Unitarian Universalist "DestinyArchitect" L3VWRA

^L3VWRA: Revision 2843 -2010.09.11pst2223 (~80% complete 1st draft; pics coming):
Unitarian Universalist "DestinyArchitect" (my online handle)

^L3VWVK:  a 10-year UU and local UU-advocate

Table-of-Contents

1. L3XYCH:  In a nutshell
2. L4DYH8:  My spiritual beliefs & morals
3. L3XHIP: My prior religious experience (before discovering UU)
4. L3VWX9:  2000~ I discovered UU: outstanding & tops in beliefs, but unacceptable in lack of single young adults & racial diversity
1. L4GDQ5: 2000~ Years out of college, my mother finally told me of UU!
2. L3VZ10:  I found UU pioneering with great potential and indeed the only organized "religion" matching my spiritual beliefs
3. L3VXJF:  2000-2009: Still tragically I found UU mostly unfulfilling for me being a single young adult and really preferring racial diversity
1. L3VYGF:  Why? I saw UU had 3 immediate key problems: (1) few-or-zero other single young adults, (2) typically ~95% white (almost no racial diversity), and (3) mostly not fixing these things as also doing a abysmal job of advertising & marketing itself
4. L3VXR3:  So from about 2001 to 2007 I did an extensive survey of over 24 places of worship (both UU & non-UU) in mostly Orange & Los Angeles Counties, most Sundays visiting a different service to compare
5. L3W7E3: 2009 October-present: the founder & head of UU YOUNG ADULTS! International and its first chapter UUYA! of US-CA-Orange County
1. L3XU23:  Core ideas:
2. L3W7LO:  This represents a huge amount (weeks worth) of unpaid work for me
3. L3XUHR:  Progress & predictions
4. L3XUMT:  Me as the founder & top leader of UUYA! of OC (my member profile):
6. L3W89M:  2010.05.18-present: wrote "Unitarian Universalism (UU) is inclusive & cool! --the kind of sales-intro UU badly needs"
7. L47T3P:  (What I want from/my criteria for) a spiritual/religious/moral congregation

1. ^L3XYCH:  In a nutshell

1. ^L3XYDX:  I'm a 10-year UU and a county-wide UU advocate. As of 2009.10 founded & run UU YOUNG ADULTS! International and its first chapter UUYA! of US-CA-Orange County, hundreds of hours of work unpaid. And starting with the docs for UUYA!, I publish articles on UU within http://LoveRules.Info, as in 2010.05 I wrote "Unitarian Universalism (UU) is inclusive & cool! --the kind of sales-intro UU badly needs" and in 2010.06 this document (Unitarian Universalist "DestinyArchitect"). I've always beenj religiously curious and enjoyed variety and attended services at over 24 places of worship of various religions and know a reasonable amount about the topic of religion; however I know in spirit I was always born a UU, as UU is the only organized "religion" which fits my spiritual beliefs & morals plus notably more: "music, spirit, ceremony, community (though young adults & non-whites are in terribly short supply), just none of the dogma" as I write. But though my mother was a cradle Unitarian, she left UU for a time so tragically she nor no one else told me about UU until years out of college (MIT). Indeed UU's #1 apparent problem is as I wrote "we do an abysmal job of advertising so are still lacking in age & racial diversity" with often almost no single, kid-free young adults like myself --the community I most want. And while I'm doing all I can to fix the problem as the UU articles & groups I created suggest, I can't do it alone and sadly it still remains to be seen if others will also join in and get these things fixed. Indeed, if UU's don't fix this stuff, it appears the fate of UU presently seems to be in jeopardy. Also see my UU YOUNG ADULTS! of OC profile, plus my LoveRules.Info bio (which should also appear towards the bottom of the left-column).
   

2. ^L4DYH8:  My spiritual beliefs & morals

1. ^L4F8C4:  My spiritual beliefs & morals are summarized in my LoveRules.Info bio (which should also appear towards the bottom of the left-column); further details are here.
   
2. ^L4DZLU:  Child to robot & back again. I grew up in a Christian neighborhood, and my parents also called themselves Christian; still, against my family (who allowed me to free think) and even the other kids, and indeed against everyone I knew at the time, I insisted on going my own path and rather called myself a believer in science.  And so the elementary school kids used to tease me for believing in "Mr. Scientist God".  Well actually in thinking about it, using the words they knew, they kind of summed me up fairly well well, plus there was a reason I went my own path.
1. ^L4FQWG:  And so from this often robotic but pure mindset, comes the following...
   
