Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Unitarianism


Unitarianism - n - Christian doctrine that stresses individual freedom of belief and rejects the Trinity.


Unitarianism did indeed start out as a Christian sect, but has since provided churches the main function of which seems to be feeding doughnuts to atheists and agnostics on Sunday morning.


Isaac Newton wrote far more on Christian exegesis than he did on science and mathematics. In fact, his entire exposition of the calculus appeared only as an appendix to his book on optics. Newton, however, did have a deep, dark secret: he was a closet Unitarian, in that he denied the doctrine of the trinity (he was essentially an Arian).


Father Richard McBrien, formerly head of the theology department at Notre Dame, has been rightly described as "as good a Unitarian as you'll ever meet." People who were shocked that Notre Dame hosted a performance of Eve Ensler's unutterably sick Vagina Monologs (sorry, Nat, but it's her title, not mine), should take a closer look at the theological underpinnings of America's premier Catholic university. I'm not too crazy about Catholic-bashing, but they sure have been begging for it.


Is it any wonder that churches which are trying to keep up with the times are losing membership, while churches that actually take all that Christian stuff seriously are thriving? All those good Unitarians, be they Catholic, Episcopalian, or Methodist, are losing the culture war, and a good thing too. Seven Virginia churches recently left the Episcopalian communion. With Katharine Jefferts Schori elected head of the U.S. church, one needn't wonder why.

trant

trant - verb - to walk slowly; to traffic in an itinerary manner; to peddle (as a noun - a scam)

This is the last of the words I collected from the Lost Beauties list.

off-kilter

off-kilter - adj. - not in perfect balance, a bit askew; eccentric, unconventional

Somehow this came up in a conversation at work the other day. And none of us could remember how to properly say the word:

"Off-kelter?"

"No, that doesn't sound right. Off-canter?"

"Now, I know that's not right."

"Off...?"

"What does it even mean?"

"It's when something is off or not right."

(then we somehow got on the discussion of the Earth's axis)

"I don't know. Hey, maybe I'll use it as one of my WoDs!"