Right-Wing UUs

[Matthew78]

There are some people in the UU church who are politically conservative. They are registered Republicans or Libertarians and maybe even independents. I am personally glad that we have political diversity in the UU community. Many UUs seem to think that being politically liberal and religiously liberal go hand-in-hand and that it's only Christian fundamentalists who are capable of being politically conservative or classical liberals in a sense. But this isn't true nor should it be.

I have given this some thought and I realize that Unitarian Universalism is just as compatible with classical liberalism as it is with modern social liberalism. One can be a fully committed UU and be a political conservative just like someone can be gay and be a committed conservative and a member of GOProud or the LOGCabin Republicans. In fact, I think that conservatives and right-libertarians in UU churches should be able to speak up about issues without fear of being ostracized, criticized, or being treated with less respect and courtesy as they deserve.

I don't consider myself a modern social liberal anymore. I am an independent but I find myself agreeing more and more with right-libertarians on several issues than with New Deal liberals or New Left progressives. But I don't discuss my politics at church. In fact, I try to avoid politics. If people assume that I'm a modern social liberal because I'm prochoice and in favor of same-sex marriage, that's fine but I deny being one. I'm open to being persuaded to return to progressive politics but I find myself disagreeing with it quite often. In fact, I have found myself disagreeing with the UUA on a number of issues.

I once read a portion of a sermon by Rev. Meg Riley. It was very touching and made me smile:

"I want to take a moment to welcome a specific group who, if this congregation resembles every other UU congregation I have visited, are always present but usually silent about their existence. They feel that if they share who they are, they will be judged as immoral, or stupid, or perhaps—though we don’t use the word much—evil. I am talking, of course, of UU Republicans.

We laugh. And yet I am completely serious. Within this congregation, within every one of our congregations, are Republicans, who weekly brave the sight of bumper stickers such as the ones I saw in the parking lot today, “Save the world. Vote democrat.”
I want to say two things to those of you who are here. First of all, thank you. Thanks for being here. Especially this week, you embody courage by showing up, and I hope that this service holds healing for you. Second, I want to tell you that we need you here, now more than ever. Your faith needs you. Unitarian Universalism needs you. Our congregations need to include smart, kind, thoughtful, respectful people from both political parties, who are willing to engage in civil discourse with one another about how to move our country forward. We can’t buy into the media traps that have been laid out to cause us to stop thinking and questioning and learning from everyone around us. We need both parties in order to have hope."

This is from a woman after my own heart! She understands true tolerance and true love. The sad fact is that many people in the UU church might have a hard time accepting that someone can be politically conservative or right-libertarian. For some UUs, being a modern social liberal is a natural outcome of being a UU. I say: not at all! When we say that we "welcome all" that should extend to political persuasions and not just spiritual paths.

​

 

[Revoltingest]

I know it's a DIR, but we libertarians do not consider ourselves to ever be "right wing" libertarians.
We favor liberty in general...not just this or that kind.
(Btw, I was married in a UU church.)

 

[Trey of Diamonds]

I know several UU conservatives and have been called one myself, even though I consider myself a moderate.

 

[Antiochian]

I suppose more Republicans aren't UU because many R's are against feminism and gays. (Of course, Biden stood before the nation during the '08 presidential debates and joined Palin in denouncing gay marriage. Bigotry is a universal disease after all...)

One of my best friends is a gay Republican. He drives me crazy, even tried to convince me once the Reagans were actually gay friendly... *cringe* ... and don't get him started on those greedy labor unions... but I love him anyway.

I won't touch the R party with a 5 mile stick, not as long as it remains captive to the Christian Right. I'm not a happy D camper, either. I'm somewhere in between, probably an Independent, though I do consider myself overall a liberal. I've been known to vote 3rd party, and I may again next year.

 

[applewuud]

It is very true that many UU congregations are less "open and accepting" to political conservatives than to any other group. I once heard a very emotional sermon by a woman who believes life begins at conception and believes that abortion should be illegal, who felt "in the closet" around her UU community about that issue. Yet, her pro-life political stance was well grounded in UU principles and purposes.

