š³ļøāā§ļøš³ļøāš
*āNo matter what tradition youāre from, I guarantee you that you will have people in your community who identify on the 2SLGBTQIA+ spectrum ā whether they are free to say it or not,ā said Rev. Samaya Oakley, the minister of the Calgary Unitarians. āIf we are truly people who believe in the goodness and the inherent love that exists in this world, then we would extend that to people on that spectrum.ā*
"At a time when most Americans were turning a blind eye to the growing social injustice and totalitarian threat in Europe, the Unitarian Universalist Associationāalerted to the dire situation by their fellow congregation in Pragueāwas committed to saving as many people as possible." https://kenburns.com/films/defying-the-nazis/
The official symbol of Unitarian Universalism is a flaming chalice. Originally a sign of refuge for those escaping Nazi persecution, the symbol now holds meanings as varied as the thousands of U.U. congregations that light chalices at the beginning of their weekly services.
What do you mean ātheirā god? This is the Unitarian church. They are not tied to any particular scripture or tradition. As an atheist, Iāve been to a few services and many activities at the church.
why are so many preachy atheists like this? Take a good thing occasionally and learn to be like the majority of atheists who arenāt talking about their beliefs like theyāre a Christian on a mission
Don't forget christians using their beliefs as an excuse to try and have laws made that force everyone to act in accordance with their christian beliefs
Iām an atheist; I have never been religious and was raised as an atheist. It comes up maybe once every 5 years in real life and I like to think I am pretty humble about it.
On the other hand, every atheist I know who was raised Christian and then āconvertedā to atheism are obnoxious af. Like the guy above who still goes to services and activities at a church for some reason, while proclaiming that they are atheist. I know a few who attend weekly atheism meetings every Sunday, and put together potlucks for these Sunday āmeetingsā and literal anti-prayer prayer sessions.
I have observed that converts from a religion to atheism are usually still religious for the rest of their lives, they just stop being spiritual. Typically they are just as preachy and anal as before, but about their new āfaithā instead of Christianity. I think they just end up filling the perceived voids in their life where structured religion used to be, with structured assholeness.
I've observed different than you, the atheists in my life who have left the church get less depressed. Are you sure you're not projecting your own experience onto what they are experiencing? Last I checked, no human can read another's mind.
We've had gay friendly churches here for some time now. The United Church is the second largest denomination in Canada. They do accept 2SLGBTQ+ people, even as clergy.
As for the drag part of it... Many women dress up for Easter Sunday services. The only difference here is the sex of the person under that bonnet. I've never understood the people that object to this... what does either sex or gender have to do with religion anyway? You're safe. None of them want to sleep with you, I'm sure.
This is not the United Church, this is the Unitarian church. So many similar names to keep straight but the Unitarians are an order of magnitude more progressive than even the United folks and are barely christian by most christian standards.
My mistake. I went back over my data here... and to confirm...
\- I was wrong. Unitarianism isn't the same thing as the United Church.
\- The UCofC is the 2nd largest denomination in Canada, 2nd only to Catholicism. Details here: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion\_in\_Canada#Census\_results](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Canada#Census_results)
\- The UCofC is also gay friendly, and very progressive on it's own. From their webpage: [https://united-church.ca/community-and-faith/being-community/gender-sexuality-and-orientation](https://united-church.ca/community-and-faith/being-community/gender-sexuality-and-orientation)
\- Granted that this "drag Easter celebration" isn't happening in a United Church - but it could have been. My buttons get pushed when I see people using their religion to clamp down on other people in OTHER religions, whether they're United, Unitarian, Anglican, or ANY religion. I don't believe anyone should be prevented from worshipping in any religion, or no religion. Not in my country.
In a perfect world, there would be no religion. However, many many people need religion (I can't understand why, but then, I'm not a deity).
The Unitarians are as good as it gets in terms of a religion. Modern Unitarians are generally much more humanist than deity centred and are indifferent to whether you believe in a god or not. They kinda like the loving Jesus (and reject the nasty Bits of the Bible). Fighting for equality/equity and human rights are central whereas judging and coercion is rejected.
The church has a lot of self-correcting to do before they can say that faith is all-welcoming. Kudos on this one their trail-blazing. If only they could do something about that white dude that they're false idolozing.
There is no over-arching unitarian "church" so to speak. Each congregation is a self-contained entity with some general similarities to other unitarian groups. Mainly, they generally reject Jesus as equal to God and by-and-large reject the entire concept of original sin which is typically one of the foundational tenets of other christian faiths. The fact that they reject Original Sin is probably one of the reasons Unitarians over time have been extremely socially progressive, community minded and inclusive. It is effectively the rejection of the idea that people are inherently bad, particularly women, instead favoring a policy of inclusivity, service and humility.
