ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 25, 1997 TAG: 9704250042
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Unitarian-Universalist members will vote on whether to rename the district to be more sensitive to new black members.
Thomas Jefferson was a forceful advocate of religious liberty, but his history as a slave owner may disqualify him as an appropriate symbol for the Unitarian-Universalist Church.
This weekend, church members in five Southern states will vote on whether to rename the church's Thomas Jefferson District in a gesture to reflect a more sensitive church more likely to attract new black members.
``The question is, is Thomas Jefferson an adequate symbol to represent the breadth of how we'd like to describe ourselves in today's world?'' said Roger Comstock, the church's district executive in Atlanta. ``We're putting a lot of emphasis on diversity.''
Jefferson's defenders say the church should be thankful for the religious freedoms he helped forge.
At Charlottesville's Unitarian-Universalist church, named for Jefferson in 1950, members are split on the issue as Saturday's vote in Charlotte, N.C., approaches.
``I think a name change would be a repudiation of Thomas Jefferson,'' said Albert Reynolds, a retired University of Virginia nuclear engineering professor and former congregation president of the 345-member Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church. ``I want to be sensitive to African-Americans, but I don't think this is the way to do it.''
But the Rev. Wayne Arnason, the church's minister, supports the name change to ``Southeastern District.''
``What has happened as we have delved into this issue of Thomas Jefferson as a symbol is more and more people in this particular region tried to look at this through the eyes of people of color and felt that it's a symbol that doesn't say what we wanted it to say,'' Arnason said.
Unitarianism traces its roots to 16th century Europe. It developed in America in the early 18th century within the Congregational churches of New England as a reaction against strict Calvinism. Unitarians reject the Trinity and Jesus' divinity, believing instead that God's meaning is different for every person.
The denomination merged in 1961 with the Universalist Church of America, which holds many of the same beliefs. The church has 150,000 adult members in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
The Thomas Jefferson District covers 54 congregations in Virginia, North and South Carolina and parts of Tennessee and Georgia.
Unitarians have long claimed Jefferson as a spiritual father, citing his Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom and Declaration of Independence.
Jefferson had an Anglican background but once wrote that he would have belonged to a Unitarian church had one existed near his home.
On slavery, Jefferson unsuccessfully sponsored laws outlawing the slave trade and in a draft of the Declaration called it ``an execrable commerce'' - language omitted by the Continental Congress to appease slave owners.
But at his death, Jefferson owned more than 130 slaves.
Daniel P. Jordan, president of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation that operates Monticello, Jefferson's Albemarle County estate, said he was unaware of the church controversy. But he criticized attempts to consider Jefferson in solely modern terms.
``If you reject everyone who ever owned slaves, you're creating a huge void,'' Jordan said. ``... How important is religious freedom for the Unitarian-Universalist Church? How important is freedom of speech? How important is freedom of the press?''
Two-thirds of district delegates must vote in favor of changing the name for the proposal to pass.
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