Filling the Bill

WHAT I LIKE TO DO, I now realize, is to visit different churches, experience different worship services, and meet different people. It might be possible for me to settle into one church in particular, and if that were to ever happen, it would be, beyond any doubt, the Universalist Uniterian Church. It occurs to me that I have made this point numerous times, in this website and in other places, but its importance, if only to me, merits repeated mention. I spare other people by expressing it most often in writing, affording people the opportunity of ignoring it. I find it better, when conversing with people, to mostly listen, and to mostly keep my thoughts to myself. If the nearest Uniterian church were located anywhere near me, I'd be in the congregation eery Sunady at eleven o'clock sharp. But, alas, it is a twenty mile drive, as I have mentioned previously, and I am adverse to driving. I should reconsider. Every time I have attended a UU service, I have left the room feeling uplifted and inspired. Most of the time, when I exit a mainstream church service, I leave feeling a bit perplexed and confused, confused by a deity who seemingly alternates between kind loving compassion, and brutal genocidal murderous wrath. Among my primary objections to mainstream Protestant denominations is that they seem compelled, or impelled, to elevate the great and wise philosopher Joshua ben Joseph to the status of a God. Goethe said it best, as he usually does. "Pure was Jesus in his passion, in his heart but one God serving. Who of him a God would fashion, from his sacred will is swerving". If nothing else, you have to admire Goethe's rhyming of the words "serving" and "swerving", which translates well from German to English. I am a pantheist, a follower of Spinoza, and Einstein. I doubt that there exists any documented factual information as to how many people regard Albert Einstein as their religious role model; but there is at least one, and, quite likely, many more. I can't count the number of times I have typed in this quote quote from Einstein: "My religiosity consists in humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit which reveals itself in what little we, with our weak and transitory understanding, can comprehend of reality. I cannot conceive of a personal God who would sit in judgment over creatures of his own creation. Morality is of the highest importance, for mankind, but not for God." That quote I have repeated often, maybe too often, on this website. And yet, it bears repeating. Similarly, I cannot imagine myself ever feeling exclusively at home as a member of any particular church, even one attended by all of my best friends or reflecting my personal beliefs. Unless, of course, the church in question uses the Einstein quote as the basis of its expressions of reverence for the creator of the universe. But the Unitarians come closest to filling the bill. When I was working for a state agency which provided support services for mentally disabled clients, one of my clients, an African-American man about forty with the mind of a child, told me that I wouldn't do, that he wanted to talk to a black person. I said that I understood, pulled out my cell phone, and called my immediate supervisor, and African-American gentleman and one of my best friends. He answered, and said: "Well, I fill the bill". And maybe, just maybe, that's what individual religiosity is all about; filling the bill. Goethe said: "When I realized that everyone invents his own religion, I decided to invent mine". Goethe filled his bill. May we all do likewise, whatever it takes, and whatever form of religiosity does the job of filling our bill.