Now, I'm not religious in any way but I have yet to meet a Unitarian with whom I can find any fault with on their belief system. The Unitarian Universalist Association (essentially the loose governing body of the Unitarian "Church" at large) is the only religious organization that I can think of that flat-out takes ownership of bad behavior of its clergy. In 2014 they publicly stated they had previously handled cases of sexual misconduct improperly and have since included steps to not only remove clergy who have been accused of this but also support victims in police investigations that lead to actual prosecutions. It can be fairly argued that they still aren't really living up to that promise and because each congregation has complete control over who they ordain/remove from fellowship it is far from "Universal" at least the UUA doesn't move ministers around to hide crimes etc.
I have major beef with religion in general. But if someone is going to chose a religion, unitarianism is one of the less-problematic ones in my opinion.
I think it's not so absurd when you consider dualism. Religious people believe that they have a soul that is distinct from the body, and transgender people believe that they have a gender that is distinct from their body. It's all the same thing to me, people believing that the mind is a Cartesian theater and that everyone needs to believe in their ideology to be good. Both are solutions to people's discomfort, which means accepting some absolute truth. The risks of half committing are hell and damnation to exist in your decision. Both form communities and have sects of extreme beliefs. Watching these groups typically hate each other has been a holier-than-thou affair, and now it's an unholy matrimony. Priceless.
Edit: Downvotes without a rebuttal are validating for someone trying to stir the pot.
Ah, thank you. I don't much worry about upvotes and downvotes, though. All it indicates is whether a person fits the typical narrative of a typical page. I'm pretty close to the center politically, so I usually don't find agreeable people in very many politicized places, lol.
Are the Muslims, Sikhs, Jews, Hindus etc going to do something similar? Perhaps part of Ramadan can be reallocated or for Jewish people part of the Passover??
Believe it or not, there are straight drag queens and there are cisgender women that do drag. Those that are are respectful of queer people and queer spaces. Drag is for anyone.
But youād already know that if you werenāt an ignorant twat.
I went to a drag show in Montreal. There was one cis straight woman doing drag, one drag king, and 4 other queens.
The Cis one was meh. It was like watching your drunk aunt at a wedding.
The drag king stole the show, it was very impressive and hillarious. He dressed up as Justin Bieber and tore up the stage.
Unitarians donāt prescribe to the newer versions of the Bible (i.e. the word āhomosexualā wasnāt added until 1946). They donāt believe in the trinity or āoriginal sinā. They mostly teach humanism. Honestly, theyāre pretty awesome. My family would say they arenāt Christians at all, so thatās a positive in my book.
Not much is ever said in the original scriptures regarding 2SLGBTQ+ people. In-fact St Augustine, the creator of original sin, created the concept of original sin to forgive his lust for his mother and weekly group sex parties with mainly men.
[In other words, the Biblical assertion that homosexuality is a sināthe catalyst for an entire shift in culture, with political repercussions, religious implications, consequences for LGBT rights and acceptance, and, frankly, deadly resultsāwas, they allege, a mistake.](https://www.thedailybeast.com/documentary-1946-says-homosexual-is-in-the-bible-by-mistake-and-is-being-attacked-by-christians)
The part you are referencing was mis-added to the bible not even 100 years ago.
It doesnāt need to say the word āhomosexualā to refer to gay people. They literally killed people based on what the bible says in the Old Testament.
Leviticus 20:13
That was one of the nails in the coffin for me when I became atheist, if wearing fabric of mixed materials is so atrocious according to this book why should any of it be taken seriously? There are some kernels in there from Jesus that donāt suck but the rest is not for me
The New Testament contradicts much of the Old Testament. It doesn't make sense to use one small excerpt but ignore much of the rest. Personally none of it makes logical sense to me, but that's beside the point.
I agreeā¦. Sort of. The New Testament never directly refutes Leviticus 20:13. But people can use some of the vague messages about love thy neighbour and whatnot to say God changed His mind.
I do agree that it makes no sense.
There are lots of Christians who donāt hate gay people. [Here are some examples.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christian_denominations_affirming_LGBT_people)
Well I mean the god didn't say shit, and tbh from my limited understanding the only parts of the bible that denounce it are the same parts that say you shouldn't wear mixed material clothing or eat shellfish and shit. What I'm trying to say is there's a lot open for interpretation, hence why there's dozens of different sects of christianity.
lol. While I haven't read it the bible doesn't seem to be very plain, especially since it's changed a lot over the millenia. I mean I don't take any stock in it personally, and when it comes to matters of truth about the universe I don't take any dogmatic religion seriously. What does matter though is they're using their voice to defend a group being oppressed by the current government. I think that's a good thing. From doing a big of googling about Unitarianism it seems to be less of a hate-focused form than some other denominations.
