Totally can relate. I left the UU after feeling completely gaslit from my minister and the wider congregation on the trans issue. My concerns were considered intolerable and I had no choice but to withdraw from attending. I am no longer a member.
I tried Quakers but that's just the same. To be honest, this is just the entire western world now. I'm hoping 2024 brings change though and some deeper conversations and I certainly welcome your lawsuit in this effort and wish you all the luck. Standing with you!
This is so sad. I remember from when my kids were young it was typically the UU where the interfaith services were held & so much outreach towards the community began. With the politicization, that sense of outreach towards others even when they didn't have "think right"left as did some of those interfaith opportunities- slowly but surely. I had come to depend on those & other opportunities like it, to show my children a world where differences didn't have to equal an immediate threat to self, nor any acquiescence of your own self or belief.
I'm a social worker so I had to study on all of these post modern/critical theories all through grad school as most social work programs are now firmly grounded in those theories. What they've contributed to the world in positive terms beyond a basic awareness of "issues" is minimal @ best. What they've taken away from the world & our children is tragic.
Best wishes for you and your lawsuit against them. Thank you for having the endurance and courage to fight back. So many people in your position have just walked away.
Oh, Kate, this is an amazing story, grievous to see. I am your basic believing Presbyterian and even I recognize that when the Unitarians become ideological Puritans we are in big trouble. Having been in Moscow soon after the wall fell, I have to say it feels so "soviet." May you prevail.
It’s amazing how low the race hustlers can take things, and how willingly their useful idiots go along with it. Anyone spewing “white supremacy” is a destroyer, plain and simple. The most appropriate response is an eye roll at best.
Terrible. Although I'm not a Christian, I have a working relationship with a liberal Christian denomination that has been similarly overtaken by woke ideology. So far there hasn't been an outright coup, but I notice a high degree of knee-jerk fealty to the jargon and customs of progressivism, including a female pastor who wears a pronouns badge. And I was corrected for using the term "homeless" in lieu of the made-up term "unhoused." Newspeak is a sure sign that virtue signalling has taken the place of objective thought.
The irony is that the congregation includes some of the kindest people you'll ever meet, always ready to help and give of themselves. One would think that having the moral framework of an established religion would be sufficient for people to feel properly grounded in what is right, good and true, without adopting the blatantly illiberal customs of a woke religion on top of it. But that's not how it works anymore.
I applaud Dr. Rohde for her refusal to sacrifice the foundational principles of both her church and this country: free speech, plurality of views, and respect for the individual. May she kick their butts in court.
What a sad situation. I wish you the best in your lawsuit. “The simple step of a courageous individual is to not take part in the lie.” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
I appreciate your lawsuit. Now, do not make excuses and give rhetoric such as -'I'm old. I'm tired.' If you want to preserve not just your religious liberty and other democratic ideals, you will have to fight, and fight hard. I have a mom that already went through this Marxist nonsense, from Imperial Japan and their subjugation of Korea. Like she said, Thank God for American troops. I will not let this country fall to a bunch destructive Marxists/Maoists, Stalinists and Imperial Japanese ideologues. If it bankrupts me financially, I will stand athwart from them.
People of faith with politically liberal views are being attacked by the rabid far-left "woke" dogma that has infiltrated every walk of life in Western society. This phenomenon has also been occurring, for example, in progressive Jewish organizations and temples. (Read "Woke Anti-Semitism: How a Progressive Ideology Harms Jews", by progressive American Jewish leader David Bernstein.) The irony here is that politically progressive Christians and Jews played big roles in the women's movement, the civil rights movement and the mainstreaming of non heterosexuals into Western life (both religious and secular). Unfortunately, woke dogma (as described by Dr. Rohde and in Mr. Bernstein's book) is not interested in judging a person by their character and deeds but on whether they belong to groups of "oppressed" or "oppressors". It insists that if you are someone "of color" or belong to an LGBTQ community you are among the "oppressed". If you are white with European ancestry, if you are hetero-sexual or if you are Jewish, you automatically fall into the "oppressor" category. I do not consider myself politically liberal. I'm politically independent. But I count myself among liberals on certain issues, including equal access in secular society for all persons and the free exchange of ideas, whether liberal or conservative. Woke dogma seeks to shut this down and if given free reign, will destroy all the good that classical liberalism has brought society.
