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Five smile on Obama
• BARACK Obama recently attended a memorial service held for his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, a woman who helped to raise him and who he described as his second mother. The memorial service was held in a Unitarian church and from this fact issues echoes that reach back through time to the early US presidents and all the way across the pond to Islington.
Unitarianism is arguably the most liberal religious movement in the US and in the UK, including as it does people of widely divergent beliefs in its congregations. Unitarians have consistently been early and outspoken supporters of human rights, supporting an end to slavery, equality for women and, more recently, equal rights for lesbian and gay people. None of these was a popular stand when Unitarians began to speak out.
Outgoing evangelical Christian president George W Bush would probably prefer to be called an atheist than a Unitarian. In a country like the US where belief in a traditional concept of God is a virtual prerequisite for election to public office, even a hint of a connection to Unitarianism, which includes humanists and atheists along with theists in its congregations, could be the kiss of death for a political campaign.
It has not always been so. The small Unitarian movement has been overrepresented among US presidents. Four presidents – John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Millard Fillmore and William Howard Taft – were avowed Unitarians.
Thomas Jefferson has long been claimed also as a Unitarian because of his beliefs, although he never made that official. There was a time when free thinking, inclusiveness and universal justice were seen not as a threat, but as the birthright of every human being.
Surprisingly perhaps, our area of London had strong connections to early US leaders. Unitarian president John Quincy Adams visited Newington Green Unitarian church. Thomas Jefferson corresponded with its minister, Richard Price.
Barack Obama has most recently been a member of a UCC church. The UCC, which works closely with Unitarianism, is the most socially liberal Christian denomination in the US. Obama is not a Unitarian but, through his grandmother, he has certainly been influenced by Unitarian values. Madelyn Dunham was not much of a church-goer, but when she did attend it was at a Unitarian congregation near Seattle, Washington.
Could the inclusive values of liberal religion be returning to the White House? Could we again see a leadership that recognises the value of every person, commits to justice in human relations and values the interdependent web of existence? Let us dare to hope that, at long last, this is coming to pass.
Wherever they are, at least five long-deceased US presidents will be smiling in approval.
Andrew Pakula
Newington Green and Islington Unitarians
Director, London Spirituality Network
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