Shortly after I resigned as an elder, I attended a number
of meetings at a local Unitarian Universalist church.
I don't feel any pressing need to join another organization.
If I did, however, I would seriously consider this one.
It is a safe place to recover from a negative experience
with organized religion.
One of the local ministers, an atheist, asked me to speak
to the local congregation about Jehovah's Witnesses and
blood. It was an interesting experience.
There is an incredible diversity of beliefs within this
community and some of their meetings feel more like a lecture
in a college classroom.
The U.U.'s have more college graduates, on a percentage basis,
than any other religion in the U.S. - these are intelligent,
balanced, open minded, skeptical people.
On the downside, it didn't feel like a religious experience to me.
However, there is a sense of community and some religious people to
be found in the group, as well as respect and admiration for higher
principles and teachings of all faiths.
I am very impressed with their model and suspect that in the future
other religions may move to the left as they learn from the U.U.'s.
It is a religious system capable of sustaining peace.
One of the things I admire about many JW's is their desire to search for knowledge. I would like to see the WTS grow into an organization
with a thirst for truth and open to the free flow of knowledge, ideas and respect for its members.
At present the WTS is a dungeon for those with intellect and an inquiring mind. It will probably remain as it is for a very long time.
Lee