[Fuusmchat] A one candidate election?

[Nancy Luthy]

Ted.  I agree.
Perhaps you would like to draft a document expressing these concerns that
members could sign, if in agreement.
I know Rev. Kat is reluctant to send a statement from her, because it is
interpreted to represent the entire congregation.
Nancy

On Tue, Feb 14, 2023 at 10:06 AM Ted Goertzel via fuusmchat <
fuusmchat at fuusm.org> wrote:

> 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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