UNIVERSALISM

Over the years I have come to believe in Universalism. I was never taught any of the fundamentalist doctrine about sending most people to hell or about the few being saved during the "Rapture". I grew up in the Presbyterian Church. My husband and I were married there and were Presbyterians for many years. It was a "Mainline", liberal church. Later we joined a Methodist Church. We also frequently visited the Friends' Meeting (Quaker Church). We both had Quaker ancestors and we both lean toward pacifism (a Quaker teaching). I also had many Huguenot ancestors who tended to be pacifists. Maybe it is in my blood, or my genes. I believe in working for peace in the world, I believe in a God (Spirit,not male) of love and peace,truth, light. I believe that God speaks to all people, according to their own languge, culture, nationality,etc. When we moved to Florida, we found all the churches to be rather rigid. We eventually joined the Unitarian Universalist Church.

There is a world-wide fundamentalist movement today, due to all of the uncertainty and chaos in the world. Fundamentalism apparently satisfies that need for absolute certainty, with no questions allowed. There was one psychologist who said that maturity is the ability to live with ambiguity. We do not have much maturity in the world today, if his definition is correct. People tend to believe that all Christians are fundamentalists, because they are the ones who shout the loudest.

I was very happy recently to meet the Reverand Kalen Fristad who taught us about the restoration of the Christian Universalist Church in America. He gave a wonderful sermon about it. His web site is www.ChristianUniversalist.org/faq.html