Rev. Kate Rohde, Minister Emerita.

Live stream and In-person.

When the Unitarians merged with the Universalists in the 60’s we called ourselves “Liberal Religion” and our Youth Group was called LRY — Liberal Religious Youth. As time went on people began to think that our use of the word ‘Liberal’ was a political designation, but we adopted the word when we had lots of Republicans in our midst and in our leadership — including national figures.

Liberal is also used to designate a certain philosophy that had strong roots in the Enlightenment and informed founding documents such as The Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.

The root of the word is “libre” free.  And our tradition is rooted in that philosophy. The ditching of those liberal principles, indeed the lack of understanding and belief in these principles by people on all sides of current debates, and the failure of people and institutions who once stood up for those values to do so, is a danger to democracy here and around the world. The rise of illiberal thought on Right and Left is here. Where are we?