Well...I did it...

[huskerlaw]

I went "back" to church today.

A little background: I was raised Methodist and then Disciples of Christ. The Methodist church is/was fairly liberal, the DoC church, not so much. I was forced to go to church until I graduated from high school, at which point I swore I'd never go again.

Long story short, I found the hypocrisy of a very conservative congregation to be unbearable. And it really turned me off from religion completely.

At this point I'd say I'm agnostic. I believe in *something* bigger than us, but I'm not sure exactly what that *something* is.

Anyway. Today I went to a Unitarian Universalist church. At first I really liked it, but then I went to an "Intro to UUA" discussion. At first that went great too, especially when people were saying, "you know, I'm just not sure how I feel about the Christian concept of Jesus...on a rational level, I just can't really..." because frankly, that's where I'm at. But then there was a guy there who said, "I'm an atheist," and everyone went "oh, that's ok!"

At that point I went "HUH?!". I mean, I really like the UUA's freedom to develop your own spirituality, but if you don't even believe in a God, why bother going to church? To each his/her own, of course, but I think the UUA's are a bit TOO open for me. Although I really liked their focus on social justice.

I'm still struggling with "the Jesus factor," but I think today taught me that I need some sort of doctrine. I know I want a liberal church. I know I want one that doesn't believe that "our way is the ONLY way." And I know I need to figure out whether or not I'm actually Christian.

Next on my list is a UCC church. Given my religious-identity-confusion, what do you think? Should I give it a try? Is there another church I should consider?

Feel free to ask for any clarification or...whatever. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.