Thank you for your long service to Unitarian Universalism and thank you for standing up for its values again today. I am so sorry about what has been done to you. Thank you for speaking out about it with honesty and courage.
Shit, they got the UUs too. Well, now you can freely denounce them and call them out for their hypocrisy and illiberal views. I guess I'm not surprised. I really don't know why the hell it's been so easy to poison the liberal well this way. But, if you can convince conservatives to abandon conservatism for the Trump cult, I guess you can do equally to get former liberals to join the wokeness cult.
I, too, am in exile from the UU church because I do not support the trans movement as it now exists where it encourages young people to harm their bodies with hormones, surgery, and drugs, and where it encroaches on the hard won rights of natal women. It is comforting to know I am not the only one. I have felt so very alone and silenced.
I recently went back to a Baptist congregation in Canada after years away from any church. People from 40 different countries represented. Many black and brown people and new immigrants. Musical lyrics often sung in multiple languages. And everyone gets along fine, with no evidence of identity politics or policing of "microagressions". Just a bunch of humans with something bigger in common than the amount of melanin in their skin. And the congregation is growing fast. Maybe you should try a new church?
My Mother loved UU for all the reasons you describe and would be horrified to know what it has degenerated into. I admire your sense of justice and willingness to give voice to the many who cannot or will not speak out.
Universal intolerance in service of a Unitary vision of ultimate authority vested not in God, but in humans. Define the oppressor and oppress him in arbitrary exercises of power. No allowance for the possibility that ultimate justice resides in heaven. Decency and humility are cast aside.
IMO it would be a more productive use of energy to gather the traditional UUs and re-establish a new congregation than to give energy to the old structures by fighting them.
Totally can relate. I left the UU after feeling completely gaslit from my minister and the wider congregation on the trans issue. My concerns were considered intolerable and I had no choice but to withdraw from attending. I am no longer a member.
I tried Quakers but that's just the same. To be honest, this is just the entire western world now. I'm hoping 2024 brings change though and some deeper conversations and I certainly welcome your lawsuit in this effort and wish you all the luck. Standing with you!
This is so sad. I remember from when my kids were young it was typically the UU where the interfaith services were held & so much outreach towards the community began. With the politicization, that sense of outreach towards others even when they didn't have "think right"left as did some of those interfaith opportunities- slowly but surely. I had come to depend on those & other opportunities like it, to show my children a world where differences didn't have to equal an immediate threat to self, nor any acquiescence of your own self or belief.
I'm a social worker so I had to study on all of these post modern/critical theories all through grad school as most social work programs are now firmly grounded in those theories. What they've contributed to the world in positive terms beyond a basic awareness of "issues" is minimal @ best. What they've taken away from the world & our children is tragic.
Best wishes for you and your lawsuit against them. Thank you for having the endurance and courage to fight back. So many people in your position have just walked away.
I quit my board position and left the church in 2019 due to everything you’ve said and more. I hope you win your lawsuit.
Oh, Kate, this is an amazing story, grievous to see. I am your basic believing Presbyterian and even I recognize that when the Unitarians become ideological Puritans we are in big trouble. Having been in Moscow soon after the wall fell, I have to say it feels so "soviet." May you prevail.
It’s amazing how low the race hustlers can take things, and how willingly their useful idiots go along with it. Anyone spewing “white supremacy” is a destroyer, plain and simple. The most appropriate response is an eye roll at best.
Terrible. Although I'm not a Christian, I have a working relationship with a liberal Christian denomination that has been similarly overtaken by woke ideology. So far there hasn't been an outright coup, but I notice a high degree of knee-jerk fealty to the jargon and customs of progressivism, including a female pastor who wears a pronouns badge. And I was corrected for using the term "homeless" in lieu of the made-up term "unhoused." Newspeak is a sure sign that virtue signalling has taken the place of objective thought.
