The following is an open letter to the Unitarian Universalist community of Amherst, MA. If this topic and challenge is of interest, you are invited to join us to discuss the book mentioned below. You can learn more and register on the UUSA web page.

The UUA Common Read this year is “On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World” by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg.  Discussing this thoughtful book is an excellent way for the Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst to follow what we learned in last year’s Common Read of The Indigenous People’s History of the United States about the harms done to Native Americans by our settler colonialist ancestors.  Often referred to as “America’s original sin” the mistreatment of Indigenous Peoples deserves our special attention as a Unitarian Universalist congregation with a meetinghouse residing on land taken from Native Americans, in a town named after the “poster child of white supremacy” in the 18^th century, the Lord Baron General Amherst.

Few Unitarian Universalists today would question the atrocities promulgated by the settler colonialists, citizen militias, and the British army during the 17^th and 18^th centuries in New England.  However, many of us may not understand the direct relationship between the teachings of our religious ancestors, the “Standing Order of Congregationalist Churches,” and the harms done to native peoples.  Ministers preaching from the pulpits of the Massachusetts Bay Colony institutionalized the message that Indigenous peoples were “uncivilized” and this helped to justify the displacement of Native peoples from land they had occupied for centuries.  A hallmark of “the New England Way” of the Congregationalists of the time was their covenantal relationship with the divine, a relationship that left native peoples clearly outside of covenant.

But that was a long time ago…. right?  And it was before the Unitarian and Universalists split from their Calvinist roots…. right?   So, that wasn’t “us” …. was it? 

Perhaps we’d like to believe that in rejecting the Calvinist doctrines of predestination, original sin, and the depravity of humans, Unitarian and Universalist congregations were more open to viewing Native Americans as equals.  But a quick look at our history suggests otherwise.

Unitarian minister and President of the American Unitarian Association, Samuel Atkins Eliot, served on the Board of Indian Commissioners during the Taft Administration.  Writing about the founding of the Boston-based Society for Propagating the Gospel Among the Indians, Eliot reported that while disagreeing on many articles of faith, both the conservative and liberal Congregationalist churches of the time agreed that the Indigenous population was indeed “degenerate.”  The only difference was that the more liberal churches, which eventually emerged as Unitarian, thought “the Indian could be saved.”  Reverend Eliot gave addresses across the U.S. arguing that only assimilation into white culture would save Native Americans from their own “barbarism.”   Despite the significant rift that occurred between conservative (Calvinist) and liberal (Unitarian) churches beginning in the 18^th and continuing into the 19^th century, history shows that Unitarians were complicit in the continued oppression of Native peoples.

So, what do we do with that today? 

An article in UU World reported that at the UUA’s 2007 General Assembly, delegates called for us to research our history and “uncover our links and complicity with the genocide of native people.”  And then to move “…toward the goal of accountability through acknowledgment, apology, repair, and reconciliation.”   

The UU Mass Action campaign for Indigenous Rights agrees when they write… “We believe that we are called to name the crimes committed by colonial settlers against Indigenous people and work to dismantle the systems of oppression that continue to harm BIPOC people today.”

Maybe we can apply the thoughtful and deliberate practice of “repentance and repair” suggested by Rabbi Ruttenberg to begin to understand our responsibility as a congregation toward harms done by our ancestors. 

At least it might be a place to begin a conversation.

If this interests you, please register for our 2023-24 Common Read of On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World” . Our first gathering will be at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst Meetinghouse after the service on October 15, 2023. Two more zoom meetings are being planned for evenings in November and December.

---

NOTE:  the opinions expressed in this short essay are entirely that of the author and not necessarily anyone else who might be a member or friend of the UUSA.