   
3. ^L4DYHZ:  For as long as I can remember (indeed well before I knew these big words), I was & am:
   
1. emotionally (on a gut level) always demanding of myself:
1. top integrity & especially rationality
   
2. so a clear mind (never doing drugs) and logic-over-emotion (thru Jr.HS I even appeared robotic) and never doing anything I regret
   
2. so spiritually Scientific
   
1. so agnostic (in fact ignostic) with atheistic leaning.
   (Says that Wikipedia link, “Ignosticism, or igtheism, is the theological position that every other theological position (including agnosticism) assumes too much about the concept of god and many other theological concepts. The word "ignosticism" was coined by Sherwin Wine, a rabbi and a founding figure in Humanistic Judaism.”)
4. ^L4DYZC:  So Morally I follow
   
1. "Never depend on God(s)/supernatural existing, as to make things right (as via Judgment Day (reward/punishment via afterlife (heaven & hell) or via Karma including reward/punishment via reincarnation) --yes, it feels good if true, but don't depend on that; rather
2. live for life now (including the scientific past & future), and
   
3. love all (including "love thy enemy") and
   
4. do right always even if nobody not even God(s) will see; in fact, bottom-line, one's only wrong is not to do one's best to face & correct all wrong."
5. ^L4E0AI:  These beliefs are consistent with UU Principles & values (for instance, not contradicting science) but obviously go beyond. For instance:
1. ^L4E0HW: UU allows for beliefs in God(s) or not, but for me I'm "ignostic with atheistic leaning" as would follow from being fully Scientific (science can't say if God(s) exists, and operates never relying on on God(s) to exist, and that's me). Also
   
2. ^L8MC0U:UU Principles say "The inherent worth and dignity of every person" plus "Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part" -that's excellent; but, as even my own mother has pointed out, the UU principles fail to mention one of the key values of of most all religions, "love". So for this and more, I go beyond and say "love all (including "love thy enemy").
   
6. ^L4DYNB: Also from 2009-present I wrote a few other religious-related articles on my wiki http://LoveRules.Info that go beyond UU including:
1. ^L4DYNV: DO GOD(s) EXIST? Once clear-headed,probably best2think"No" KUGBEV,
   
2. ^L4DZUT: "Likely genes create & fundamentally-specify good & evil" --an upcoming article, touched on in my next article:
   
3. ^L4DYOB: Don't casually mess w/ Mother Nature; accept & flow w/ her KU1MFR. 

3. ^L3XHIP: My prior religious experience (before discovering UU)

1. ^L3XHM7: Tragically it wasn't until years out of college that I first heard of UU (my mother finally told me).  But I know in spirit I was always born UU: looking back, it's evidenced in my interaction with every other religion I encountered (and I explored a lot) all the way thru college and beyond: all others just didn't fit me, something my family & friends (all Christian else Jewish) well too knew.
2. ^L3XJ9C: So a couple of things which might really surprise you:
   
1. ^L3XL09: Actually my mother had known of UU all her life, she was a cradle-Unitarian, she just never mentioned it.
2.  ^L3XJEE:Moreover --something she also never told me until today(!)-- she started me out in a UU church (at OCUUC to be exact).  And I thinking about it, I can now remember its pointed roofs and the playground outside. But unfortunately at that time I was too young to know what religion was and, because it wasn't clear what religion to teach the kids, the church just taught me art (I do recall making a felt American flag!).  But unfortunately before I grew old enough for the church to tell me what UU was, my mother left the Unitarian church (she never said anything about it and I didn't know why, but decades later she told me it was because she found them too political (as Sunday's topic would be "Should the UN accept Red China?") and not enough spiritual).  When she complained about that, the church said "We consider that worship" so my mother left and never again mentioned UU, so tragically all thru college and beyond, I never knew such a thing as UU existed.
   
3. ^L3XHWY: So instead my grandmother took me to the Christian church across the street.  And then my mother went to & took me to the Episcopal Church (Trinity Episcopal Church).  So I grew up learning all about Christianity.
   
4. ^L3XK1D: And though I loved the core morals taught by Christianity (as "Do onto others as you'd have them do onto you", etc) I was never happy with Christianity claiming supernatural stuff (God, Jesus, Holly Spirit, Devil, Heaven, Hell) and especially claiming they were the only way, and so never called myself a Christian though I certainly attended regularly and gave Christianity plenty (too many) chances including serving as an acolyte but even there I never drank the "blood of Christ" (the wine) as I wasn't calling myself a Christian.  And in fact no amount of pressure from the church, my friends, and anyone else gave me ever would cause me to call myself a Christian, nor claim any other religion believing in god(s).  Indeed in elementary school, where most kids were from Christian families, I was regularly teased as believing in "Mr. Scientist God" (and indeed, to some degree: the kids were right; though I didn't have the words to explain myself as well back then, then my spiritual beliefs always were always "scientific so ignostic with atheist leaning", and I ended up going to MIT.  Plus morally "love all and do right always, even if nobody not even God(s) will see & judge you").  But even back as a child, I still want going to call myself a Christian nor any other religion if it seemed unscientific in ways.
   
