The many paths to freedom were blazed by martyrs, scientists, suffragettes and folksingers, each one on a personal crusade that began with their own set of questions and struggles yet evolved into a larger thrust to bring humanity out of darkness.
There are so many of them. Some with names that are household words and others, not as well known.
And as you see the common thread of free thought and courage that holds them together you think of the common faith... and you realize that our heritage is more than a collection of polite memorials. It's the very fabric of freedom and human progress.
This special online exhibit is by no means complete. But how could it be?
In order to be complete it would have to include your stories and mine.
..........maybe one day it will.
Alexander Graham Bell. An amazing Canadian inventor - that connected the world but refused to have a phone in his own home. He considered it an intrusion. How pleased he would have been that decades later someone provided a button that would turn his invention off entirely and allow it to "go to voice mail". more>>>
Beatrix Potter, another
household name that enriches our bookshelves, childhood memories and nearly
every gift shop and bookstore across our country... also a British Unitarian.
Herb & Myrna West became
disenchanted with the lack of southern hospitatlity they found in a local
Gilmer county church towards those who were of different sexual orientations.
Along with Donna Waddell,
they placed ads that drew interested individuals to meetings, and those
meetings became Mountain Light Unitarian Universalist Church. more>>>
Does Martha White
Ovington - pictured at left, look anything like a person you would think
became the founder of the NAACP?
And yet, she did! more>>>
We talk about few UU's
growing up in Unitarian Universalism. It's often a chosen faith. However,
the 1st President of the UUA after the merger of the Unitarians and Universalists
was a 5th generation Unitarian, Dana McLean Greeley. more>>>
Today most Americans
wouldn't think twice about inviting people of another race into their home
for a social event. But in 1957 the cost of hospitality was much higher.
Coe and Betty Hamling, in addition to all of their other accomplishments
in life were so far ahead of their times they didn't even realize what a
simple invitation could generate in a society still divided along racial
lines. more>>>
When an accident in 1995
took away his mobility, the young actor who played Superman didn't just
fade away. Rather, he found an inner strength to help others in a similar
condition, became a Unitarian Universalist and spent the rest of his life
serving his fellow humans with a superhuman attitude. more>>>
Clyde Tombaugh and his
wife, Patsy, helped found the Unitarian Universalist Church of Las Cruces,
New Mexico. Most of the world knows him though because on the night of February
18, 1930 he did something other scientists said would never happen. He discovered
Pluto. more>>>
UU Minister Revered James
Reeb could have easily stayed in Kansas and spoken about racism from the
safety of his pulpit. He chose instead to march across the Pettus bridge,
as did 11 other UU Clergy, with Dr. Martin Luther King. He was attacked
in Selma Alabama a few days later and died from his injuries on March 9th,
1965. more>>>
Clara Barton founded
the Red Cross and served for 22 years as President of that organization
until retiring at the age of 83. more>>>
While Unitarian Universalists
may not find the term "Little Women" an entirely inclusive form
of speech, the author of the novel by the same name, Louisa May Alcott,
was an early advocate of abolition, women's rights, and temperance. What
an ironic title her most famous book bears! Louisa May Alcott was ANYTHING
- but little.
Blanche Ames fought for birth control, health care for women and was a writer, political cartoonist and inventor. She wore many hats during a time when most women were barely permitted to wear one. more>>>
Charlie Clements started
his military career flying missions over Vietnam after graduating from the
Air Force Academy. He refused to fly into Cambodia though and this refusal
led to his leaving the military altogether. Now, he heads the Unitarian
Universalist Service Committee. more>>>
The far-reaching influence of Ralph Waldo Emerson continues to inspire the open ended paths of Unitarian Universalists to this day. His writings about nature, religion and education are as close as we come to having a philosophical benchmark. more>>>
Frank Gannett was a newspaper
man not opposed to changing his mind when he saw a better way, whether it
was political perspective or otherwise. Although the company that bears
his name today owns numerous broadcast outlets in his day he disliked electronic
media. Despite qualifying for the title of 'filthy rich', he fought the
monopolies and trusts of his era which sought to further enslave a growing
country. more>>>
These days it's common
to find women who are UU Ministers, but Clara Cook Helvie was a first. She
attended Meadville Theological School and graduated in 1917, studied for
five more years and even then found great difficulty in being ordained.
more>>>
Do UU's waste their time signing petitions?
