Jack pointed me to a recent piece on Salon.com, “Why I Finally Joined a Church,” written by someone who joined a Unitarian Universalist church to get her children in the religious education program.
As Jack says, “A good ad for us.”
Yet Another Unitarian Universalist, vol.1
Volume one contains entries from 2005-2010.
Makes me want to go to church too. Almost.
This is why my wife and I became interested in the UU church. I was raised an atheist, and she has transformed into an agnostic with adulthood. She got pregnant with our twins, who are now 9 months old, and we heard about the UU church in our neighborhood at the time via a Darwin Day celebration. We researched it some, and stopped in one day. We started going every week. The kids are a little too small to stay quiet during a whole sermon right now, and we’re in a new town, away from family, so we can’t leave them home, but when they get bigger, we will be active participants again.
I’m Episcopalian, having dabbled with Unitarianism (in Britain) and UU, but were I to raise my kids in a place with a local Unitarian/UU church I’d most likely send them there for RE, at least part time. One of the reasonable points to take from Dawkins’ otherwise-vituperous Root of All Evil is that forcing a particular religious viewpoint on children, without giving them an understanding of the whole gamut of faith traditions, is unacceptable.
Dear Tom’s Church,
Do you see why you need to offer child care?
“Granted, the church in question is Unitarian Universalist, a relatively laid-back faith whose central tenet is that all religions have wisdom to offer, and that we must love one another — and recycle.”
This is a good ad?
Benjamin @ 5 — I would say what’s effective is not the exact wording of the ad, but rather that it’s unsolicited praise, and that it identifies one of the main reasons why people come in to Unitarian Universalist congregations, i.e., to find good religious education for their kids.