On 11 Dec 2002 at 14:12, waterweasel{at}sprynet.com wrote:

> Well, another question was "Why do you attend a Unitarian Church?" 
> The overwhelming reason was that the respondents didn't hold with the
> dogma of the various religions but wanted the sense of community that
> a good local church brings.


That's *very loosely* where I'd fit... somewhere between UU and 
Buddhist in outlook, and if I felt the need for a community I'd be at 
a UU group.  I had an editor for a while who was UU, and I've covered 
things they were doing, and I'm quite comfortable around them.  (On 
the other paw I'm also comfortable around everyone from the local 
Vietnamese Buddhist Temple to the Texas Buddhist Council to the 
Mennonites  and the Catholic Charities and 
the Diocesan Bishop, and I'm on an on-and-off first name basis with 
the assistant minister of the local Nation of Islam mosque, and I 
even manage not to strangle the local LDS Elders when I have to work 
around them, not to count the various western neopagani... so... I 
guess you'd call me eclectic.)

Personally I think the best function of any church is fostering that 
sense of community and connectedness, and one of my major good church 
/ bad church criteria is whether they extend that community to those 
outside their membership WITHOUT insisting that the outsiders must 
join their church.  This leaves most Baptists and AG people outside 
in the Hot, which suits me personally just fine.  I don't find them 
interesting company and I can't fathom the Is choosing to populate 
Its eternity with them either, so....               Albest,

                        Clayton

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