I read with interest Pitzl-Waters’ recent series of articles concerning the Unitarian Universalist church and paganism. It seems the UU church is often a warm and protected environment, a safe-haven from the vagarities of the outside world. Sort of a greenhouse for our fledgling religious movements. Pitzl-Waters’ articles began with questioning whether the protected environment of the UU Church is really good for us, but in further exploration, learned that all is not as safe and protected as we might have thought. He explores how there may be a deep divide in the church that has been simmering for years.I am not sure what concerns me the most: that maybe we use the shelter of the UU Church too much, or that even the UU church doesn’t really guarantee our activities safety in the long run.

I have been a worshiper at few UU churches here in Louisiana. One in Shreveport recently sponsored a Pagan Pride day. The one in Baton Rouge sponsored a class series on pagan philosophy the second year in a row, taught by our own, lovable Dragon who writes here occasionally. I wonder if these kinds of tensions have been experienced in my own neck of the woods.

Unfortunately, I live too far away from any UU church to be able to benefit from association with them, or to be in the know about these kinds of tensions which I have been blissfully unaware all this time. I plan to contact Dragon and the pagan organizers of the recent Pagan Pride day, and see how things went with them.