More national articles on how UU is circling the drain

A minister sues the UUA, and a famous professor lambasts the church

There has been much press about the recent authoritarian, illiberal and dogmatic turn in Unitarian Universalism, in particular within its hierarchy in Boston but also at congregations dominated by ideological ministers, progressive social justice activists and boards. I’ve written often about it, including a January 2023 piece in the Journal of Free Black Thought titled, “How to Destroy a Liberal Church.” Veteran UU ministers Rev. Munro Sickafoose and Rev. Gary Kowalski have written insider perspectives on the political and organizational corruption of the Unitarian Universalist Association, UU seminaries, and church elections: here and here.

To most people outside the church who learn about what’s going on, the UU church sounds like a basket case full of fringe politics, virtue signaling, intolerance and circular firing squads. This outside coverage includes a December article by the British journalist Jemima Kelly in the Financial Times of London: “The culture wars dividing America’s most liberal church,” an April podcast episode titled “How the Unitarian Universalist Church Melted Down,” and a July article in the New York Post about the law firm representing a minister suing the UUA.

January article by the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (FAIR)

The Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (fairforall.org) is a non-partisan and non-profit organization whose Martin Luther King Jr.-inspired mission is: “To insist on our common humanity. To demand that we are each entitled to equality under the law. To bring about a world in which we are all judged by the content of our character and not by the color of our skin.”

In January, it published an article by former UU minister Dr. Kate Rohde about the ideological takeover of the church and her suit against the UUA. Her story was covered in the above-mentioned podcast episode. A pioneering second-wave feminist, civil rights activist, and one of the early and longest-serving female ministers in UU, she was attacked by ideological ministers and expelled from the UUA for daring to dissent against the UUA and its political orthodoxy.

“The Ideological Takeover of the Church I loved: How the Unitarian Universalist Church lost its way” by Kate Rohde

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A famous professor’s harsh criticism of UU

University of Chicago professor Jerry Coyne is one of the world’s most renowned evolutionary biologists, an organized religion critic, and author of the New York Times best-selling books Why Evolution is True and Faith Versus Fact. Politically left and a former anti-war and anti-apartheid activist, he is a strong supporter of academic freedom and freedom of speech.

A longtime supporter of UU, he has in recent years written about his great disappointment in the new intolerance and illiberalism within UU.

In response to the FAIR article, Coyne recently wrote in the below-linked post, "But as for the church itself, I’m afraid you can kiss it goodbye. Maybe it will fragment into several moieties, at least one of which will embrace the UU’s original principles. But as for me, if forced to pick a faith I’d now take Buddhism over Unitarian Universalism." He also wrote, "Clearly, the freedom of speech and thought that was deeply embedded in the UU church is now gone: the authoritarian Left has taken over and has, in effect, now forced a creed on the church."

"The Unitarian Universalists go big-time woke" by Jerry Coyne

After reading the FAIR article, a woman wrote, “I am your basic believing Presbyterian and even I recognize that when the Unitarians become ideological Puritans we are in big trouble.”