Unitarian Universalists in Finland! ...But not for me.

[cimorene]

I found out that there are actually Unitarian Universalists in Finland completely by accident last Saturday when I was Wikipedia-surfing the history of secular humanism. They use the flaming chalice and everything and belong to the international UU umbrella organization. In Finnish and Swedish they call themselves (literally) "Free Thinkers". [ETA: or possibly not because now I can't find the page I thought I got that from anymore. Those guys are apparently secularist activists.]

So I started crying with joy (my poker face got broken in therapy recently and now I cry at the drop of a hat).

Then I looked a little closer and found out that both they and the Finnish Humanists are exclusively Finnish-speaking - that's in the entire country of five millionish people. I guess a Swedish-speaking minority of 200k isn't big enough to form their own secular communities. :(

And then I cried from disappointment.

Comments

[bluesbell]

You don't need to feel too disappointed if you were looking for secular humanism. The "Free Thinkers" (Vapaa-ajattelijat) in Finland are more about anti-religion propaganda and represent movement atheism rather than anything to do with Unitarian Universalism.

(Also, they're a bunch of arseholes and have most certainly freed themselves of thinking.)

[iceinyourmusic]

Hi, random stranger popping in to second this about the Free Thinkers (if you did mean Fritänkarnas förbund), and also, there does seem to be a (small) network for Unitarians and Universalists in Finland (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=284060989285) - I don't really know anything about how active they are, and in which language(s), though.

[cimorene]

Well, I can't find the page I was looking at anymore, but I totally thought that an international site listing led to their website; and the flaming chalice, as far as I can make out from Wiki, has no modern history apart from UUism.

Besides, although UUs in the US are way more religious (or as they call it, "spiritual") than I like, I'm not sure that what the European Christians I've met call anti-religion propaganda would really be unlike my experiences. It would definitely reflect plenty of things I've heard in America about UUism. If anything it's milder. It's very easy for refugees from traditional religions to be angry about it, which can lead to certain factions cautioning everybody not to fall into "Christian-bashing" or "being intolerant of intolerance".

[bluesbell]

IDK about the rest of the world, but in Finland the flaming chalice symbol is used generally as a mark of an atheist or nonreligious world view, for instance in obituaries. My husband thinks the Free Thinkers flaming chalice symbolises the fire of Prometheus.

And, even if they really are UUs, I still consider them a bunch arseholes. As an example of their activities, last summer the free thinkers of Helsinki organised a campaign where they exchanged Bibles for porn mags. Ha ha, how enlightened!

[cimorene]

Well, it does seem like a pretty baffling waste of time and/or money. Although it's always seemed to me like there are way too many Bibles around anyway. Since there's a huge redundancy of organizations panting to give them away for free to people who don't want them and already have them, I'm sure the gaps were promptly filled.

[alafaye]

*hug*

[zvi]

Have you looked at Church of the Larger Fellowship? It's not the same as having people close to you, but it's not nothing.

Also, if you might be interested in listening to some sermon podcasts, there are a couple I can recommend. Let me know.

[cimorene]

I don't think I would really get much out of the CLF (wrong abbreviation?), from what I've read of it, because for me the facetime/community/social integration - the fellowship, what a lovely word - is the thing I really long for/miss from the church. I guess what I'm feeling is that I'm isolated, but only physically, from people who share my cultural perspective and most important political, ethical, and moral ideals.

Of course, an integral part of this is just UU thoughts and conversations, you're right, so some intellectual stimulation could be a partial stopgap (although preferably in written form since I have trouble processing things in podcast form). But the familiar UU rituals and traditions are really the only reason I prefer them to another secular humanist group. In fact, they're really not secular enough for my taste most of the time. If I'm not getting the traditions, I think I might be more comfortable looking for my secular humanist thoughts from some other source.

So... I do intend to look, I guess. I'm just not entirely sure where to start. My intention to do so is only about a week old.