UUA President Peter Morales
UUA National Assembly
In my last blog I wrote about the history of Unitarianism in early America. I discussed how at that time it was basically a nontrinitarian form of Christianity that nonetheless regarded the Bible as inspired. In 1961 the Unitarian church merged with the Universalist Church of America to form the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA). Since that time, 50 years ago, the group progressively moved further from any pretense of Christianity and the Bible to a thoroughly Secular Humanistic belief system. Today the UUA basically espouses no doctrinal points. I like to say that to be a UUA you have to believe in at least one of the following three points: 1) Anything; 2) Everything; or 3) Nothing.
Ironically, though the majority of UUAs are probably still atheists or agnostics who deny the supernatural, a growing number of UUAs today are neo-pagans or witches. This has alarmed many in the movement who consider such ideas as superstition. Even the current president, Peter Morales, identifies himself as a neo-pagan.
In any case, in June 4,000 members of the organization (I really don’t like calling it a church) celebrated its 50th anniversary at their annual assembly in Charlotte NC. Membership now stands at 162,800 (a loss of about 2000 over the past couple of years) in 1046 congregations.
Perhaps the most pressing issue for UUAs today is Gay Rights. A survey done about a decade ago revealed that about 25% of the total UUA members at that time were Gay or Lesbian. I am sure that percentage has grown. Consequently, when the secular press wants a quote from a clergyperson favoring the gay agenda they often turn to the UUA. All this, however, only confirms the unbiblical nature of the UUA today.
In my next post I will discuss the future prospects for UUA and how Christians can respond to the challenge.
For part I, click here.