Why Are Unitarian*Universalist Congregations Still 97% White?

Could It Be Because Too Many U*U Welcoming Congregations Are *Still* Far From Genuinely Welcoming To God Believing People Including "People Of Color"?

Here is my response to SC Universalist Steven R's question Why are UU Congregations still so mono-cultured?

Allow me to repeat what I said on Rev. Christine Robinson's iminister blog a while back when she addressed this issue. For the record she responded to this comment by saying -

"Robin's got his finger on one of our major problems."

If U*U congregations really want to become more ethnically diverse and genuinely multicultural they are going to have to try a lot harder to be genuinely welcoming towards God believing people from all kinds of different cultural and religious backgrounds. I have been telling U*Us for years that one of the reasons the U*U movement has so few "people of color" as members is the anti-religious intolerance of the hard-core atheist faction of "Humanist" U*Us that rears its ugly head in too many U*U "churches". It does not take that many such "obnoxious atheists"* to repel any number of potential U*Us either. A small but vocal minority of "obnoxious atheists" can make a large number of God believing people feel far from welcome in *their* U*U "church" if their anti-religious intolerance is ignored and/or effectively condoned by the proverbial "silent majority" of that unwelcoming congregation's members.

Even non-theists who are none-the-less open-minded and tolerant people have been seriously put off U*Uism simply by witnessing the anti-religious intolerance of the "fundamentalist atheist" subset of "Humanist" U*Us when visiting some U*U "churches". I have very reasonable grounds to believe that U*U tolerance and even tacit acceptance and approval of the anti-religious intolerance and bigotry of the minority of outspoken "fundamentalist atheists" is a major contributing factor to not only the lack of racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity within the U*U religious community but also to the overall lack of interest of the American public in joining U*U "churches". What God believing person wants to go to "church" on Sunday only to have some obnoxious atheist express condescension, and even outright hostility and contempt, for their theistic religious beliefs?


* To quote former UUA president Rev. Dr. John A. Buehrens

end quote

Would that U*Us had responsibly acted upon what UUA President Bill Sinkford once rightly described as my "obviously deep concerns". Had they done so more than a decade ago, when I first shared my concerns with U*Us, I expect that U*Uism would be more multicultural by now, to say nothing of a less tiny and declining "fringe religion" to use UUA Presidential candidate Rev. Peter Morales' words.

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