5. ^L3XI3I: Since Trinity Episcopal Church lacked a youth group, I also joined the high school youth group of First Presbyterian Church of Orange where we sang songs and prayed and went on a weekend houseboat adventure routinely. And they, too, put heavy pressure for me to become Christian, but I wouldn't.
6. ^L3XI68:  And unhappy with Christianity, I was always curious if there was anything else: and checked out Judaism, Mormonism, Jehovah Witnesses, Hinduism, and (much later) Buddhism & Bahi.  But all (except perhaps Buddhism) required a belief in god(s) & supernatural and thought they were "the" right one, which turned me off: pretty much just more of the same stuff I didn't like.
7. ^L3XI99:  Finally in college (MIT) I gave up trying to believe in God, something I never felt right with from the start since there was no scientific proof, and I felt remarkably relieved.  But still I kept studying religion, even taking a college Comparative Religion Class. Unfortunately still nobody said anything about UU.
8. ^L3XIC4:  Graduating from college, for the community & ritual which I liked, I rejoined my Trinity Episcopal Church for few years, and served in the choir, but as always, would not call myself a Christian, so really had the feeling of going no where. Then finally,...
   

4. ^L3VWX9:  2000~ I discovered UU: outstanding & tops in beliefs, but unacceptable in lack of single young adults & racial diversity

1. ^L4GDQ5: 2000~ Years out of college, my mother finally told me of UU!

1. ^L3VX37: Only years out of college when I and she had moved away, and my mother on her own quietly returned to UU, did she ever speak of UU.
   
2. ^L3VX3U:  And coincidentally, she introduced it in this most remarkable way: "At my church this Sunday, a polyamorous family (a 3-some) gave a presentation to everyone" and I said "A polyamours family presenting at church?! What church would ever be so open-minded??" "It's Unitarian Universalists" she said.
   
1. ^L3VX3K:  And, after studying UU's core principles & thinking, my reaction was "Where has this religion been all my life?" - As uniquely UU....
   
2. ^L3XLCG:  was the only "religion" which was scientifically consistent (didn't over-state what we don't really have proof for), and
   
3. ^L3XLCU:  set the standard in terms of being open-minded, indeed it was maximally open-minded while still responsible, and not any other religion I'd heard came even close.

2. ^L3VZ10:  I found UU pioneering with great potential and indeed the only organized "religion" matching my spiritual beliefs

1. ^L3YLOK:  My beliefs spiritually were always "scientific so ignostic with atheistic leaning" (plus morally "love all and do right always, even if nobody not even God(s) will see & judge you"), and UU was the only organized "religion"which fit (I put "religion" in quotes UU is really "an organized religion alternative" (my wording)): as only UU deliberately (and scientifically consistently) avoids overstatements including making making no statements about God(s) and the supernatural; plus UU, more than any other, puts principles right at the top which are in accord with my moral beliefs, as the first two (#1 "The inherent worth and dignity of every person" and #2 "Justice, equity and compassion in human relations") and also the last two (#6 "The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all" and #7 "The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all").
   

3. ^L3VXJF:  2000-2009: Still tragically I found UU mostly unfulfilling for me being a single young adult and really preferring racial diversity

1. ^L3VYGF:  Why? I saw UU had 3 immediate key problems: (1) few-or-zero other single young adults, (2) typically ~95% white (almost no racial diversity), and (3) mostly not fixing these things as also doing a abysmal job of advertising & marketing itself

1. ^L3W6HR:  Yes, I like most everyone (all ages) generally prefer to make friends among my own age.  But
   
2. ^L3W6M7:  I have another limitation: I really prefer racial diversity (feel uncomfortable whenever I'm a room full of people where everyone is my same race) and while I'm white, I always I've pretty much only been romantically attracted to non-white women (typically pretty E. Asian) and am typically much more comfortable among immigrants and non-whites.
3. ^L4GDMP:  The survey (next) backs this up:
   

5. ^L3VXR3:  So from about 2001 to 2007 I did an extensive survey of over 24 places of worship (both UU & non-UU) in mostly Orange & Los Angeles Counties, most Sundays visiting a different service to compare

1. ^L3VYU9:  Why, especially after my first impression of UU congregations in these 2 ways (which wasn't good)?  Because I was motivated by UU's great potential.  I just didn't just give 1 UU congregation 1 or 2 tries before I came to this conclusion. But that my first impression was right on target.
2. ^L3VYI5:  I fact I would often do this with my good Korean buddy (also a computer programmer), and instead of "Wedding Crashers" we were "Church Crashers" --just kidding! (actually we were very respectful of all the places we visited)
3. ^L3VY5J:  Sometimes many times, I attended the services & more 6 of the 13 UU congregations in Los Angeles County: see them listed below.
   
