Spirituality is for you. Religion is for you. Yes, you. (If you want it, of course. We’re not forcing you to take it.)
Yes, you, even if you’re queer. Yes, you, even if you’re trans.
Yes, you, even if you’re kinky. Yes, you, even if you’re polyamorous.
Yes, you, even if you’re an atheist or an agnostic or a Skeptic; a Freethinker, a secular Humanist, or a None.
Yes, you, even if you’re an addict.
I don’t care who you are, I don’t care what you’ve done, spirituality & religion is your birthright if you want it. I mean, you could be a child molester, a rapist, a serial killer… spirituality & religion are still for you.
It doesn’t matter if you’ve always been a deeply spiritual person, or you’re just starting to feel curious. It doesn’t matter if you were raised in a religion or you weren’t raised anything.
It doesn’t matter if you love religion, feel indifferent about it, or hate religion.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a member in good standing of a faith, or if you’ve been wronged by being kicked out of or alienated from a faith. If you’ve spent years gaining spiritual fruits, or years hating “the Church” vehemently. (Replace "the Church" with other words as needed.)
I know, I know, the Church hurt you. Religion hurt you. And when I think of that, I genuinely weep. Religion has lost its way SO often throughout the years. When religion hurts, when it spreads hate, how is it still religion? How is it not the same as any other hate group? I see little difference, except at least with the hate groups, they’re usually pretty open and honest with what they’re about. Religion hates and calls it love, tries to gaslight & brainwash you into thinking that hate is love, that hate’s what you genuinely deserve on a spiritual level, and to me, that’s even more sinful than the straight up hate groups.
They were wrong to do that. They were wrong to spread hate, to spread fear, to spread misinformation & lies. To quash science and silence dissent.
They were wrong, and on their behalf, and the behalf of religion everywhere, I am so deeply sorry. I BEG you to forgive us, but if you can’t, I understand.
But know that there are those of us, many many of us indeed, who are appalled at how religion has conducted itself, and we weep and mourn for every person who is led to believe that they are bad, wrong, sinful, evil in the eyes of religion/spirituality for some part of who they are. We wish to make amends.
And so I say to you today,
You are entitled to having a spirituality. You can belong in religion. There is a place in religion that you can belong.
I’m an ordained clergy member. And as such I want to say, that you, yes, YOU, with all your complexities, all of your differences, all of your sameness, all of your good and all of your bad and all of your indifferent, YOU belong here. There is a place for you here, waiting, should you choose to join us.
And you don’t have to stop being queer, or kinky, or, yes, even an atheist. That’s ok. We don’t require you to be anything less than who you already are. We have no desire to convert you. (Well, at least some of us.) No, really. Seriously.
You can be struggling with your addiction, and you can struggle with desires that would hurt others. We’re still here for you. We want to help you.
All you really need is the desire to be loved, to belong. (Of course, along with that, we will challenge you to love others as you are loved, and to help others belong as you belong. When you’re ready. Healing can take time.)
All you need is a drive to better yourself & be the best person you can be. (And we can even help with that last part if you need a little (or big) push.)
Please, come. You are wanted and needed and loved.
I, an officially ordained clergy member of the Universal Life Church, formally welcome you in all your uniqueness. Come, explore spirituality. Explore religion. Whether it’s my church, another church, or some other religion. Whether it’s a traditional theistic religion, a pluralistic non-creedal faith, or a non-theistic group that celebrates life & explores the big questions together. Whether it’s formalized, or you forge your own path and do the solitary thing.
Come, explore spirituality. Explore religion. As a human being, nay, as a child of this universe, it’s yours by birthright.
It’s yours.