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What Do You Say When Someone Asks "What's A UU?"

The "elevator speeches" from Rev. Byrd Tetzlaff's service
August 24, 2003

I always encourage people to work on their elevator speech, what you'd say when you're going from the sixth floor to the lobby and somebody asks you, "What's a Unitarian Universalist?" You've got forty-five seconds.— William G. Sinkford President, Unitarian Universalist Association

The service was delivered by the Rev. Byrd Tetzlaff and included "elevator speeches" by four HUU members. Here are three of them:

James Geary

What is Unitarian Universalism to me?

It is not a refuge to me. Although I can appreciate that it can be a refuge to some who are fleeing from the stifling effect of a religion ruled by dogma.

Rather, I find Unitarian Universalism a welcoming gathering place. It is a place where I can meet and freely discuss questions with open-minded people who, like I, are seeking answers.

Answers to what? Among other things, answers to the age-old mysteries of the Universe. Answers to how to deal with with the changing mores of the times. Answers to the ethical questions that are crowding in on us as a result of scientific advances, of medical breakthroughs, and globalization.

Has the Big Bang theory raised more questions than supplied answers?

What are the implications of cloning, especially the cloning of human beings?

What are the ramifications of DNA?

Who is to say when self-inflicted end-of-life is justified?

How are we to deal with the ever-increasing methods of prolonging life?

In the company of Unitarian Universalists I can be comfortable giving my views on such subjects. I can give them without fear of condemnation or dismissal, even though my listeners may question my views.

Finally, I can find friendship in Unitarian Universalism among people who are sincere, and are concerned about society. I can exchange views with others who not only listen but have considered thoughts to express, thoughts uncolored by accepted dogma or considerations for what is currently politic.

Elinor Mondale

My definition of UUism

We are a community of people who are each seeking a spiritually satisfying life, but each individual may have a different idea of what is spiritually satisfying because there is no dogma and no Bible whose writings must be obeyed.

UU's are open-minded, interested in learning, ready to listen to the ideas of other people and ready to defend the rights of others to have their own ideas whether they agree with them or not.

While there is no absolute path or truth for UU's, there are a number of rules which UU's use as guidelines. For example, we strive to help others, to be accepting and understanding of people who are different from us, and to adhere to peaceful attitudes and lifestyles.

Sarah Cheverton

In the past, when someone asked me, "What's this whole Unitarian thing about?" or, more often, "So what's THAT?", I would usually answer with a little laugh, maybe an embarrassed laugh, and say, "well, ya know, we're the ones who don't believe anything!" I allowed my family, all deeply Christian, to make fun of me and regard Unitarian Universalism as not much more than joke.

After a while, it started to bother me that I was clearly buying into that myth, that joke that in fact we don't believe in anything. In fact, I think I came to UU believing that UU's don't believe anything, that most UU's are simply working out their anger with the more conventional, less tolerant religions, that UU's are just a bunch of intellectuals looking for a place to talk.

While those things may be true or have been true for many of us, I have come to understand that the Unitarian Universalist religion (if you will) IS a religion with principles and beliefs. I suddenly realized that with every snicker, every irreverent comment, every joke, I had been doing a disservice to UU's everywhere, including myself.

Over time and through my growing involvement in the work of the UU, I have come to believe that Unitarian Universalism is a religion that promotes the search for individual truth and consequently society's search for what is just and fair for all individuals, i.e., for the community at large. No matter how I look at it, it seems to boil down to that even though the implications of that approach to "religion" are far from anything "boiled down." I imagine it as the most challenging religion one could follow, but for me, the most compassionate and right.

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