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Obama connection to UU

Trey of Diamonds

Trey of Diamonds

Well-Known Member
tomspug said:
What historical figures were Unitarians? I'd never heard that before...
Click to expand...

Here is a list of Unitarians who served in the early US government. (1740-1900)

John Adams
Abigail Adams
John Quincy Adams
Charles Francis Adams
Thomas Jefferson
Millard Fillmore
Theophilus Parsons
Timothy Pickering
Joseph Story
Joseph Hodges Choate
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Edward Everett
Charles Sumner
Daniel Webster
John C. Calhoun
Robert Gould Shaw
Josiah Quincy
George F. Hoar
Justin S. Morrill
George Bancroft

From the list of early American Unitarians 1740-1900

Notable American Unitarians

And a nice article from New England Magazine 1900.

New England Magazine
 
Trey of Diamonds

Trey of Diamonds

Well-Known Member
Oh, and in addition to the above list, add Benjamin Franklin. Not sure why the Harvard list excludes him while including Jefferson. Neither were members of a Unitarian Church but are considered Unitarian due to their declared beliefs.
 
Green Gaia

Green Gaia

Veteran Member
I, of course, think it is wonderful Obama's connection to UU and would love to see a less biased article on the same information and one that is not so obviously anti-UU.
 
Guitar's Cry

Guitar's Cry

Disciple of Pan
Article said:
[FONT=times new roman,times]"The bumper stickers on cars outside the church gave an insight into its members' beliefs: ‘No War.' ‘If you want peace, work for justice.' ‘An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.'[/FONT]

[FONT=times new roman,times]"Activism for peace and human rights causes has characterized the congregation of the First Unitarian Church of Honolulu since it was organized 50 years ago. [/FONT]
Click to expand...

And peace is a bad thing? I'm liking the UUs more and more...

Article said:
[FONT=times new roman,times]Obama discarded the mushy Unitarian agnosticism[/FONT]
Click to expand...

Why is agnosticism always mushy? :sarcastic




[FONT=times new roman,times][/FONT]
 
lilithu

lilithu

The Devil's Advocate
Trey of Diamonds said:
Here is a list of Unitarians who served in the early US government. (1740-1900)

John Adams
Abigail Adams
John Quincy Adams
Charles Francis Adams
Thomas Jefferson
Millard Fillmore
Theophilus Parsons
Timothy Pickering
Joseph Story
Joseph Hodges Choate
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Edward Everett
Charles Sumner
Daniel Webster
John C. Calhoun
Robert Gould Shaw
Josiah Quincy
George F. Hoar
Justin S. Morrill
George Bancroft
Click to expand...
What position did Abigail Adams serve in?

I would add Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (who were both Unitarian and Quaker). Even tho they did not serve in govt, they influenced our constitution for the better.

And Julia Ward Howe, Unitarian who wrote the Battle Hymn of the Republic and created Mother's Day.

Clara Barton, Universalist who founded the American Red Cross.

Julliette Gordon Low, who founded the Girl Scouts.

Also, Thomas Starr-King, who was a close friend and adviser to Lincoln. And Theodore Parker, whom Lincoln paraphrased in "Govt of the people, by the people, and for the people."


Trey of Diamonds said:
Oh, and in addition to the above list, add Benjamin Franklin. Not sure why the Harvard list excludes him while including Jefferson. Neither were members of a Unitarian Church but are considered Unitarian due to their declared beliefs.
Click to expand...
I would not include people just because they have "unitarian" beliefs. If we did that, we'd be claiming a lot of people who do not identify as us. The reason why I feel comfortable claiming Jefferson but do not claim Franklin is because Jefferson is quoted in a letter saying that if there were a Unitarian congregation in his part of VA, he would be part of it, but there wasn't. He also claimed (incorrectly) that every "lad" alive in his day would become a Unitarian in their lifetimes. And lastly, because whenever he visited Philadelphia, he would attend worship at Joseph Priestly's Unitarian congregation. I have heard no such evidence for Franklin. So as much as I admire the man, he's not a Unitarian imo.
 
Trey of Diamonds

Trey of Diamonds

Well-Known Member
lilithu said:
What position did Abigail Adams serve in?
Click to expand...