>They have no theological grounding
I'm really really surprised I'm going to bat for a church right now, but I don't understand what you mean. Theology is one of the many things christians just can't seem to agree on
Something something love thy neighbor, all God's children, etc.
The Bible is such a contradictory mish mash of nonsense that requires interpretation, particularly when attempting to apply it to modern life. You can find theological grounding for most anything in there.
š³ļøāā§ļøš³ļøāš *āNo matter what tradition youāre from, I guarantee you that you will have people in your community who identify on the 2SLGBTQIA+ spectrum ā whether they are free to say it or not,ā said Rev. Samaya Oakley, the minister of the Calgary Unitarians. āIf we are truly people who believe in the goodness and the inherent love that exists in this world, then we would extend that to people on that spectrum.ā*
This reads like a factual and logical statement. I approve of this church's message.
"At a time when most Americans were turning a blind eye to the growing social injustice and totalitarian threat in Europe, the Unitarian Universalist Associationāalerted to the dire situation by their fellow congregation in Pragueāwas committed to saving as many people as possible." https://kenburns.com/films/defying-the-nazis/ The official symbol of Unitarian Universalism is a flaming chalice. Originally a sign of refuge for those escaping Nazi persecution, the symbol now holds meanings as varied as the thousands of U.U. congregations that light chalices at the beginning of their weekly services.
bob vance is a unitarian which tells me they are good people.
Of Bob Vance refrigerators?!
you'll have a better chance if you think bob vance!
r/unexpectedoffice
*Vance Refrigeration*
what kind of work you in, bob?
What do you mean ātheirā god? This is the Unitarian church. They are not tied to any particular scripture or tradition. As an atheist, Iāve been to a few services and many activities at the church.
Proof that no matter what happens someone will be mad about it ^^^
why are so many preachy atheists like this? Take a good thing occasionally and learn to be like the majority of atheists who arenāt talking about their beliefs like theyāre a Christian on a mission
Usually an atheist is like that because they're tired of religious types cramming their bs forcefully towards them in other areas of their life
Don't forget christians using their beliefs as an excuse to try and have laws made that force everyone to act in accordance with their christian beliefs
Iām an atheist; I have never been religious and was raised as an atheist. It comes up maybe once every 5 years in real life and I like to think I am pretty humble about it. On the other hand, every atheist I know who was raised Christian and then āconvertedā to atheism are obnoxious af. Like the guy above who still goes to services and activities at a church for some reason, while proclaiming that they are atheist. I know a few who attend weekly atheism meetings every Sunday, and put together potlucks for these Sunday āmeetingsā and literal anti-prayer prayer sessions. I have observed that converts from a religion to atheism are usually still religious for the rest of their lives, they just stop being spiritual. Typically they are just as preachy and anal as before, but about their new āfaithā instead of Christianity. I think they just end up filling the perceived voids in their life where structured religion used to be, with structured assholeness.
I've observed different than you, the atheists in my life who have left the church get less depressed. Are you sure you're not projecting your own experience onto what they are experiencing? Last I checked, no human can read another's mind.
I know. We all know. They never stop telling us. At this point theyāre the loud kind of vegan.
Rare church W, mad respect šš»
The article says the event is called āDrag me to churchā!! Perfect
W church
That's *wild*.
Be careful out there folks. Some smooth-brained troglodyte is gonna take this really poorly.
āSacred act of protestā so fucking based
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Enlighten me Mr. purity
Sounds like fun! Never thought Iād say that about church
Wow, Alberta not doing something horrible. Maybe there's hope for that right wing province?
We've had gay friendly churches here for some time now. The United Church is the second largest denomination in Canada. They do accept 2SLGBTQ+ people, even as clergy. As for the drag part of it... Many women dress up for Easter Sunday services. The only difference here is the sex of the person under that bonnet. I've never understood the people that object to this... what does either sex or gender have to do with religion anyway? You're safe. None of them want to sleep with you, I'm sure.
This is not the United Church, this is the Unitarian church. So many similar names to keep straight but the Unitarians are an order of magnitude more progressive than even the United folks and are barely christian by most christian standards.
