Sermon
Week 30: Unitarian Universalism Believes Everything and Nothing, All At Once | March 1, 2026 Sunday School
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.
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The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
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Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
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or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look
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us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this
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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
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And if you would open your Bibles, please, to 1st John
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chapter #2 this morning as we continue our series looking at
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world religions and cults. We'll be taking our leave of
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this series next week. And then we'll be off until
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after Easter because we have just some different programming
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taking place next week. And then after that, we will be
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gone. Scotland missing one Sunday as
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we go and visit Diane's parents. And then also after that, the
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following Sunday, we'll have brother Scott Sandy with us.
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He'll be with us during the morning.
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He'll be teaching Sunday school and then church.
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And then of course, not long after that, we'll be Easter.
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And so as soon as Easter is done, we'll be back in our
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series and we'll be taking a few more weeks and probably ending
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sometime early or mid-May. That'll mean about a year that
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we have been in this series in world religions it called.
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It's hard to believe that it's been that long.
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That's kind of what I'm looking at is our exit strategy, if you
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will, and then getting into our next Sunday School series.
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But in the meantime, we are in First John Chapter 2 this
1 John 2 chapter mention
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morning and we're looking at Universal rather Unitarian
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Universalism and the title of the lesson this morning.
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It's a long one, but it believes everything and nothing all at
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once. You say, pastor, what on earth
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does that mean? Well, it just gets down to the
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place of trying to find out what exactly, exactly the Unitarians
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actually believe. And you say, what is
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Unitarianism? Something that's a, that's a
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thing. Is it something that is
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prevalent? And the answer is in this area,
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absolutely. Unitarian Universalism,
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particularly in the New England area, is something that you'll
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find in many New England cities and towns, including here in
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Easton. And they are very peculiar, or
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not just in their history, but also what they believe even
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today. And really, they're more
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remarkable for what they don't believe than what they believe.
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And I want us to look at that this morning and have some
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understanding because again, your town, even if you don't
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live in East and your town very likely has AUU Church, ours
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would be Unity Church here in downtown.
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Yours has it as well. And we should be familiar with
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who they are and what they believe.
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And interestingly enough, they go all the way back to the
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1600s, actually probably even before that as well, developed
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in Europe in the mid 16th century.
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And the term Unitarian is different than what we believe
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is Trinitarians. What would you say Trinitarian
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means? Well, it believes that we
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believe in the Trinity, right? The Father and the Son and the
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Holy Ghost. The Unitarians believe something
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completely different, that Jesus is not the Son of God, or if he
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is the Son of God, that he is not God the Son and the Holy
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Spirit is more of a life force, if you will, but that truly God
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is 1 God and say, well, we believe that as well.
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But we also believe that God's expressed in three persons,
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Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The Unitarians do not believe
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that. Now why would that be wrong?
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Well, we're in first John right now chapter #2 so let's go ahead
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and just give you a brief debunking, if you will.
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Why we believe God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy
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Ghost. And it says in verse #21 It says
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in first John chapter 2, verse 21.
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I have not written unto you because you know not the truth,
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but because you know it. And that no lie is of the truth.
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Who is a liar but he that denieth Jesus is the Christ?
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That's pretty clear right there, isn't it?
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Who is a liar, but he that denyeth that Jesus is the
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Christ? He is Antichrist that denyeth
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the Father and the Son. Boy, I think that's pretty clear
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right there, isn't it? Verse #23 Whosoever denyeth the
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Son, the same hath not the Father, but he that
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acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.
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Let that therefore abide in you which he have heard from the
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beginning. If that which he have heard from
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the beginning shall remain in you, you shall also continue in
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the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that He
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had promised us, even eternal life.
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It seems very clear right there that when you believe in God,
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quote UN quote, I believe in God.
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Well, that belief has to be in Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
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That we can't just say, as the Unitarians do, that we just
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believe in one God. Of course we believe in one God,
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we're not polytheists, we don't believe in three gods, but yet
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we believe that God again is expressed in three persons,
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Father, Son and Holy Ghost. There's other verses that
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explain that as well. Matthew 28 verse 19 go.
