I'm a PoC, and I'm increasingly exhausted by UU.

When I first started attending a UU church, I was excited. I had finally found my religion! Here was a group of people who did not demand dogma or belief in God. Here was a group of people who had a reasonable philosophy on how to live. They seemed committed to social justice and racial justice, as it fed back into the principles they have of a peaceful and just world, that acknowledged the inherent worth of every person. I was excited to find a spiritual home and community.

I was drawn in. But over time, I found myself more and more exhausted. Why?

When I join the DSA, I'm not expecting to work on spiritual growth - I'm expecting to plan on how to make a difference. When I show up to an ACLU regional meeting, I'm not expecting to work on spiritual growth - I'm expecting to learn about what legislative actions are in progress, and which legislators I should reach out to.

When I go to church, I expect to develop a sense of spirituality with a community. First and foremost, that is what I think a church exists to do.

Instead, there seems to be an expectation that everyone in church is (1) white and (2) should be a 24/7 activist. It's pretty alienating when 99% of sermon time is spent just beating white people on how they should be doing more. It's as if people of color either shouldn't be there or shouldn't expect that a sermon should care for our needs at all.

But also, not everyone is an activist. Not everyone can be an activist. I'm the most "activist" type in my (brown) family. Most brown people, like most white people, want to live our day to day lives, not be bombarded with everything that is terrible in the world constantly. We live with significantly less peace than white people (on average). But it doesn't mean we're all activists who want to constantly fixate on the ills of the world. Can you imagine a child living in poverty taking some joy in kicking a ball with other neighborhood kids? Great. Maybe you can imagine me wanting to grow spiritually instead of imagining a loved one getting murdered by the police again. Maybe I want my Sunday mornings to be a time of solace more often than its a time of anger.

This is not to say that churches shouldn't grow activism. They absolutely should - hearing about Scott Warren is why I looked into UU in the first place! But UU seems to put activism first, before spirituality or community. It seems to me that, in UU's quest to become more diverse, UU has only listened to the loudest voices in the rooms. And these voices demand a 24/7 style activism that is not feasible for most people (brown or no).

You are not catering to most PoC.

Want to draw in more PoC?

Then offer us something that activism can't - offer us healing.