Oddly, historically most Unitarian churches around the time of the Civil War right through the Eisenhower era were full of Republicans, because of the anti-slavery issue. Eliot Richardson, the Attorney General for Richard Nixon who resigned in protest, was a UU. The Democratic leanings of UUs were started under the New Deal, which brought into American politics the ideas of "Social Christianity" expounded by many liberal theologians at the turn of the 20th century. Adlai Stevenson, the Democratic candidate for president in 1952 and 1956 and UN ambassador during the Cuban missile crisis, was a UU, and that cemented the association.

There is a strong link between theological liberalism and certain kinds of political liberalism, best explained by George Lakoff in his book Moral Politics. Briefly summarizing a 400-page book, he says political viewpoints are strongly correlated with the views of raising a family, between "Strict Father Morality" and "Nurturing Parent Morality". He allows that all people have these paradigms in our heads to a greater or lesser degree, and that people can be politically conservative while theologically liberal and vice versa. A significant proportion of Mormons and evangelical vote for liberals, and they probably feel the same isolation in their congregations as a conservative feels in a UU environment.

 

[Matthew78]

There is a strong link between theological liberalism and certain kinds of political liberalism, best explained by George Lakoff in his book Moral Politics. Briefly summarizing a 400-page book, he says political viewpoints are strongly correlated with the views of raising a family, between "Strict Father Morality" and "Nurturing Parent Morality". He allows that all people have these paradigms in our heads to a greater or lesser degree, and that people can be politically conservative while theologically liberal and vice versa. A significant proportion of Mormons and evangelical vote for liberals, and they probably feel the same isolation in their congregations as a conservative feels in a UU environment.

I haven't read the book but I definitely know about the "Strict Father Morality". That was my dad's preferred method of raising his children.

 

[Trey of Diamonds]

I won't touch the R party with a 5 mile stick, not as long as it remains captive to the Christian Right.

The Republican party hasn't always been that way but it certainly is at the moment. If Lincoln was around today I wonder what ticket he'd run under. :sarcastic

 

[Matthew78]

The Republican party hasn't always been that way but it certainly is at the moment. If Lincoln was around today I wonder what ticket he'd run under. :sarcastic

I imagine his response would be the same as Barry Goldwater. From what I read, Goldwater wasn't too pleased about the fact that the Republican Party was openly courting Evangelical Christians. In fact, I vowed that I would never return to the Republican Party or ever vote for one, in 2004, when it seemed that George W Bush and other Republicans supported a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. It seemed proof to me of this sickening love affair that the Republican Party was having with Christian fundamentalism.

 

[seeker57]

I think if we ostracize anyone in our congregations we risk becoming like the far-right Christians, Muslims, etc., with whom many of us have have difficulties.

We need the social discourse and varying ideas that run the gamut to hone our own beliefs and opinions.

Politically, I cannot find any ground to base any support of the Republicans, especially as long as they are in bed with the far right.

At the same time, while I agree with many of the planks in the Democratic platform, I am very disenchanted with the party because they are so disorganized.

I should also mention that for myself, and for many people I know, our UU congregation is the only island of liberalism in a sea of conservatism. I live in a conservative Christian, mostly blue collar, very Republican area, isolated from any major urban areas by many hundreds of miles.

While I know we have Republicans in our fellowship, and I sympathize with their feelings of exclusion, that sense of exclusion is also how many of us feel about our overall community.

 

[freddiehayek]

When I became a Unitarian I was impressed with the Seven Principles, but did not see any reason why politics should enter into religion. I was a New York liberal, but exposed to the leftist thought in my congregation I developed a serious allergic reaction and became a conservative: a fiscal conservative but not a social conservative as I am an agnostic.

I found that there is an unstated Eight Principle: Salvation comes only through the Democratic Party. While we have a First Principle in which we are supposed to credit everyone with inherent worth, Republicans are constantly mocked. Since the only alternative to the far left is the fiscal conservative on the right I vote Republican. I disagree with the social conservatives in the Republican Party but I see the Republican Party as the antidote to the far left on matters I feel are more important.

