Spiritual Sunday

Everything I know about religion I learned from Star Trek.  OK, not really.  But Star Trek was a huge influence in my spiritual beliefs.  I was raised as a cradle Episcopalian.  Have a mother who is an Episcopla priest.  I like to think that I put her through seminary.  We would have long theological discussions based on various papers she was writing or classes she was taking.  I had never really questioned my beliefs until I started truly paying attention to the themes of Star Trek and not just the plots.  The plots were essentially the same.  Kirk pokes the snake with a stick.  An intergalactic space being threatens to unleash cosmic power which will end all life as we know it.  Picard rushes in and saves the day and Reiker gets the girl.  But the themes were what started making me question what I really believed. 

Over the years I called my self a Star Trekian philosopher.  I believed that there could be all kinds of truths in the world and not just the one I had been raised to accept as truth.  It wasn't until one day when I friend of mine asked me what my spiritual beliefs were that I found out there already was a "Star Trek" religion.  It was called Unitarian Universalism.  Wow.  There were entire congregations of people all over the world who were living the Star Trek philosophy that I thought I had discovered.  (Silly me.)  It wasn't until after September 11, 2001 that I actually sought out a UU congregation.  I had lots of questions and mainstream religion wasn't helping.  I was told I was wrong for speaking out against the President of the United States and for daring to say that was was not the answer.  (Despite my Star Trek background, I am a pacifist.)  Fortunately, in the UU church I found others like myself who felt the same way, including members of the US military. 

As the blog progresses I will expand on how my beliefs meld in with my writing and knitting because I do see my beliefs on the pages and in the yarn that flow through my fingers.  I can't imagine how one can't be influenced by their spirituality.