A Liberal Religious Alternative to Christianity

By Joy Overstreet Copyright © 1999

Unitarian Universalism is a liberal religious denomination with a long name and a longer history.  A bit of this history might help you to understand us, as both branches of our denomination have roots in earliest Christianity and both came to flower in America in the 19th century.

The "Unitarian" view of God (God as One) was common in the earliest years of Christianity.  In the early 4th century, Emperor Constantine wanted to unite his far-flung holdings and felt that it would be easier if the various different Christian groups of the time could come up with a common creed.  He convened the Council of Nicaea in 324 for this purpose.  The group, who viewed the divine as a Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Ghost), prevailed and the Nicene Creed was the result.

At that point, the Unitarian view became "heresy," although it never died.   In fact, many of our founding fathers, including Thomas Jefferson, Paul Revere and John Adams, finding the doctrine of the Trinity to go against reason, considered themselves Unitarians.

Universalism, another "heresy," proclaimed that a worthy God could only be a loving God, and a loving God would not be so cruel as to send only a select few to Heaven and condemn the rest to Hell.  If anyone was to be "saved," everyone would be, thus salvation was universal.  If salvation was a non-issue, we could put our spiritual energies to work making this life better.

Unitarian Universalism (the two denominations merged in 1961) is a non-creedal faith, meaning you don't have to subscribe to a specified set of beliefs to belong.  Rather than taking the Bible as the word of God, we consider it to be only one of many sources of wisdom to draw upon as we seek deeper meaning in life and connection to each other.

Our covenant asks three things of us:  to love our neighbors as ourselves, to search for truth with an open mind, and to make the world a better place.  To that end, we have always been actively engaged with the problems of this life:  Susan B. Anthony, Charles Darwin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles Dickens, Florence Nightingale, Horace Mann, and Whitney Young are but a few of many notable Unitarian Universalists from the past.

Today, although the denomination claims approximately 200,000 members, the extent of our participation in public affairs makes it seem as though there must be a million of us.   Our members play key roles in environmental groups, education, the arts, politics, issues of economic justice, and women's, gay and minority rights.

Although Unitarian Universalists are traditionally allergic to evangelizing or proselytizing, people are managing to find their way to UU congregations, and membership is increasing every year.  A common remark newcomers make after they've been with us a few Sundays is, "I've been a Unitarian all my life, and just didn't know it!"

About the Author
Joy Overstreet and her husband, Martin, are lifelong Unitarian Universalists and active volunteers for a variety of local causes in Vancouver, Washington.

Minns Lectures 2000/2001 by Alice Blair Wesley

A series of six lectures elucidating our deep historical roots in the concepts of covenant and congregational polity.