Yes, that’s a provocative title but probably sums up what some people are thinking, with respect to the disaffiliation of Independent Affiliate organizations.
Well, whomever you are, they’re not out to get you. I don’t think there’s an anti-X conspiracy. I do think some good people are using the wrong principles — a rather flat form of congregational polity — and are drawing them out for the right reasons. A mistake, still, in my book. (Not that’s there’s not an upside, for those organizations which can now claim to be “an independent voice for Unitarian Universalists” doing whatever. But I’ve already mused if that’s a rivalry the UUA wants to be in.)
David Pollard, whom I knew when I attended First Jefferson Unitarian Universalist Church, Fort Worth, when at Brite Divinity School, adds more to overcome the fears of a minister-led conspiracy, which he’s heard.
Although I don’t think the UUA is necessarily out to get me or any of my friends, I don’t like to see groups to which I feel very close being rejected as IAs. I last attended a UUA GA in 2004. I thought I might attend again in 2010 (if our world should go on until then) when it comes to my city, but now am leaning toward signing up only for a few side shows.
Hmm, I heard that a motivating factor behind the decision was the fact that all IAs got time slots at General Assembly, which left very few slots for general interest workshops/lectures. Don’t know if this is true…
Actually, what I get out of this mass disaffiliation of IAs is how out-of-touch most IAs have been. Most IAs in my experience is that a third of them are pretty narrow special interest groups pushing narrow agendas, rather than true grassroots organizations that have a broad interest in UUism, and another third are poorly managed and badly organized. Only a few IAs actually live up to the standards of, say, the UUWF at the time of the Women an Religion resolution.