not helpful to van Halteren, he decided on a rather provocative next step: Picketing his church. Frankly, I'm not sure what passage in the Bible supports that action, but the result has been legal action against van Halteren, including a $500,000 lawsuit by the church and another $1,000,000 lawsuit from DeBoer.

Clearly, van Halteren would have saved himself a lot of grief and expense if he had just hired a lawyer to try to settle his dispute, instead of turning to the Bible for help.

There are other cases of people picketing churches. For more than a decade, one man has been picketing the Unitarian Church of Montreal. In 1992, a member of that church underwent a "profound revelatory experience of God which revealed that the total solar eclipse 'Eye of God' is a 'Sign in the Heavens' that symbolizes God's divine omniscience". He told his fellow church members of his revelation. However, he was so insistent in the preaching of his new-found religion, that eventually he was ex-communicated by the church. Since then, he has made it his mission in life to protest and picket that church. You can read about him in this story from 2000: Cops arrest religious visionary

What drives people to take such action? Is it a profound belief that they, and they alone, are privy to God's truth? How can you reason with people who truly, sincerely believe that they totally understand God's will?

I've often been struck by the variety of beliefs within all of the major religions. Over the past two thousand years, the history of Christianity is chock full of schisms, splits, and secessions. The Covenant Reformed Church acknowledges the schisms in their own history on their website: A Short History of the Reformed Churches. And every time there's a schism, both sides believe fervently in the absolute correctness of their side.

Cheers! Hans