Since I've been one for 20 years, I'm not surprised the perceptions are full of distortions, fear, and misunderstanding.\n\nThe way I explain it is that it's a denomination/faith community based on radical individualism.  In the Unitarian Universalist tradition, finding faith, truth, and meaning is the responsibility of each individual, and requires individual soul-searching and not just accepting whatever pre-packaged doctrine is appealing or convenient.  A corollary to this approach to religion is humility and tolerance, accepting that God works in different ways in different people, and that some people don't feel God at all but still seek meaning in their lives.\n\nRadical individualism in the arts, economics, and politics is second nature to Americans, but applied to religion it makes a lot of people feel uncomfortable and threatened.  It's such a different approach from getting religion handed down from a priest that some people will never understand it.\n\nAs the world coalesces into nuclear-armed camps of radical fundamentalist Muslims and Christians who despise and ridicule each other, the tiny voice of reason and tolerance from Unitarian Universalism is one slender hope of saving us from the Apocalypse millions of Christians are eager to see.