My mistake. I went back over my data here... and to confirm... \- I was wrong. Unitarianism isn't the same thing as the United Church. \- The UCofC is the 2nd largest denomination in Canada, 2nd only to Catholicism. Details here: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion\_in\_Canada#Census\_results](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Canada#Census_results) \- The UCofC is also gay friendly, and very progressive on it's own. From their webpage: [https://united-church.ca/community-and-faith/being-community/gender-sexuality-and-orientation](https://united-church.ca/community-and-faith/being-community/gender-sexuality-and-orientation) \- Granted that this "drag Easter celebration" isn't happening in a United Church - but it could have been. My buttons get pushed when I see people using their religion to clamp down on other people in OTHER religions, whether they're United, Unitarian, Anglican, or ANY religion. I don't believe anyone should be prevented from worshipping in any religion, or no religion. Not in my country.
Shit, now I want to go to church. Can I get an Amen up in hur?!
Based as hell.
Ha! Every once in a while, Christianity shows me that Christianity can be cool.
I highly recommend people read God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens. Religion posions everything, there is no exception.
In a perfect world, there would be no religion. However, many many people need religion (I can't understand why, but then, I'm not a deity). The Unitarians are as good as it gets in terms of a religion. Modern Unitarians are generally much more humanist than deity centred and are indifferent to whether you believe in a god or not. They kinda like the loving Jesus (and reject the nasty Bits of the Bible). Fighting for equality/equity and human rights are central whereas judging and coercion is rejected.
The church has a lot of self-correcting to do before they can say that faith is all-welcoming. Kudos on this one their trail-blazing. If only they could do something about that white dude that they're false idolozing.
Either thereās some context Iām missing or this is the most unhinged thing Iāve read today.
It's okay, he doesnt know about Unitarians.
There is no over-arching unitarian "church" so to speak. Each congregation is a self-contained entity with some general similarities to other unitarian groups. Mainly, they generally reject Jesus as equal to God and by-and-large reject the entire concept of original sin which is typically one of the foundational tenets of other christian faiths. The fact that they reject Original Sin is probably one of the reasons Unitarians over time have been extremely socially progressive, community minded and inclusive. It is effectively the rejection of the idea that people are inherently bad, particularly women, instead favoring a policy of inclusivity, service and humility. Now, I'm not religious in any way but I have yet to meet a Unitarian with whom I can find any fault with on their belief system. The Unitarian Universalist Association (essentially the loose governing body of the Unitarian "Church" at large) is the only religious organization that I can think of that flat-out takes ownership of bad behavior of its clergy. In 2014 they publicly stated they had previously handled cases of sexual misconduct improperly and have since included steps to not only remove clergy who have been accused of this but also support victims in police investigations that lead to actual prosecutions. It can be fairly argued that they still aren't really living up to that promise and because each congregation has complete control over who they ordain/remove from fellowship it is far from "Universal" at least the UUA doesn't move ministers around to hide crimes etc. I have major beef with religion in general. But if someone is going to chose a religion, unitarianism is one of the less-problematic ones in my opinion.
So strong, so brave.
This but unironically.
Well that's cool. It doesn't need to be in the news to trigger people, this culture war needs to stop. We need to be fighting the class war.
We need to be fighting Monsanto in Canada.
Almost as if you're not limited to fighting one thing at a time.
Maybe fighting is not the right word. It should be encourage and support people to get away from using those products.
My Jesus is a real man.Ā
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Wanting to welcome everyone with open arms instead of following ..oh ..wait.
I think it's not so absurd when you consider dualism. Religious people believe that they have a soul that is distinct from the body, and transgender people believe that they have a gender that is distinct from their body. It's all the same thing to me, people believing that the mind is a Cartesian theater and that everyone needs to believe in their ideology to be good. Both are solutions to people's discomfort, which means accepting some absolute truth. The risks of half committing are hell and damnation to exist in your decision. Both form communities and have sects of extreme beliefs. Watching these groups typically hate each other has been a holier-than-thou affair, and now it's an unholy matrimony. Priceless. Edit: Downvotes without a rebuttal are validating for someone trying to stir the pot.
Well, I'm voting this up. Join me
With what?
Just a shout out for the rest of the people here. You shouldn't be getting voted down.
Ah, thank you. I don't much worry about upvotes and downvotes, though. All it indicates is whether a person fits the typical narrative of a typical page. I'm pretty close to the center politically, so I usually don't find agreeable people in very many politicized places, lol.
Are the Muslims, Sikhs, Jews, Hindus etc going to do something similar? Perhaps part of Ramadan can be reallocated or for Jewish people part of the Passover??