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He therefore make disciples unto all nations, baptizing them in
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what the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
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Ghost. 2nd Corinthians 13 verse 14, the grace of the Lord Jesus
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Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be
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with you all. And that benediction, if you
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will, from Paul mentions God the Father, Jesus Christ and the
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Holy Ghost. What about Matthew 3 verses 16
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and 17? And when Jesus was baptized,
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immediately he went up from the water and told the heavens were
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open to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a
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dove and coming to rest on him. And behold a voice from heaven
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said This is my beloved son with whom?
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And well, please, what do you see at the baptism of Jesus, the
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voice of the Father. Will you hear the voice of the
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Father. You see the expression of the
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Spirit in the form of a dove Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
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You can go to Genesis chapter 1 and we find that Jesus is or
Genesis 1 chapter mention
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rather the Lord is in conference with himself.
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That term us is used there. We saw last week in Isaiah
Isaiah 6 chapter mention
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chapter 6 the same who shall go for us again, the Lord in
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conference with himself. When you and I talk to
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ourselves. Sometimes that's problematic,
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isn't it? When God talks to himself, he's
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talking between Father and Son and Holy Ghost.
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And so we reject out of hand the idea that the Unitarians would
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say that God is not expressed in three persons.
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Again, we believe in one God. That is not God the Father who
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is 1 God, God the Son who is a second God, God the Holy Spirit
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who is 1/3 God. That would make us polytheists,
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that they are one God expressed in three persons.
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This is what the Bible teaches. This is what we believe.
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Now Unitarianism arose during the Protestant Reformation from
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the teachings of a man named Michael Cervatus.
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So during the time of John Calvin during the time of the
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Reformation. In fact, Cervatus sat at the
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feet of Calvin for a brief period of time.
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However, even for John Calvin, some of his beliefs about
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Unitarianism were too much for him and he was considered
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Cervatus to be a heretic. But yet even the writings of
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which he made during that early 1500 time period ended up
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fanning the flames of which later would be a more robust
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teaching of Unitarianism from one Faustus Saucinus, who
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continued to promote anti trinitarian views of Servatus
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and began to develop the system that now is known as
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Unitarianism. Some of the other things that he
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taught as well. Beyond believing, beyond
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teaching against the Trinity, he also promoted an unbiblical view
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of Christ's sacrifice. He denied that Jesus was the
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substitutionary sacrifice for the sins of mankind.
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He taught that men will reconciled to God through piety,
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demonstrations of love and obedience to God.
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Meaning this it was a works based salvation of which he
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taught as a Unitarian. He said Jesus is more of just a
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good example for us to follow really, not the Son of God.
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And you could see that these are errors that we have seen
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repackaged and reformed over and over again in different
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religions. And no matter how they're
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repackaged, no matter how they're repurposed, guess what?
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They're all false. Because Jesus wasn't just a good
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example. He didn't go around proclaiming
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himself to be a good example. He went around proclaiming
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himself to be who he was before Abraham was.
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I am very clear, isn't it? Well, that's not just a man
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talking about being a good prophet or good example.
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That's a man who said, you've seen the father, you've seen me,
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you've seen the father. And this is what we have, and
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this is what is being taught. And the Unitarians would deny
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all of this, including the very idea of original sin.
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This is all denied by the Unitarians.
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This man Fausta Saucinus back in the early 1600s and as such
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around that time Unitarianism starts to spread.
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One of the reasons is because it leans heavily.
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While it does speak of the Bible, even in those times it
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did use the Bible. The Bible was certainly twisted
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far beyond recognition. But they did have the idea that
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they would use the Bible. But they were entering into
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human reasoning that this was a big idea of the Enlightenment,
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that sure there is the Bible, but the idea of a Trinity just
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isn't reasonable. And so because of that, we don't
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believe it. Now if you want to take faith
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and put your human reasoning above faith, guess what, You
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don't have faith. Faith is a substance of things
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helped for the evidence of things not seen.
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It says in Hebrews Chapter 11, we understand that we don't
Hebrews 11 chapter mention
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understand the Trinity. Did you catch that?
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We understand that we do not understand the Trinity.
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We understand what the Bible teaches about the Trinity.
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We accept it by faith. But I can tell you that as a
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pastor, I have not found over the years a good illustration to
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be able to show people who the Trinity is because every time I
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try to find one and every time I hear other pastors tell of one,
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they all fall woefully short. You're saying you don't believe
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in the Trinity. When did I say that?
