A Chosen Faith Quotes

“Where's your church?"
"We're standing in it."
"But this is a bookstore and it's a Friday."
"Yes, but you might also choose to see it as a cathedral of the human spirit-a storehouse consecrated to the full spectrum of human experience. Just about every idea we've ever had is in here somewhere. A place containing great thinking is a sacred space.”
― Forrest Church, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“None of us is fully able to perceive the truth that shines through another person’s window, nor the falsehood that we may perceive as truth. Thus, we can easily mistake another’s good for evil, and our own evil for good.”
― Forrest Church, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“A religion is not contained in a single book; there's something religious in almost any book.”
― John A. Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“Of course, I am a heretic. The word hairesis in Greek means choice; a heretic is one who is able to choose. Its root stems from the Greek word hairein, to take. Faced with the mystery of life and death, each act of faith is a gamble. We all risk choices before the unknown. -Forrest Church”
― John A. Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“Unitarian Universalists are neither a chosen people nor a people whose choices are made for them by theological authorities - ancient or otherwise. We are a people who choose.”
― Forrest Church, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“Over the years, I have been disappointed at times, but more often it has been my low expectations of people that have been upset.”
― John Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“I believe that we are here to some purpose, that the purpose has something to do with the future, and that it transcends altogether the limits of our present knowledge and understanding. If you like, you can call the transcendent purpose God. If it is God, it is a Socinian God, inherent in the universe and growing in power and knowledge as the universe unfolds. Our minds are not only expressions of its purpose but are also contributions to its growth. —Freeman Dyson, Infinite in All Directions”
― John Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“Returning” is, after all, something that can, and should, occur over and over again at any stage of life. Returning to one’s best self in community. Returning to a deep sense of spiritual connection to others and to a common source and resource for right living. Returning to a faith that is neither imposed from without nor unchanging, but freely chosen and always seeking to be deepened and nourished.”
― John A. Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“Awe becomes reverence. Relatedness becomes community and communion.”
― John A. Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“Faith is not ultimately about believing some proposition in spite of the evidence; it is more like living with courage, gratitude, and integrity in spite of life’s inevitable losses.”
― John A. Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“Holding hands together with my family and fellow travelers as the earth circled our little star coursing through the heavens, I felt two things more profoundly perhaps than ever before: We are one, and we are blessed.”
― John A. Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“Anyone looking for the holy land might best begin with the earth that sustains us.”
― John A. Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“If orthodoxy (which literally means “right teaching”) proclaims a single, authorized set of answers, we celebrate instead the open mind. We trust that our own thoughts and experiences can be as illuminating as the thoughts and experiences of those who came before us. Not that our answers will therefore be superior.”
― John A. Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“The words human and humane both come from the same Latin root, humus, the earth that bears us, to which we all return and on which we are asked to walk together in humility during the time that is ours.”
― John A. Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“One reason that so many people today say, “I believe in spirituality, but not in religion,” is that the products of the human spirit, the various religious traditions, can so easily become warring sects if not brought within a wider, more reasoned perspective. Unitarian Universalism offers the opportunity not only to deepen one’s personal spirituality through dialogue, but to do so in a context where “the guidance of reason and the results of science” are honored.”
― John A. Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“Ours is a non-creedal church—not because we have no beliefs, but because we will not be restrained in our beliefs.”
― John A. Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“Ours is a church of moral work—not because we think morality is a sufficient religion, but because we know no better way of showing our gratitude to God, and our confidence in one another.”
― John A. Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“WE ONLY KNOW two things for certain: “I am,” and “I will die.” Religion is our response. Whether it is spoken or unspoken, conscious or unconscious, inherited or chosen, we all have a religion of some sort or another, for religion is not merely a matter of belief or affiliation. It is a matter of how we chose to live.”
― John A. Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“If God is inside us, our neighbor is inside us as well, not only inside us, but also among us, between us, intertwined with us, never apart.”
― John A. Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“To be loyal to “the highest” in us, we must act with reverence toward all of life. By defining virtue in a cooperative rather than a competitive fashion, we seek the common good, which moves us wherever possible from “either/or” confrontation to “both/and” reconciliation.”
― John A. Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“Sometimes I’d like to ask God why He [sic] created the Universe with so much poverty, hunger, and misery when He could have done something about it,” begins a current cartoon. “Well, why don’t you?” someone asks in the second panel. “Because I’m afraid that God might ask me the same question.” The something missing may be you, it may be me. “God is not here or there, to be possessed,” said Martin Buber, “but is everywhere, to be met. It is only we who are not always there.”
― John A. Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“Jesus taught his disciples that the Hebrew scriptures could be summarized in two great commandments: “You shall love the Lord your God with all our heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets” (Matt. 22:37–40).”
― John A. Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“To him the Bible was written not by God, but by inspired people, drawing from both history and experience, who sought to understand better the larger meaning of life and death.”
― John A. Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“wisdom from the world’s religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life.” Among other things, it reminds us to be humble, especially when we are sure we are right.”
― John A. Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“Upon finishing this parable, Buddha said to the seekers who had been quarreling over the nature of God and the afterlife, “How can you be so sure of what you cannot see? We all are like unsighted people in this world. We cannot see God. Nor can we know what is going to happen after we die. Each one of you may be partly right in your answers. Yet none of you is fully right. Let us not quarrel over what we cannot be sure of.”
― John A. Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“Some parents do not want to impose religious training upon their children, preferring instead to let them make up their own minds when they come of age. This stance is only superficially “liberal,” for it deprives the children of any criteria for judging. The distinctive feature of Unitarian Universalist education is that young people are introduced to many religious traditions, challenged to formulate their own beliefs, and encouraged to respect the beliefs of others.”
― John A. Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“The universalism I aspire to does neither. It holds that the same light shines through all our windows, but that each window is different.”
― John A. Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“A new awakening, it consecrates your life with sacraments of pain you do not understand and promised joy you will never fully call your own. Such awakenings may happen only once in a lifetime, or many times. But when they do, what you took for granted before is presented as a gift: difficult, yet precious and good. Not that you know what to do with your gift, or even what it really means, only how much it matters.”
― John A. Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“The word hairesis in Greek means choice; a heretic is one who is able to choose.”
― John A. Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“Then what is the purpose of a church?” the others kept asking.”
― John A. Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism