Two things I learned last Sunday at church in Louisville

Every time I travel, I look up the nearest UU church and attend a service. Well, all three times I've had a chance. But it's becoming a fun tradition. When we went to Williamsburg, VA over the summer I attended the Williamsburg Unitarian Unversalists congregation. When I was in Boston in August for a conference, I attended a service at the Arlington Street Church.

Last Sunday I was in Louisville, KY for a conference. Luckily, there was a UU church a short walk from my hotel. I made it to the sunday service at the First Unitarian Church. I got there pretty early and spoke with a woman that was welcoming people at the door. We talked about the beautiful church. From their website:

Our historic church, constructed in 1871, is reminiscent of English country churches built in the gothic tradition. After the 1985 fire which gutted the building, we rebuilt it to maintain as much as possible of the original church by keeping the outside stone walls, gables, and gothic arches. However, we incorporated contemporary elements of light, openness, and flexibility into the new design. We connected the main building to the Victorian Italianate house next door, purchased in the 1970s, which resulted in an interesting mix of old and new for our long-time downtown setting.

We talked about the congregation and about Unitarian Universalism in a place like Kentucky. It was great. The service was beautiful and I left with a smile on my face.

I learned two things from my visit to First Unitarian Church. First, when I walked in the church, I felt like I was home. I felt like I already knew the people. Growing up in the Mormon church, I always heard the saying "the church is the same everywhere." I thought maybe that was kind of a unique thing to Mormonism. As a sociologist, I can think of some reasons why this is the case in Mormonism, and some reasons why it might be the case in Unitarian Universalism. In Mormonism, the church is highly centralized and run from the top down, which tends to make congregations highly uniform. In addition, a distinct sub-culture is nurtured and reproduced where ever the church goes. In Unitarian Universalism, I think it's a "market niche" thing. Unitarian Universalism is a small religion that serves a small slice of the population. And, I think it is distinct enough that there is a bit of a unique subculture that is nurtured, too. At any rate, it felt good. I know that part of it is learning the language, the customs, the songs, and all that stuff. It's comforting to go somewhere new and fit in right away.

The second thing I learned is the reason why people go to church. But before I tell you what that is, let me back up a bit. I had just attended a conference for the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. It's a professional society for sociologists, political scientists, and psychologists that study religion. So, all weekend I'd been listening to in-depth, complex, and often highly technical studies of religion. And I absolutely love it! And I think it's important work. But when the service at the UU church started, and the organ played, I just melted. I was enveloped in the warmth of the moment. I felt the spirit, or the divine, or whatever you want to call it. And I realized that people go to church because it just feels good. It makes you want to be better. It makes you appreciate what you have. Yeah, there are all those complicated reasons that social scientists study, and I'm one of those social scientists. But I learned in a tangible way why people continue to be drawn to religion.