Well...I did it...

I went "back" to church today.

A little background: I was raised Methodist and then Disciples of Christ. The Methodist church is/was fairly liberal, the DoC church, not so much. I was forced to go to church until I graduated from high school, at which point I swore I'd never go again.

Long story short, I found the hypocrisy of a very conservative congregation to be unbearable. And it really turned me off from religion completely.

At this point I'd say I'm agnostic. I believe in *something* bigger than us, but I'm not sure exactly what that *something* is.

Anyway. Today I went to a Unitarian Universalist church. At first I really liked it, but then I went to an "Intro to UUA" discussion. At first that went great too, especially when people were saying, "you know, I'm just not sure how I feel about the Christian concept of Jesus...on a rational level, I just can't really..." because frankly, that's where I'm at. But then there was a guy there who said, "I'm an atheist," and everyone went "oh, that's ok!"

At that point I went "HUH?!". I mean, I really like the UUA's freedom to develop your own spirituality, but if you don't even believe in a God, why bother going to church? To each his/her own, of course, but I think the UUA's are a bit TOO open for me. Although I really liked their focus on social justice.

I'm still struggling with "the Jesus factor," but I think today taught me that I need some sort of doctrine. I know I want a liberal church. I know I want one that doesn't believe that "our way is the ONLY way." And I know I need to figure out whether or not I'm actually Christian.

Next on my list is a UCC church. Given my religious-identity-confusion, what do you think? Should I give it a try? Is there another church I should consider?

Feel free to ask for any clarification or...whatever. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Or try a different UU church. There are some differences - some UU churches are definitely Christian in outlook, some are not.

But also do some research on the UCC church you go to - while most are progressive/liberal/open, there are a few hundred that are conservative, some very conservative. If you see the church is affiliated with the BWF (Biblical Witness Fellowship), steer clear of that one - that's our hate-based theological movement in the UCC; people who like the southern baptists and criminal assholes like Dobson and Falwell. The BWF's almost entire reason for existence is to be anti-gay and pro Creationism. An Open and Affirming UCC church will definitely be a good one (that means they're gay-friendly). A Welcoming and Faithful one can be hit or miss - it's a movement trying to ply the waters between BWF and Open and Affirming, but generally comes down on the conservative side in terms of homosexuality (though not as far as the BWF - Welcoming and Faithful isn't specifically anti-gay, but it is rather anti-pro-gay, if that makes sense).

Go to the UCC website, and you can check out (sort of) all the churches - most will list whether they're Open and Affirming or BWF; and if they have their own website, it will be listed, and of course you can get much more info on their own websites. http://www.ucc.org

I checked the site and all of the UCC's near me are open & affirming.

I think I'll give this one a shot within the next few weeks: http://www.mthollywood.org/

Thanks again for the help.

They're wonderful people, on the right side of every issue,but I like to have some religion in my religion, if you know what I mean. Otherwise, why bother?

My spirituality requires more ritual than the average UCC congregation provides, so I've gone with the Episcopalians. It sounds as if you'll like the UCC's, but many Episcopal parishes are great, too. Just avoid the ones that talk about "the continuing Anglican tradition," which is their code-speak for being against women clergy and gay rights.

All the mainstream Protestant denominations have been largely socially and economically liberal in the recent past, so all of them are under covert attacks by right-wing outfits like The Institute for Religion and Democracy (typical right-wing "the opposite of what it calls itself" name).

about 2 years ago. There's a VERY liberal congregation in Pasadena. In fact, I went there after hearing that they were under investigation by the IRS for, well, basically for being liberal.

I loved the congregation. I really did. They had fabulous groups and were politically active...but it was too ritualistic for me. Just one step too close to a Catholic service. Plus, Pasadena is a solid 30 minute drive for me, even on a Sunday morning, so it would have been almost impossible to get involved in any groups that met during the week.

I ended up only going twice, basically because I could have seen myself easily pretending to agree with the dogma just to get involved in the political/social activities. While I do want to get involved wherever I end up, I want it to be for the right reasons. Also, I really don't think I was ready. I felt very hypocritical going through the motions when I really didn't believe any of it.

Anyway, I went twice and then didn't step foot into another church for 2 years (aside from being dragged back to my childhood church last Christmas). But I'm ready to give it another go. If the UCC's don't work out for me for whatever reason, I might try an Episcopal church closer to home. We'll see...it's an adventure!

www.unity.org
www.unityonline.org

It's a Christian church but a little more "new thought" than UCC. I've been happy with them. :)

I'll investigate more. Thanks for the suggestion!

I was fairly involved in one here and pretty much "get" their general paradigm. Feel free to pm me with any questions.

When I was doing restorative justice work--so sitting in the pew many Sundays-I found the local UCCs either too conservative (Biblical Witness Fellowship) or too close to UU for my taste (they teasingly referred to their interim as "God-boy" because he talked about God so much! :crazy: ). So, I tried the DOC congregation, since I could join there and keep my UCC standing. It was actually more open and affirming than the liberal UCC, in that both churches were ONA, but only the DOC had out glbt folks in leadership positions (or as members for that matter). I became very close to the moderator and his partner, and they were a HUGE support at the time of my divorce.

So, I would encourage you to follow through in looking into the UCC, but don't write off the DOC either. I suspect that you'll find some progressive ones in your area.

was in rural Nebraska. I'm sure that had more to do with the conservativeness than the doctrine. There's no way in HELL that the church I grew up in would allow a gay person to participate in the church at any level, let alone have a leadership position. Again, that could very well be due to the location and biases of the people in the congregation as opposed to any sanctioned church-wide bias.

The good thing about living in LA is that we've pretty much got the most progressive congregations in every church (at least, from what I've seen). Not a lot of evangelical crap going on around here! I just need to find a church/congregation that fits.