facilitator: James Park, former Christian (and perhaps other
former Christians)
place: First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis, 900 Mt. Curve Avenue.
dates and time: 5 or 6 sessions, two hours each, details to be arranged.
90% of Unitarian Universalists began
their religious journeys in other 'faiths'.
And the most common childhood religion was some form of Christianity —either
Protestantism or Roman Catholicism.
And one of the spiritual paths within UUism calls
itself "UU Christianity".
These are people who wish to maintain some connection with their
Christian roots
while leaving behind all of the worst aspects of their early religious
training.
Here is the website of the Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship: http://www.uuchristian.org/
Our support group will avoid one common exaggeration
sometimes found
among people who have left their childhood religion:
bashing Christianity.
Obviously people who have left (or are leaving) Christian churches
disagree with at least some elements of Christianity.
But the purpose of this support group will not be
recounting the terrible things that happened in churches. Fundamentalists Anonymous
might be a good place for such critics to
gather.
This support group will not
be 'de-programming' from religious indoctrination.
Also, some radical atheists believe that Jesus of Nazareth never
existed.
That will not be the orientation of this support group.
Rather, we will focus on the positive and
constructive changes in our lives.
What forms of spirituality are still possible
even if we have abandoned belief in the traditional God?
What are our new answers to the ultimate
questions?
Unitarian Universalism does not offer just one alternative to
traditional belief.
We have a wide range of spiritual
paths.
So this support group will not
be a re-indoctrination into the 'correct
beliefs'.
Participants are encouraged to seek whatever spiritual paths suits them,
including, of course, having no spirituality at all.
How has your own religious thinking evolved over the
years?
And what new changes do you foresee?
Instead of having a pre-established content for
discussions,
this support group will explore whatever questions the participants
have.
UUs who have already moved on from Christianity
will be included in this group.
And they will share their own processes of transition.
And the seminar will be led by a long-time Unitarian Universalist
who was serious enough about Christianity to become a Methodist
minister.
He left that position 47 years ago.
(This
facilitator is James Park.
If there are other leaders of this discussion, they will be described
here.)
Thus any discussion of Christian beliefs
will be
well founded in the facts of the Christian tradition
rather than a simple-minded, cartoon version of Christianity.
Which of the following questions is still relevant
for you?
How did the Bible come into being?
What teachings attributed to Jesus really came from the early church?
How do New Testament scholars tell the difference?
What is the difference between the Jesus of history and the Christ of
faith?
ABOUT THE FACILITATOR(s):
James Park began his religious journey in a
main-stream Protestant denomination —the
United Methodist Church.
He received his Master of Divinity degree from Union Theological
Seminary
in New York City in 1966.
Union Theological Seminary is a non-denominational Protestant seminary,
probably the most advanced and open-minded.
It even had a Unitarian Universalist as its president for a few years.
For two years he was a Methodist minister.
From his much later perspective as an atheist,
he now regrets misleading his parishioners in the 1960s.
And this seminar can help to make amends for those errors
by helping others with Christian backgrounds
to recover from from their years of Christian faith.
In each person's spiritual journey,
the early phases might have been valid for those times.
But now many people are replacing mistaken beliefs
with forms of spiritual quest that are still valid.
See his cyber-sermon: "The
Religious
Impulse".
His process of change was slow rather than dramatic.
He has officially been a Unitarian Universalist since 1980,
when he joined the First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis.
And his most recent book on inward matters is called: Spirituality without Gods:
Developing our Capacities of Spirit: https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/SWG.html The
first part of this book is called:
Which Gods Do Not Exist?
(If there is another
facilitator, he or she will be described here.)
Created
April 26, 2012; Revised 5-1-2012; 5-12-2012; 5-29-2012; 8-12-2012;
9-8-2012; 9-15-2012;
9-19-2014; 2-5-2015; 2-27-2015; 3-12-2015; 12-8-2016; 3-29-2017;