In 1957 Unitarian Universalist and Scientist Linus Pauling sent UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold two thousand signatures from American scientists calling for a nuclear test ban treaty. It gained momentum. By the time it finished circulating Bertrand Russell, Albert Einstein, and Albert Schweitzer were among its 11,021 signers. The world got their treaty although Pauling was harrassed for years by his own government over a number of related political issues. While campaigning for peace he found the time to discover the properties of Vitamin C, earn 40 degrees of higher learning and become the only person to win two unshared Nobel Prizes. more>>>
The son of classical
musicians, both of them faculty members of the Juilliard School in New York,
16-year old Pete Seeger heard bluegrass for the first time in 1935 at a
square dance in Asheville, North Carolina. He went on to record many hit
records, survive the McCarthy era and in later years clean up New York's
Hudson river through a variety of campaigns staged from a genuine Hudson
River Sloop moored there. more>>>
Our Unitarian Universalist Service Committee owes a large part of its origin to the two individuals pictured at left who put their lives at risk to smuggle Jews out of Europe, Marha and Waitstill Sharp.
This activity also led to a need for a 'logo', giving rise to our UU Chalice, probably the first time in the history of any religious organization that visual logo actually became an altar piece instead of the other way around. more>>>
UUA President William
Sinkford was an active lay leader in his own congregation and as a teen
he was President of his Liberal Religious Youth group. He attended Harvard
and went on to work in marketing for Gillette, Avon Products, Johnson Products,
and Revlon. Upon returning to his hometown in Ohio, he heard his call to
ministry and attended Starr King, joining the UUA staff in 1995, becoming
President of the UUA in 2001. more>>>
Not everyone who
enters Harvard Divinty School hoping to become a Unitarian Minister completes
thier plans. After one year the fellow on the left switched to anthropology.
Looking back now, it's hard to tell if Arctic Explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson was able to live for months on end sitting on pieces of floating Arctic ice because he was the son of Icelandic immigrants to Canada or because Unitarians can be so persistant. He was the last Arctic explorer to discover new lands in the frozen north. He studied the culture of a remote Inuit tribe with strong caucasian features that he believed were descended from Vikings and even though some of his ideas and expeditions failed he added new chapters to our understanding of the natural world. more>>>
Vashti Ruth Cromwell was determined to speak out about separation of church and state because even though it had been made clear over 150 years prior to her child being pressured to join a 'Sunday school' class held in a public school during school hours, she fought for this American ideal all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court where a landmark decision was handed down in 1948.
The much
loved UU quote "We need not think alike to love alike" wasn't
dreamed up in a weekend workshop during our lifetime. Rather it came from
quite an ancient Unitarian source, Ferenc Dávid in the 1500's.
If you think our level of tolerance is rare in this day and age, you can only imagine the courage it took to advocate diversity while the likes of Calvin and others were still alive in Europe.
Special Heritage Profile Bonus Features
:::Think all 'Ancient' Unitarians were rank and file non-trinitarians? Think again! Although they chose to identify themselves by a number of classifications that are all but unknown today, Unitarians in the old country were known by as many diverse sub-sections as a modern UU belief survey. And yes, if you want to, you can use one or more of these to talk about your own beliefs... if you want to that is. This link includes a comprehensive historial overview of the Unitarian movement via country. more>>>
:::Who are these Universalists and why are they everywhere? What kind of person only believes in a God who has more compassion than themselves? more>>>
:::UU Jokes. While we take liberty, justice and whatever we happen to be discussing very seriously, Unitarian Universalists take themselves light enough to have collected lots of dry humor about ourselves. Our self-directed jokes aren't just a way to let off a little steam, they often serve to explain who we are.... sometimes. more>>>
:::Are modern Unitarian Universalists 'globalists' or do we just notice that the world is shrinking, weapons are getting bigger and we like folks despite their country of birth? Why the Unitarians & Universalists were behind both the League of Nations and the United Nations and why we have an office across the street from the U.N. today. more>>>
