The Courage Our Country Needs to Survive
Ellsberg and UUA leaders celebrate UU defense of civil liberties in turbulent times

(Boston, MA - Oct. 18, 2002) Before an enthusiastic crowd of 150 people, Unitarian Universalists gathered in the historic Arlington Street Church in downtown Boston to celebrate the role of UUs in promoting and defending civil liberties in the U.S. Kim Crawford Harvie, minister of the Arlington Street Church, offered a warm welcome to the guests, recalling the history of that church in providing sanctuary and haven for those who have defended civil liberties throughout the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries.

Gobin Stair, William Sinkford, & Robert West

UUA President William G. Sinkford introduced the evening, speaking about the work of famous Unitarians and Universalists who have defended civil liberties and reflecting on the struggle for civil liberty which emerged in the 19th Century over the question of slavery. Sinkford said, "Unitarians were by no means of one mind about abolition, and our celebration tonight should be tempered by the understanding that we have not always acquitted ourselves well. But at the forefront of the abolitionist movement were Unitarians such as Samuel May, Jr., Theodore Parker, Maria Weston Chapman, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, and John Pierpont. The sculpture of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment which stands directly across from the Massachusetts State House shows Col. Robert Gould Shaw, a member of Theodore Parker's congregation, leading the African American troops of this volunteer regiment, many of whom, along with Shaw, would sacrifice their lives for freedom."

Sinkford recognized that the work to ensure civil liberties continues to this day, saying, "Last June, the delegates at our General Assembly voted to recommend to congregations a two-year study/action issue on civil liberties. At the end of this two-year period, at the General Assembly in June, 2004, the delegates will vote on a final resolution on this issue. Civil liberties are at the forefront of our congregations' attention.

"And, finally," he continued, "this good news: just last week, First Unitarian Church of Salt Lake City won a stunning victory when the 1Oth United States Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Church of Latter Day Saints, the Mormons, could not impose restrictions on free speech and expression on a stretch of Main St. in Salt Lake that the Mormons control. First Unitarian brought this suit three years ago along with the ACLU and several other groups dedicated to First Amendment rights, and tonight I want to salute the work of this congregation and its minister, Tom Goldsmith, for adding another chapter to the story of Unitarian Universalist defense of civil liberties. This is the latest chapter, but I assure you, it will not be the last."

Robert West & Gobin Stair

UUA Director of Advocacy and Witness Meg Riley acted as emcee for the evening and recognized the remarkable role played by the UUA and Beacon Press in publishing "The Pentagon Papers" in 1971, despite government pressure, harassment, threats, and invasion of privacy which threatened to bankrupt the UUA and Beacon Press. Former Beacon Press Director Gobin Stair and Robert West, UUA President (1969-1977), described in chilling detail the government surveillance and threats which were used to unsuccessfully deter publication of "The Pentagon Papers" by Beacon Press in 1971. Stair, now ninety years old, joined West in recalling events leading up to the publication of the seven thousand page collection of documents and analyses which had been released by Daniel Ellsberg and given to then-Sen. Mike Gravel, a UU member of Congress from Alaska.

Daniel Ellsberg

Stair said, "One day at home, I got a phone call at home from Richard Nixon. I recognized his voice, and he said, 'Gobin, we have been investigating you around Boston, and we know you are apparently a pretty nice and smart guy. . . I hear you are going to do that set of papers by that guy Gravel, the guy who collected the Pentagon Papers...' And it was obvious he was going to ask me not to publish it. The result was that as the guy in charge at Beacon, I was in real trouble. To be told by Nixon not to [publish this book], convinced me that it was a book to do."

West recounted some of the "major issues and principles that drove actions around publication of this book, as they occurred: religious freedom, freedom of association, government harassment, misuse of the power by the FBI and the Justice department, misuse of a grand jury, invasion of privacy, and misuse of secrecy by the government." West recalled that Beacon Press published the massive and costly book on Oct. 22,1971 and in early November, was notified by UUA treasurer, Arthur Root, that FBI agents and been working secretly at New England Merchants Bank, reviewing all the UUA's records -- including every check written and deposited in the UUA account over the last four months, and the names of all individuals who contributed to our denomination."

