A "Sudden Baptism of Common Sense" Causes A Christian U*U Seminarian To Bid Adieu To U*Us

On October 9th, 2006 U*U seminarian Shawn Anthony publicly announced the abandonment of his quest to become a Christian oriented minister within the Unitarian*Universalist aka U*U "religious community". The whole thread, including the follow-up comments by Shawn and other U*Us, is well worth reading. It pretty well confirms what I have been saying for over a decade now about U*Uism's effective abandonment of its monotheistic Unitarian and Universalist heritage. Based on recent posts that I made to Shawn's blog, including some that he suppressed. . . I can't help but think that The Emerson Avenger may well have played a role in helping Shawn come to his decision to leave the U*U "religious community".

Shawn Anthony claims that his decision to bid adieu to the U*U path resulted from - "a combination of scholarship, experience, conviction and a sudden baptism of common sense. :)"

Shawn also suggests that, "The UUA is a new age smorgasbord that does not - and will not - resonate with the majority of people living in this country (especially young adult families w/ young children). It will appeal to a very small segment living on the fringes of our culture and society. That’s it."

When UUpdater responded to this by saying, "Oh, so you want to hang with the popular crowd now. ;-)"

Shawn Anthony responded by saying, "UUpdater - Yes, yes I do. :)"

I thus have some reason to believe that I made a significant contribution to Shawn Anthony's "sudden baptism of common sense" when I said the following in this recent post to his blog -

Well the last time I checked intolerant, anti-religious, fundamentalist atheist "Humanism" is "unmarketable to 98% of our American Society". . . Which, in my informed opinion, may well go a long way towards explaining why UUism is such a marginal and even self-marginalized "religious community" in America. Are all UUs of the obnoxious and bigotted "fundie atheist" "Humanist" variety. Of course not but … UUs tolerate the presence of such intolerant atheists in no shortage of so-called Unitarian Churches including the Unitarian Church of Montreal and the First Unitarian Church of Providence. If UUs want a snowball’s chance in Hell of ever becoming a marketable religion in America they are going to have to get serious about responsibly dealing with the anti-religious intolerance and bigotry that pervades and degrades UUism from coast to coast and stop blaming the victims of UU intolerance and bigotry when they have the courage to speak out against it, as I have done for over a decade now and as many others have done for at least the last decade or two.

This was in response to Shawn Anthony's assertion that -

I did not spend years preparing for and dedicating myself to a vocation which will be totally unmarketable to 98% of our American Society. Period. The willingness to do so just seems so … asinine.

I think that it is fair to say that The Emerson Avenger's little injection of common sense helped Shawn Anthony along towards his recent epiphany since his "sudden baptism of common sense" apparently included a sudden apprehension that Unitarian*Universalism, at least insofar as it is currently practiced if not actually "marketed". . . is "totally unmarketable to 98% of our American Society. Period."

In fact, if I am not mistaken in the number crunching of statistics, Unitarian*Universalism is presently "unmarketable" to over 99% of our American Society. The current population of the United States of America is about 300,000,000 people while the current official signed-up membership of the oh so welcoming congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association is well under 200,000.

The current population of Canada is heading towards 33,000,000 people but the current number of Canadian U*Us is a rather paltry 5,220. . . It would thus appear that U*Uism is even less "marketable" in Canada than in the U.S.A. I have some reason to believe that this apparent lack of marketability of U*Uism in Canada may well be because Canadian U*U "welcoming congregations" are even more dominated by the "Humanist" faction of U*Us than American ones are and thus they are even less welcoming to God believing people than your typical U*U congregation in the United States of America.

Comments

indrax said…
The thread does not confirm what you have been saying about"U*Uism's effective abandonment of its monotheistic Unitarian and Universalist heritage."
Just the opposite, Shawn says:
The belief I profess (Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God, and offers saving grace to all) can be addressed in the UUA (and is), but it can not be lived to its fullest, IMHO. Every religion, wanna-be religion, and latest new age whiff is addressed in the UUA. The point is not mere “addressing,” but living.

Shawn's problem does not seem to be any intolerance or 'abandonment' from the UUA, but that Jesus Christ is not it's center. If anything he is saying we are too tolerant.

You are part of the smorgasbord he talks about, Robin.

If you think your comments were so helpful, why do you think he suppressed them?

Thanks. You've linked to a fine example of UU tolerance and acceptance. Shawn holds a traditional monotheistic belief that many of the posters on his blog probably don't share, but they wish him well, and are sorry to see him go.
Whatever problems you have had in the UU blogosphere are obviously not the result of your theology.

That a Christian decides that a Christian church is a better place to live out his Christianity is not surprising, nor is it a fault of UUism.