Generally people think of religion as, by definition, something that you take on faith. And indeed most religious questions aren’t subject to scientific testing—there isn’t an experiment that will prove or disprove the existence of God or an afterlife. And yet, our religious convictions are only really meaningful if they hold up in the context of our lives and our other beliefs, to the tests of whether they make sense and whether they help us to live better lives.
What religious beliefs have changed for you as you’ve tested them against your life and values?
I grew up Catholic. As an adult, I learned how population control helps with so many major problems–environment, preserving non-renewable energy sources, poverty, projected future wars over water shortage. I decided the church’s stand on birth control was wrong. And I don’t just mean wrong in the sense that I was going to use it anyway. I mean morally wrong and socially irresponsible to actively teach people not to use birth control. I could no longer appear to accept the church’s teachings, so I quit the church. Now, I believe very strongly that improving the status of women is the hope of this world. Sociologists and economists state this. And from my perspective as a trainer, author & consultant on consensus building, I know that the skills that actually work best to get what you want revolve around taking a collaborative approach, as opposed to a competitive approach. And the collaborative approach comes easier to women. So that’s one more reason to improve their status. I now object to all anthropomorphic monotheism. Mary Daly famously said, “When god is male, male is god.” Jill Carroll added that, when male is god, then god will be conceived of as male. And that doesn’t just suppress women, it hinders the progress more women leaders would bring to entire societies.
Extremely explicit, Margaret, You have told of what I consider to be some of the major bases for many in Unitarian Univeralism to hold as sacred beliefs.
As a person who has never professed a belief in any spiritual group other that Unitarian-Universalism, I realize that my spiritual beliefs that allowed me to enter into this congregation of believers were developed during my search for a place to land. Having attended Protestant and Catholic assemblies and studying and discussing, with others, religious organizations such as Islam and Buddhism, my basic beliefs have grown from perhaps a lack of youthful introduction and/or indoctrination to the larger denominations in the United States. I was allowed to develop my relationship by myself, but with the support of friends as well as members of UU groups, which included the Church of the Larger Fellowship. Without these opportunities, I might well have lacked belonging to any supportive spiritual group.,
I want to add that as my sense that all members of our citizenry should have the opportunity to live full, dignified and fulfilling lives, , same sex couples should receive the full acceptance that I believe they deserve.
I grew up Catholic and believed strongly that abortion was wrong. Then I got pregnant shortly after reuniting with my husband after a separation. My marriage was fragile, I lived in a crappy little basement apartment, we were broke (and didn’t know how much we would owe for a surgery that had to be done out-of-network, it it could have been tens of thousands of dollars), and I was on medications that cause birth defects. I was trying to figure out how to get the abortion, even just to get there and back safely. Getting on the bus after a surgery didn’t seem like a good idea. I didn’t belong to to a church, didn’t know anyone in my building well enough to ask for help, and my spouse and parents were all “pro-life”, so I was alone and desperate. I count myself incredibly lucky to have miscarried early on. Now I am very pro-choice.
This is a story that needs to be told. Too many people mistakenly believe that the only women who need abortions are promiscuous single women. Thanks for sharing this.