Preface

Preface to the Second Edition

Introduction Andrew J. Young

Chapter 1   Two American Faiths
Chapter 2   A Dream Aborted: Egbert Ethelred Brown in Jamaica and Harlem
Chapter 3   A Dream Pursued:Lewis McGee and the Free Religious Fellowship
Chapter 4   How "Open" Was the Door?
Chapter 5   Integration Where it Counts
Chapter 6   "Where There Is No Vision, the People Perish. . . "
Chapter 7   How Open Is the Doo? How Loud Is The Call?
Appendix A   Blck Universalist, Unitarian and Unitarian Universalist Ministers

Appendix B   The African American Unitarian Universalist

Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index

The author says, "There is ... an imbalance between the spiritual and political elements in black religion that the Unitarian emphasis on intellectual freedom can help remedy. The fatalism of the disinherited [black and worker] drive them to focus on the other-worldly rather than on justice in this world . . . Power is attributed to God, but it is not recognized that individuals are the primary conduits of His power. God is perceived as all-powerful, and people as powerless. Yet gaining power is one of the central problems in the lives of blacks, workers, and the disinherited. Having power means having the ability to assert control over one's own destiny.

"For Unitarians, generally, human participation in God's power is assumed, and for humanists, it is the primary source of power . . . Intellectual freedom is the missing element in the spirituality-dominated black church," the author concludes. "The American story," says Morrison-Reed, "is incomplete without the black story." He is right. One may add that the American church is incomplete without the black church. Dr. Morrison-Reed's narrative demonstrates the interdependence of black Americans and white Americans in the Unitarian denomination and elsewhere in creating a truly just and inclusive society. The civil rights movement of the sixties is a prophetic example of the power that is potential when there is integration of the churches in both mission and theology. American churches are still in need of this renewal.