Growing Avant-Garde

Unitarianism was once snidely summed up as a small New England sect with a faith in the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, and the neighborhood of Boston. No longer. According to a new and wide-ranging survey of the Unitarian Universalist Association*which was undertaken by Chicago's Opinion Research Center, it has proportionately more college-educated and affluent members than any other church in the U.S.--and more than two-thirds of them now live outside New England, away from the faith's old neighborhood. The survey indicates that 63% of adult Unitarians earn more than $10,000 a year, and 84% have had some college education. Most of them are converts: 60% previously adhered to another religion, and 28% to none at all.

Unitarians have no formal creed setting forth specific teachings on faith and morals, and the Chicago survey is one of the first to reflect with any accuracy the real convictions of church members.

Most of them seem to deny the major tenets of Christianity; less than 3% think that God is a supernatural being, 90% do not believe in the existence of life after death, 64% say that they seldom or never pray. On topical issues, they approve of abortion for any pregnant unmarried woman (72%), intercourse between unmarried persons (80%); 70% think it "very important" that churches be involved in the struggle for racial justice. Although 69% oppose any escalation of the war in Viet Nam, only one Unitarian in five thinks that the U.S. should unilaterally pull its forces out of Southeast Asia.

Unitarian President Dana McLean Greeley said that the survey confirms his church's conviction that it represents "a small, intellectually and socially advanced segment of society, not the rank and file." The segment is growing. Unitarian membership within the past decade has doubled to 276,944, and church leaders expect it to reach 500,000 by 1980.

*The result of a 1961 merger uniting two liberal churches that had long shared nonconformist theological and ethical views.

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