FROM AMEN TO OM

Many paths....one Truth.  That pretty much sums up my views on personal spirituality.  I have no patience with people who declare themselves keepers of the One True Way.

This is a long road away from the religion of my childhood, youth, and into "early-middle" adulthood.

I tried hard to be a good Protestant Christian girl.  I grew up in a "believing" but mostly "non-church-going" family.   When I was around 11 or 12 my mom decided we should all go to Sunday services, but my dad was a reluctant church-goer -- which made him really fun to sit next to in the pew.  He loved to sing, so I kept poking him awake between hymns at which point he'd come alive -- most loudly at the sung Amen at the end of the song, an exaggerated baritone booming forth to my stifled giggles.  I loved my Methodist Sunday School -- lots of fun songs, nice teachers, cookies and Kool-Aid.  Jesus was depicted as very smiley, hugging kids, and playing with lambs.  Nice man.

I married into a staunch Missouri Synod Lutheran family of preachers and teachers.  It was expected that I'd become Lutheran too, so without much thought of objection, I did.  It made my in-laws very happy.  It made me very confused.  These were some Bible-believin' folks and I had a lot of questions about what I saw as inconsistencies in their reasoning.  Later I realized "reason" was not a part of their belief system at all, so I had even more head-scratching to do about that since they were all bright college-educated people.  Their form of Christianity was dogmatic, punishing, and stern...not the cookies and Kool-Aid version I'd grown up with.  There were rules.  God seemed angry and Jesus seemed sad and doomed to die for me.  Sorry, Jesus.

So, after my husband and I moved away from family ties, we joined an ELCA Lutheran church.  It was less stern; but still, well, Lutheran.  We got involved in the social justice committee there and we were very active, but always fighting the "old guard" who saw us as too opinionated (standing up for the down-trodden!), radical (forming a Feminist branch of WomenChurch!) and political (writing letters to Congress about social justice issues!)  We thought Liberation Theology Jesus was on our side, but we couldn't always be sure.

So, we moved on to the Congregationalists.  The church was very politically active, politically liberal in outlook, and socially conscious.... and had a liberal, socially conscious, politically active, sort of self-righteous and rather exasperated Jesus at the center.  So much so that if social justice wasn't "Job-One" 24/7 in your life, well, maybe you just didn't really believe in "helping the poor" and "loving your neighbor" and "saving us all from evil" (our government, mostly) quite enough.  Do more! Do more! Do more! Never give up, give in, or give out!  Tired Jesus.  (Tired me).

What could have taken us so long to find the Unitarian Universalists???  Well, my husband's strong Christian upbringing kept us looking for a version of Jesus he/we could abide.  But finally, we realized that Jesus just might be more alive in a church that didn't trade on his name.

About 20 years ago we became Unitarian Universalists, where we happily remain and will stay.  We are encouraged to respect all, use democratic processes in our interactions, find our own path to a personal spirituality (learning about and understanding many wisdom traditions to do so).  Far from "you don't have to believe anything to be a UU", which is a commonly mistaken assumption...for me UU's have a STRONG  belief system -- in our inherent goodness, in the inter-dependent web of life in which we all live, in our ability to reason, discern, and decide for ourselves what we may or not "believe", in living ethically, lovingly, respectfully, with humility, and in the certainty that this life, right now, is precious and meaningful.  Because of all that, we are a caring, creative, socially conscious, politically active, and spiritual bunch of people.  Hello Jesus!


....And Allah, and Buddha, and Krishna, and Cosmos, and Void, and Humanity.... there are probably as many seekers as there are UU's.  We are all on a journey of Many Paths to the One Truth...and it doesn't bother us too much not knowing where the path leads.

Lately I've been exploring Bhakti Yoga practices of chanting the names of the Divine in the Hindu tradition and sitting in a Buddhist-focused meditation Sangha.   Both are bringing me joy and great peace.

My UU friends are many, and most would be surprised to know I also have a personal Jesus-kinda guy presence within me most of the time....he's kind, gentle, peaceful, powerful, angry, righteous, and quite good looking (naturally).  He doesn't try to "save" me, but he gives me encouragement to save myself, and the quiet inner peace of knowing that the One Truth is out there... and it is good.

At least that's the view from here....Amen, Om, Namaste.©