Unitarian Universalists and others gather around the York statue Thursday at the Belvedere in a clean-energy rally.
The Rev. Peter Morales, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, speaks at a clean-energy rally Thursday at the Belvedere.
Lexington, Ky., author Joe Anthony has long been involved in his local Unitarian Universalist congregation and helping out in such things as a summer program called “Camp Lackadogma.”
UUs, as they call themselves, are few in number hereabouts, but he’s had the uncommon experience this week of being surrounded by more than 3,000 of them at the denomination’s five-day annual General Assembly, being held through Sunday at the Kentucky International Convention Center in Louisville.
“We’re always a minority, so it’s great to see thousands of us in the same place,” Anthony said as he staffed a booth representing Kentucky and West Virginia churches.
But being surrounded by activists in areas ranging from global warming to opposing the legal personhood of corporations, he added, “People there make me feel like a sloth. I grew up Catholic and we have our own version of guilt, but UU guilt is, ‘What have you done to save the world today?’”
UUs have a unique niche in American religion – an unabashedly liberal group with no creed, as old as the republic and occupying churches in historic town squares. But members have often staked out positions in the vanguard of their times, such as abolitionism and civil rights and, more recently, same-sex marriage.
The group’s unique posture was evident at the assembly.
Prominently marked disposal bins separated items into compost, recyclables and the landfill-bound. Some restrooms were marked as open to all genders, designed to accommodate transgender attendees. Fellowships representing humanist, Christian, Buddhist and pagan perspectives had presences in the exhibit hall.
Unitarians date to the early republic, breaking with other churches by rejecting the doctrine of the Trinity and embracing a belief in rational inquiry over divine revelation. Unitarianism attracted the likes of authors Ralph Waldo Emerson and Herman Melville, social reformers Susan B. Anthony and Theodore Parker and as many as five early U.S. presidents.
Universalism – a belief that all will be saved – grew out of other Protestant churches, and the two streams merged in 1961.
While many historic Protestant churches have been losing members in recent years, Unitarians have actually held their own relatively small share of the population.
The church claims 161,502 adult members nationwide – up 2 percent from a decade ago – with more than 50,000 children enrolled in education programs. And it attracts others who don’t formally join; a Trinity College survey in 2008 found more than a half-million adults identify as Unitarian Universalists. There are three UU congregations in Louisville – with First Unitarian dating to 1830 – and individual churches in several other Kentucky communities, with about 1,000 members in the state overall, with more than 2,000 Hoosier members, according to church figures.
The Rev. Peter Morales, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, said he’s not content with maintaining membership numbers. He noted that many Americans share the church’s positions on such areas as supporting gay rights and racial diversity. “Our challenge isn’t really to convince people to see things our way,” he said. “It’s to engage people who already see things our way.”
But organized religion, he said, has “become a bad brand” for many, particularly secular young adults who see it as rigid and hypocritical.
“That’s not who we are, but we get tainted by that skepticism and wariness of religious institutions,” he said.
“We need to reach out in new kinds of ways to people,” Morales said. “We too often wait for people to come to us. We didn’t want to be like those evangelicals who were out proselytizing. The result has been we haven’t shared what we have nearly as well as we could.”
At the convention, participants are taking part in a range of activities, including attending exhibits and film screenings. They held a large rally for clean energy on Thursday.
The assembly voted Friday for sweeping immigration reforms, decrying the use of the term “illegals” for those who did not enter the country legally and calling for a path to permanent legal status and citizenship for them.
Some delegates are circulating a petition to get the assembly to vote on Sunday to start a discussion on whether to pull church investments from fossil-fuel industries as a way of fighting climate change.
“There’s not really a disagreement about fossil fuels and global warming,” Morales said. “But it’s a tactical difference.” Some want to pull investments entirely, others to advocate that energy companies switch to cleaner methods.
Morales said despite such disagreements, the church offers a community for those who share broader social concerns.
“People need community,” he said. “People need to attach themselves to something larger than themselves that transcends their own individual, material, petty desires. To ask people what they believe is the wrong question. We ask people what they love, what they care about, what they’re willing to commit themselves to.”
