Now before you go off and say that I'm just pulling this out my @$$, I should tell you that I've known about and studied the Unitarian Universalist church since I lived in Boston. So I've got at least a couple years under my belt reading/processing this thought. Plus, this definition below pretty much sums up how I feel. A dictionary version of my life, if you will... I'm sure there will be more to post today. After reading through my long post last night, I realized that I didn't really say everything that I needed or wanted to. And I hardly scratched the surface of what I've been thinking about.
What is "post-Christian"?
post-Christian (post-kris'chen) n. [A 20th C. back-formation from Christian.]1. Someone whom Christians would say is not a Christian, but whom non-Christians consider Christian; applied by Gary Dorrien and other scholars of religion to Unitarian Universalism and a few other groups that were formerly considered to be liberal Christians. 2. One who tries to live according to Jesus’s teachings, but who choses to distance himself/herself from conservative or fundamentalist Christianity by refusing to be called "Christian." 3. In certain cases, a non-theist or atheist who follows the ethical teachings of Jesus.
adj. 1. Pertaining to or derived from the moral, religious, and/or ethical teachings of Jesus, but retaining an openess to other moral, religious, and/or ethical teachings. 2. Heretical, not adhering to traditional Christian creeds; especially including the heresies of unitarianism and universalism, which are still considered heterodox by most mainstream Christians. 3. Post-modern (q.v.) interpretations of Christianity.
1971 Dana MacLean Greeley 25 Beacon Street, and Other Recollections. A question asked of Unitarians and Universalists again and again is "Are you Christians?" I have spoken and written many times on this subject, but I have no simple answer to the question. Most Catholic and Protestant Christians, until fairly recently anyway, would have said that we are not Christians. Most Jews would think that we are Christians. When I told one Unitarian friend that Anglicanism’s Dean Stanley referred to Channing as "the morning star of the second reformation," my friend immediately concluded that Channing was heralding or prophseying a new era, and as Protestantism (resulting from the first Reformation) went beyond Catholicism, so the second Reformation would go beyond Protestantism; a post-Protestant, post-Christian era would begin. Numerous people believe that, or interpret Unitarianism that way. It is a plausible diagnosis, though Channing would never have thought of himself as the forerunner of a non-Christian faith. (For that matter, Jesus would never have thought of himself as the forerunner of a non-Jewish faith.
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3 comments:
Unitarian Universalist... isn't that the, "somewhere, someone sorta loves you" church?
i kid. anyway... so you see yourself as a Unitarian Universalist? i find that interesting. because, to some extent, many christians (including myself) fit the definitions you've posted here. many people in my church consider themselves to be "post-modern" christians and seek to distance themselves from the religious right and the fundamental evangelicals.
or do you consider yourself to be in the "atheist who follows the ethical teachings of Jesus" camp?
Chris,
Let me vaguely clarify what I wanted to say.
I find that Unitarian Universalists share my views on a lot of topics. I can't say every one of them, but... I feel a hell of a lot more comfortable walking in to their Church than to a Methodist Church even. Certainly a baptist church.
By the way, did I ever tell you that once I GOT A JOB at a baptist church. All was great until the pastor said, "oh yeah, we're going to have to schedule your baptism." To which I replied that I had been baptized... twice. And his reply? "The Southern Baptist Convention doesn't accept the baptism of Methodists. You'll have to be re-baptized in order to take this job." I told him I needed to think about it. Then two weeks later I told him to kiss my white, Methodist ass. Ok, so not exactly in those words, its been several years... but its a true story none the less.
Anyway, I don't consider myself to be an atheist. Rather, a theist. It doesn't quite lean to agnosticism... although its kindof close. When I'm asked though, I put myself in the "Christian - Other" category.
i like that... "vaguely clarify." brilliant!
right on. that's where i gathered you were, i just wanted to have that clarified.
and i know... i've gotten that same crap from baptist churches i've attended. the hitch was, i hadn't been baptized before. i was christened as a child, but i didn't feel that counted since i didn't make the decision. anyway, i eventually did get baptized as an adult... and dunked, too as a matter of fact. but i made it abundantly clear to the pastor that did it that i felt that sprinkling, pouring, and annointing were eaqually acceptable and that i was STILL not a baptist. and you know what he did? he nodded his head and smiled and said appeasing things and then - after he baptized me - the bastard made me an official member of that church and welcomed me into the baptist family! totally not shitting you! smarmy bastard.
needless to say, i don't go to that church anymore... and neither does he, actually. the church grew up and decided that he was not a good fit for them... or he abandoned them... depends on who you ask. if you ask me, he was a legalistic, totalitarian jack-ass who ran out on his church plant the minute a mega-church offered to triple his salary.
i still have a lot of pent-up issues with organized churches and negative, knee-jerk reactions to pastors due to that man.
you know i work for the baptists now, right? i figure, the best way to change an organization is from the inside. by working for a baptist company, and being about as un-baptist as they come, i don't allow my baptist co-workers to slip into that "baptist bubble" that so many of them live in. i constantly challenging their ingrained acceptance of "the world according to the SBC."
it's actually pretty fun!
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