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Of course I believe in the Trinity.
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I believe in it by faith. What I'm telling you is this.
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Our finite minds have trouble wrapping our heads around what
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it is. So what do we do?
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We believe in it by faith. The Unitarians say this.
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We don't understand it, so we can't believe it.
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Can you see much different way of thinking in a way that will
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lead them very far away from the faith in the living God?
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Well, Unitarianism starts to spread in places like
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Transylvania, Poland and England in the 1600s.
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But then beyond that, it starts to take root in the new American
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colonies, and then beyond that into America itself.
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The very first Unitarian church in the United States, you may
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have been here before, I've been here several times, is King's
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Chapel in Boston. If you've been on the Freedom
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Trail, some of you, it's probably been a while since
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you've been on the Freedom Trail, unless you had some
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guests or visitors in town and they all want to go and walk on
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that red brick line throughout Boston.
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And if you go on the Freedom Trail, you start in Boston
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Common and then you go right around the corner and there is a
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cemetery where Paul Revere is from colonial times.
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But then beyond it is your next stop, which is King's Chapel.
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Now, King's Chapel was an Episcopal Church for some period
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of time, but Unitarian thinking ended up going into this church.
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And because of that, it actually renounced its Episcopalian ways
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and became a Unitarian church and is AUU church even today.
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So if you go into King's Chapel, which I have many times, you'll
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find a first example in the United States of A a Unitarian
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church and now a Unitarian Universalist Church.
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It flourished in New England. And as it flourished in New
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England, and particularly in the 1800s, it became, words are hard
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today. All right, that's not good
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because it's only 1015, but it became rolled up into the
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transcendental movement, Ralph Waldo Emerson and the like.
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And so now it's even throwing off the idea of any pretense of
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following the Bible. And now it has just become
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literally man's thoughts about who God is.
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This will continue all the way up to 19611961 is the inflection
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point for the Unitarian movement because at the same time, there
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is also a universalist movement that is taking place in this
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region, in this area as well, particularly a Universalist
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church, a Unitarian church in 1961.
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They kind of come to this place. They say, hey, we kind of
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believe like you, and you kind of believe like, so why don't we
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believe the same thing together? And in the United States, the
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Unitarian Universalists are born now.
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We are at the place now where even the Unitarian Universalists
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don't even look like the Unitarians of the 1500s and the
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1600s again. Why?
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Because they have thrown off all pretense of believing the Bible.
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And literally the Unitarian Universalists believe this.
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Whatever you want, you believe, whatever you want, and you can
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become part of our congregation. Now, there's some limits to
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that, and we'll find out what those limits are here in just a
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moment. But I do want us to watch a
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short video that comes from the Unitarian Universalist as they
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explain in their own words who they are.
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And so we're going to go ahead and watch that and then give you
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some further explanation. We are Unitarian Universalists.
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We are people of many paths who are brave, curious and
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compassionate thinkers and doers.
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Everyday people are inundated with information, overwhelmed by
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demands, and pulled by a culture that seeks to divide us from the
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web of life. Unitarian Universalism
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reconnects, bringing people together with meaning and
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inspiration. We are a house without walls, a
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congregation without spiritual limits, and a movement that
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calls you to put more faith in yourself, your community and
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your beliefs. We are a faith that honors your
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mind, your heart, your journey. Simply put, we are a guided path
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towards a better you and a better world, grounded in
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hundreds of years of thoughtful religious communities.
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We are people of many generations.
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Ethnicities, genders and sexualities and spiritual
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backgrounds. People engaged in making the
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world a better place. People focusing on what really
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matters, love, justice, integrity and hope.
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Unitarian Universalists have different beliefs but shared
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values. We are Unitarian Universalists
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and at the same time we may also be agnostic, Buddhist,
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Christian, Hindu, Humanist, Jewish, Muslim, Pagan, atheist,
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believers in God and those who let the great mystery be.
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The diversity of beliefs you'll find in a Unitarian Universalist
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community is one of our strengths.
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We are always learning how to see the world from a different
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perspective. What unites us are our core
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principles that uphold 7 real world values, believing in the
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worthiness of every person, showing compassion and fairness,
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accepting others for who they are, growing through a personal
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search for truth, leading with democratic spirit, working for
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justice, and understanding that everything is interconnected.
