The Church Without God

Religion

The Church Without God

No deity necessary, but you are invited to worship sacred minorities as idols

Rod Dreher

Jan 16, 2023 6:05 PM

A reader on the Upper West Side of Manhattan sends in these photos of a church he took while out for a walk in his neighborhood. It's Fourth Universalist, a Unitarian Universalist congregation since 1838. It's located right on Central Park, in one of the city's wealthiest neighborhoods, three blocks away from the Dakota apartment building. I don't understand the point of this approach to religion. No God, but they still want you to come to church to fight for abortion rights, queerness, prostitution, and the rest? God? Maybe so, or maybe not -- but you get to worship sacred minorities!

Meanwhile, for those who like their rejection of God to come with more spice:

Yet while the macabre occult rituals, virgin sacrifices, chalices of blood and belief in the actual Devil are a thing of the past, Satanism is luring increasing numbers of young people disillusioned with “outdated” and “dogmatic” traditional religions to join its fold by offering an “alternative” to “stuffy”, traditional faiths.

The Sunday Telegraph has spoken to leaders and members of Satanic groups around the world who claim that the opportunities Satanism offers people to engage in activism and campaign on issues such as gender and sexuality is part of the appeal for the younger members, particularly those who are increasingly less likely to declare themselves as Christian.

Chaplain Leopold, a 32-year-old London-based undertaker, co-runs the Global Order of Satan UK which he said has seen a 200 per cent increase in membership over the last five years.

“I’d love to be able to claim that we could pat ourselves on the back and say, yes, we’ve done our infernal work here, and we’re successfully declining the number of Christians, but I think it’s a far more complex issue than that,” he said.

He said two factors were responsible: the decreasing popularity of “traditional dogmatic religions”, and “a movement towards self-identification and self-realisation”.

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Bogdán Emil

A very long time ago, the Pied Piper of Hamelin cleared the Saxon town of rats but was refused payment, so he played his magic pipe again and led away the town’s children into a cave, and they were never seen again. In some versions of the faerie tale, these “children” became the medieval Saxon colonists who were settled in Transylvania by Hungarian kings, starting in the 12th century, building its most famous cities, and giving the place its German name: Siebenbürgen. In one of these famed seven fortresses, the one which took on the most Hungarian character over the centuries, Klausenburg aka Kolozsvár aka Cluj, a man by the name of Franz David Hertel was born in 1520, to a Saxon father and a Hungarian mother. He eventually founded the Unitarian Church of Transylvania, and became the leading Nontrinitarian Christian of the entire West. This should be a point of pride for any Transylvanian, shouldn’t it?

It should, so one day I figured I would at the very least pay a friendly visit to my local Unitarian congregation in downtown Philly, and check out their message. From the outside, they look pretty much like this New York City chapter. From the inside, it feels just like you would expect. I don’t want to say too much because I don’t have too much good to say, and mostly feel sorry for them.

So, what else have Saxons comingling with Magyars given to Transylvania, and to the entire world, other than Unitarianism, and a cannon-maker called Orbán who helped the Turks turn the ancient Theodosian walls of Constantinople into rubble?

A lot.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transylvanian_Saxons

1 year ago

Fran Macadam

Let's not forget the reality lesson for foreign policy today. America pays the bulk of military expenses for its occupied and vassal allies so those expenditures will further American policies, not necessarily those of the country hosting US bases and forces. The expenditures include political influence operations. He who pays the piper calls the tune and the locals hum along to the Star Spangled Banner, as long as the US taxpayer assumes the debt. That's the price we have to pay the locals for them to allow our priorities over theirs.

Are you slyly referring to the fact that Romania is now fully under Uncle Sam's smelly NATO armpits? Recently, the previous leader of Jobbik, the Hungarian "far-right" nationalist (hence, anti-Ukrainian-inclined) party stated that, umm, if it's a binary choice between being under the wings of either Russia or America, well, God forgive us, but we're gonna have to choose America.

The situation is pretty much the same in Romania. That nation should be naturally pulling toward Russia because of Orthodoxy, and yet, it's not enough. Hungary naturally pulls toward Russia because of the Hungarian minority mistreated by Ukraine in Transcarpathia, and yet, it's not enough. Given the binary choice, most former USSR satellites would rather serve the American master than be caught in a Bear hug.

