"Sand, Sun and Study" by Rev. Tom Schade

Hello from the Asilomar Conference Center in Monterey California. The conference center is right on a wild stretch of the Pacific Ocean beach where waves crash on crags, sandpipers scurry and the sun sets orange. The air smells of eucalyptus and pine. It is a long way from the snow and ice of New England. I apologize if sending the picture above seems insensitive to the suffering of others.

I am attending the Unitarian Universalist Ministers' Association Institute, a week-long conference with the purpose of Continuing Education for UU ministers. Almost 400 are here. In addition to the usual ministerial stuff, the eating, the socializing, the two worship services a day, there are week-long workshops on various subjects.

I have been spending the week studying with the Rev. Mark Morrison-Reed about the long history of African Americans in the Unitarian, Universalist and Unitarian-Universalist denominations. It's not a story that brings joy and gladness to any heart.

Check out Mark Morrison-Reed's Book

Over and over again, African American ministers, some already established in independent churches of their own, sought to become part of the Liberal Religious movements, and over and over again, were rebuffed or ignored.

White denominational leaders could not imagine that Unitarianism or Universalism could ever have a following among African Americans. They could not imagine that white Unitarians or Universalists could ever accept a black man as their minister. They could not even imagine developing a parallel denomination for African Americans, a "Colored Unitarian Association', something that almost every other mainline Protestant denomination in the USA did in the 19th century.

Assuming that any effort to spread Liberal Religion among African Americans would fail, Unitarian and Universalist leaders often reacted to any opportunity to try with suspicion and rejection.

Many of the Negro ministers who sought a place with us were highly educated and went on to have careers in academia and science. They were people just like the denominational leaders: educated, well-born, politically active, middle-class. They were often put in a double-bind. Being middle-class intellectuals, it was doubted that they could attract poor and working class African Americans. At the same time, denominational leaders did not think that a Liberal Religious movement would ever be appropriate among the masses of black people, under any leadership. So aspiring African American ministers would be unwelcome because they could not do what no one wanted them to do.

It is not useful to judge the actions of people in the past by the standards of today. Most people and institutions rarely rise above the level of their times. Who knows what they will be saying about us a hundred years from now. The purpose of studying history is not find people that seem dumber, in hindsight, than you. You can, however, see how some thoughts and patterns persist even to today. It's not always fun to study the failings and mistakes of the past; there are times I would rather be on the beach, watching the waves roll in. See you on Sunday.