How the Unitarian Universalist Association is an Illiberal Democracy
The UUA employs standard anti-democratic methods
“As people of faith committed to ‘the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large,’ we must continuously strive toward uncorrupted democracy. As a means to an end, democracy organizes decision-making among diverse people and preserves stability while balancing competing interests. But democracy is not merely a means. It is an end in itself, an ethical ideal, a moral and spiritual way of relating to one another. Sadly, many of our democratic institutions have been corrupted into being merely a means for giving powerful interests the appearance of legitimacy.”– UUA’s Our Democracy Uncorrupted: 2019 Statement of Conscience (UUA 2019)
“An illiberal democracy describes a governing system in which, although elections take place, citizens are cut off from knowledge about the activities of those who exercise real power because of the lack of civil liberties; thus it does not constitute an open society. The rulers of an illiberal democracy may ignore or bypass constitutional limits on their power. They also tend to ignore the will of the majority which is what makes the democracy illiberal. Elections in an illiberal democracy are often manipulated or rigged, being used to legitimize and consolidate the incumbent rather than to choose the country's leaders and policies.”— Wikipedia
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In its very principles, the liberal religion Unitarian Universalism (UU) is premised on the right of conscience and democracy. In 2020, the national organization in Boston, the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), had a well-promoted ‘UU the Vote’ campaign to promote democracy and get out the vote in elections across the country. However, the UUA hypocritically works to dismantle the pillars of democracy and create an anti-democracy culture and theology within UU. (Beyer 2019)
Many of the democratic deficiencies in the UUA, national UU and General Assembly (GA) are well-documented elsewhere so don’t need much detail here. The UUA Board-commissioned 2009 Fifth Principle Task Force Report said that General Assembly is “dramatically broken” and “The future of our UU movement can ill-afford to continue the ways of faux democracy and unaccountable representation that have characterized associational governance, including the content and process of the General Assembly.” (Fifth Principle Task Report 2009)
These problems have been acknowledged by the UUA and the Commission on Institutional Change (COIC). Yet, over a decade after the report, only two of the UUA Board of Trustees are elected and only 1.6 percent of the UU members voted for the current UUA President. The loss of representational districts gutted UU representational democracy, and the report says it is “questionable how well the delegate body represents and is accountable to member congregations.” (Fifth Principle Task Report 2009) (UUA 2020)
Beyond these acknowledged problems, the national UUA leadership does more fundamental things to undermine and dismantle the very culture and practice of democracy. In an attempt to preserve a proverbial one-party system, have top-down control of UU and transform UU into a radical political organization, the UUA and other national UU groups do basic anti-democratic practices that are associated with authoritarian movements and totalitarian regimes. The following are just a few.
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CENSORSHIP AND CONTROL OF INFORMATION
Democracy requires a well-informed voting public that is exposed to the diversity of views and information in society.
In his essay Censorship Is the Way that Any Dictatorship — and NO Democracy — Functions, historian Eric Zuesse writes, “If there is censorship, then each individual cannot make his/her own decisions (voting decisions or otherwise) on the basis of truth but only on the basis of whatever passes through the censor’s filter, which is always whatever supports the censoring regime and implants it evermore deeply into the public’s mind — regardless of its actual truthfulness.” Zuesse argues that censorship is necessarily totalitarian. (Zuesse 2020)
The censorship and attempts at information control by the national UU are well documented. Under the direction of the UUA, UU World removed letters to the editor and has stated it won’t platform the diversity of views of UUs. One longtime minister called UU World “an ideological propaganda organ,” and another called it “Pravda.” UU leaders and ministers have told other ministers and congregants not to read books of which it does not approve, and ministers themselves have said they refuse to read certain books. Dissenting views have been censored and dissenters removed from public forums at General Assembly. (Wells 2019) (5th Principle Project 2020) (Trudeau 2019) (Pine 2019) (Aiken 2019) (Cain 2019) (Aikin 2021)
Dissident Russian poet Joseph Brodsky, who was expelled from the Soviet Union in the 1960s for being an “anti-Soviet”, once wrote, “There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.”
