Unitarian Church in Maryland Vandalized for Being Liberal

[Jon8503]

From: Daily Kos Post

A small Unitarian church in the exurbs of Baltimore got attacked - with swastikas and BB guns - for being liberal.

For a period of several weeks from late August into September, the Cedarhurst Unitarian Universalist Association's church in Finksburg was repeatedly vandalized.

The church has decided to go public with what happened.

"It seemed it was an almost articulated plan of intimidation," said Cedarhurst's pastor, the Rev. Henry Simoni-Wastila. "This was not just mindless vandalism for entertainment purposes. This was directed at our identity."

That makes it a hate crime, he said.

***

According to messages left by the vandals, they were attacking the church's theology, Simoni-Wastila said, but he would not explain how.

"You don't want to get into that game of defending yourself against outlandish charges," he said

He did say the church was attacked for being too liberal and not part of the majority religious belief system of Carroll County.

The Unitarian Universalists, a denomination of about 240,000, promotes tolerance of gays and other groups and accepts many faith traditions under one umbrella. The goal of the denomination is to help each individual in his or her spiritual journey. Though she did not see the messages, Warburton said they seemed to attack the church for being inclusive of all religions.

Unlike other incidents in the county, where churches have had signs supportive of gays ripped down or defaced, these crimes did not attack the Unitarian Universalists' endorsement of gay rights, Simoni-Wastila said, but attacked the church for existing.

For readers from outside the area, Finksburg is on the extreme eastern edge of Carroll County along Route 140, near Reisterstown. A very small part of the Reisterstown Zip Code (21136) extends over the (there) creek-sized Patapsco River in Carroll County and abuts Finksburg proper; I grew up in that odd urban enclave and my parents still live there. This region is approximately 20 miles NW of Baltimore by air. The Cedarhurst Unitarian Universalist Church is in Finksburg on Club House Road right off of Route 140 not far from Route 91. As a teenager, I would often walk up Route 91 from my parents' house to 140 as a way to get exercise and kill time. My first job as a teenager was a Spangler's Market, an overgrown vegetable stand that paid me cash $2.00/hour off the books, sub-minimum; Spanglers was, at a flank angle, across 140 from the current location of CUU.

I have attended services at CUU on one occasion. The former pastor of CUU - the mother of a Princeton acquaintance of mine - married me and my wife at a ceremony in Annapolis in 1999. While I have not continued to attend services there and was never a regular there, it makes my blood boil that this should happen there - or anywhere, of course - but there especially.

Thugs who objected to the liberal theology and liberal morality of the CUU on sexual matters shot and swastika-ed the church. These thugs do not represent the mainstream of Carroll County; while Carroll is extremely conservative, these crimes were not an act of conservatism but of fascist, theocratic thuggery, and that has NOT been part of Carroll County's culture, particularly eastern Carroll abutting moderate Reisterstown.

Frankly, learning of this makes me want to get active with that church. It is the nearest Unitarian church to my house. My wife teaches Sunday School at the decidedly non-Unitarian Northwest Baptist Church en route to CUU, and I more or less need to be here instead of at the church of my choice in Sunday morning, since Northwest's nursery cannot easily handle an autistic 3 year-old and also because my wife needs the time away from fooling around with the kids. It is conceivable that CUU could handle children but I don't know, they are much smaller than Northwest. The best way to rebuke these thugs is to help the church grow.

CUU is not large, maybe 100 members or so. Its building is not ostentatious, fairly easy to miss. Carroll County has voted Republican in every Presidential election since Hoover, except barely (1 percent) going for Johnson. The county paper has lots of "religion notes" including, in this instance, this story about the sole Unitarian church in the county near the Reisterstown line. Carroll County is home to many Methodist churches, many Lutheran churches founded by and for the families of German immigrants whose names dot the hills and farms of the area. There are also many more conservative churches including Pentacostal churches, Assemblies of God and many independent churches. Growth in the eastern part of the county, including the influx of many African-American residents (about 2% of the county is Black), has changed the character of the county slightly. Growth brings moderate, Democrats, Jewish residents, Baltimoreans who enter the county rear-end first looking east to Baltimore, not face-first looking at the county seat of Westminster.

Sadly, I am surprised the church has survived this long without getting assaulted by thugs.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/11/19/91352/818

[no_hypocrisy]

1. In Sinclair Lewis' novel, "Elmer Gantry", the Unitarian minister is

viciousless attacked by a mob, stirred up by Elmer and the bigotry that comes with his brand of fundamentalism. The minister loses an eye, his church, and essentially hope for the future. I cried throughout the book, but this specific part in the book was heartbreaking to me.

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. I know I should read it someday, but just can't bring myself to do it.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. It's devastating. I was actually shouting at the book as I was

sucked into the plot.

[originalpckelly]

3. RW: "We need to protect religious freedom...

...so long as it isn't any other than what we believe in."

[MadHound]

4. Damn, if you aren't bigoted, ignorant, homophobic, violent, and conservative

Then you aren't a Christian?

What kind of fucked up theological basis is that?

[tularetom]

6. Damn! For a "blue" state, MD has a lot of

red necks...

[Manifestor_of_Light]

7. the first unitarian martyr & more information

The first Unitarian in history was Michael Servetus, born in Spain. (1511-1553)

He believed the Trinity to be an invention of churches.

He was imprisoned by the Catholics in Vienna but escaped. He was hated by Martin Luther and John Calvin. Had the Catholics kept him imprisoned, they would have executed him. John Calvin decided to equal their fervor against religious freedom. He was enticed to Geneva by John Calvin to engage in debates. He was tried and sentenced to death for believing in One God and disbelieving in infant baptism, primarily under pressure of John Calvin.

He was Barbecued at the Stake October 27, 1553 just outside Geneva. In order to make the torture worse he was burned with green wood.

He was a victim of both the Catholic and Protestant Inquisitions.

Servetus was also a physician and the first European to describe blood circulation, in 1553, some decades before William Harvey.

His words to his condemnors were, "I will burn, but this is a mere event. We will continue our discussion in eternity." :cry:


A Bit more history:
The Universalists were another denomination that believed in Universal Salvation. Both groups were very active in the anti-slavery movement and social activism, as well as other groups like the United Church of Christ, the Congregationalists of New England, Pilgrims who founded Yale and Harvard, NOT the Church of Christ in the South which is quite fundy.

The Unitarians and the Universalists merged in 1962, forming the U-U church.
No one is required to believe in a specific creed, so they can't throw you out!! They do have a Statement of Principles on their website. I have met people from ALL traditions --- from former Jews, former Catholics, former Protestants, atheists, agnostics, Wiccans, pagans, you name it, there.

Senator Frank Church of Idaho, remember him from the Watergate Committee??? His son, The Reverend Frank Forrester Church, is a prominent U-U minister in New York City.

U-U Churches and Fellowships have been vandalized before in various places in the U.S. I know it happened at the nearest Unitarian Fellowship to where I live. Swastikas as graffiti, etc.



Our present State Comptroller, Carole Keeton Four Names, Three Parties Strayhorn, wanted to revoke the tax-exempt status of the U-U church of Denison, Texas, and compared it to "groups of kids running up and down Congress Avenue in Austin doing Halloween pranks and soaping windows".


Christians are horrified when they ask, "But are they Christian?" and I say, "No. We worship the Giver of Life -- the Coffeepot."


Unitarians are cool. Check them out at: www.uua.org