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Christian Century, May 9, 2001

A theological tempest is brewing within the nation's most liberal denomination, with critics charging that the 'Unitarian Universalist Association has lost its spiritual moorings and has no room for those who disagree with its liberal politics. A group of disgruntled church members plan's to launch the American Unitarian Association, reclaiming the name of one of the UUA's predecessor organizations in an effort to fuel a "restoration" of the tradition that flourished in 19th-century New England.

The Boston-based national church, meanwhile, has filed suit in federal court against the fledgling movement, claiming that the UUA still owns the name American Unitarian Association, even though the name largely went out of use when the UUA was formed 40 years ago. "They're trying to steal our identity," said John Buehrens, the UUA's president, "and they're not going to get away with it."

In many ways the new group is no different than other renewal groups in Lutheran, Catholic or even Jewish circles. But for the UUA, whose only creed is that there is no creed, the dispute is testing its cherished belief in religious tolerance and room for all. When the UUA was formed in 1961, it united Unitarians, who do not embrace the trinitarian view of God, and Universalists, who believe that a loving God would not condemn human souls to eternal punishment. Many members linked their liberal theology with liberal politics, and the UUA emerged as an ultraliberal voice on gay fights, women's issues and antinuclear campaigns.

Such a broad worldview led many of the church's 216,000 members to delve into alternative religions, or to eschew religion altogether. Critics say they are left with a church with little or no real theology. "It has become utterly relativistic," said David Burton, a Virginia attorney and co-founder of the reform movement.

So Burton and about 20 others were to gather outside Washington the weekend after Easter to plot strategy. Initially, they plan to create education materials for like-minded pastors and churches. Eventually, they would like churches that agree to become dually aligned with both bodies, and even launch new churches. "Our goal is to renew the American Unitarian tradition, not tear apart the UUA or anything else," said Dean Fisher, a cofounder of the movement.

Leaders within the movement maintain they are just as liberal as other Unitarians. They agree with UUA positions on homosexuality and abortion fights, but they are increasingly uncomfortable with the prominent role liberal politics has occupied in the church's life.

Stephen Johnson, a Virginia UUA pastor who describes himself as a proud "liberal Democratic activist," contends that despite the church's push for tolerance, many church members are "among the most dogmatic and closed-minded people I've ever met." Added Johnson, a third-generation Unitarian: "We talk about being a religious tradition that has no creed and no belief system that you have to adhere to. That may be true theologically, but it's certainly not true politically."

Buehrens said the critics are wrong. The UUA has experienced 19 consecutive years of growth and has a "spirit of morale and cooperation ... which has never been higher."

According to Buehrens, the church was granted fights to the name "American Unitarian Association" by an act of the Massachusetts legislature first in 1840, and again in 1961. The church still receives estate bequests to that name from outdated wills. Buehrens dismissed the movement's leaders as a group of "malicious" malcontents who were unable to fit in at their local churches. "You've got to work out your theological issues and relational issues at the local level," he said. "Having failed to pull that off, these folks have decided that the problem is not them, it's everybody else." --RNS