Re-introduce Yourself! (virgin, attending, churches, experience, atheist)

[Katzpur]

You've been around forever, but we've all forgotten that 2-line blurb you wrote about yourself the day you joined RF. Your posts are insightful, touching, informative, uplifting and clever. Okay, once in a while they are puzzling and annoying! Sometimes they make us wonder what kind of a person is sitting at the keyboard.

We want to know more about you -- now that we sort of think we know you. If -- and only if -- you have met any of the following criteria, you are invited to re-introduce yourself on this thread:

1. Been a member for at least 8 months and have at least 2400 posts to your credit
2. Been a member for at least 10 months and have at least 2000 posts to your credit
3. Been a member for least 12 months and have at least 1200 posts to your credit.

Please refresh our memories. Who are you and where are you from? How old are you? Are you male or female? Are you married or single? Straight or gay? Catholic, Wiccan, Jewish, Muslim or something else?

Okay, a lot of that stuff is on your profile, but a lot of other stuff isn't. What makes you happy? What makes you sad? What are your pet peeves? Do you have any hopes and dreams you'd like to share? What are your hobbies and interests? What kind of work do you do? What are your favorite movies, books, places to visit? What's your favorite food, your favorite color, your favorite time of year? Do you have kids? Pets? You get my drift...

We want to make this a fun thread where we can all get to know one another better. We also want to make posting on it a goal some of the newbies can set for themselves. Would one of our illustrious admins care to make the first post?

[Green Gaia]

Hi, my name is Amy and I am a RFaholic.

I joined this forum just days after Rex had opened it. He was advertising on some other forums, one of which I was a member of at the time, VeggieBoards.com. So I came over and said "hey you don't have a UU forum, you should make one!" So he did and made me a moderator of it and you all have been stuck listening to me ever since. This forum has really given me a chance to hash out what I believe and why I believe it. I learn something new everyday here and I thank you all for that.

Now me outside RF: I am a UU, as you all know. I was brought up in the Church of Christ but never really fit in there. My family left that church as a whole when I was a teenager because of differences my parents had with the leaders. It was really for the best. But I didn't give religion much thought until I got to college and was on my own for the first time. I was alone and I was scared but I still didn't know where I belonged in a religion. Then after my son was born, I thought more about attending a church for him. I wanted him to think about the "big questions" but at the time I didn't feel I could give him a good conversation about it, (granted he was only a year old, lol). I was living in Lexington, KY at the time and opened the phone book to the church listings, went down the page hoping something would jump out at me. Well, it didn't. Until I got to the end of the listing and saw Unitarian Universalist Church of Lexington. I'd never heard of them before, so I got on the internet and looked them up and spent hours reading the church's and UUA's websites. I loved what I was reading and signed up for a "new to UU" class they were offering. It was just what I was looking for, I was home.

Last summer I moved to Virginia and found another wonderful UU church that I am proud to be a member of. I teach Children's RE (religious education), I serve on the Welcoming Congregation committee which works to make our church a welcome place for BGLT people, and just this morning I was asked to be a Greeter (ganged up on was more like it, but I was flattered nonetheless!).

I have 2 wonderful, beautiful, intelligent and comical children. They are really the center of my life. I can go on and on about them, but I do that enough so I'll stop myself now.

I am gay. That's not always been as easy thing for me to say and is still difficult in person. After spending years of hiding myself from even myself, it is hard to change that. I am a very private person about just about everything, and it doesn't get much more personal than someone's sexuality. I am trying to be more open about it. I have 'come out' at church (they didn't look surprised) in a committee meeting and it is helping me having people there to talk to about my issues. I haven't been able to tell my family yet, but I'm hoping someday I will be able to do that as well.

My dream job would be to own a bookstore, but the older I get the more elusive that dream seems. I would also love to do something within UU and my church, that too is far off. Before I moved, I was working on my degree in Religious Studies. Because of residency restrictions, I've had to sit out this year or pay out-of-state tuition, which I could not have afforded. But I am looking forward to getting back into college this fall.

I have a cat. I adopted her from the Humane Society. I had seen her in an ad on the news and just knew I had to adopt her. I've had her for 6 years. I'm not happy with her at the moment because she clawed my hutch.

Last year I joined a gym and I love working out and my daughter and I go to the gym at least once a day, everyday except Sundays (or when we are sick, lol). I've lost over 20 lbs. so far! I still have a lot to go, but I'm really enjoying it and it is going well. And I've almost recovered from trying yoga.

I love hiking and camping and have a couple trips planned already for next summer. I've always been to the same places in Kentucky so I am very excited to explore new areas here in Virginia. There is a women's backpacking group that I want to join that sounds like a lot of fun too.

Well, I think that's the most I've ever written about myself....

Cheers!
Amy

[robtex]

Originally Posted by Maize

Well, I think that's the most I've ever written about myself....
Cheers!
Amy

No kidding !! Wow great post. Out of frubals from congrats thread..Raincheck?

Me same guy except I lost my God on here about a year ago. Here is my original intro.
robtex

[Katzpur]

Originally Posted by Maize

Hi, my name is Amy and I am a RFaholic.

Yup, that much I already knew! The rest, however, was fascinating!

