More on Texas and UU

The Kansas City Star has non-subscription access to the news I referenced yesterday.

Despite its lack of a specific creed, Unitarian Universalism is as much a religion as any other, [UU board president] Althoff said. From his perspective, religion is not just about the answers to life's big questions, but also calls on people to evaluate the questions themselves.

"It seems to me that any (group) that is specifically organized to address and explore the issues of what constitutes the good life, both here and perhaps in the afterworld, would qualify" as a religion, Althoff said.

The Rev. Anthony David, lead pastor of Pathways Church in Southlake, Texas, said he is disturbed by the comptroller's decision because it ignores Unitarian Universalists' belief that spiritual fulfillment can emerge in "different ways at different levels."

"It reflects an incredible misunderstanding of what a church needs to look like," David said.

Pathways teaches that God is a term that describes the source of ultimate meaning and purpose, but the church does not advocate a one size fits all theology, David said.

"Creedlessness doesn't mean no belief or anything goes," he said.

That's why Unitarian Universalism counts amongst its congregation atheists and "New-Agey type people" (in Mr. Althoff's words - didn't care for that turn of phrase myself). It has nothing to do with what flavor your Higher Power is. Our commonality as humans, and our quest for spiritual growth are what bring us together as an organized congregation.

I think the Texas Comptrollers office will find it must revisit its current definition of a religion. So far it's excluded both UU and Buddhism with it. And not all the UU churches in the state are excluded, so there's that discrepancy that must be addressed as well. I am fairly certain the office will correct these discrepancies in favor of UU.

Then again, there's no shortage of freaky behavior in the name of "faith" in government. Could be anybody's ball game.

Comments

[jo]

Ha. Yes. Yes!