The story of the UUA's canceling of a Jewish UU

Mel Pine tells his story

I’ve written often about the transformation of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) into an illiberal and dogmatic organization. I’ve also written about its troubled relationship with Jews. Below are two past posts:

How Unitarian Universalism Became a Church of Shaming, Bullying and Coercion 

The UUA deepens its rift with mainstream Jews

The following link covers both bases. Mel Pine, an elderly Ashkenazi Jew with family members killed during the Holocaust, tells his story of being publicly humiliated by top UUA officials, and canceled by the UUA for writing a short blog post criticizing the UUA’s governance practices surrounding the pushing out of former UUA President Rev. Peter Morales. I know Pine and know him as a peaceful practicing Buddhist who blogs about Buddhist practices and philosophy and works with Braver Angels, a volunteer-led organization that works to depolarize the country.

His post starts:

I’ve been resisting writing this for years. My encounter with notoriety happened in stages in 2017, and I wrote about it in pieces then, refusing the agony of pulling it together into one essay. Enough time has passed, so I’m ready to write this for anyone interested in a personal story about how this era’s fragmentation, polarization, intersectionality, and quickness to judge can devastate an ordinary guy with no power or celebrity and very little influence.

This is also a story of a religion that, under the influence of a radical element, ejected its core values, as seen through the eyes of one former active member.

Read his story here: UU and Me - by Mel Pine

UU minister Rev. Cynthia Cain gave her account of the mistreatment of Pine, which matches Pine’s account, and can be read halfway down in the below link:

Rev. Cynthia Cain’s account

Pine’s story is not an aberration but the way the current UUA leadership has in recent years considered and often punished independent thinkers and religious liberals.

It’s a prime example of why many, including my late mother, gave up on the church and quit. My mother said she could not belong to a church that shames and punishes its members, including ministers, simply for expressing different viewpoints. “That’s not what I signed up for when I joined UU,” she said.

A woman of high ethical principles and who walked the walk, she was also dismayed by the many laity, including at her congregation, who were indifferent about this drastic change to their church. She compared it to the Catholic laity who ignored or explained away the corruption and abuse in the Catholic Church. “Yes, I know people are being abused and mistreated by the church, but so long as it doesn’t affect me it doesn't matter” was not a part of her ethical framework.

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