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Seven days a week, Unitarian Universalists live these
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principles by doing. When we gather, we worship,
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reflect, and remind ourselves what matters most in life.
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Whatever our age, we learn to live with more wisdom, more
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awareness, more gratitude, and more soul.
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We show our values by showing up to answer the call for social
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justice. We have a track record of
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standing on the side of love for civil rights, LGBTQ equality,
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immigration reform, environmental sustainability,
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reproductive justice, racial justice, and more.
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Find what it means to live your deepest values out loud.
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Join us on this extraordinary adventure of faith.
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You say, pastor, that doesn't sound like a religious group,
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That sounds like a political group.
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And your answer would be you're getting very close to the truth
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of what the Unitarian Universalists are all about.
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What are the Unitarian Universalists?
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Well, Universalist congregations, according to
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their own beliefs, affirm and promote 7 principles which we
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hold as strong values and moral guides.
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We live out these principles within a living tradition of
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wisdom and spirituality drawn from sources as diverse as
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science, poetry, scripture, and personal experience.
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And I would say very heavy on the personal experience.
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What are those 7 principles that were mentioned there just a few
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moments ago? That was the quote that I just
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gave you just now. But what are those 7 principles
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of Unitarian of Universal unitarianism #1 the inherent
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worth and dignity of every person #2 Justice, equity,
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compassion in human relations #3 The acceptance of one another
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and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations #4A
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free and responsible search for truth and meaning #5 the right
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of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our
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congregations and in society at large.
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Number six, the goal of world community with peace, liberty,
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and justice for all. And then #7 respect for the
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interdependent web of all existence of which we are apart.
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Now, from these principles that you see here, the pluralistic
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nature of this religious system is quite obvious.
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In general. A Christian could agree with
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several of the things that are up there just in general.
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But we understand from what we just read that it's not just the
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meaning of the words, but it's the meaning behind the meaning
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of the words that are truly dangerous.
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That when it talks about being worth and inherent dignity of
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every person, of course we would agree that there isn't worth and
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inherent dignity of every person, but they would not agree
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that there's worth and inherent dignity of the unborn.
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They wouldn't agree with that. We could go on and on justice,
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equity and compassion and human relations.
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And well, I would say Micah 68 was way out in front of that
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before anything that the Unitarian Universalists had ever
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talked about, that we should do justly and love mercy and walk
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humbly with thy God. But at the same time, what they
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mean by that was, well, those things that were mentioned there
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and their political speech at the end of the video, more than
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what we would mean by what the Bible says about that.
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And on and on and on it goes. So really what the Unitarian
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Universalists believe is, well, all of that.
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You saw agnostic, Pagan, atheist, Christian, Buddhist,
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Muslim, and on and on and on. They believe all of that and
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none of it at the same time. How do you gather together and
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worship when people don't even agree on who God is?
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Or if there is a God, How do you gather together and worship when
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people don't even agree what their shared values are?
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How do we gather together? Well, we gather together because
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we believe in God, we believe in Father, Son, Holy Ghost, and we
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believe in this word. And that is really what binds us
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together, isn't it? And if we were to get together
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and say, well let's talk about something different other than
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the Bible today, well that would pretty much be the end of this
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assembly, wouldn't it? Because this is what binds us
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together is the word of God that shows us Father, Son and Holy
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Ghost. But these 7 principles are again
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more arbitrary in the sense that it's just kind of things that
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they have come up with over time and that they believe.
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But I would even suggest you that they don't believe them in
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the way that they say that they believe them in.
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Now I found this several times of quotes that have explained
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what Unitarian Universalist believe.
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And this quote's just startling to me.
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They say this, our faith is not interested in saving your soul.
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We're here to help you unfold the awesome soul you already
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have. There is no soul that needs to
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be saved. You're inherently good.
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They just want you to be able to have a better life.
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They want you to unlock a better you.
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This is who they are. And the very arbitrariness of
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what they believe is not a bug, it's a feature.
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They just want you to believe whatever you want to believe and
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come together again. There's a limit to that, but
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this is what they say. This is what they espouse.
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You can believe whatever you want.
