Not to attend a church most churches welcome seekers. To join a church requires a concious decision to support the basic tenets of said church.

I voted "no" simply because, to me, faith is is not a doctrinal belief but something that is felt or experienced.

Although I agree with most Christian doctrines as metaphors, metaphors are not something to be believed in literally but are speculative explanations for something that is deeply but inexplicably felt.

IMHO, churches can, and probably should in some cases, set a minimum standard of belief that is consistent with what their community believes and then they do have a right to expect that anyone joining that community would adhere to that minimum. They should be clear about it so anyone seeking to join will know what is expected of them. Personally, I'd prefer to join a church that has a fairly low (or no) minimum but that doesn't mean churches can't set their minimums higher. I just won't join those churches (and they probably wouldn't want me anyhow).

To my mind, though, a covenant of right relations and a commitment to work together in community are ultimately more important to holding the community together than doctrine and that's basically how UU churches operate. No specific spiritual creeds or doctrines, but our set of principles functions as a high-level covenant to provide some kind of core to the community and to guide relationships in that community.

Mendalla

Yes, Mendalla, I like that: "No specific spiritual creeds or doctrines, just a set of principles to guide cooperation within the community."

Looks like my ideal UC is like the the UU. (Now, there's a model for Keith Howard's future United Church! :-)

The problem with setting minimum belief standards for joining a church, is you're demanding people suspend their ability to reason in order to join in a social group.  That hardly seems like a fair thing to do.