West continued, "The next thing was that Gobin was subpoenaed to appear at Daniel Ellsberg's trial in California. Bill Duffy, our special council, was expecting a similar subpoena, and said that his job was to keep Gobin and me out of jail. I spent an afternoon with him preparing for the trail. However, as you know, a mistrial was declared because Federal Agents burglarized the office of his psychoanalyst."

Later in the evening, the audience in the church crackled with excitement as Ellsberg, who was speaking on the same evening at the Boston Public Library about his new book, "Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers," strode down the aisle and assumed his place at the podium to offer brief extemporaneous remarks. Ellsberg recalled the fortitude shown by UUA and Beacon Press officials in publishing "The Pentagon Papers," saying, "Courage is what Senator Mike Gravel had... what Beacon Press had. Imagine the courage it took for Gravel to read the Pentagon Papers into the record of Congress - to put everything on the line. I would go anywhere to pay tribute to Gravel, and to the Unitarian [Universalist] church... Your church [and Unitarian Universalists have] shown the civic courage we need, our country needs, to survive."

Rev. Jack Mendelsohn

Also speaking was the Rev. Jack Mendelsohn, author of "Being Liberal in an Illiberal Age" and other seminal UU titles, who offered recollections of the civil liberties demonstrations held at Arlington Street church during the time he was minister. Mendelsohn said, "This [ church] was a center where the civil liberty of objection, of protest against what we were doing in Vietnam, was heard. And so there were days when there would be a major public meeting going on here. . . possibly with John Kerry, or other speakers who were well known for their opposition to what we were doing in Vietnam. Outside, in front of the statute of William Ellery Channing, there would be a mob throwing eggs against the facade of the church as people were coming in for that meeting. They were supporters of the war. . ."As someone alive in the universe, the universe doesn't make it impossible to experience these liberties. We are faced now with an administration not in love with democracy. And among the objects of our grief, victimized by violence, we should hold a sense of gathering grief for the constitution. I hope meetings like this will recall our great tradition of support for democracy and its partner, civil liberties."

Ellery Schempp

Ellery Schempp, who as a high school student had refused to recite the Lord's Prayer and thus became involved in a civil liberties case which ended up in the U.S. Supreme Court, also shared his experiences with the audience. "I had learned a deep admiration and reverence for the Founding Fathers and the separation of church and state," he said. "And in the UU tradition, [I also learned] tolerance and respect for other's views. Enforced Bible.reading and prayer seemed to me to violate these principles. So it was in November 1956 that I first made a silent protest in school. I took a borrowed copy of the Qu'ran to school (Abington Senior High School), and instead of putting away school work to listen to the Bible-reading and standing to recite the Lord's Prayer, I just sat quietly and read -- nervously, I might add. Within minutes I was in the principal's office, who lectured me on respect. Seven years later, in 1963, a year after I graduated from Tufts, the US Supreme Court by 8-1 decided the case called Abington vs. Schempp and Murray vs. Curlett and declared Bible-reading and public-prayer rituals in the schools were unconstitutional under the First Amendment.

"I believe that the pressures to put prayer and religion in the schools and other displays of religiosity undermine civil liberties in other areas. Debate about the complexities of dealing with terrorist threats and evil governments is impaired when God and religion are mixed up with patriotism," and, he said, "in the present climate, civil liberties can be one of the first casualties.. ."

The evening concluded with a question and answer period and concluding remarks made by Diane Olson. Moderator of the UUA. Olson said, "From Elhanan Winchester and Benjamin Rush and their condemnation of slavery and war at the Universalist Convention in Philadelphia in 1790, to Theodore Parker and William Lloyd Garrison, to Clara Barton, Susan B. Anthony, Julia Ward How and Margaret Sanger, to John Haynes Holmes, Arthur Weatherly and Clarence Skinner, Unitarians and Universalists have been ahead of the wave and have led the way! We must recognize that it is our precious heritage to lead, to be aware, to speak out, to have courage, to be dedicated, to take a stand."

For more information on UUs and civil liberties, see "Ahead of the Wave".

Unitarian Universalist Association
25 Beacon St. | Boston, MA 02108 | 617-742-2100