Now that it seems that Unitarian Universalist Christians are almost free of its culture of learned defensiveness, it seems time to point out one of the key fallacies that anti-Christians use to cow us.
The accusation goes something like: “Unitarian Universalists aren’t Christian, so you can’t really be a true Unitarian Universalist.” A variation is that Unitarians and Universalist “outgrew” Christianity, casting us as atavistic.
Logically, we know it doesn’t hold water, but until now I didn’t have a concept with which to point this out.
Then came the Wikipedia article on the “no true Scotsman” fallacy. Read and enjoy.
Scott Wells writes: “Now that it seems that Unitarian Universalist Christians are almost free of its culture of learned defensiveness…” and then he pursues a very interesting line of thought — but my thoughts went in a different direction —
Last year, I finally dropped my membership in the Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship (UUCF). Why? Well, a couple of years ago, the UUCF newsletter published an essay bashing Transcendentalism. Unfortunately, I’m a Transcendentalist.
Being a fairly cantankerous person, I would have stuck around anyway, but the UUCF places this huge emphasis on the eucharist. I’ve been deeply influenced by Quaker Christians with their calls for no outward signs of religion, so I find I don’t feel comfortable at those UUCF gatherings. (Oh, and influenced by my Unitarian mother, who when our church first lit a flaming chalice muttered “Graven images!” — her tone of voice making it clear that Graven Images Were Not A Good Thing.)
UUCF is the primary source for a public definition of what it means to be a UU Christian. Since I don’t fit in to their definition, now I call myself a post-Christian follower of Jesus. Sure I read the Bible, Hosea Ballou, Theodore Parker, and “Christian Century,” but I’m not a Christian.
That’s where my train of thought went — and then I thought — maybe that Scotsman thing goes both ways —