British Unitarian Rev. Stephen Lingwood Makes A Very Important Point About Unitarian*Universalist Evangelism And Growth

British Unitarian minister Rev. Stephen Lingwood of has made what I consider to be a very important point about the "tiny, declining, fringe religion" known as Unitarian*Universalism aka The U*U Movement in the 'Unitarians In The Guardian' post on his Reignite blog this morning. I could be mistaken but, reading between the lines of Rev. Stephen Lingwood's initial paragraph a bit, I get the distinct impression that Rev. Lingwood may have been a bit miffed by a disappointingly low attendance of his Easter Sunday church service. . . Indeed his blog post, which directs readers to a couple of articles about British Unitarians in The Guardian, concludes with his "important point" which I will reproduce here for good measure -

"This is an important point about Unitarian evangelism. It's not a matter of making people agree with us. Most of the country already agrees with us. But they see no reason to come to our congregations to agree. The issue is not agreement with our principles, the issue is showing people what difference belonging to a congregation makes in our lives. If belonging makes a difference, we need to witness that, if it doesn't make a difference, then we will not grow, and we don't deserve to."

Stephen Lingwood's "important point" about "Unitarian evangelism" aka Unitarian*Universalist marketing and "outreach", which has a direct bearing on efforts to "grow" The U*U Movement, very closely parallels something that I have been thinking for some time now. Although I believe that the anti-religious intolerance and bigotry of the "fundamentalist atheist" faction of Humanist U*Us is a major contributing factor to the lack of growth aka stagnance, if not decline and fall. . . of *The* Tiny Declining Fringe Religion I have come to the conclusion that another major contributing factor is what Rev. Lingwood has touched upon here in his Easter Sunday blog "sermon". Unitarian*Universalists love to evangelize aka market U*Uism by asserting that people are already U*Us but "just don't know it yet!" This of course reflects the fact that the very broad Principles and Purposes of Unitarian*Universalism are, at least in principle. . . very inclusive all manner of human beings. Pretty much anyone *can* be a Unitarian*Universalist at least insofar as U*Uism is ostensibly described and defined in U*U religious propaganda. In that most people living in the "Free World" already ostensibly subscribe to most if not all of the Seven Principles of U*Uism in one form or another they already are U*Us in that sense.

So what compelling reason does any non-U*U have to actually join, participate in, and financially support any U*U "church" if and when they come to "know" that they are "already" a Unitarian*Universalist? What *difference*, if any. . . does actually joining and *belonging* to a Unitarian*Universalist congregation make in people's lives? What tangible benefit do they obtain from actually attending a U*U "church" on Sunday rather than reading the paper, walking the dog, taking a stroll, taking a bike ride, taking a motorcycle ride, or even writing a manifesto? As Rev. Stephen Lingwood rightly points out, if actually attending a U*U "church" on Sunday doesn't make a tangible positive difference in people's lives; or worse, if doing so actually makes a tangible *negative* difference in people's lives as is perhaps too often the case. . . then Unitarian*Universalism will not grow, and *The* Tiny Declining Fringe Religion simply does not *deserve* to be anything *more* than what it already is. . .

So Unitarian*Universalists aka U*Us.

What are you going to *do* to resurrect Unitarian*Universalism?