Will Shetterly points out that you can be assigned your very own Unitarian Jihad name. Simply point your Web browser to:
http://homepage.mac.com/whump/ujname.html
You will automatically be assigned your very own Unitarian Jihad name. If you feel your name is too gender-specific, you have the option of changing your gender identity.
My Unitarian Jihad name is “The Broadsword of Reasoned Discussion.” I’m more of a Universalist these days than a Unitarian, which leads me to wonder what my Universalist Jihad name would be. Since I’m an Ultra-Universalist, how about “The Scimitar of Death and Glory”? Lindsay Bates, the senior minister here in Geneva, is also a Universalist, but she is a Restorationist. This implies that her Universalist Jihad name would be something like “The Purifying Fire of Ultimate Redemption.”
(Alas, many of my readers are probably not Universalists, so I guess I had better explain these Universalist Jihad names. All 19th C. Universalists believed that everyone gets to go to heaven. But the Ultra-Universalists believed that as soon as you die, you get to go straight to heaven [do not pass go] so they were known as the “death and glory” Universalists; whereas the Restorationists believed that before ultimately being restored to God’s presence, you would spend a certain amount of time in Purgatory having your evil deeds purified out of you by fire or some similar nasty punishment. Don’t worry, the explanation doesn’t spoil the joke, the Universalist Jihad names weren’t any funnier for those who are Universalists.)
Comments trasnferred from old blog
Greetings, this is Brother Awl of Undeclared Harmony!
There is still a third kind of Universalist, as we were discussing on the UU-History mailing list. The Restorationists would follow Origen’s and the Alexandrian School theology that all souls will ultimately go back, through spiritual progress, to the Source from which they separated at the beginning of time. This is also the kind of Universalism that is more congenial to me, as it is not linked to punishment or to undeserved glory.
Comment from jaummrc – 4/12/05 6:18 PM
Thanks, Brother Awl. Actually, when I wrote “Redemptionist,” I meant to write “Restorationist” — silly me! Just shows my anti-Restorationist bias, I’m afraid. Some Restorationists, like my friend Lindsay, do believe in some kind of purgatory. (For my Restorationist friends, entry above has been edited to properly name their Universalist heresy.)
Comment from danlharp – 4/12/05 10:29 PM