http://www.ulc.org/ Become a LEGALLY ORDAINED MINISTER in just 5 MINUTES at this website and start your own ministry or church today. Officiate one wedding ceremony or as many wedding ceremonies as you want. You can be a legally ordained minister through the ULC just 10 minutes from now. The Universal Life Church is totally non-denominational. ....

http://www.iconacraft.com/RevJay/index.html Welcome to The Church Of The Here And Now. I am Reverend Jay. Here at COTHAN we hold true to some very basic principles toward our understanding of spirituality. Simply stated, I believe that since we are all born mortals we cannot ever truly know or understand the divine. As mortals we are shrouded in mystery, and we must embrace this mystery to fully live our lives. No one knows what happens to us after we die. No one can tell us what the divine wants of us, or has planned for us. The world of man holds no claim to the understanding of God, Goddess or Divinity. The Church Of The Here And Now is a celebration of those who wish to create their own heaven right now, here on earth. We believe we have the chance to make our lives heaven or hell, we just have to choose. The power is in each of us. Every one of us are born with the free will and a physical body with which we can accomplish amazing things if we only try. Anyone that would tell you to live a certain way to please God is delusional by doctrine. Doctrine is plainly from the world of man, and no mortal knows God's intentions. ....So I thought this would be fun. The above links and citations refer to the Universal Life Church and the Church of the Here and Now. Strangely, I've heard of COTHAN before, but don't really know much about it. I think I ran across a couple of cothans a couple years back; however, telling me about a church over six or seven beers is not the way to make me remember it.

Nonetheless, they're a couple of interesting bodies. The ULC, however, is new to me, and I wouldn't have noticed it except that it showed up in a Google search for Church of the Here and Now. Check out that offer, though--five minutes! Honestly ....

So I guess the question is, Once we get to this point, what is the purpose of religion? Sure, I can read the rhetoric, but in the case of COTHAN, it seems almost like a church for people who want to determine their lives for themselves but require some surrogate in place of God. Without doctrine, and without knowledge of God, and with no afterlife salvation to chase, COTHAN takes on, initially, the appearance of an outlet for those who require religion to affirm their moral base. While I have no immediate objection to COTHAN, it's worth noting that it is, unfortunately, a stumbling block to the very spiritual progress it seeks. Certes, there is no doctrine; the church becomes a club in which the faith merely affirms the present moment. It is, truly, Do what thou wilt religion, but affirmations of Thelema hold promise in my opinion until they defy that promise.

But the ULC ... five minutes? Now there is a demonstration of the undermining of religion itself. Personally, I think the site speaks for itself; among the benefits of the five-minute application are press and parking passes and the Ministry in a Box. I'm not willing to accuse it yet of being a cash cow, but there's a few parts of the site that definitely give that impression. With no commitment to study or understand, it seems like the office of a minister is being reduced to legally-codified libertarian. Want a press for no good reason and a parking pass that gets you better spots here and there? Become a minister and sell our books ... something like that. But the sites are amazing, each in their own way, and I figure it would be a cool change of pace.

thanx,
Tiassa :cool:

The ULC has been around for a while; I've been an ordained minister for a few years now. I'm available for weddings, btw.
I'm not sure whether the intent of the ULC is subversive; certainly I don't think it's a scam. It hasn't cost me anything. I did get some spam shortly thereafter offering me a degree or a doctorate for a paltry sum, but I've never partaken. I'm not even sure that the spam was related.

Never heard of the CotHaN.

I wish there were more polls here that had an option I could answer.

I can't answer this one either.

I think with nuage and the hundreds of Christian cults that are appearing that we are seeing what some see as a spiriual need that isn't being satisfied by the more mainstream churches and faiths.

At the same time the rapid rise of the International Atheist Alliance and similar, also indicate a move away from the religious norms.

I think this is good news.

All we need now is a decent education system that teaches people how to think clearly and then all these religious fragments together with the biggies should crumble quite nicely.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Cris
All we need now is a decent education system that teaches people how to think clearly and then all these religious fragments together with the biggies should crumble quite nicely. [/B]

Your nightmare is unfolding as we speak.
As for the education system being decent......i don't think so.

Love

Jan Ardena.

rde

Before I go shoving my foot in my mouth over that, let me say that your post was the last thing I expected. I'm merely judging the presentation of thesee churches so far, but it seems we've got a better authority on that.

So does the parking sticker help any? ;)

Nor do I think the ULC is necessarily subversive; I considered the possibility of it being a for-profit "waste of time", as such, but ... I suppose the better way to go about it would be to leave the stage to you with the best question I can manage: Did you achieve the result you sought/hoped/needed, or was this a humorous, drunken lark? I only include the lark because it sounds like somethng a couple of my friends would do: Five minutes to be a legal minister? Cool!

So I'm torn between starting my Saturday drinking hours early (such as now, shortly before noon), or falling over laughing because really, the last thing I expected was for someone to say, "ULC? Oh, right here."

Any exposition you care to provide, I shall consider it a learning experience.

snickers & grins,
Tiassa :cool:

*Originally posted by Cris
I think this is good news.*

It is definitely part of the good news.

But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
(2 Timothy 3:13, KJV).

There won't be any fence-sitting allowed.