Were you raised UU?

[Sierra]

I am looking for folks who were raised UU, especially people who have chosen a different faith in adulthood. I am doing a project on the experiences of folks raised UU (I was). Will you PM me if you'd be willing to take a survey?

[Vojerleda]

(subbing) I wasn't, but I'm interested in your results.

[philomom]

Yes, I'll be interested to hear. I've long felt that UU soothes the adult's soul but is too wishy-washy for children. Most of the kids I know who were raised UU are now non-believers.

[Sierra]

I'll be writing a whole book, soooo...

[Mother Cake]

DH was, and we belong to a UU church now. But I wasn't. I'm interested in your results, too.

[Stephenie]

I can't speak personally, but my good friend was. She's a Christian now and not too fond of the UU church. I can see if she wants to email you if you like. She isn't a member here.

[Adele_Mommy]

I was not raised UU, but as a mother who is currently raising my DD UU, I am interested in your project. Since you especially want people who have chosen a different faith in adulthood, and not become non-religious, or stayed UU, it sounds like you are seeking out people who had a bad experience being raised UU. I was wondering why that was? What is the purpose of the project/book?

I know lots of people at my UU church who were raised UU, but of course they have chosen to remain UU as adults. Should I ask them if they would be willing to take a survey, or would you rather I didn't?

[Sierra]

Thanks for everyone's responses so far. I have PM'd a couple of you.

Originally Posted by Adele_Mommy

I was not raised UU, but as a mother who is currently raising my DD UU, I am interested in your project. Since you especially want people who have chosen a different faith in adulthood, and not become non-religious, or stayed UU, it sounds like you are seeking out people who had a bad experience being raised UU. I was wondering why that was?

I have received a lot of survey responses so far, but most of them have either been from folks who no longer are involved in an organized religion or who still identify as UUs. I appreciate these responses, and hope to continue to receive them as they too will be invaluable in what I am writing. That said, I would like my book to be inclusive of all types of experiences because I am really interested in how different people understand their experiences and journeys. It will be important, for this reason, to get responses from a wider range of people.

By the way, Adele_Mommy, if you have not yet seen or read it, there is a book on experiences of lifelong UUs (those of us who were raised and stayed in the tradition) that you might be interested in. It's called Full Circle and was written by Katie Covey (formerly Katie Erslev). The author and I go a LONG way back...she was my childhood DRE .

What is the purpose of the project/book?

The book is quite simply about the religious narratives of folks who were raised as UUs. I am interested in how different people come to understand their experiences differently, but I am not coming from a place of judgement in the least. I am curious...interested...and listening. When my brother says that it is but through the grace of God that he came to meet Jesus despite our upbringing, I think his story is important. When my sister says that she is so thankful to have been raised in the tradition of the "free church" because she feels it brought her to God, I think her story is important. When another sister says that she has no opinion on God and is generally agnostic, and that she feels organized religion unimportant in her life, her story is important too.

Part of my interest has stemmed from observing myself and my siblings grow through the years. Though we were raised in the same faith tradition, we have developed very different narratives as we have made meaning of our experiences. I started noticing in my own children that they too were born as very different religious thinkers. My ds and dd come to existential questions from really different places, and it has made me wonder how they might write their own narratives.

I think people's stories will really speak for themselves. I don't want to re-cast them or put them into a preconceived notion of what they should be so my book has a certain angle. I just want to learn from the people who do me the kindness of sharing their stories with me. And I suspect those stories will all be different.

I know lots of people at my UU church who were raised UU, but of course they have chosen to remain UU as adults. Should I ask them if they would be willing to take a survey, or would you rather I didn't?

I'll PM you the link right now.

[Adele_Mommy]

Originally Posted by Sierra

I have received a lot of survey responses so far, but most of them have either been from folks who no longer are involved in an organized religion or who still identify as UUs. I appreciate these responses, and hope to continue to receive them as they too will be invaluable in what I am writing. That said, I would like my book to be inclusive of all types of experiences because I am really interested in how different people understand their experiences and journeys. It will be important, for this reason, to get responses from a wider range of people.

I'll PM you the link right now.

Ohhh. It never occurred to me that you already had a bunch of responses and were looking to broaden the variety of stories. I was making an assumption and not even realizing it! Thank you very much for explaining.

I will talk to the people at my church who were raised UU and pass your link along to them if they are willing to fill out the survey.

[Sierra]

Bump.

[artgoddess]

I was raised UU, I'll be 40 this summer, and I am still a UU. go ahead and send your survey to my pm box if you like. I will do my best to reply.

[Sierra]

I just want to say thanks again, artgoddess.

[artgoddess]

oh sure. it was kind of fun. you might want to ask on the UU thread that Adele starts each season. either on the spring one going now or when she starts the summer one next month. maybe both.

[Sierra]

Thanks...good suggestion. (It didn't occur to me that folks might just go straight there without checking out the other threads in Spirituality, but when I think about how I get to my favorite threads, I realized that is exactly what they might do.)

[Sierra]

P.S. A few of you have PM'd me and I've sent you the link. I just want to let you know that SurveyMonkey, for some reason, seems to cut off people's survey responses if I happen to check my survey results at the exact moment someone is working on a survey. (???)

Soooo...if SurveyMonkey acts funny in any way...if it sends you back to the start of the survey again after you finish it, or stops asking questions before you get through the full number of questions, etc...if you would be so kind as to start over, and just make a comment to me that you had to start over, that would be wonderful.

That said, out of 129 responses so far, only 14 are incomplete, so don't worry about it unless you have the trouble described above (learned about through a sibling of mine).

[Adele_Mommy]

Hi Sierra,

I passed along your link to three people at my church who were raised UU. They were all pretty enthusiastic about it, so I think they will respond. I know of a few more whom I have not had a chance to ask yet.

Here is the Spring UU Thread artgoddess mentioned.

Good luck!

Adele

[Sierra]

Thanks so much Adele Mommy!

[Sierra]

I just completed my first of the interviews, and I am even more pumped up about this project now! I can tell that all these narratives are going to be super interesting. Thanks to everyone who has responded so far, and I would love to hear from anyone as well who hasn't yet responded.

~Sierra