Why is Unitarian Universalism such a hard religion?

Rev. Richard Trudeau writes in his book, Universalism 101, on page 23:

"Abraham Lincoln, though very reserved about expressing his own religious views, once quoted, with apparent approval, an old Baptist who in Lincoln's youth had proclaimed at a public meeting: 'When I do good, I feel good. What I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion."

To which I would add Dr. Laura's observation that "Feeling good, and doing good, can sometimes be two entirely different things."

To which I would add that I have been doing some good things lately that I don't feel entirely good about like speaking up when I know that my views are not popular with the group I am speaking in front of. In fact, it came to my attention yesterday that some people called my views "vile" and it was asked that I be kicked out of the group, excommunicated if you will. I thought long and hard about my position and I still believe it is the right thing. What should I do?

We are coming up to that time of year when we commemorate the killing of Jesus. I am sure that did not feel good, at least physically, to Jesus and some of the witnesses I would guess were quite distressed, and yet to the Pharisees and the Romans I guess they felt good about it, relieved to be rid of the son of a bitch.

Also, I have been doing somethings recently that feel good like compulsively overeating, but which with my Type II diabetes is bad for me. So perhaps President Lincoln's quote of the "old Baptist" needs a deeper reading.

By the numbers, Unitarian Universalism is not a popular religious denomination. There are many reasons why the pundits give for this phenomenon, but I would guess that a major reason not often recognized and acknowledged is that it is too hard. It is a difficult religion to understand, to identify oneself with let alone practice.

Us UUs say that God is Love and Loves everyone and a deeper understanding of this means that we should strive to become better people to live up to this wonderful grace bestowed upon us. Why are we so mean to ourselves and each other when we believe that God loves everyone?

I'll tell you why. Because we allow our egos to block our awareness of Love's presence. When we take our own egos away or try to take other peoples' egos way we and they cry like two year olds and have a tantrum. Giving up the ego for heaven on earth is a high calling some would say impossible. Not me, I am a dreamer, like John Lennon, and I'm not the only one. Some day perhaps the rest of the world will join us and we will live together as one.

Amen! And so it goes...........................