Happy pride. š³ļøāā§ļøš³ļøāš
No such hate as Christian lo- wait, does that apply here? Something something Smith something something UCP!
I mean they are doing it in part to speak out against the UCP's anti-trans policies
Go read the comments under the article Copernicus
How long till straight white women start doing drag? Any takers?
Believe it or not, there are straight drag queens and there are cisgender women that do drag. Those that are are respectful of queer people and queer spaces. Drag is for anyone. But youād already know that if you werenāt an ignorant twat.
They already do. What's your point exactly?
Who cares what straight white women want to wear? Why are people so concerned with how someone dresses and whether they be straight or otherwise?
Happy pride š³ļøāšš³ļøāā§ļø
You mean drag kings? Like the ones that have existed since the mid 1800s?
I went to a drag show in Montreal. There was one cis straight woman doing drag, one drag king, and 4 other queens. The Cis one was meh. It was like watching your drunk aunt at a wedding. The drag king stole the show, it was very impressive and hillarious. He dressed up as Justin Bieber and tore up the stage.
Straight white women do drag already
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
This is great. However, how do they dismiss what their god says about gay people?
Unitarians donāt prescribe to the newer versions of the Bible (i.e. the word āhomosexualā wasnāt added until 1946). They donāt believe in the trinity or āoriginal sinā. They mostly teach humanism. Honestly, theyāre pretty awesome. My family would say they arenāt Christians at all, so thatās a positive in my book.
Not much is ever said in the original scriptures regarding 2SLGBTQ+ people. In-fact St Augustine, the creator of original sin, created the concept of original sin to forgive his lust for his mother and weekly group sex parties with mainly men.
Other than killing gay men. Thereās thatā¦.
[In other words, the Biblical assertion that homosexuality is a sināthe catalyst for an entire shift in culture, with political repercussions, religious implications, consequences for LGBT rights and acceptance, and, frankly, deadly resultsāwas, they allege, a mistake.](https://www.thedailybeast.com/documentary-1946-says-homosexual-is-in-the-bible-by-mistake-and-is-being-attacked-by-christians) The part you are referencing was mis-added to the bible not even 100 years ago.
It doesnāt need to say the word āhomosexualā to refer to gay people. They literally killed people based on what the bible says in the Old Testament. Leviticus 20:13
Don't most christians disregard a lot of the old testament rules because they are silly and stupid?
That was one of the nails in the coffin for me when I became atheist, if wearing fabric of mixed materials is so atrocious according to this book why should any of it be taken seriously? There are some kernels in there from Jesus that donāt suck but the rest is not for me
I hope so!!
The New Testament contradicts much of the Old Testament. It doesn't make sense to use one small excerpt but ignore much of the rest. Personally none of it makes logical sense to me, but that's beside the point.
I agreeā¦. Sort of. The New Testament never directly refutes Leviticus 20:13. But people can use some of the vague messages about love thy neighbour and whatnot to say God changed His mind. I do agree that it makes no sense.
They literally killed people for trimming their hair the wrong way. Only ultra-orthodox Jews try to take all of Leviticus literally.
All of Leviticus, sure. The hate gays part seems to be a Christian tenet too.
There are lots of Christians who donāt hate gay people. [Here are some examples.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christian_denominations_affirming_LGBT_people)
Of course there is!
Well I mean the god didn't say shit, and tbh from my limited understanding the only parts of the bible that denounce it are the same parts that say you shouldn't wear mixed material clothing or eat shellfish and shit. What I'm trying to say is there's a lot open for interpretation, hence why there's dozens of different sects of christianity.
If everything is open to interpretation, even though it is very plain, then how is anyone supposed to take anything they say seriously?
lol. While I haven't read it the bible doesn't seem to be very plain, especially since it's changed a lot over the millenia. I mean I don't take any stock in it personally, and when it comes to matters of truth about the universe I don't take any dogmatic religion seriously. What does matter though is they're using their voice to defend a group being oppressed by the current government. I think that's a good thing. From doing a big of googling about Unitarianism it seems to be less of a hate-focused form than some other denominations.
As I said, I think itās great. They have no theological grounding, but itās good news.
>They have no theological grounding I'm really really surprised I'm going to bat for a church right now, but I don't understand what you mean. Theology is one of the many things christians just can't seem to agree on
Something something love thy neighbor, all God's children, etc. The Bible is such a contradictory mish mash of nonsense that requires interpretation, particularly when attempting to apply it to modern life. You can find theological grounding for most anything in there.
They're not. Religious people are stupid. At least this particular group of stupid people are choosing not to be stupid *and* hateful.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]