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You come here, you'll find a warm and welcoming, inviting
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place. It really doesn't matter what
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you believe, as long as you come and be part of the community.
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And there's a part of you that sounds that sounds really good
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until you get down to it and you think it doesn't work like that,
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does it? In fact, it never works like
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that in life and certainly not within the confines of a
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so-called church. Now I want to show you a second
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video. I think if we can get that
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queued up, that I will show you a little bit of how arbitrary
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the beliefs of the Unitarian Universalists are.
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So we can run that. Let's go ahead and try that.
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Amanda Rights. I wish I knew more about
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Unitarian Universalism. I've struggled not having a
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church and feeling like I want one, but none seem to fit to be
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honest. So let me tell you a little bit
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about why I love Unitarian Universalism.
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And you know, maybe it would fit you, maybe it wouldn't, but
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maybe I can give you a little bit of information.
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So Unitarian Universalism is non creedal and pluralist, which
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means that we don't have a set of beliefs that everyone has to
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agree with in order to belong. And we are pluralist.
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We pull from all the different worlds, religions and
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philosophies and stories and life experiences.
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And So what that has meant for me is that I had the room and
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have had the room all my life to explore and grow.
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And as I had experiences in my life, I had a religion where I
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could really change what I believed.
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But I stayed in the same religion.
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And one example of that is my youngest daughter had cancer and
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she developed it as a six month old baby.
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And let me tell you, any sort of faith and understandings of the
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world and God and all of that, I mean, poof, they were gone in an
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instant. And this, this religion gave me
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the space to be able to explore those really hard questions and,
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and whatever conclusions I came to, there wasn't going to be
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someone telling me, no, you have to believe this really rigid
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doctrine. Everyone who is in this faith
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understands that it is this faith evolves.
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And it's also expected that we are going to evolve, that, you
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know, our life experiences are going to shape us in different
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ways and we're going to change. And I love that there is a deep
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moral center of this, this faith-based around treating
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other people well and working for justice.
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And, and so it is without dogma, but ethics is a huge part of
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what we do, ethical living. And I get to do all of this,
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both the work on myself and my work out in the world.
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I get to do it with a supportive community.
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I love these people and I love this faith.
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At the very beginning it was mentioned there are no beliefs.
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You heard that correct? That there is no belief here
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that you can believe whatever you want to believe.
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And I want to touch on what she mentioned in the middle.
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Of course, anyone who would have to deal with the cancer of a
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child, my heart would go out to them.
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There's certainly no animosity in my heart towards her or
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towards that situation at all. I understand when I say that,
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that that is how I feel, but at the same time, to be able to say
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through that my faith went out the window and that I was able
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to decide what I wanted to believe after that event took
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place. That's a dangerous form of
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living. What happens is it ends up that
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you are the decider of what faith actually is.
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In fact, it's just all about what do you want to believe,
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what feels right to you. It's a very dangerous place to
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be. But then you get from the
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beginning to there is no set belief to the middle of, well, I
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got to get to the place where I believe what I wanted to
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believe. And that belief could also
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change over time too. We have a very real set of
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ethics. Did you catch that at the end?
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Well, where do ethics come from? Those ethics come from what we
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believe and for us that comes from the word of God.
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So the question I would have to a universal Unitarian
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Universalist would be how can you come up with this core of
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ethics when everyone can believe what they want to believe in the
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1st place? And this is where we start to
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get to the place where it really shows that there is a lot of
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righteous talk when it comes to Unitarian Universalism.
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But at the same time, there is absolutely zero depth because
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everyone can believe what they want to believe, but you have to
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believe like we believe. So what do you mean you have to
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believe like we believe? Well, there's a very real set of
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ethics that were mentioned in the first video as well as the
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second video. If you don't believe in that
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form of ethics, do you believe that you would be welcomed
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within their society? Do you think you'd be welcome
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within their church? The answer is we know from
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experience, we know from testimonies of others that the
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answer to that is no. Let me illustrate it to you in
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this way. I I go to when I go to the gym,
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I go to Planet Fitness. One of the things I love about
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Planet Fitness big sign on the wall, no judgement, no judgement
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zone, right? That's, that's, we understand
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that there's no judgement when you go into the Planet Fitness.
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And the whole point of that is, you know, there are people, you
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know, like me, who are intimidated.