Wrote one longtime UU, “This is a serious problem. There are thousands of UUs who have no idea that there is a controversy. Of course, the main way that UUs are contacted is through institutional communications. These channels are completely unwilling to host discussions of the problems.”
Another wrote: “The True Believers control the content of all the articles published in UU World and on the UUA Website and without access to broadcast media, opposing viewpoints will never be heard. Members of the UUA and the Board will continue to cast a blind eye and deaf ear to anyone who disagrees.”
Many ministers coming out of the UU seminaries work to create groupthink, suppress the diversity of views of congregants within the congregations and do not educate laity on national UU issues. A longtime UU minister wrote, “I think the biggest danger to local congregations is the takeover of seminaries and the credentialing of clergy. Newly minted clergy are overwhelmingly indoctrinated and, if they aren’t, they will have a hard time being accepted as UU clergy.”
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SUPPRESSING FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, DEBATE, AND CRITICAL THINKING
Freedom of speech and expression and the free exchange of ideas are requirements for democracy. Cornell Law Professor Faust Rossi said “Freedom of speech is the most cherished of our constitutional rights. It is the essence of our democracy.”
The democracy advocacy organization Freedom House states, “Free speech and expression is the lifeblood of democracy, facilitating open debate, the proper consideration of diverse interests and perspectives, and the negotiation and compromise necessary for consensual policy decisions. Efforts to suppress nonviolent expression, far from ensuring peace and stability, can allow unseen problems to fester and erupt in far more dangerous forms.”
The promotion and use of critical thinking are essential to a functioning democracy and free society.
The critical thinking advocacy group Insight Assessment states: “Critical thinking promotes democracy. Like free and fair elections, critical thinking is essential for a healthy democracy. If voters are to make wise decisions, they must be both willing and able to think critically. We celebrate all who teach thinking. Teaching students how to examine issues, fair-mindedly, and how to analyze and evaluate diverging claims, thoughtfully, is vital to succeed as a free and informed democracy.”
In her column Democracy Needs Critical Thinking, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Cynthia Tucker writes, “There is little hope for this nation’s democratic experiment if so many of our citizens cannot bear to hear fact-based beliefs that are different from their own. Shouldn’t each of us be able to inspect our views to see if they hold up to the scrutiny of reason? If you can’t bear to do that, there might be something suspect at the core of your beliefs.” (Tucker 2021)
For anyone who follows the current UU, the suppression and demeaning of freedom of expression, debate and critical thinking by UU leaders, the UUMA and other national organizations is well documented. (Coyne 2019) (Gallagher 2019) (Disaffected Colleagues 2020) (Aikin 2019)
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PUNISHMENT AND EXPULSION OF DISSENTERS
Democracy requires dissent and the platforming of a diversity of views. This should be obvious. Expulsion and punishment of dissenters are what totalitarian governments and fundamentalist religions do. Aung San Suu Kyi wrote, “To view the opposition as dangerous is to misunderstand the basic concepts of democracy. To oppress the opposition is to assault the very foundation of democracy.”
One does not have to detail here the treatment of dissenters in UU. Dissenting ministers have been censored, censured, and expelled. Dissenting congregants have been silenced and removed from membership. Some ministers have said dissenters should be asked to leave their congregations. (Wells 2019)
Because it doesn’t like that two outside candidates were running for UUA office, the UUA Board of Trustees published a statement attacking its own democratic process set up by its own bylaws and attacked the candidates who followed the democratic bylaws process to run for election. It stated that it only wants and approves of candidates that are approved, selected and ideologically vetted by the UUA’s Nominating Committee. (UUA Board of Trustees 2022)
Wrote one congregant: “Many congregations are more afraid of becoming split apart than they are afraid of falling under the distortions formulated by the current UUA Junta. This fear drives many church leaders towards silencing outspoken voices. I have already been seriously, and formally, threatened.”
Another person wrote: “If you don’t think a certain way and conform in belief and speech, you must be ostracized and shut down. It is nascent authoritarianism and a symptom of social and political infection. It is as much a threat to democracy as rightwing extremism.”
