[Fuusmchat] A one candidate election?

[Ted Goertzel]

The Unitarian Universalist Association is about to elect a new President,
but we only get one candidate to vote for. This seems somehow undemocratic
and un-American, There is, or was, a group in the UUA that opposed the
current emphasis on anti-racism as the theme to revive the movement, but
they seem to have given up. I think they made some good points. The UU
movement may have a niche as America's "woke" church, but it won't attract
young families, and probably not many black members. I suspect we will
remain one of the most white denominations in the country.  We need to
focus on attracting young families and rebuilding religious education, but
the UUA doesn't seem to prioritize that.  The enrollment trends in RE
<https://www.uua.org/data/demographics/uua-statistics>are very discouraging
nationwide, as well as here.  I tried to get membership trends by race,
which they collect from us, but haven't been able to. I suspect they would
be embarrassing for a church that has prioritized diversity in its
rhetoric.
    If you are curious about the thinking of the more conservative,
traditionalist group in the UUA, I can recommend the essay "Where We Are
Headed
<https://trulyopenmindsandhearts.blog/2017/11/21/where-are-we-headed/>," by
Rev. Kate Braestrup.  It is from 2017 when that group was still hopeful,
there isn't any current material on her blog.  She may be part of the group
of UU ministers who quit the UU Minister's A
<https://fifthprincipleproject.org/2020/09/16/we-quit-uu-ministers-resign-from-uuma/>ssociation
in protest over the purging of Rev Todd Elkoff of Spokane because of a book
he tried to distribute at the UUA a few years ago.  I suspect this year's
UUA will be free of dissenting voices.

I don't think the traditionalist group has a solution to the UUA's
membership problems either, and it doesn't do any harm for us to examine
our unintentional racial biases. But I think it would be healthier if we
actually had a debate about the direction of the denomination rather than
just rallying about the Dear Leader like North Koreans.
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