4. ^L3VYAR:  Often many times, I attended the services & more of all  5 UU congregations in Orange County: see them listed below.
   
5. ^L3VZX2:  And, for comparison, I visited (sometimes multiple times) the services of many non-UU places worship in Orange & Los Angeles County:
1. ^L3W65S:  The only problem of course was these other places of worship (except possibly Buddhism) wouldn't fit my beliefs (scientific so ignostic with atheistic leaning (plus morally "love all and do right always, even if nobody not even God(s) will see & judge you")) and I wasn't going to lie nor double-speak and yes even if many of their attendees were already doing it (just pretending to get into the community).
   
6. ^L4GACX:  Places of worship I visited:
   

   	Name	Country-State-County-City	Religion	Ethnicity	Size	Young Adult qty	notes
   L4G883:	Los Angeles County	US-CA-LA	UU & non-UU
   L3XM2R:	Neighborhood Church	US-CA-LA-Pasadena	UU	about 98% white	about 500 members (huge by UU standards)	not a young-adult to be seen (except for married couples with children they were trying to get religiously educated).	L4G762
   L4G7CW:	Throope	US-CA-LA-Pasadena	UU	about 98% white	about 100 members	0; seemingly 50s to 90s.
   L4G7FW:	First Unitarian of Los Angeles	US-CA-LA-LA (downtown)	UU	mostly white?	can't recall	I recall none except maybe a few married couples with kids
   L3XFMU:	UU Santa Monica	US-CA-LA-Santa Monica	UU	about 98% white; L3XG0P:  I also joined the church's racial diversity group and went to a few mtgs, but it seemed just talk of the need to have racial diversity in UU and not really addressing it as recruiting non-whites, something which I also did (I brought in a few Asians) but still, seeing only whites, I couldn't blame them for not really wanting to stay.	about 300 members; packed	L3XG0D:  the only I found in LA county with a young-adult group -- small but going strong; I joined & attended a number of events, recruited for it since it was too small as to have real friend selection; I also brought a few friends my age (even good friends) to the church & its YA group but none would stay for the same reason I wasn't happy: not enough selection of young adults.	top music performances; also city (Santa Monica) is fun friendly mixed-race and very touristy.  My preference since it was the only with a YA group.
   L4G7PQ:	UU Long Beach	US-CA-LA-Long Beach	UU	>90% white?  Didn't get best look.	286 members	I saw about 6 at a BBQ at the church; it looked like a YA group was upcoming.	quite pretty & homely & good-sized
   L4G7WC:	UU Studio City	US-CA-LA-Studio City	UU	don't recall	don't recall	No young adult group I heard of
   L3W08V:	Pasadena Presbyterian Church	US-CA-LA-Pasadena	Christian: Presbyterian	mixed	standard	some
   L3W0HC:	Mosaic - Pasadena	US-CA-LA-Pasadena	Christian: semi-conservative	remarkably mixed with "approximately 60 nationalities in attendance"	smaller	mostly
   L3W00P:	Young Nak Celebration Church	US-CA-LA-LA east downtown	Christian: Presbyterian	Immigrant & American-raised Korean with an occasional white	larger	tons; own service
   L4G89N:	Orange County	US-CA-OC	UU and non-UU
   L4G8AV:	Tapestry	US-CA-OC-Mission Viejo	UU	about 95% white	about 150 members	no young adults (except for married couples with children they were trying to get religiously educated).	I attended about 25x; see my UU YOUNG ADULTS! of OC profile
   L4G8G4:	Laguna Beach	US-CA-OC-Laguna Beach	UU	about 98% white	about 150 members	1 young adults (plus married couples with children they were trying to get religiously educated).	Gorgeous neighboring beach, plus in a very friendly, touristy, artsy city. I attended about 8x; see my UU YOUNG ADULTS! of OC profile
   L4G8LQ:	Costa Mesa (OCUUC)	US-CA-OC-Costa Mesa	UU	about 90% white	about 200 members	OCUUC -YA -only congregation with a young adult group in OC; created by Young Adult Coordinator who is paid part-time to do it. Reportedly 150 on mailing list - largest of both OC & LA. About 13 show to after-service event (as lunchon), only ~4 actually attend the service.
   L4G8U2:	Anaheim	US-CA-OC-Anaheim	UU	about 85% white; some Hispanic and 1 leader I think from India.	about 100 members?	About 5 regularly attending single young adult -- notable.
   L4G902:	Fullerton	US-CA-OC-Fullerton	UU	about 90% white; some Hispanic, some Asian, a few black	about 250 members	0 single young adults (except for possibly 2 new in the Women Wisdom Circle)	Minister is a top speaker & very sharp.
   L3VZYQ:	Saddleback Church - Lake Forest	US-CA-OC-Lake Forest	Christian: Baptist	mixed	mega	many
   L3VZZB:	Crystal Cathedral	US-CA-OC-Garden Grove	Christian: mainstream	mixed	mega	many
   L3W45X:	First Presbyterian Church of Orange	US-CA-OC-Orange	Christian: Presbyterian	mixed but mostly white	standard	some
   L3W005:	New Song - Irvine	US-CA-OC-Irvine	Christian	Korean-American	standard	medium
   L3W0JY:	SGI - Santa Ana	US-CA-OC-Santa Ana	Buddhist	mixed but heavily E. Asian	larger	don't recall
   L3W0NZ:	Buddhist Temple (name)	US-CA-OC-Costa Mesa	Buddhist	Japanese	smaller	none
   L3W0R1:	OCI Foundation (Mosque)	US-CA-OC-Mission Viejo	Islam	Middle eastern with an occasional black or Hispanic	standard	some
   L3W0T7:	Trinity Episcopal Church	US-CA-OC-Orange	Christian: Episcopal	Mixed but mostly white	standard	don't recall
   L3W199:	SaRang Community Church	US-CA-OC-Anaheim	Christian	Immigrant Korean though website photos suggest they want others, too	larger	some/many in English service
   	Elsewhere
   L3VZU4:	Las Vegas UU	US-NV-CL-Las Vegas	UU	don't recall	about 80	no single young adults that I recall	industrial building. Attended 1 service.
   L3XN24:	Fort Jackson Base Catholic Church	US-NC-??-Fort Jackson	Catholic	mixed, all US soldiers & chaplains	small	mostly
   L3XN2U:	Chapels at Fort Lee, Fort Bliss, & Fort Sam Houston.	US-VI-??-Fort Lee US-TX-El Paso-Ft Bliss US-TX-??-Ft Sam Houston	Catholic, Baptist, and other Christian	mixed, all US soldiers & chaplains	small	mostly
   L4GAJM:	Camp Doha chapel	Kuwait-Camp Doha	Mixed	mixed, all US soliders	small	mostly
   L4GAFL:	~LA area military reserves base	US-CA-LA-~LA	Catholic	mixed, all US soliders	very small	mostly

