“There is nothing wrong with me... with the core of me and who I am. I am unlearning generations of harm and remembering love. It takes time.”
Last Sunday during our multigenerational “Time for Wonder” one of our members shared that she, too, was once a kid in a Unitarian Universalist congregation. So was I.
There are a number of us who were born into this faith. We all had different experiences with our childhood UU congregations but I can say with confidence that none of us were ever told by our parents or other UU religious “authorities” that we were sinful, unworthy or faced the potential fate of going to hell.
Universalists don’t believe in hell. My personal, completely unresearched theory? Ancient people probably came up with the idea after seeing volcanoes in action! (If you saw a volcano and didn’t know about geology, planets or space, you might too.)
The idea of hell doesn’t seem to help humans all that much. In fact, there is evidence it can do harm. It’s one of those religious ideas that can invite us to feel fearful or unworthy at our core- which we then have to unlearn. The activist, writer, poet, counselor, community organizer and author Yolo Akili writes, “There is nothing wrong with me. I have patterns to unlearn, new behaviors to embody and wounds to heal. But there is nothing wrong with the core of me and who I am. I am unlearning generations of harm and remembering love. It takes time.”
Most of us have a few wounds to heal and patterns to unlearn, just from living life. We don’t need to pile on top of that lessons about unworthiness or threats of hell. I, for one, prefer a religious community that just helps me remember to love.
Yours, with awe for volcanoes, planets and space-
Rev. Lee