Hello From Eastern Nebraska!

[GraceInTheRain]

Greetings to You All.....!

........My name is Grace and I live in Eastern Nebraska---kids off to college, snow on the ground and bird feeders heavy with feathered friends!

 

Being raised Hell-Fire-Brimstone Baptist, I gradually floated away from the church around the same time I started to ask questions that were met with church leaders telling me that I was being led by the devil and I shoudl pray for more faith.

I left the church in my mid-teens and never went back. I didnt' feel as if I turned my back on religion , but more of I just stopped believing in the fairy tales that seemed to keep all the christians fighting amongst themselves.

 

Eventually I came to identify as : Unitarian Universalist , Agnostic, Jesus Lover, Dali Lama Follower and Lover of All Things Science.

 

 

Now, it seems there has been ....................this calling. This odd little "knock knock knocking' on the door of my soul that I really dont' understand. Perhaps turning 50............perhaps a deeply held belief that I MAY REALLY being going to hell after all.

Perhaps I just see my life becoming more and more isolated ( I live in a rural area) and I long to have a deeper connection to something.

 

I have WRESTLED with this newfound 'interest'........after all, I have secretely smirked at any followers of organized religion as 'simple' at worst, or oblivioius, at best.

 

But then one day, I googled "Unitarian Christians' and found an entire "world" of Progressive Christians who ask the same questions I started asking in 6th grade....

who don't act the same way the fundamentalists do.

Who seem to really want to live the words in red.

 

So...............after reading Pateos Christianity, following blogs, etc., I found this site and am thrilled to find a forum in which to interact with others. !

 

Okay.

I've rattled on enough. It's Christmas Day and Today Is a New Beginnning!

 

Looking forward to talking with you!

 

Grace.

[PaulS]

Welcome Grace, and a very Merry Christmas to you.

 

Having left fundy christianity (which had been my whole life) in the my late teens, I never looked back and never took an interest in that type of God. The last couple of years have had me wondering if that kind of God is actually a real God with a bum rap! I have had a rekindled interest in Christianity thanks to PC and reading some of the biblical scolarship currently being made more lay-friendly (although it has been around for the last couple of hundred years). I feel comfortable with much of what the likes of Borg and Spong and other PC authors write, compared to the picture of this God of incredible love who simply can't make an eternal exception for someone who doesn't 'get it right' this time around with their short life on this planet.

 

This site has been a safe place for me to ask questions, bounce things around, and take time to consider 'God'. As it stands, I am still uncertain if there is a God of some description, but I am open to learning and experience.

 

Welcome to the community and I hope it serves its purpose for you.

 

Cheers

Paul

[GeorgeW]

Grace, Welcome and merry Christmas. I am looking forward to your contribution to the discussions here.

 

George

[JosephM]

Welcome Grace,

 

Glad to see you made it through the registration process and thanks for the wonderful introduction. Merry Christmas and best wishes for the New Year. May it be a year of profound spiritual growth for you.

 

Joseph

[AnnieG]

Hi Grace

 

I like the things / people you identify with! I really appreciate this site and the chance to say how I feel without feeling condemned - I think you will like it too.

 

 

Annie

[GraceInTheRain]

So nice to log in and see these warm welcomes !!

 

Spending some time yesterday reading through the conversations, it's ......refreshing and heartening to see such similarity in the way others think...the discussions between members could be straight out of the conversations in my head, LOL!!

 

I'm reluctant to spend too much time writing what I think/feel/question, as it would just seem so redundant of all the other posts---------but it IS good to see I am not alone.

!

[Vridar]

Welcome Grace,

 

You're not alone. Actually, you're a member of the fastest growing religious group, progressives.

 

Another rural mid-westerner,

Ron