1. ^L4G762:  Additional notes for Neighborhood Church: My first UU church.  Because of these problems, I volunteered to start a young adult program and shared my idea to collect emails (as on a Yahoo Group) until we reached a critical mass, and gave my card and spoke to all key leaders I could find.  But no one called me back. And that really turned me off: I was willing to start it and put in all the work, but not if the church leaders said they wanted it but wouldn't even bother to call me back.  So I continued searching.  
   
2. ^L3XN3H:  Typically in my US Military service (also during this period) I went to every religious service offered, and frequently met with the chaplains, one in still my good friend today. I quite enjoyed the diversity of religious services plus loved & admired the fact that US Military Chaplains were required & successfully did work with "all faiths" --very UU.
   
7. ^L4GB9T:  The survey results for UU are detailed in the writeups within
1. "(1) few-or-zero other young adults (except with children & typically married)" ("very bad") and
   
2. "(2) typically ~95% white (almost no racial diversity)" ("terrible")
   
8. ^L3XLO0:  And worth note, with all this traveling, I became known many places, but most people at each congregation just mis-thought I wasn't a regular church-goer. Little did they know that I had attended many religious services, just all over the place, so sometimes, when they cared to ask, they would be surprised how much I knew of the different churches, even within their own particular religion or denomination, as they generally attended just that one, and I would share with them the good ideas I had seen being done by the other-religious services.  I was quite the cross-pollination church-goer bee!  But most of the time they wouldn't ask or understand and just mis-think I was a flake.  But I defended myself: I was happy, building up a wealth of successful religious service knowledge.
   