The point you raise about Europeans free riding on the American taxpayer has already been raised for decades and decades, in a bipartisan manner, repeatedly. Notice that the conversation rarely if ever involves America decreasing military spending, instead, it's always about Europe increasing. Whenever actual liberals want to slash the defense budget, they are called fools and spineless traitors. After all, we must be hyper-vigilant and armed better than anyone else. Well, now there's a war, and the weapons factories are going into overdrive. Europe might re-arm, so let's see what comes of it, maybe they will act more responsibly than usual.

JON FRAZIER

Re: Given the binary choice, most former USSR satellites would rather serve the American master than be caught in a Bear hug.

Yep. Unlike the Chinese, Putin (and Russia in general?) has failed to learn the lesson of soft power. Had Russia presented itself as a viable alternative Christian civilization while it stood down its military to purely defensive capabilities (and not invaded its neighbors) it might have gradually attracted more loyalty from the Balkans as memories of the USSR recede.

Ah, John. When Ukraine preferred to keep doing business with Russia, the CIA spent $5 billion to overthrow its preferred government in a violent coup. Nuland et. al. chose the new unelected leaders and Obama covertly began pumping weapons and money to cleanse the eastern Ukraine of resisters to the coup government. Isn't this more of the same behavior that never changes? The ultimate aim is the breakup of Russia into western run colonies - not for the benefit of Russians any more than the current escalating war is for ordinary Ukrainians.

Fran, Russia was no more in danger of being broken up into colonies than Mt Everest is likely to pack up and move to California. Russia has nukes. As such it is as safe from invasion as the US or China are. Sure, Putin and maybe the whole nation may be paranoid given the nation's past history, but such a fear is not realistic.
As I said above the way forward for Russia to vie for great power status was to follow China's example-- not by force of arms. I used to admire you for your dedication to Christian pacifism, but you have soiled that with the foulest dung by seeking to excuse the very unChristian war Putin now wages on a neighbor which is both a Slavic and Christian (however imperfectly) brother.

Maclin Horton

I'm usually ready to join in Rod's alarm, but I can't get perturbed about these folks. Unitarians have been doing this kind of thing for generations, and they're still basically wannabes when it comes to radicalism, and they're still going to attract mainly people who haven't gotten Christianity completely out of their systems. I remember going to one of their Sunday morning methadone-for-former-Christians gatherings way back in the '70s. It was just kind of sad. Somebody gave a talk about environmental something-or-other, and there was a certain amount of so-glad-we're-like-them self-congratulation. I would expect to see the same middle-aged boomers in charge now, although that is obviously biologically impossible. Nice well-meaning people, but they're no more going to fill the religious void for our culture than fundamentalist Christians are.

They certainly reject the Christian faith, which is more properly held by those Christian fundamentalists whose faith you say cannot fill the growing spiritual void. The unitarians were ahead of the curve in championing that vacuum. It is being filled with what scripture warns happens to those whose souls are emptied, a diabolical successor spirituality that is anti-life in every way.

I meant no disparagement of fundamentalist Christians. Just an observation about the state of the culture.

Typo in my comment: it should have said "glad we're NOT like them."

Bernie

This is by no means limited to the Universalist Church or Satanism. If not the explicit rejection of God, mainline Christian churches have often subjugated the primacy of God to social crusades such as equity, gender choice, same-sex and trans rights, reparations for black persons, etc. This over-arching movement dramatically appeared in the 60s, coinciding with the end of Vatican Council II.

It’s far easier to be a social crusader than a saint. The abandonment of seeking God and holiness has become the preferred path to purpose because it requires far less of us. However, it glimmers like gold in being the promise to the good life. But joy and deeper fulfillment require a higher price. Many of the churches have given up on the ultimate quest of our being filled with God and will settle for the much lower bar of social crusading. This is a decades-long, ever escalating slide which has helped to empty pews of Christian churches.

Worldliness is always a temptation, and this is yet another example-- a sort of worldliness one can feel self-righteous about in the bargain. This also applies to the churches that stick American flags next to the altar and preach the Gospel according to the GOP.

Welcome back!

Thanks for the welcome back, Jon!

Peter Kurilecz

not unusual about the Universalist Church. pretty standard fair. I have a friend who is a member of one