Why UU Congregations Are Good Places to Rear Children

Forma­tive sto­ries that we nev­er heard
–Sharon Hwang Colligan

God is an old white man in the sky.
The world is a bat­tle between good and evil.
The spir­it is high­er and bet­ter than the flesh.
The spir­it is some­thing sep­a­rate from the flesh.
What is impor­tant about man (or about his intel­li­gence, his civ­i­liza­tion, his reli­gion, etc.) is that he is above the ani­mals (or the women).
The basic ani­mal nature of man is wrong and you must rise above it.
You are going to hell.
You are unworthy.
God is angry.
God does­n’t love you.
God will pun­ish you.
You will be excommunicated.
Fear God.
Sex is a sin.
Mas­tur­ba­tion is a sin.
Homo­sex­u­al­i­ty is a sin.
Sex does­n’t belong in church.
Per­fec­tion is desirable.
Being bet­ter than oth­er peo­ple is desirable.
Clean­li­ness is next to Godliness.
Don’t talk about sex, reli­gion, or pol­i­tics in nice company.
The body is a hin­drance to the spirit.
Your body is weak, ugly, dirty, wrong.
Peo­ple are born sinful.
Pagan reli­gions, athe­ism, agnos­ti­cism, or oth­er church­es are undesirable.
There is only one right religion.
Chris­tian­i­ty is bet­ter than oth­er religions.
The Bible is bet­ter than oth­er good books.
Obey the word of your Lord.
Unques­tion­ing faith is beautiful.
Homo­sex­u­al­i­ty is for­eign and frightening.
Reli­gious lead­ers and church min­is­ters are male.
UUism isn’t a real religion.
UUism is a reli­gion for dry rationalists.
UUism does not offer pow­er­ful, ecsta­t­ic reli­gious experience.

Text from Chil­dren of a Dif­fer­ent Tribe — UU Young Adult Devel­op­men­tal Issues