9. ^L3W62Z:  But still I wasn't finding community (as single, kid-free young adults and multi-racial) in the faith (UU) that matched me, so, though learning, it still seemed I was going no where. 

10. ^L3XNNR:  So overall I found myself regularly attending religious services (mostly UU, and eventually especially Tapestry), and paying at every visit, but not understandably committing to be a member anywhere as none had all I really needed

1. ^L3XNPE:  Why especially Tapestry? It was the closest UU and my mother went and because they did have a Social Action group which I enjoyed (so regularly went)
2. ^L3XNQ2:  And every visit I'd put good money on the plate.
3. ^L3XNX6:  I didn't actually ever join (become a member) in part because the military sometimes pulled me away but mostly because there was little future anywhere: I wanted UU, single and/or kid-free young adults, and ideally racial diversity, and local.
4. ^L3XO3K:  The only one which came close was the OCUUC Young Adult group but:
1. ^L3XO5I:  they were a bit far for me (about 35 min drive each way; and there were 2 UU congregations at 1/3rd that distance) 
2. ^L3XO64:  and secondly at that time they still seemed pretty small (though later it grew but another problem arose)
   

6. ^L3W7E3: 2009 October-present: the founder & head of UU YOUNG ADULTS! International and its first chapter UUYA! of US-CA-Orange County

1. ^L3XU23:  Core ideas:

1. ^L3W7MA:  First gather online to get the young adult critical mass.  This is an idea I had long since about 2000 when I first visited Neighborhood Church (in Pasadena): young adults won't stick say for more than 1 service (if even that) if they don't see already there, as especially for them, it's not "What's happening?" but "Whose going?" that really counts.  And if no one's there yet, you've got yourself into an unsolvable catch-22.  So to solve this, UU-curious Young Adults (and any existing UU young adults) are directed to get on a mailing list (and in 2009 I went further than that: a Web 2.0 (social networking) website with member pictures) where there are guaranteed to find a bunch of young adults, and when when there is enough, we message everyone and enough young adults show up in one spot at one time and now you've got your critical mass.
2. ^L3XU47:  Moreover (going further in this rendering in 2009),
   
1. ^L3XU4O:  It all also plays into the new social networking rage (as log in via your Facebook account) which now most & terribly popular among young adults.
   
2. ^L3XU8D:  local chapters are easily replicable (built off of a common template) and
   
3. ^L3XU90:  each chapter sources across an entire county (maximal regular driving distance) to pool together the largest possible group which is still local.

2.  ^L3W7LO:  This represents a huge amount (weeks worth) of unpaid work for me

1. ^L3XW37:  including logos, business cards, regulations, several web pages & sites, and many event examples designed.
2. ^L3XW3K:  But while I also spent a number of days attending & running the events, fortunately most of the work has been designing and building a working example groups & sites, with everything documented, so it can be easily copied & standardized.

3. ^L3XUHR:  Progress & predictions

1. ^L3XWAZ:  After 9 months, we've hosted 22+ events and the chapter documentation & international documentation & websites  & samples events are solid and the membership is starting to bud: Naturally see the chapter site http://Meetup.com/UUYA-US-CA-OC for the last details.
1. ^L42XPP:  Most of the time we piggy-backed our events on other events but starting 2010.04.18 we began our original "Sunday UUYA! Laguna Beach Bums" series ("--it's service, beachin, food, soccer, dog, pool, hot tub, even movies!"), which you can see listed on our calendar.  
2. ^L42XM0:  And as for the only existing UU young adult group in the county, the OCUUC Young Adult group (mentioned above) just for the OCUUC congregation but still large, we praised them and promoted them heavily, reposting their events and complimenting their work (just one example).  And OCUUC members & leaders seemed generally happy and thankful except for ironically their founder & Young Adult Coordinator. Instead he was only critical of our group, seemingly only "helping" us because he would be expected to since we were UU and helping other congregations, but in-action seemingly very displeased at the existence of UU YOUNG ADULTS! of OC I was running (as if it was threatening his group or his "territory"), including he wouldn't in practice allow his members to know about our group(!) (from the very beginning, he actively prevented me from giving cards or fliers or even making announcements about our group's existence to his members claiming "UU's don't market", and of course he would never announce/introduce us himself to his members (as you would expect him to do automatically) nor link to us from his website, keeping his members from hearing of us (or else hearing anything good about us) from our very beginning); rather he would only criticize us in email which he would widely CC to his fellow church staff, and later did much worse (details still kept in confidence -- see next point) and most ironically when we were nothing but supportive of his group and no competition what-so-ever. The details of his acts are still confidential in respect of OCCUC to see how their top leadership will correct for his actions.
   