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You go in and you get the meatheads that are going in and
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that, you know, they got the, they got the gallon of water,
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you know, they're drinking it. You don't have to be a meathead
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to do that. But the idea is, you know,
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they're going in there, they're they're doing their reps,
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they're looking at the, at the mirror while they're doing it,
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not because they're trying to make sure the form is right,
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just because they look good. You know what I'm saying?
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And they're doing all this, they're grunting, they're
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yelling, they're doing all these different things.
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So Planet Fitness came up with the idea.
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What if we had a place that was just, you know, where people
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could go and they don't have to worry about being judged because
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they are not like those people. And that idea in of itself, I
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think it's great to be honest with you.
-
I enjoy that very much. But they call it a no judgement
-
zone. But I'll be honest with you,
-
there's a lot of judgement there.
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Say, what are you talking about? Well, what if you are one of
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those guys that go in there? You know what happens if you
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grunt and you throw down your weights when you're done?
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They have something that's called a lunkhead siren.
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You said, what's a lunkhead? What's somebody that's like, you
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know, you know, acting like a like a dope at the gym.
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And if you drop that weight too loud, the siren goes off kind of
-
like, look at this guy. Look at this guy.
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You're telling me there's no judgement.
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You're just saying there's no judgement as long as you believe
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like we do. But if you don't, we go look at
-
this guy. Look at this guy.
-
He's he's yelling, he's grunting.
-
Look at him. You know, what I'm saying is
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let's just be honest about what it is.
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I'm not saying that that environment that they built is a
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bad one. I think it's a good one.
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But you can't call it a no judgment zone because you are
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literally pointing out people who don't fit in that and say,
-
look at this guy, we have the whole place, the lights are
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going on and off, the sirens going off.
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Because we want you to look at this person and see what a
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lunkhead they are. This is what Unitarian
-
Universalism is. It's hey, you can believe
-
whatever you want, just as long as you believe the things that
-
we believe in. You've got to make sure you
-
believe that women can have abortions whenever they want.
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You've got to make sure you believe in immigration reform.
-
Did you hear that up there? Get not a religion, that's a
-
political party. You have to make sure that you
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believe love is love for everybody.
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You have to believe that. So if I was to go to the
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Universal Unitarian Universalist congregation in town, if I was
-
invited and I preached a message about why God believes that,
-
well, God, why God has in his word that marriage is between
-
one man and one woman for one lifetime, do you think that
-
would be received well? Well, we can believe whatever we
-
want. No, but you can't believe that
-
this is a no judgment zone. Look at this guy.
-
You can't believe that. Do you see what's the Unitarian
-
Universalist? Do you say, pastor?
-
You would never be invited to be able to be a part of their
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church. I have been invited to be part
-
of their church. In the first few years of the
-
church was open, I've been invited to several different
-
events with the Easton Ministerial Association, meaning
-
every pastor was invited to be able to come and do a
-
Thanksgiving service or an Easter service or a Transgender
-
Day of Remembrance service. These are things I've been
-
invited to over the years. And so I politely declined so
-
many times that they no longer invite me to be able to come to
-
those. But I have been invited to go
-
and to speak along with other ministers in Easton at a
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Thanksgiving service at Unity Church.
-
Say, well, pastor, why wouldn't you do that?
-
Well, because we don't all agree who we're even giving thanks to.
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And if I was to give thanks in a way, you say, well, they, they
-
have to believe what you believe.
-
No, they don't, because that arbitrariness only lasts for so
-
long. And here's really what it comes
-
down to for the Unitarian Universalists.
-
Here's what they won't admit but they know is true.
-
Everyone is welcome, unless they don't like what you believe.
-
Again, every belief is good. Well, not every belief is good
-
if you believe like a could we maybe put it this way, a Bible
-
believing Baptist or a Bible believing Christian in general.
-
So this is what I've come to the to the understanding of
-
universals are broad minded, single minded and narrow minded
-
people all at the same time. He said that doesn't make sense.
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It doesn't make sense. But this is who they are.
-
They're broad minded. We believe everything, but
-
they're single minded. This is what we believe in
-
ethics. That also makes narrow minded
-
because if you don't believe like them, then they have no
-
regard for you. You can believe in whatever you
-
want as long as it fits within their parameters of their
-
ethics. This is why they believe
-
everything and nothing all at the same time.
