Ritualized Liberal Religion

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I've always enjoyed very ritualized traditional liturgy (Order and nature of service). I love doing the same thing each week, with church seasons, a liturgical calendar, priests, bishops, robes, incense, and very ritualized gestures and responses, with old songs and so on and so forth. I even like the idea of sacraments and scriptures.

The problem is, I'm a religious liberal, even too liberal to truly be happy even in churches like the Episcopal Church, which is about as liberal and almost as ritualized as Christianity gets. I wouldn't be comfortable with a religion of dominance where a God insists on being called Lord and obeyed, even if he allows more things than your typical vision of God. I just don't like that model. True or not, I won't be worshipping it either way. I prefer a model of God as accepting us for exactly who we are and appreciating diversity, welcoming people with love, not wanting worship and even being fine with people who don't want to talk with him. Certainly, I don't believe hell is acceptable. If hell exists, it's worse than any torture or genocide that any tyrant or dictator has ever come up with here on earth, and God would be a war criminal and not this perfectly good being. So, obviously, Christianity as it exists today is not quite for me, even though I love the ritualized *form* of it (Just not a lot of the substance). Even the liberalized variations only make it slighly better (i.e. "Well, there's a hell, but gays don't go there for being gay, God's cool with that now" -- that's a step in the right direction, but not really enough for me, there really shouldn't be a hell at all or a diety making people worship him and do various things period.).

The problem is, that when I step beyond the bounds of Christianity and looks like something like the Unitarian Universalists, the ritual and form are lost. Yes, philosophically, I think the UU and I could be more or less on the same page, but I don't see a point to a religion where there are no liturgical seasons or ornate liturgy, no neat traditions, no incense, no scripture, no bishops and priests, no sense of wonder or otherworldliness, etc.. It just doesn't fulfil the religious and spiritual desires I have, despite being good morally.

The other Abrahamic religion has the same theological issues for me as Christianity, so I can't go there. And, though I find some eastern ideas interesting, and know they have a degree of ritual I might enjoy, I ultimately disagree with large enough aspects there that I wouldn't be comfortable either.

So, what can I do but sit at home and be non-religious? There doesn't seem to be a "liturgical UU" out there for me to join, which is really want I kind of want and need. Maybe the Episcopal Church will drift in that direction eventually, it seems to be making strides, but it's not there yet and who knows what the future will bring.

The local UU church here is a barn.

You don't need to read some dusty, pointless book of metaphors to get joy from your sense of wonder. Any science book will do, It's amazing how wondrous the universe through the eyes of logic. There's a 5 to the negative one hundredth power chance of you falling through your chair because of electron slip. Animals that can regrow body parts! We're actually near having cloaking units! So much joy in the universe without a deity I don't see why you need one.

You might like Buddhism?

It sounds a bit like what you're describing.

I kind of do. Well, more percisely, there is a certain element of religious experience, especially for westerners, that is tied into the concept of having some sort of scripture -- that's not to say that there isn't a quasi-religious element to experiencing nature, there is, it's just different. Why not have both?

It seems to me that, with the preponderance of scriptures in so many different forms of religion, it might be a need or desire that is fairly common to the experience of being human (Though obviously not quite universal). I think that's why a lot of ultra-left forms of Christianity don't take off, in some measure, because they no longer really have a scripture that supports their values, they just keep the old one that they mostly contradict. I'd really be very pleased if they would just write a new Gospel or something -- I'd really enjoy reading it.

As I mentioned, there are certain aspects of the theological aims of eastern religions which I disagree with. I admire and respect Buddhism and occasionally will find some form of meditation or looking at the wise sayings of the Buddha helpful, but I do have fundamental disagree with it philosophically that would prevent me from ever actually being a Buddhist. It's not just that I don't buy the supernatural elements, because I know there are some schools of Buddhism that don't require one to believe them, I also disagree with the idea that attachments should be avoided, which is very intrinsic to the religion. Buddha said that attachment is the root of suffering, which is actually true, in a way, but I think there is also an important corrollary there, which is that attachment can bring great joy and fulfillment as well. Something one has to take the negative to experience the positive, and be part of the fullness of human experience. So, Buddhism isn't for me.