Spring 2019
How Can Unitarian Universalists Respond to Populism?
The Populist Imagination: A White Man’s Republic?
Rev. Dr. Colin Bossen
Date: April 27, 2019
Location: First Church Boston
Respondent: Rev. Danielle DiBona; Dr. Wendy Salkin
Right-wing populism is on the rise, threatening Unitarian Universalist values with its apocalyptic worldview and tendency to divide the world into a righteous people and a corrupt elite. But left-wing populism has also helped build democratic societies by pushing institutions to be more accountable. For the spring 2019 Minns Lecture series, Rev. Dr. Bossen challenged us to ask how Unitarian Universalists can respond to populism and white supremacy in the age of Trump.
Rev. Dr. Colin Bossen is an activist, minister, and scholar of religion, race, and politics in the United States. He currently serves as the Interim Senior Minister of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston. He is working on a book on the religious dimensions of populism, Onward, Christian Soldiers: American Populism and the Religious Imagination. He shares sermons and other writings at www.colinbossen.com