Financial Times: The Culture Wars Dividing America's Most Liberal Church
This is a new article about the Unitarian Universalist church and what's happening in those circles. They talk about the proposed changes to the articles of the church:
"These would be replaced with a set of “values” represented by a flower pattern, with a chalice and the word “LOVE” at the centre and six petals representing the new values. These include a new commitment to “dismantle racism and all forms of systemic oppression”, and a change of wording in the very first principle of Unitarian Universalism. While the old principle said the “inherent worth and dignity of every person” should be affirmed and promoted, the new value says that “every person has the right to flourish with inherent dignity and worthiness” — a subtle but significant change in the language, critics say."
Well, the troubles in the Unitarian Universalist church have hit international news. It's a small church, so very little is known about it, but some of the latest happenings are coming to light. Many are realizing the left and many of its institutions since Covid have definitely lost their way. They have become apologists for draconian globalism and the will of mega-corporations more than they have support for the betterment of anyone's life. If the USA goes ultra right wing, as I predicted years ago, I will blame the left and its failures. The left truly did become fascist for Covid tyranny.
Culture wars made me weary in my Christian fundamentalist days. We had constant sermons on abortion, and other culture wars hot topics. No one ever seemed to have any real solutions that would work. It was a lot of rhetoric not backed up by any action to make anyone's lives better. I got in trouble a lot in fundamentalist circles, saying most abortions were sought under economic duress, maybe that needs changed. I didn't do well with other cultural topics. I still remember my last IFB pastor railing against those on welfare, while we were on welfare, from the pulpit, screaming the bible verse, about "those who don't work, don't eat". That guy was never short of a desired dollar in his life.
Sadly, I feel like I experienced the same in the Unitarian Universalist church. I was on the edges as everyone rallied for the latest greatest culture war. I didn't have the "right" thoughts or beliefs and no longer fit in. There was a long list I did not conform to. Imagine being in a UU church when you are against gun control and think kids need protecting from butchering surgeons and doctors who want to fill them up with harmful hormones. Imagine questioning aspects of the morality of abortion too.
Read these two articles for background on this one:
The Unitarian Universalist Church Controversy: When Your Church Goes So Woke You Can't Bear It.
Leaving Another Church: My Departure from the Unitarian Universalist Church
One online acquaintance told me, group dynamics always disintegrate. They are on to something there. Churches, governments, social clubs and fan clubs always seem to go to a bad place. They start off with good intentions but then the evil people seeking power and prestige come along and ruin it for everyone. Just as empires disintegrate, maybe organizations do too with enough time.
David Cycleback is right about the Unitarian Universalist Association becoming "far left authoritarians". They do truly operate the same way. Think about it, I have been in America's most conservative church, the IFB or "independent fundamentalist baptist" church for many years and I have had 20 years of my adulthood associated with the Unitarian Universalist church. There's the same dynamics happening.
"Fanatical, dogmatic behavior, such as exhibited within the current UUA, exists in both the extreme political left and right and is a matter of psychology not politics. An Emory University study showed that far-left authoritarians share key personality traits with the far-right. A University of Montana study showed that leftists are just as likely to be dogmatic authoritarians as those on the right.
There's a reason that the UU wants to remove "freedom of conscience" from their charter now. Just as much as the fundamentalists expected me to be a Republican, which led to many troubling moments such as when I wrote a complaint letter to my first IFB minister when he told me to vote for Bush, the same applied to the Unitarian Universalists. I was expected to be a supporter of the Democrat party and to support Biden. There were certain "expected" politics. It's funny but there was even one moment when I got called a "radical" by a couple UUs for supporting Bernie. Now some may say, well those things naturally happen, people seek like-minded others when choosing a church but it seemed the expected politics and causes got narrower and narrower as I got older.
Everything is so commercialized and controlled now. Even the "woke" stuff is meant to paper over and distract from reality. Just like the "identity wars" protect the billionaire class as they rip us off and destroy our lives, it's all distractions. There were times I started feeling like I did in my old churches. No one wanted to deal with reality or one's real life. There was no longer no interest in truth.
Wokeness is a Product of Neoliberalism
Doing away with article 2, is not a good pathway, and there is an emphasis now by the official Unitarian Universalist Association on "shared values" and "covenant" which oddly is a Baptist word, denoting endless responsibilities to God and church. They almost want to turn what used to be a creedless church into a creed-filled church of the ultra-woke and politically correct. I had discussions with one church member I had kept in contact with, that this gave me flashbacks to time in the Baptist church.
I realized the UU church was losing the plot especially since Covid. I cannot even describe my level of disappointment, in being the only one who questioned any of it. Where I live, none of the churches questioned it, not even the Baptists. My old IFB probably just ignored the topic, after all their loved Saint Trump supported Operation Warp Speed.
The UU sadly has become a bastion of so called luxury beliefs. I knew going back into the UU, the same class divide would still exist. This class divide I realized definitely affected my differing views from the majority of my UU congregation. Everyone's circumstances affects their outlooks on life. I enjoyed many people in my past congregation. Many were kind and giving folks. Many UUs are so out there in high paid professional and academia land, even being mostly well-meaning, they have lost touch with the reality of most people in America. Sadly, many do not realize the depths of social inequality in our society and what is happening to people especially the young.
Utopian visions among human beings always seem to go dark, no matter what it is. The "woke" left seems intent on imposing their "anti-oppression" views via more oppression. What a mess.
This is why you see so many commenters on this article calling the UU a "farce" and a "joke". I think they see this divide. One of the commenters on this article refers to "boomeritis", others "affluent, white, leftish, well meaning 'good people" and others still to the failure of liberalism as a whole, and the travesties of unbelief and referring to the 10 commandments as the 10 suggestions.
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