2. ^L3XW7M:  But recruiting UU young adults is the toughest recruiting I've ever seen, so I think it will take 2 or 5 years to build up a solid young adult group for the county.
   
3. 
   

4. ^L3XUMT:  Me as the founder & top leader of UUYA! of OC (my member profile):

1. ^L3XTSZ:  This is a tough job for me as I'm fundamentally a MIT computer geek so not a natural leader like say our most amazing President Obama. Recruiting for UU has been the hardest recruiting job of my life (as people are scared off by the "R" word (religion))-almost anything would be easier to sell.  Also often on the political things I can get tripped up; I'm not good at reading-in-between-the-lines and guessing when some harbor an ulterior motives, and jealousy & egos can get me tripped up, as for me, I'm just about doing the mission --"Always place the mission first" says the US Military's Warrior Ethos which I wear around my neck, along with my UU dog-tags (as I say the military could use a few liberals!).  But this mission also requires computer & web skills (and that I'm really good at) plus documenting stuff (which I'm good at), plus I think my ideas are pretty good, so I work to make the best of it.
   
2. ^L3XUNF:  Why I do it?  I'm just doing this job because it didn't look like someone else was doing it and it needed to be done and I could see how it could be done and I could do it.  I DON'T expect anything really from me (other than the credit for starting it, which I like).  Because of the years it's looking like it will take to get going going, I don't think I'll find many young adults for me, but ideally for the next generation of UU young adults.  But who knows, maybe I will find more friends than I expect: indeed so far that seems to be happening.  I just met new friend Dan.
   
3. ^L3XUUO:  I hope that once this is going solid I really want to hand it off to someone else. I'm an inventor/founder/starter type, not a regular runner of anything. My only concern is that it gets out help and bring in more young adults as UU is typically doing a poor job of advertising & marketing itself, so badly that (as explained there) there is only 1 UU in 8000 religious persons!
   
4. ^L3XUXT:  Our leaders being young adults is nice but never required.
1. ^L3XVBM:  I happen to be a young adult by the group's definition ("no older than 30s appearing"): I look and dress like a young adult (most people guess I'm somewhere in my 30s, and even still always get carded and clubs), and think like a young adult (still single, never married, no kids, want to get married, etc); however
   
2. ^L3XVC9:  Also in the spirit of UU inclusiveness, the group also allows members to be just young adult supporters --which can be any age, indeed our oldest member is 61!
3. ^L3XVD7:  And while the group's charter generally prefers leaders to be young adults, it never requires this.
4. ^L3XVDO:  And all this is consistent with UUA.  UUA Young Adult ministry just emailed me saying they deliberately place no restriction on the age range for "young adult" nor on "young adult" leaders.
5. ^L42W1T:  2010.01~ A few months  after starting UU YOUNG ADULTS! of OC, I noticed the OCUUC Young Adult group (mentioned above), has seemingly doubled in size (as perhaps from their move to Facebook) and become rather significant, which then would have had me to join OCUUC as my home member church (despite the distance for me) because of their strong young adult strength --that is if it weren't for the animosity of their Young Adult Coordinator: my joining OCCUC seemed it would result in huge jealousy-like problems for him (indeed as eventually happened from him anyway), so I elected to instead to stay and use UUYA! of OC to help out our other OC UU congregations which, unlike OCUUC, had no young adult group.
    
   
5.  ^L3W864:  Don't forget to see the group & sites! --click on UU YOUNG ADULTS! International and its first chapter UUYA! of US-CA-Orange County
   

7. ^L3W89M:  2010.05.18-present: wrote "Unitarian Universalism (UU) is inclusive & cool! --the kind of sales-intro UU badly needs"

1. ^L3WTZ3:  “^L3W8CT:  this was several days work (and still needs more), but it seems pretty good.”
   
2. ^L3WTUS:  “I originally wrote this to answer “What the heck is "UU"?” in KRL2TU(UUYA!(Unitarian Universalist YOUNG ADULTS! Intl.)) however it applied to all UU so I made it its own document.”

8. ^L47T3P:  (What I want from/my criteria for) a spiritual/religious/moral congregation

1. ^L47TBF:  Background & Motivation.
1. ^L47TII:  I've searched for a "congregation" all my life, including one extensive survey visiting over 24 "congregations", but still found none really fulfilling what I would think most people would want (would go without saying).
   