The irony is that the congregation includes some of the kindest people you'll ever meet, always ready to help and give of themselves. One would think that having the moral framework of an established religion would be sufficient for people to feel properly grounded in what is right, good and true, without adopting the blatantly illiberal customs of a woke religion on top of it. But that's not how it works anymore.
I applaud Dr. Rohde for her refusal to sacrifice the foundational principles of both her church and this country: free speech, plurality of views, and respect for the individual. May she kick their butts in court.
What a sad situation. I wish you the best in your lawsuit. “The simple step of a courageous individual is to not take part in the lie.” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
I appreciate your lawsuit. Now, do not make excuses and give rhetoric such as -'I'm old. I'm tired.' If you want to preserve not just your religious liberty and other democratic ideals, you will have to fight, and fight hard. I have a mom that already went through this Marxist nonsense, from Imperial Japan and their subjugation of Korea. Like she said, Thank God for American troops. I will not let this country fall to a bunch destructive Marxists/Maoists, Stalinists and Imperial Japanese ideologues. If it bankrupts me financially, I will stand athwart from them.
People of faith with politically liberal views are being attacked by the rabid far-left "woke" dogma that has infiltrated every walk of life in Western society. This phenomenon has also been occurring, for example, in progressive Jewish organizations and temples. (Read "Woke Anti-Semitism: How a Progressive Ideology Harms Jews", by progressive American Jewish leader David Bernstein.) The irony here is that politically progressive Christians and Jews played big roles in the women's movement, the civil rights movement and the mainstreaming of non heterosexuals into Western life (both religious and secular). Unfortunately, woke dogma (as described by Dr. Rohde and in Mr. Bernstein's book) is not interested in judging a person by their character and deeds but on whether they belong to groups of "oppressed" or "oppressors". It insists that if you are someone "of color" or belong to an LGBTQ community you are among the "oppressed". If you are white with European ancestry, if you are hetero-sexual or if you are Jewish, you automatically fall into the "oppressor" category. I do not consider myself politically liberal. I'm politically independent. But I count myself among liberals on certain issues, including equal access in secular society for all persons and the free exchange of ideas, whether liberal or conservative. Woke dogma seeks to shut this down and if given free reign, will destroy all the good that classical liberalism has brought society.
Thank you for speaking your truth, Rev. Kate. Many of us agree with you.
Thank you for your long service to Unitarian Universalism and thank you for standing up for its values again today. I am so sorry about what has been done to you. Thank you for speaking out about it with honesty and courage.
Shit, they got the UUs too. Well, now you can freely denounce them and call them out for their hypocrisy and illiberal views. I guess I'm not surprised. I really don't know why the hell it's been so easy to poison the liberal well this way. But, if you can convince conservatives to abandon conservatism for the Trump cult, I guess you can do equally to get former liberals to join the wokeness cult.
I, too, am in exile from the UU church because I do not support the trans movement as it now exists where it encourages young people to harm their bodies with hormones, surgery, and drugs, and where it encroaches on the hard won rights of natal women. It is comforting to know I am not the only one. I have felt so very alone and silenced.
I recently went back to a Baptist congregation in Canada after years away from any church. People from 40 different countries represented. Many black and brown people and new immigrants. Musical lyrics often sung in multiple languages. And everyone gets along fine, with no evidence of identity politics or policing of "microagressions". Just a bunch of humans with something bigger in common than the amount of melanin in their skin. And the congregation is growing fast. Maybe you should try a new church?
My Mother loved UU for all the reasons you describe and would be horrified to know what it has degenerated into. I admire your sense of justice and willingness to give voice to the many who cannot or will not speak out.
Universal intolerance in service of a Unitary vision of ultimate authority vested not in God, but in humans. Define the oppressor and oppress him in arbitrary exercises of power. No allowance for the possibility that ultimate justice resides in heaven. Decency and humility are cast aside.
IMO it would be a more productive use of energy to gather the traditional UUs and re-establish a new congregation than to give energy to the old structures by fighting them.