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Unitarian Jewellery
I was raised catholic as a child but as I grew into an adult I became Unitarian. ( one who believes all )
I would like to wear religious jewelry but my question would it be wrong to wear all jewelry? Example; If I wore a jewish necklace and a bracelet with a cross etc. Is that misleading? I need opinions. I would like something to express myself... I understand they make UU jewelry but I wanted to know if it would make such a difference that way as well.
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Maybe give some free advice about: Spirituality?
It would be misleading, but I think more importantly - it's also rude.
It's a form of cultural appropriation - the adoption of specific aspects of a culture that is not your own - and that is generally a bad thing.
It's lovely that you 'believe all', but that isn't the intent, purpose or context of those religious symbols. You are adopting them for your own purpose, much like wearing black-face, or dressing up in native American's religious garb - it's not respectful. It's not 'honoring' people or religions to do things like that. Adopting symbols of another culture and removing them from their proper contexts is how people end up with Chinese tattoos that are nothing but gibberish.
Although most Unitarianism remains deeply rooted in the Abrahamic monotheism of Christianity, Islam and Judaism, I still wouldn't consider it a respectful thing to do. Adopting the symbols of a particular religious traditions is certainly something you can do - it's not a crime - but it's almost always rude and even disrespectful, which is way worse than misleading.
Obviously, I feel really strongly about this. Most people wont. Most people probably wont even agree with me and will argue that it's not cultural appropriation if you believe in aspects of the religion - but since you asked for my opinion, I'll tell you I think that's bullshit. You can't re-define other cultures symbols to suit your beliefs, and you shouldn't.
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People will likely assume that you belong to whatever religion symbolized by the accessory they see first. If you've got a Star of David around your neck, and that's what they see first, they will assume not only that you are Jewish but that you are enthusiastic enough about it to advertise it to the world, and they probably won't even see the cross on your wrist. It's not exactly misleading to wear many different religious symbols, but it will be confusing to people; they'll either wonder why you can't make up your mind, or they will assume that you are wearing them with no consideration for their meaning, and that could be taken as offense.
If you wish to express your Unitarian beliefs, then I suggest something like a charm bracelet - that way, no one symbol will be portrayed as more important than any other, and it will demonstrate the unity and harmony of them all much more so than several separate pieces. Wearing the symbols separately would illustrate non-reconciliation of the various beliefs, which I understand to be contrary to Unitarian ideas.
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