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ORGANIZATIONAL CAPTURE OF THE UUA
In “How the UUA Manufactures Consent,” UU Minister Rev. Gary Kowalski details how power was consolidated in the Board of Trustees, making the UUA centrally controlled by a small, insular group. Kowalski writes, “The switch to policy governance ended by making our Association less democratic, less diverse and more centrally controlled,” “General Assembly is largely a spectacle where delegates wave their yellow ballots on cue,” and “When given unchecked authority, automatic ascent to electoral victory, and the power to judge, punish, and control the livelihoods of others who stand in their way, while cloaking themselves in a mantle of moral purity, even the best human beings succumb to their worst instincts.” (Kowalski 2020)
UU Minister Rev. Munro Sickafoose writes, “They abuse power to serve their vision. A noble vision in many ways. But abusing power is abusing power, no matter who does it. It isn’t different this time, and it isn’t different because of who is abusing power. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” (Sickafoose 2019)
Miles Fidelman, a professional policy analyst and systems architect, said, "Nothing new here, for any student of history and organizational dynamics. Pretty standard practice for any cabal. What's worse, is they generally think they're doing the right thing, for the right reasons. Also, not at all surprising is how easily folks go along with it. Google 'useful idiots.'"
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CONGREGATIONAL DELEGATE SELECTION IS UNDEMOCRATIC AND NONREPRESENTATIONAL
Polls of congregational delegates after the 2024 General Assembly showed that only 39.4% of the congregations in the poll voted on bylaws changes, only 9.1 percent of the congregational delegates were elected, and only 16.1 percent of the delegates were required to have their votes represent the congregation.
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UNDERREPRESENTATION OF LAITY
For General Assembly, congregations are allotted one delegate per fifty congregants, while professionals, including ministers, music and education directors, are given one vote each. A self-certifying music director or community minister has the voting power of fifty congregants. In some congregations, even when the congregational members vote on a topic one way, the vote for the congregation at GA goes the opposite way because of this imbalance.
Merridy McDaniel wrote, “So what is the UUA? It's a non-profit organization that promotes the well-being of UU professionals, but is financially supported by people who have no say in what it does.”
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ONE CANDIDATE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
In the most audacious example of the undermining of democratic processes, the UUA put forward just one candidate for UUA President and put up hurdles to prevent outside candidates. This breaks at the least the spirit of its own bylaws that state, “The Presidential Search Committee shall submit no fewer than two nominations for the office of President for an election.” One candidate “elections” are associated with countries such as North Korea and Belarus. (5th Principle Project 2022) (Gadfly Pages 2022)
Sickafoose wrote: "The White smoke has risen and a new UU pope has been 'elected'. Sofia Betancourt's presidency is in violation of our bylaws and is illegitimate. This isn't any better than a third world dictatorship, and their 'free elections' (rigged). This 'election' further reveals the corruption and nepotism in Boston. Shameful. Shame on the UUA, shame on Sofia."
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IT IS NOT ALL THE UUA’S FAULT
While the UUA and other national groups have become authoritarian, anti-democracy movements, the fault in part also lies with UUs and congregations at large. If congregations do not send delegates to General Assembly or do not select delegates that are representative of the laity, that is not the UUA’s fault. If congregations do not engage in and debate large issues, or are not themselves truly democratic, that is not the UUA’s fault.
Creating and maintaining a healthy democracy is the work of all citizens and UUs. It is the responsibility of all to educate themselves and others, actively and overtly engage in critical thinking, and push back and speak out against the illiberalism, intolerance, dogmatism and authoritarianism that the UUA is working to institutionalize in UU.
“Either we are all free, or we fail. Democracy must belong to all of us.”– Dennis Chavez
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REFERENCES
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Coyne J (2019), “Unitarian Universalist ministers flagellate themselves and the church for one bad apple, assert that logic and reason are tools of white supremacy”, https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2019/09/07/unitarian-universalist-ministers-flagellate-themselves-and-the-church-for-one-bad-apple-assert-that-logic-and-reason-are-tools-of-white-supremacy/
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