Am I too stupid to be a UU?

I was looking around the UU blogsphere and came across Arbitrary Mark’s post with her thoughts on this wanting of a reformation in liberal theology.   I swear I only understood about a third of what she was saying, and when I went to go see what the original post was (which Philocrites linked to) I had no bloody idea what I was doing and felt ashamed and silly for being somewhere I was obviously too stupid to be at.

So, here comes the question I face about once every other week – Am I too stupid to be a Unitarian Universalist?

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve got smart-people credentials.  A killer GRE score, went to a top rate university (Go Yellow Jackets!) and I’m somewhat of a teacher for a living (better known as a tutor for rich kids wanting to get into college.)  And I’m the only one who can teach Physics and/or Calculus at my center.  So I’ve got my Intellectual street cred.

But I feel extremely stupid whenever I look outside my own little UU World, and sometimes feel stupid even there.  For example,

• -There have been sermons that should have had a little handy dandy citation sheet with explanations, because I was lost over in bumblefuck.

• -When I try to read other’s blog posts over what I’m sure are interesting, relevant topics to Unitarian Universalism, I get lost in a sea of big words that I’m sure have a meaning and citations that reference scholarly works which although I assume exist I doubt I’ll ever have the chance of hearing about again, much less reading, and much, much less understanding.  It comes off as gibberish and after a few attempts trying to understand I just give up.

• -I hear books that other Unitarians on blogs, my email lists, and people I know are reading and I think “Good lord.  The last book I read was The Chamber by John Grisham [true story!  I'm in the middle of it right now].  Am I just intellectually inferior and just too stupid to be a Unitarian. because I’m not well-read?

Maybe I’m just a roadie – desperately hanging on to the smart people to try and seem cooler than myself, or maybe most Unitarians are just stupid like me, or maybe I’m the only dumb one.  But if I hadn’t already invested quite a bit in UUism over the past year, the hyper-intellectualism that seems to be abundant would easily turn me off.  And it seems to be lurking behind every turn!  Sunday School isn’t called Sunday School – its Religious Education, and it’s not a class, it’s a study group or seminar.  We don’t call our minister “Reverend Keyes” we call him “Dr. Keyes.”

I know that we Unitarians are proud of our per capita intellectual ability, and that part of our faith is questioning everything and finding our own way.  But that’s the kicker – finding our own way, not having a discussion where we cite what 20 other people think with little regard for our own thoughts and experiences.

Now, if I constantly feel intellectually inferior, then I’m sure visitors do all the time.  Maybe this is why we’re having problems growing as a denomination, not the lack of a coherent liberal theology.  We come off as cold, introverted hyper-intellectuals who would rather talk about Goethe and Nietzsche than minister to people and visit them in the hospital when they’re sick.

Sounds like a rockin’ place to be.