The Unitarian Universalist Young Adult Prophets Seminar:
Love Does Not Punish
March 10th and 11th,
Harvard Divinity School and First Parish, Cambridge.

The UU Prophets Project is a two-day seminar focused on the intersections of radicalism and Unitarian Universalism. We examine our long UU history of social action in conversation with radical elders who have had long-term involvement in social justice movements and UUism.

In this seminar we look at the vision Universalism presents to an essentially Calvinist society. Our central thesis is that racism, capitalist economics, the American prison industry and American initiated wars are all forms of violence rooted in Calvin's theology of punishment which only radical love can counter. We will study and dialog with important Unitarians and Universalists who in one form or another struggled with radical love as we try to see a way forward for anti-racism, liberalism and humanism.

Recognizing that conflicts in our movement present a microcosm of conflicts in our society, we'll engage in dialog with UU leaders in the Black Empowerment Controversy of 1969 and with leading historians of the Abolition movement focusing on Aiden Ballou, Theodore Parker, Lydia Maria Child and Henry David Thoreau. We will also meet with current UU justice leaders and ask critical questions about our movement today.

Session One: Friday March 10th 2:00 pm
Harvard Divinity School's Braun Room
Introductions: What is the UU Young Adult Prophets Project?
Neil MacLean, Colin Bossen, co-founders
Brief introductions and thematic questions:
Does liberalism fail by both relying on and denying state violence?
Is civil disobedient violence justified if it challenges and potentially prevents state sponsored terror?
What is in the way of a vigorous humanist movement?
What potential lies in indigenous humanism?
Are there movements that offer inspiration to us?

Presentation and discussion of: Women's Prophetic Leadership, Rev. Dorothy Emerson, founder of UU Women's Heritage Society

Discussion of “Learning to be White” by Thandeka

Break
3:45 The Black Empowerment Controversy and its implications for UU justice leadership, presentation by Victor Carpenter, author of UUism and the Quest for Racial Justice

Readings: First chapter of “Learning to Be White” by Thandeka
Excerpts from The Black Empowerment Controversy and the UU Association

Friday Evening: 7:00pm
The Future of Anti-Racism and Reparations in the UUA
Directed Conversation with UU Justice leaders,
Rev. Victor Carpenter, Rev. Jack Mendelsohn, others TBA

Sat Morning: 9:30 Pacifism and Insurrection
First Parish, Cambridge
During the abolition movement Unitarians and Universalists asserted compelling yet strongly divergent prophetic positions. We will discuss the Fugitive Slave Law and the split in the Christian Non Resistance Society focusing on the prophetic leadership of Adin Ballou, Theodore Parker and Henry Thoreau.
Conversation supported by authors Peter Hughes, editor of the Dictionary of UU Biography, Lynn Hughes, intro to Aiden Ballou's “Christian Non-Resistance, ” Rev. Dorothy Emerson, and Prof. Dean Grodzins

Readings:
The Superiority of Moral over Political Power by Aiden Ballou
Plea for Captain John Brown by HD Thoreau

Saturday 2:00 pm
Brief conversation starters:
Zapitismo as a Potential for the Future of humanism, Colin Bossen
Recovering the Indigenous, Neil MacLean
African Indigenous Psychology, Prof. Linda James Myers

Break
Guest presenter: Rev. Jack Mendelsohn
Humanism, Liberalism, the Way Forward

Readings: Excerpts from Being Liberal in an Illiberal Age