Relationships December 16, 2016
What’s a Unitarian Universalist? UUs only make up 0.3 percent of the American population according to a 2008 Pew Research survey. They’re not well-known and when they are they have a rep for being the hippie religion. Weirdly enough, this somewhat obscure and ultraliberal religion that wasn’t officially founded until 1961 had a huge role in America’s founding and ideology (The Washington Post even credits them with prompting Abraham Lincoln to declare Thanksgiving a national holiday). So what’s a Unitarian Universalist?
Unitarian Universalism today is all about inclusivity and activism. There is no set creed, dogma or even deity. When you go to a UU church you’re likely to see the religious symbols for Hinduism, Christianity, Taoism, Judaism, Buddhism and Islam all proudly displayed above the pastor’s head.
But UUs don’t limit themselves to just the big religion, or even to religion at all. Atheists, pagans, seekers and anything else you can think of are welcome too. The idea is that even though they don’t share a common ideology, UUs can each seek out their own individual truth with the support of a community.
There are six core principals UU’s follow, according to the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA):
But wait? How is this no dogma, all-inclusive group now boycotting Turkey day responsible for America’s inception?
Originally, Unitarianism and universalism were two separate movements (some groups still follow Unitarianism alone, but it’s not very reflective of the larger UU moment) which are both rooted in Christianity. Unitarianism rejected the idea of the Trinity, accepting God as one rather than three deities.
This was a revolutionary move because it argued then that Jesus wasn’t any different from any other man and that God had bestowed upon him special gifts. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Universalism was a much more folk-based movement that argued that the concept of eternal agony in Hell dissents from original scripture and that everyone can be loved and accepted by God.
Though they have a reputation for being outsiders in the religious world, the church’s principals is a lot like the founding ideology of the United States. A large reason settlers came to the New World was to escape religious persecution and early Unitarians were no exception.
The First Amendment in U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of religion and though the U.S. may not always succeed in religious tolerance, the practice is still heavily encouraged. In fact much of both the Unitarian and Universalist movements flourished and encouraged other influential movements in the New World.
Humanism, puritan Christianity, transcendentalism and deism all were philosophies that went into the inception of Unitarian Universalism and figures like Ralph Waldo Emerson and earlier, like John Adams, honed in on them to create contemporary American culture.
Most of our founding Fathers were liberal Christians, if they could be considered Christian at all, and many liberal forms of Christianity evolved into Unitarian Universalism. In fact four of the nation’s presidents have self-identified as Unitarians according to the Public Broadcasting Service. Though Unitarian Universalism has a rich history and impact on early America, present congregations are appearing more and emptier and disappearing from public consciousness.
Unitarian Universalism current incarnation is all about activism, with parishes suing their cities for disallowing solar paneling, reverends resigning the post of U.S. Army Reserve chaplain in protest of U.S. drone strikes and fighting for causes like the Black Lives Matter movement.
Despite millennial affinity for activism and stray from mainstream religions, UUs are on the decline. They, like many other religious groups, are struggling to garner favor among the increasing number of religious “nones” in the nation. UUA membership seems to be in steady decline since 2008; in 2016 it’s the lowest it’s been since 1993. In 2016, there were 199,850 UU members in the United States, down from 221,582 only eight years ago in 2008.