2. ^L47TT4:  So on 2010.06.18- I decided to spell this out:
2. ^L47TX7:  From most to least important
   

L4E1E1:  Criteria	L4E1EA:  Importance	L4E1EH: Difficulty in finding
L47U3R:  Matching my spiritual & moral beliefs ("Scientific so agnostic (in fact ignostic) with atheistic leaning" so "Never depend on God(s)/supernatural being there as to make-right nor make happy (as Judgment Day (reward/punishment via afterlife (heaven & hell)) and Karma including reward/punishment via reincarnation), rather live for life now (including the scientific past & future), and love all (including "love thy enemy") and do right always even if nobody not even God(s) will see; in fact, bottom-line, one's only wrong is not to do one's best to face & correct all wrong.")	L4F4KG:  essential for me; L4FFU3:  for many/most people this is only desirable and they accept double-think here in order to get the community & acceptance and other benefits of religious label & organization, but I won't.	L4F4KP:  Very hard.  UU is the only organized "religion" which matches, yet tragically there is only 1 UU per 8000 religious people.
L4E1GI:  Not just talk, but act, especially most locally: will effectively enforce and judge-following-of their principles & guidelines to the best of their ability, especially if a fellow member or attendee is violated or violating. Just as government (city/county/state/country) has as a court/judicial system and a police force for the legal (their laws), so the religious organization will have analogous systems to judge and enforce the moral (the principles & values they preach). Just as the US has 3 branches of government, it's not acceptable to just create & talk rules & guidelines but not enforce & judge them.  And the closer the violations, the more correction: if the violators are within same denomination/religion or are local, they will be especially corrected; in fact "first take care of your own house before others": ideally before doing (the often fun job of) social action to enforce values of those outside the religion/group, we need to do (the often unpleasant job) of social action to enforce values within the religion/group.	L4F4L1:  very high, else the group has little value beyond just making one feel good they are in a group, as while some may be fair, others violate and there will be little protection for this, so then the "best route" (without Karma, which is unlikely) for the individual is to figure out how to violate & get away with it.	L4F4L6:  Hard/impossible?  I thought this would be a given within a religious organizations, but so far can't even say I've ever seen it. The two times I've asked for it have seen no real correction other than to further hurt me the victim if the religious organization would also bear responsibility (one in 2006 at Young Nak to correct a local disrespecting Korean woman, and one in 2010.06 to correct serious wrongdoings by a UU Young Adult Coordinator). It is possible UU may be especially bad here per UU's likely #1 core problem: not telling people enough what to do & to believe. But UU is by no means the only one here: while religion has been our prime leader in providing moral guidance, history is littered with examples suggesting religion has been disappointing to deplorable in enacting moral justice.  A famous recent one is $660million law suit settlement in the Los Angeles Catholic Church where it seemed not only was legal action necessary because the religion's moral correction was deplorable, but only after such incredible legal action did moral correction start to take place. Indeed I can't think of any notable example where religion was good at enacting moral justice.  So it seems about time religion properly adds the 2 of the 3 branches of government really missing: the judging & enforcing the rules.
L4FFBM: With other many other people appearing my age (18 to 30s) for networking purposes	L4FFDR:  high, as it should be for a young adult as they need to be building real friends plus dating as now is the time to go out & establish themselves among the world.  With most young adults this is not just high but essential (above all the other values except perhaps local), EVEN if they were raised in in UU or seemingly any group/religion,nearly all will generally leave it as a young adult if they don't have others their age.	L4G64V:
L4E1EY:  Local to me	High	Depends on the other criteria matching

 

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^KVA16I:  Document Background & History

1. ^L3VWKC:  2010.06.11pst2131- I DestinyArchitect created & own this document (Writely doc L3VWKC).
   
1. ^KVA3T1:  Created from: copying as directed Writely doc KUJWXV “Revision 1039 -2010.05.18pst1459”
2. ^KVA3VQ:  Motive (at creation): As a UU leader and group founder, I am finding a need a UU bio to introduce myself; including the immediate benefit that it would help make any UU slander of me look appropriately silly.
   
3. ^KVA3WV: Title (at creation): desiring name[UU DestinyArchitect]; renamed to title[(Unitarian Universalist "DestinyArchitect")L3VWKC].
4. ^KVA579:  Published-at URL: http://LoveRules.Info/2010/06/l3vwkc.html
5. ^L2MXTP:  This document copyright: see LoveRules.Info About's LoveRules.Info ownership & access rights for exact details.
   
2. ^L8LY2D: Renamed to title[Unitarian Universalist "DestinyArchitect" L3VWRA] per 2 new naming conventions including using the content ID not doc ID.