Unlike most other religious groups in the world,
Unitarian Universalism is made up mostly of people
who began their religious lives in some other tradition.

    We UUs usually take this for granted,
but if we think deeply about it,
this fact that most of us have migrated from elsewhere
makes our gathering of like-minded people
very different from every other religion in the world.

    Many of the world's religions
are strongly identified with one ethnic group.
If we know the ethnic background of a family,
we can often guess their religion.

    The 'followers' of most religions just grew up with that faith
—much as they just grew up speaking a particular language.
In other words, most other religions
depend on human conformity for their continued existence.

    Probably no other religious movement with such a long history
(UUs have been around for over 200 years)
has such a high proportion of people
who as adults have voluntarily chosen to join.

    Also UUism is not an evangelical religion.
We were not drawn into this movement
because someone persuaded us to join.
Rather, we just discovered it
—each person in his or her own way.

    The believers belonging to other traditions
usually just inherited 'their' religion.
Perhaps they questioned what they were supposed to believe,
but many stayed with the faith in which they were raised.

    But UUism does not teach people what to believe
—either as children or as adults.
We have no creed to which members are supposed to subscribe.
We are a gathering of people engaged in free religious quest.

    I am one of the many people who have freely chosen
to become a Unitarian Universalists as an adult.

    I was raised in the United Methodist Church,
which is a main-stream Protestant denomination,
definitely part of the Christian church,
altho not as dogmatic as many other parts.

    I became involved in my local UU congregation
first of all by being invited to give a talk
and later to offer adult education classes.
Because there were a good number of people
interested in the classes I offered,
I eventually decided to make UUism my own religious home.

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I. UUism allows freedom of belief,
   without the necessity of basing each belief in a given tradition.

    As I look back on my years as a Christian,
I find it very refreshing that
I am no longer tied to a belief system I did not invent.

    When I was still a Christian,
other Christians would usually expect me to show
how a certain belief was based in the Bible
—especially the New Testament.
In many cases, this was not a problem.

    I have even written a small book
which illustrates how existential spirituality
was first created by the apostle Paul:
An Existential Interpretation of Paul's Letter to the Romans:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/RM.html
This book represents my views at that time in my life.
The book of Romans can be demythologized for our time.
This first-century letter to the Christians in Rome
contains some genuine spiritual insights.
But I never felt tied to the Bible as a source of truth.

    In fact, one of my most important
theological fathers is Rudolf Bultmann
—the New Testament scholar who invented 'demythologizing'.
Most Christian churches have never heard of his work,
since it does not suit their ways of believing.

    Now, as a Unitarian Universalist,
I am completely free to develop my own forms of spirituality
without having to show how it is based in any religious tradition.

    And I have developed my own belief system: "existential spirituality".
It does have its roots in such Christian thinkers as
Paul, Søren Kierkegaard, & Rudolf Bultmann.
But existential spirituality is not limited to what these thinkers believed. 

Here is another on-line essay which explains more fully:
"Introducing Existential Spirituality":
https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/CY-XSP.html
And here is a complete bibliography of this spiritual movement:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/B-XSP.html

    Only a tiny number of present-day Unitarian Universalists
know anything about existential spirituality.
But that does not matter.
Ours is not a top-down religion,
in which the leaders at the top have all knowledge,
which they pass down to the people below.

    The people who choose to become Unitarian Universalists
(as well as all who grew up within UUism)
have the freedom to create their own belief systems.
When new spiritual paths are opened,
others are then welcome
to try those forms of spirituality for themselves.
This is how we make spiritual progress.

    Some spiritual insights will not occur
until hundreds of years from now.
But if such new insights can be explained and defended rationally,
they might find a home within the UU movement.

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II. UUism looks forward more than it looks back.

   We Unitarian Universalists do have some religious traditions we affirm,
but we are not limited to those traditions.
As a creed-free movement,
we are free to disagree with any of our traditions from the past.

    Most of the other religious movements of the world
are basically backward-looking:
Each has a strong religious tradition around which that faith is organized.
Some affirm a sacred text.
Sometimes a religion was founded by a single person.
   
    When a religious movement is anchored in a tradition,
it usually becomes a backward-looking religion:
The basic 'truths' of that faith are found in the past.
 
    But Unitarian Universalism at its best
is a forward-looking religious movement.
Because we are not tied to any sacred text or person,
we are open to new spiritual discoveries.

    Because of this openness to all forms of spirituality
that will submit themselves to the tests of reason,
the Unitarian Universalist movement
(or whatever it might be called in future centuries)
will continue to become a spiritual home
for persons of spirit who have new insights.

    If ever the world's religious climate becomes more rational,
then we can expect the anti-rational religions to decline.
But Unitarian Universalism will continue and prosper
because we welcome new thinking
—instead of testing any new insights
against an established tradition of 'truth'.

    Even if no human being has ever had such insights before,
if new forms of spirituality can be explained
and if open-minded people find them useful,
then they can become new parts of the UU movement.

    This forward-orientation also applies to the beliefs of individual UUs.
Each of us is free to grow and develop spiritually
in whatever ways seem best to us.
We can change our own religious beliefs without changing churches.

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III. UUism attracts intelligent people.

    When I first became involved in the UU movement
(as a teacher of adult education classes),
I was impressed by the level of intelligence within our movement.
And finding other good thinkers has continued to be
a solid reason to remain a Unitarian Universalist.

    Because we are open-minded,
we do occasionally attract people who have beliefs
that fall apart when critically examined.
But these fringe believers usually drop out after awhile,
since we UUs are not easily convinced to follow foolish ideas.

    For the rest of the history of the human race,
whenever new intelligent persons of spirit emerge,
they will often rebel against
the religious traditions in which they were raised.
And if the UU movement is still in existence
and if it still welcomes insightful people,
these most intelligent religious persons
should be able to find a spiritual home within our movement.

    As long as we remain open to new ideas,
intelligent persons of all religious backgrounds
will continue to find a good spiritual home within Unitarian Universalism.  

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   These are three reasons I am a Unitarian Universalist.
Others are hereby invited to offer their reasons.
If we explain why we remain within this movement,
others who are not yet Unitarian Universalists
might identify with our explanations
and decide that they have similar reasons
for choosing Unitarian Universalism as their spiritual home.

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AUTHOR:

    James Park has been a member of
the First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis since 1980.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s he was a paid staff member
of the Minnesota Unitarian Universalist Campus Ministries,
the UU presence on the campus of the University of Minnesota.

    In 1999 he started Heart, Mind, & Spirit
—an electronic magazine for UUs on campus.
Several other dimensions of his UU connections
will be found here:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/JP-UU.html

    He is also the author of five books in existential spirituality,
all of which will be found in the Existential Spirituality Bibliography.
This bibliography also reviews
the classic texts of existential spirituality,
especially the relevant works of Søren Kierkegaard.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/B-XSP.html

    Much more information about James Park
will be found on his website:
James Leonard Park—Free Library

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