Elect explained (sort of!)

Please don't read this if you are Christian and easily upset by discussions 
of religion. Flames will be used to light my incense sticks while I pray for 
the flamer to learn tolerance, or at least learn not to read things that will 
upset him or her.

I am Unitarian Universalist. While we don't have a creed or anything that 
structured, those two words do refer to concepts that many of us still 
embrace. "Unitarian" means that God is not divided, but a single entity. 
Yup, that means no Trinity. "Universalist" refers to universal salvation, 
i.e., there is no hell. Please keep in mind that these are my personal beliefs 
(among others), that not all UUs will ascribe even to these (for some UUs, 
these entire debates are meaningless), and that I do not wish to preach or 
force my beliefs on anyone else in any way.

But spirituality matters to me, so I write poems about religion, even if they 
are not really the same thing.

Calvinism has bothered me ever since I first encountered the idea. My 
mental process went something like this: "So you're telling me that a loving 
god is petty enough to give everybody free will but not to let them excercise 
it because he likes some people more than others? Oh, well in that case, I'm 
really glad I don't believe in that god."

If I don't believe in Hell, and I don't believe in a god who in one form is a swell 
guy who sacrifices himself for everybody, while on the other hand kills entire 
cities for not being nice to his favorite people, all the while calling himself "Just 
and Merciful," then the entire idea of a group of people who are automatically 
"Saved" is moot.

It's funny, but although Calvinism has been on the decline for a while, a 
disturbingly high number of people betray the same sentiments with respect to 
their own religious sects. I have been told I'm going to hell by people from at 
least three major Protestant groups, many of whom think that the other people
who have damned me are also, in their turn, damned.

Like any all-powerful being would care which church you went into on Sundays 
and if you were baptised by total immersion or sprinkling of water. Good grief!