Last summer I moved to Virginia and found another wonderful UU church that I am proud to be a member of. I teach Children's RE (religious education), I serve on the Welcoming Congregation committee which works to make our church a welcome place for BGLT people, and just this morning I was asked to be a Greeter (ganged up on was more like it, but I was flattered nonetheless!).

UU seems to fit you perfectly. I'm so happy you found a good fit without having to try on a hundred different churches! What's involved in Children's RE anyway? Unitarians are so diverse that it seems that would be quite a challenge -- you know, keeping all the parents happy since some believe one way and some another.

I have 2 wonderful, beautiful, intelligent and comical children. They are really the center of my life. I can go on and on about them, but I do that enough so I'll stop myself now.

No. Don't stop. Tell us more.

My dream job would be to own a bookstore, but the older I get the more elusive that dream seems. I would also love to do something within UU and my church, that too is far off. Before I moved, I was working on my degree in Religious Studies. Because of residency restrictions, I've had to sit out this year or pay out-of-state tuition, which I could not have afforded. But I am looking forward to getting back into college this fall.

Go for it!

I have a cat. I adopted her from the Humane Society. I had seen her in an ad on the news and just knew I had to adopt her. I've had her for 6 years. I'm not happy with her at the moment because she clawed my hutch.

Yeah, they can be stinkers sometimes. By the way, have you ever seen those claw covers you can put on over their claws? I just saw some for the first time a couple of weeks ago.

I've lost over 20 lbs. so far! I still have a lot to go, but I'm really enjoying it and it is going well.

Wow! That's impressive. Good for you!

I love hiking and camping and have a couple trips planned already for next summer. I've always been to the same places in Kentucky so I am very excited to explore new areas here in Virginia. There is a women's backpacking group that I want to join that sounds like a lot of fun too.

Well, if you ever get out to Utah, I'll show you some hikes that will blow your mind!

Thanks for starting this off, Amy!

Kathryn

[Katzpur]

Originally Posted by robtex

No kidding !! Wow great post. Out of frubals from congrats thread..Raincheck?

Me same guy except I lost my God on here about a year ago. Here is my original intro.
robtex

Oh, sure, Rob. Make me copy and paste.

I wanted to wait a week before throwing mine out here. I am 36 from Austin Tx. I found this forum by accident looking for another one that some jewish lady on yahoo recommended who lives in Austin. There seems to be a lot of love here so maybe it would be cool if I camped out?

Doesn't it seem kind of funny reading that now? Newbie to supermod and a grundle of frubals to go with it.

I started out as an agnostic as religon was not presented in my family. I grew-up Agnostic and than tried Christanity as I was graduating high school and starting college but the dogma of the Bible didn't bode well with me. I went back to agnostism than to gnostism and than stared reading about UU two years ago after taking religious assements on other sites including the one on religioustolerance.org that suggested I should research UU.

UU seems to be a good fit for you, too. But I can't help but be curious... What draws an athiest or agnostic to any church? When they talk about God (if they do, 'cause I really don't know), do you just tune out or what? I love how the UUs are so totally open to everybody. It just seems odd to me that a non-theist would have much use for any church at all. Would you mind explaining?

Kathryn

[robtex]

I tried to give the frubals back but I can't find the "frubal back button." UU is a good fit. It is a methodology. I bet this will blow your mind, but religioustolerance.org projects that 46 % of UU's are humanists. (see two footnotes)
http://www.religioustolerance.org/u-u1.htm
http://www.religioustolerance.org/humanism.htm

What I mean by methodology, it is a process for understanding spirtuality and its influence and interaction with religions of the world. The UU church that I have attended (on a waxing schedule actually) had a minister whom I am pretty sure is an atheist. She lectured alot on famous humanists and atheists.

To specifically address, "Do I tune-out God talk" not anymore than I do on RF. Irregardless if I believe in God or not others do and religion has had a very large impact on humanity and culture. If you read my journal I talked about it today. It seems, from my personal experience off the forums that quite a number of atheists are very knowledgable about religions. People like Linwood and Deut have 4 and 5 times the amount of knowledge about religion in their head. Many of those in my atheist group also know more about world religions than I do.

UU talks about God alot. Just the God and flavor of belief shifts from sermon to sermon.

ok your turn:

[jewscout]

howdy all...name's Huff...i'm converting to conservative Judaism as the first step in where i need to go spiritually
i have a beautiful GF of over 2 years, Rachel, who is moving to Israel and we want to be there in Eretz Yisrael and raise a family there

[Katzpur]

Originally Posted by jewscout

howdy all...name's Huff...i'm converting to conservative Judaism as the first step in where i need to go spiritually
i have a beautiful GF of over 2 years, Rachel, who is moving to Israel and we want to be there in Eretz Yisrael and raise a family there

Hi, Huff.

Well, that was a short intro. You're a man of few words. (I did learn your real name, though.) I've always been curious about something. Maybe you can help me understand. I always thought that it wasn't really possible to convert to Judaism -- that it was a lineage thing and that while a person might be able to worship as a Jew, if he wasn't born a Jew, he'd never be considered by those who were as being truly Jewish. I know I got that from somewhere; I mean I didn't just make it up. So, is there anything at all to that or am I just up in the night?