-
Now I have a third video I want to show you as well.
-
And if you think this is just me saying this, this comes from
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their own mouth. The same woman is going to speak
-
again and she makes very clear Unitarian Universalist is not
-
for everybody. It's like, whoa, whoa, hold on a
-
second, I'm going to watch for everybody.
-
I thought it didn't matter what, but apparently there are some
-
people who won't be comfortable in a universalist church.
-
Seems to undercut the entire argument right from the start.
-
So let's go ahead and show that. Reasons why you would probably
-
not be happy in a Unitarian Universalist congregation.
-
Let's go. First of all, if you believe
-
that there is only one path, one way of understanding what is
-
most holy and true, you're probably not going to be happy
-
in AUU church, because we are deliberately pluralist, we pull
-
wisdom from all the different worlds faiths, and every
-
individual UU gets to figure out what is most true for them.
-
If you believe that people are born evil or with a propensity
-
to evil, and it requires the intervening force of some type
-
of a deity to get us to act decent, yeah, you're not going
-
to be happy. In AUU church, we believe in the
-
inherent worth and dignity of all people.
-
If you believe that God has created a natural order and that
-
families should fit this traditional model with certain
-
gender roles, you're probably not going to be happy in one of
-
our congregations. If it is important for you to
-
hear about Jesus every Sunday, there are some exceptions.
-
We do have what are called some affiliated churches that are
-
more explicitly progressive Christian, but the vast, vast
-
majority of you congregations do not identify as Christian in any
-
way, although there may be Christian individual Christian
-
members in it. But but so you're probably not
-
going to hear about that every Sunday.
-
And also if it's really important to you to hear about
-
God every Sunday, again, in most of you churches, that may not
-
happen. Now, I would also say if it if
-
it's really important to you that you never hear the word
-
God, you might be able to find some congregations.
-
But overall, no, we are a big tent religion.
-
If you believe that spirituality has no connection with the world
-
of politics, you probably won't be happy in AUU church because
-
this is a way of us living out our religious values.
-
UU churches are often full of activists and they are involved
-
in what many see as progressive causes, the environment,
-
reproductive justice, LGBTQIA plus issues, voting rights, it
-
goes on and on. So there's some reasons why you
-
might not feel comfortable in AUU church.
-
So what if none of those apply to you and you kind of find all
-
of this intriguing? Well, feel free to.
-
You can look at some of my videos.
-
I have some playlists like AUU one O 1 or ask away.
-
Ask me some questions. Anybody is welcome unless you
-
believe in Jesus Christ. And unless, Yeah, I don't think.
-
See, I had to show you this just so you could make sure that you
-
felt that way because I didn't want everyone going over to
-
Unity Church after Sunday school.
-
You're comfortable there. Unless you believe in God,
-
unless, unless you believe in the Bible, unless you're a
-
conservative. I mean, that's very clear.
-
People talk about, you know, religion and politics.
-
And we tried to be very careful here.
-
You know, this is not a political group.
-
Of course, we believe the Bible and the Bible causes our
-
politics to go in certain ways. But this is not a political
-
rally here every Sunday. It just is not.
-
And that's on purpose because we're dealing with Kingdom
-
issues that far go beyond those other things that are also
-
important. But you're talking about not a
-
Sunday morning service. You're talking about a political
-
rally of which we are not welcome in.
-
And again, you say pastors this important.
-
Almost every town in New England has one of these churches.
-
The oldest church building in Easton is Unity Church.
-
This is out here and a lot of the activism that you see that's
-
out there for these ultra liberal causes is underpinned by
-
those who are part of the Unitarian Universalist Church.
-
So yes, it is important for us to understand, although
-
certainly you are not in the place where you say, well, I
-
wonder if I should go there. It's not that as much as it's
-
you need to know that this is out there and you know that
-
people that live in your community are going to those
-
churches and that everybody's welcome unless you're sitting in
-
this church today. And they would pretty much
-
rather that we don't go over there and mess up that which
-
they have, although everyone is able to believe whatever they
-
want. It reminds me of Proverbs 14,
-
verse 12. There is a way which seemeth
-
right unto a man, but the end thereof is the way of death.
