As a service to our supporters, we will occasionally provide updates on significant developments at the Boston-based Unitarian Universalist Association. Today, we report on a July 21, 2025, staff-written article in UU World, entitled “Five Years After ‘Widening the Circle’ Report, UUs Continue Antiracism, Anti-oppression Work.”
To bring everyone up to date, in 2017, amidst the hiring controversy for a new Southern Regional Director, the resignation of the UUA President, and the ensuing social media chaos, the UUA Board of Trustees declared UUism harbored “structures and patterns that foster racism, oppression, and white supremacy.” The Board then constituted the Committee on Institutional Change (COIC). The Board gave the COIC two explicit charges
- Analyze structural racism and white supremacy within the UUA.
- Conduct an audit of the operation of white privilege and the structure of power within Unitarian Universalism.
That charge was then carried out by publishing Widening the Circle of Concern in 2020. This report then became the roadmap for the UUA to root out white supremacy.
Widening the Circle of Concern has been widely criticized as a flawed report. We dedicated two chapters in our book, Used to be UU, to reviewing the report. We have made that review available in a new podcast format. See below for more information on our podcast on this topic.
Five Years Later
The UU World article was structured as a Q&A with Rev. Shige Sakurai, UUA Special Assistant for Equity, Belonging, and Change. The first question was quite good, asking for a detailed description of the UUA’s greatest accomplishments over the past five years. The answer, unfortunately, listed only administrative actions akin to rearranging deck chairs.
There was no declaration of victory over white supremacy culture. Instead, what was offered was the equivalent of “thoughts and prayers,” noting only a deepening commitment to address racism and oppression.
A list of administrative actions included new programs implemented at UU seminaries, as well as updates to the UU Ministers’ Association (UUMA) Continuing Education Standards aimed at preventing misconduct and advancing antiracism, anti-oppression, and multiculturalism.
Mosaic
The most alarming administrative action was the announcement of Mosaic, an online hub for resources for “dismantling racism and oppression in ourselves and our institutions.”
After drilling down, one arrives at the Mosaic Lifespan Anti-Racism Curriculum module. The idea here is to provide congregations with a Religious Education program similar to OWL (Our Whole Lives) program, which provides sexuality education to our youth. However, among the goals of the Mosaic Lifespan Curriculum is
To create lessons that will be relevant to the aims of faith development for each age group, as well as to our growing understanding of best practices and justice-centered parlance that arise out of BIPOC movements to decolonize and decenter whiteness.
There are topics for classes designed for grades K-1, 2-3, etc., that have a heavy emphasis on racial characteristics, such as skin color. There is no mention of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech, which expresses the hope that future children will be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
There can be no doubt that the UUA has drifted quite far from UU liberal values. We allow our readers to decide if the Mosaic program is suitable for the youth in your congregation.
The Podcast
We started the Fifth Principle Project in January 2020 to renew the democratic process in the governance of the UUA. After five years, it has become clear that the Association has used its substantial bureaucratic power to effectively end democratic governance. We concluded that our original mission is no longer viable.
In the Fifth Principle Project: Phase 2, we want to introduce earlier writings and books to a new audience by leveraging AI and podcasting. For example, we have uploaded select chapters of Used to be UU to Google’s Notebook LM engine to create a podcast. All this is new, and we are still working out the details. Follow this link to listen to S1:E3 Widening the Circle of Concern of our Used to Be UU podcast. Full release pending.
Frank is working on a new book, Republican Theocracy: Why Democratic Compromise Has Died. You can listen to the Introduction to this book on our podcast. Follow this link to S4:E1 Book Introduction.
After you listen to the podcasts, please take a moment to post comments and rate them on our podcast channel to help promote this new project. You can also return to this site and share your thoughts in the comments section.
We will also be presenting a workshop at the all-virtual NAUA Annual Summit, September 30 – October 5, 2025, regarding our Phase 2 plans for the Fifth Principle Project. Register to get the URL.
The UUA continues to fade into irrelevance.
Not sure what the major topic for which comments are requested. I listened to the Sxx E3 and E4 podcasts. I will comment on 1. Podcast(s) efficacy and suitability, 2. The content (ideas presented) of 5yrs after COC, and 3 Threat to Democracy – rightwing ( 2 movements), and radial leftwing movement. Using the AI generated podcast format seems to present a non-emotional and pleasant suppressed or moderated rhetoric presentation. Hopefully, this will result in allowing a wider audience to view these often volatile concepts and become informed of the issues involved. One does not have to agree (be on… Read more »
I would be interested in hearing someone report who has actually read through the Mosaic curriculum materials. I am not inclined to pay $30 to be trained as a facilitator in order to be able to download the materials. One gets the impression, from the topics listed, and from other materials on the Mosaic website, that the Mosaic curriculum MAY be pretty extreme and one-sided in its views, for example on issues such as “defund the police” versus the alternative of police reform. But, the devil’s in the details, so maybe the curriculum materials in practice aren’t quite as one-sided… Read more »
Someone supplied me with a link to the curriculum materials. Here are some brief comments: The materials are pretty ideological from the middle school level on up. What do I mean by ideological? The curriculum presents arguments for reparations, and policy abolition/defund the police without making any attempt to provide any other side to discussing these issues. Therefore, the lessons on these topics are really more propaganda than an attempt to educate and encourage a debate and discussion on these topics. The Mosaic people feel they know the truth, and they need to try to pound it into your brain.… Read more »
For those interested in Matt Yglesias’s take on Tema Okun’s WSC framework, it can be easily found by googling Yglesias and Okun. TLDR: Okun’s WSC creates various straw men that have little to do with race or racial inequities, and her framework is detrimental to creating any organization that is productive and make progress. Some quotes from Yglesias: “[Tema Okun’s document is ] sloshing around quite broadly in progressive circles even though I’ve never heard a major writer, scholar, or political leader praise or recommend it. And to put it bluntly, it’s really dumb. In my more conspiratorial moments, I… Read more »
Nice summary. Thank you. I think many of us would like to see substantiating data around this program. However, I suspect that it will follow the same path as the promise to release the data used in the COIC report, which is also set to be released after 5 years. It appears that among the characteristics this ideology shares with right-wingers is a lack of interest in data.
Tim, thank you for the in-depth review of the Mosaic material. One of our objectives in posting the reference to the Mosaic curriculum was to raise awareness that today’s UUA RE material does not reflect the liberal values that were once instilled in our children. Okun’s work, especially her list of 15 characteristics of white supremacy culture, has been employed as definitive proof of white supremacy culture lurking about in plain sight. We covered Okun’s work in a Fifth Principle Discussion post in June 2020 that included a mention of Anne Schneider’s book, The Self-Confessed White Supremacy Culture. It has… Read more »
It’s 2025 and we’re still on Okun?
I guess nothing the UUA does should surprise me, but somehow they still manage to disappoint.
Thrilled to see these materials. After years of struggle, we are finally a place where our President is asking what topics I want the congregation to discuss. The answer will go all the way back to the beginning, so this post is just what I need.