UUs in the News
Washington Post advocates joining us
Joining a Unitarian Universalist congregation is one of five things Perry Bacon Jr. of The Washington Post advises doing, instead of doomscrolling the news. His opinion piece is also available on his November 27 X account. An excerpt follows:
Joining a Unitarian Universalist congregation is one of five things Perry Bacon Jr. of The Washington Post advises doing, instead of doomscrolling the news. His opinion piece is also available on his November 27 X account. An excerpt follows:
Opinion: Don’t doomscroll about Trump. Do these five things instead.
Elections are important, but they’re not the only way to advance progressive policies.
(Washington Post staff illustration; iStock)
By Perry Bacon Jr.
November 27, 2024 at 7:45 a.m. EST
You might be angry and fearful of another four years of Donald Trump being president. That’s how I feel. I want to encourage you to channel some of that frustration into these five actions:
2. Join a Unitarian Universalist congregation
If you’re part of a Christian, Muslim, Jewish or other religious group that meets regularly and engages politically, skip this. But there is a growing number of Americans, particularly on the left, who are religiously unaffiliated and not regularly congregating with people who share their values.
They should consider the Unitarian Universalists. I recently started regularly attending a UU service in Louisville. It’s much more political than the Christian churches I have previously been a member of. That turned me off at first. Since politics is essentially my job, I try (usually unsuccessfully) to avoid discussions of elections and government in my off-hours. And I was leery of a church whose openly liberal values would clearly turn off Trump supporters and therefore ensure a congregation that didn’t include many Republicans.
But before the election, church members engaged in politics in a practical way, encouraging congregants to go canvassing in opposition to a proposed constitutional amendment here to create a school vouchers program. (It failed.) So at least on Sundays, I was in a community of people working on a concrete, discrete local issue, as opposed to nervously speculating about Vice President Kamala Harris’s poll numbers.
Post-election, I was relieved to be in a space where we openly discussed shared values and ideals we felt had been rejected by America in electing Trump, such as support of immigrants and LGBTQ+ people.
Elections are important, but they’re not the only way to advance progressive policies.
(Washington Post staff illustration; iStock)
By Perry Bacon Jr.
November 27, 2024 at 7:45 a.m. EST
You might be angry and fearful of another four years of Donald Trump being president. That’s how I feel. I want to encourage you to channel some of that frustration into these five actions:
2. Join a Unitarian Universalist congregation
If you’re part of a Christian, Muslim, Jewish or other religious group that meets regularly and engages politically, skip this. But there is a growing number of Americans, particularly on the left, who are religiously unaffiliated and not regularly congregating with people who share their values.
They should consider the Unitarian Universalists. I recently started regularly attending a UU service in Louisville. It’s much more political than the Christian churches I have previously been a member of. That turned me off at first. Since politics is essentially my job, I try (usually unsuccessfully) to avoid discussions of elections and government in my off-hours. And I was leery of a church whose openly liberal values would clearly turn off Trump supporters and therefore ensure a congregation that didn’t include many Republicans.
But before the election, church members engaged in politics in a practical way, encouraging congregants to go canvassing in opposition to a proposed constitutional amendment here to create a school vouchers program. (It failed.) So at least on Sundays, I was in a community of people working on a concrete, discrete local issue, as opposed to nervously speculating about Vice President Kamala Harris’s poll numbers.
Post-election, I was relieved to be in a space where we openly discussed shared values and ideals we felt had been rejected by America in electing Trump, such as support of immigrants and LGBTQ+ people.