First lady.

From the Harvard book.
She leaves her country a most remarkable record as patriot and First Lady, wife of one President and mother of another.
Click to expand...
lilithu said:
I would add Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Click to expand...

Some of these are in the Harvard book but in different sections. Others were left out that should have been included.

lilithu said:
I would not include people just because they have "unitarian" beliefs. If we did that, we'd be claiming a lot of people who do not identify as us. The reason why I feel comfortable claiming Jefferson but do not claim Franklin is because Jefferson is quoted in a letter saying that if there were a Unitarian congregation in his part of VA, he would be part of it, but there wasn't. He also claimed (incorrectly) that every "lad" alive in his day would become a Unitarian in their lifetimes. And lastly, because whenever he visited Philadelphia, he would attend worship at Joseph Priestly's Unitarian congregation. I have heard no such evidence for Franklin. So as much as I admire the man, he's not a Unitarian imo.
Click to expand...

Interesting, I didn't know that. I know both are often contested and favorite discussion topics around the coffee pot. Thanks. :D
 
applewuud

applewuud

Active Member
"She also showed her politics, wearing a campaign button for Adlai Stevenson."

Adlai Stevenson, who was the Democratic candidate for president in 1952 and 1956 but was defeated by Eisenhower, was a lifelong Unitarian.

William Howard Taft was the last President who was a Unitarian. We don't talk about him so much anymore since he led the Unitarians to support WWI, and was seen as anti-progressive by his mentor Theodore Roosevelt, who ran against him in 1912. But he went on to become Chief Justice.

From Wikipedia: Taft was brought up in the Unitarian church and remained a faithful Unitarian his entire life (later in life he once remarked, "I do not believe in the divinity of Christ, and there are many other of the postulates of the orthodox creed to which I can not subscribe."[2]).
 
EverChanging

EverChanging

Well-Known Member
I was really surprised to learn that the same church actually housed Madalyn Murray O'Hair after her battle before the Supreme Court! She had to flee her residence because of death threats, assaults on her children, people attacking her house, property, pet, etc.

MURRAY: Well, we were just floored by the kindness of the people here. The minister of the Unitarian Church in Honolulu invited US over to his office the day we arrived and told us to make it our headquarters while we looked for a permanent residence. When we couldn't find a place for about a week, he let us live in the church; that's ironic, isn't it? But it points up the vastly different intellectual atmosphere that prevails here in Hawaii. Anyway, we rustled up some mattresses and put them on the floor and slept there, cooked there and ate there until we found a home. I was overwhelmed by the number of calls we got from people offering to rent us houses, to take us out to dinner, to drive us around house hunting. Everyone was just indescribably kind. Finally we moved into a house offered to us for an incredible $125 a month by a man who feels that the separation of church and state is a valid constitutional issue which should be fought for.
Click to expand...
(can't post links yet, found it on positive atheism)
 
lilithu

lilithu

The Devil's Advocate
EverChanging said:
I was really surprised to learn that the same church actually housed Madalyn Murray O'Hair after her battle before the Supreme Court! She had to flee her residence because of death threats, assaults on her children, people attacking her house, property, pet, etc.
Click to expand...
What does she mean by the vastly different intellectual atmosphere that prevails in Hawaii? Just about any UU church anywhere in North America would have shown her family the same support. The separation of church and state is one of the founding ideals of our faith, because we believe in freedom of conscience. In fact, it wasn't O'Hair's case that caused the Supreme Court to rule that official prayer in school is unconstitutional. It was a separate case filed by a Unitarian family from Pennsylvania, to which O'Hair's case was appended.

A significant portion of the leaders of First Freedom First are Unitarian Universalists. UU congregations are often involved with Americans for the Separation of Church and State. And the Interfaith Alliance was founded by a UU.

We have multiple statements supporting separation:
UUA: Unitarian Universalist Policy
 
J Bryson

J Bryson

Well-Known Member
O'Hair didn't have a clue regarding the UUs, it seems. Her anti-religious attitude was so zealous that I suspect that she had to see the Hawaii church as a fluke, a product of the local culture rather than the religious principles themselves.
 
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