I Joined the UPC

[Sam]

We talk about "the UPC" as if it were some huge monolithic structure. Actually, there is the UPC as a large religious/political organization/machine but it is really only an organization of ministers (a preachers' union of sorts). The UPC is also a large multitude of children of God throughout the world and who are a very diverse group of people.

I sent out an email describing this dream to several people. One young man (he's older than my kids but seems young to me because I was his Sunday School teacher when he was a teenager) said I must either have some deep seated emotional problems with the UPC or had eaten too much pizza. He is pretty conservative in his beliefs and attends one of the UPC churches here in the Cincinnati area. Actually, he and his family and some others left a UPC church in a nearby city when the pastor "relaxed" the standards (dress code).

When I told my wife about the dream her response was something like, "Why do you want to have anything to do with those people? We've been delivered from that."