-
And that's Unitarian Universalism in a nutshell.
-
Their tolerance is not for those who believe something, it's only
-
for those who believe there is no absolute truth.
-
So in absence, they're only tolerant of those who believe
-
nothing. Because if you actually believe
-
something, it may not fit. Well, we, we allow Buddhists to
-
come in and Muslims. Let me ask you, how many Muslims
-
do you think with what they believe would be welcome in a
-
Unitarian Universalist church? The answer would be none.
-
You say, pastor, could you be a Christian and be in a Unitarian
-
Universalist church? And my answer to that, well, if
-
I press the right button there. Oh, OK, I forgot this too.
-
But so much going on here. All right, This is the inherent
-
craziness is the only word I can use of their belief.
-
The seven principles here's #5 the right of conscience to use
-
the and the use of the democratic process within our
-
congregations and in society at large.
-
They say they believe #5 but they don't.
-
You can believe what you want. You have the freedom of
-
conscience to believe whatever you want to believe.
-
They don't believe that themselves.
-
Because again, if you went as a Bible believing Christian into
-
their society, if you went as a political conservative of
-
whatever stripe and decide to go in their society, you would be
-
ostracized. And that was made very clear in
-
that video, which is one of many that we could have shown you
-
here today. But can a unitary universalist
-
be a Christian? They mentioned that there's
-
Christians within there. I would submit to you that no
-
actual follower of Christ could be a Unitarian Universalist,
-
period. Because of the teachings,
-
because of the ethics, because it goes exactly opposite to that
-
which the Bible teaches. They're wrong in so many ways.
-
I don't have time to go over all these at the extent that I want
-
to, but they're wrong about sin. Do you remember what she said?
-
That we weren't born with a sin problem?
-
Well, that would go against what the Bible says, and that would
-
go against what what we see with our own eyes.
-
Nobody has to teach that little baby to say no.
-
That comes natural. Doesn't now say it.
-
No, no, no. Nobody does that, and they don't
-
need to. Why?
-
Because we understand the inherent sinfulness of mankind.
-
Salvation. They're wrong about something.
-
Hey, your soul doesn't need to be saved.
-
You have an awesome soul and we just want to help you unlock
-
that which is already within you of creation.
-
Obviously they would not believe in a literal 6 day creation like
-
the Bible says. They would believe anything but
-
that of God himself, that they can't even decide if there is a
-
God or not, let alone of whether there's the one true God of the
-
Bible, authority and revelation. I've mentioned this here before
-
just briefly, but they believe that authority in their beliefs
-
can come from poetry, it can come from reading, it can come
-
from the mythologies that come from years past, and it can come
-
from your own personal experience.
-
Basically, you find revelation wherever you can find it.
-
If something seems good to you, something seems authoritative to
-
you, then just believe it. That's good.
-
Well, we believe authority comes to us through this word right
-
here. It is not the final authority of
-
faith and practice. It is the authority of faith and
-
practice for us in our life, the very word of God and then
-
mankind that they believe just in general about man and who we
-
are. They would say that there's no
-
accountability because you're basically just a evolutionary
-
process. You're a cosmic mistake.
-
And so if nothing else, just do what you want to do, do what
-
feels right. But we know that the word of God
-
says something completely different.
-
A Unitarian Universalist church is, as I just mentioned, odd
-
minded, single minded and narrow minded people who believe
-
everything and nothing at the same time.
-
They believe everything, but they don't believe anything.
-
But if they do believe something, it's not like you and
-
it's not like me and it's certainly not like this book.
-
And so knows a very quick way to explain Unitarian Universalist.
-
But again, check in your town, see if there is a church like
-
that. Not because I want you to check
-
it out, but just see that they are actually much more prevalent
-
in this area than you could possibly imagine.
-
And you can find that their influence actually goes far
-
greater and further than probably we even understand,
-
particularly when it comes to a lot of these political issues
-
that are out there today. When it comes to the word of
-
God, when it comes to being a Bible believing Christian, this
-
isn't a political rally. It's all about Jesus.
-
Amen. That's what it needs to be about
-
and that's what we want to make it about every single Sunday.
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Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
-
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
-
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
-
know by contacting us at [email protected].
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Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
-
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
-
grow in His Word.