Unlike some of like-minded Unitarians who keep their views quiet. I broadcast my views. I have not been personally insulted for doing so but still get to hear snide remarks about Republicans: such remarks are like the Masonic rituals that act to bond members and allow them to recognize each other.

 

[Ernest]

Don't know if this thread is still active...hope so.....good to know others with views similar to mine go to UU.

 

[freddiehayek]

I am new to this sort of thing. What's a thread?

freddie

 

[lostsheep]

I am new to this sort of thing. What's a thread?

freddie

Probably best to answer your question with an example.

The thread we're on right now is called Right-Wing UUs.

 

[freddiehayek]

Thank you for the definition of thread.

 

[Trey of Diamonds]

I have met lots of UUs who consider themselves fiscally conservative but socially liberal. I take this to mean they are capitalists but support same sex marriage. The thing to remember about the terms liberal and conservative is that it often changes from topic to topic rather than an overall blanket, especially in the UU Church where members tend to analyze all aspects of life instead of following a party line.

I'm very liberal on social issues such as gay marriage and health care. I feel our economic system works because it blends both capitalism and socialism together. I support the military and do not think we need to cut back on military spending. I believe in the right to bear arms and generally think the gun control laws lean to far towards removing all guns. I'm an independent and vote for who I think is the better person.

The devils in the details...

 

[applewuud]

The reason "Sunday is the most segregated day in America" is that people tend to hang out with people who agree with their (most of their) views. It's a relief to be somewhere where you don't have to justify or defend yourself all the time, especially when you're in a minority. Religious liberals are a minority of religious people, and to the extent UUs belong to an "organized religion", we're probably a minority of liberal people. That makes us ever more likely to make a UU church an exclusive "club" with no "outsiders" welcome.

So it's understandable, but unfortunate as Meg Riley preached, that we think our co-religionists are co-everything-else.

Former chairpeople of the local Democratic and Republican county committees were both members of my congregation. But politics has become such a wrestling match in this country, with the media whipping up antagonism to fill air time and having a vested interest in fanning flames, that the bad feelings spill over into churches both left and right. :sorry1:

It does bear mentioning that many people in Unitarian churches or fellowships were driven out of other churches for their views, and they carry some bitterness. We would do will to consider these words written by Harry Emerson Fosdick in "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?":

There are many opinions in the field of modern controversy concerning which I am not sure whether they are right or wrong, but there is one thing I am sure of: courtesy and kindliness and tolerance and humility and fairness are right. Opinions may be mistaken; love never is.

 

[freddiehayek]

I have a mild objection to the statement that religious liberals are a minority of religious people. Liberals believe that God will provide all the money to fund their programs to end "oppression" and restore "fairness", or to put it more bluntly that God will always provide enough rich people to be shorn to foot the bills. Conservatives are not that sure.

Freddie

 

[Lucian]

If I may comment from this side of the huge lake, both political parties in the United States are "right-wing". I also wonder why people don't consider the other political parties for a change.

 

[freddiehayek]

Votes for political parties other than Democratic or Republican do nothing to help candidates running because there are never enough votes to make a difference. In this presidential election a vote for Romney or Obama will count but a vote for anyone else is really a passive vote for Obama, the incumbent at this time.

Freddie

 

[Antiochian]

I can't really say I fully embrace either the Democrat or Republican party, though I agree with some ideas of both (D more than R, to be sure). I was tempted to join the Socialist party at one time. More recently, I've toyed with the idea of joining the Green party, or maybe even the Libertarian or Reform party. Ultimately, no single political party or ideology is going to solve all our problems. Democrats get some things right, Marxists get some things right, Republicans get some things right (albeit not many IMO), and so on.

We Americans love to preach the greatness of democracy. But as the highly publicized vote in North Carolina recently showed, democracy is really just the tyranny of the majority. Sadly there's no perfect political system and I dare say there never will be.

BTW, I realize a Green party or Libertarian party presidential candidate has basically no chance of winning. Yet I've voted 3rd party out of principle. I despise Romney. I'm somewhat wary of Obama. Perhaps I'll write in Andy Griffith. He seemed to run Mayberry pretty well... (RIP)