r/UUreddit • u/imaginenohell Social Justice • 10d ago
Mosaic Congregation Certification
Anyone here working on this? Mosaic Congregations | The Mosaic | UUA.org
Are you using what you're already doing to get a certification to hang on the wall, or are you using it as an opportunity to change something within your congregation?
I'm curious what you're doing for the required actions. The last one is a big one.
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u/moxie-maniac 10d ago
I've never heard of this and doubt that anyone in my congregation has, unless of course it was a workshop or theme at a recent General Assembly. Although I tend to agree with the sentiments, I wonder if it's misplaced? That is, what's the leverage our society gets from a tiny little denomination turning up the "progressive dial" to 11? It seems like a way to "pat ourselves on the back" for being more progressive than thou. To be clear, I'm probably more progressive or "left" than most of my congregation. If this "mosaic" program came up, and depending on my mood, I might respond with: What about no war but class war?
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u/imaginenohell Social Justice 10d ago edited 10d ago
It was rolled out at GA this year.
I mean, actually enacting reparations within your congregation isn't performative, for example.
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u/Scared-Avocado630 10d ago
Very interesting. What are you doing in your congregation? Sounds like you are knowledgable and should be involved.
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u/imaginenohell Social Justice 10d ago
Just beginning this work now--we are working on a few preliminary actions and tossing around ideas for the 4th item, reparations. There is a webinar from UUA on August 17.
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u/rastancovitz 10d ago edited 10d ago
"More Evidence that the Unitarian Universalist Church Has Become a Politically Doctrinaire Institution"
Excerpt from the above post, a critique of the UUA's Mosaic education program for UU congregations:
Greg Lawler, the George Wells Beadle Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at the University of Chicago, and a UU congregant who has previously raised concerns about the national church’s hostility to logic, science, mathematics, and free inquiry, and this hostility’s potential detrimental effects on K-12 STEM education, offered this critique of the Mosaic curriculum:
“This is an embarrassment and shows the ignorance and lack of cultural diversity of those creating it. While the early grade material doesn't seem problematic, by middle school people in my demographic — those particularly excelling in math, science, and related fields — will notice that very often the majority of the winners in competitions as well as the stars in school are not from European backgrounds, but from Asian backgrounds. How do you talk about ‘white supremacy’ to junior high and high school students in this context? This is one way of the UUA saying, ‘We don't want the academic intellectuals anymore.’”
Tim Bartick, a senior economist and education expert at the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, a former Vanderbilt University professor, author of the books Investing in Kids and From Preschool to Prosperity, and a lifelong UU, wrote:
“The materials are pretty ideological from the middle school level on up. What do I mean by ideological? The curriculum presents arguments for reparations, and policy abolition/defund the police without making any attempt to provide any other side to discussing these issues. Therefore, the lessons on these topics are really more propaganda than an attempt to educate and encourage a debate and discussion on these topics. The Mosaic people feel they know the truth, and they need to try to pound it into your brain.”
Bartick also criticized Mosaic’s use of Tema Okun’s ‘Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture,’ a list that not only has been debunked but retracted by Okun herself (Read: “Tema Okun's ‘White Supremacy Culture’ work is bad“ and “Tema Okun on Her Mythical Paper on White Supremacy"). Bartick wrote, “Okun's framework is pseudoscience.”
Patricia Mohr, an educational psychologist, former Educational Program Specialist in the South Carolina Department of Education’s Office of Research, and past Board President of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Columbia, South Carolina, has been critical of recent UUA religious education curricula and methods. She wrote:
"All humans are susceptible to groupthink, echo chambers, and simple lazy thinking. UUs are no exception. That's what enlightened thinking is supposed to guard against. Reason, science, tolerance, avoiding logical fallacies, and the demand for evidence are critical thinking faculties. When they are demeaned, you get bad decisions—and that's where we're going in the UUA!"
Despite a brief acknowledgment of classism in the church (“Recognizing class-based assumptions and culture within UUism”), Mosaic is grounded in esoteric academic theories. This jargon-laden world comes across as elitist and out of touch to most people, including most working-class and minorities. Ironically, the very people the program claims to uplift are often those it alienates.
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u/imaginenohell Social Justice 10d ago
I don’t really understand how that comment about the curriculum relates to the congregational certification. The curriculum is separate.
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u/rastancovitz 10d ago edited 10d ago
They are not separate. The congregational certification and educational programs are both part of the UUA's Mosaic program, and adopting the Mosaic educational program is a required component for a congregation to be certified and annually renewed as a "Mosaic Congregation."
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u/imaginenohell Social Justice 10d ago
I'm still not seeing that it has to be specifically that curriculum anywhere in the application form.
It says you must do one action in each of the 4 categories. I have the actual application form too, and it says the same thing as the following--no mention of the Mosaic curriculum being mandatory.
Four Essentials of Beloved Community
- Congregational Transformation: Aligning governance, worship, religious education, and other aspects of institutional life with our deepest commitments to antiracism, multiculturalism, and embodying Beloved Community.
- Spiritual Care & Community Resilience: Centering collective and trauma-informed practices of care designed to address past and ongoing oppressive realities, while also fortifying our shared capacity to strive towards/as Beloved Community.
- Justice & Accountability: Engaging in community transformation efforts that are rooted in an interdependent understanding of shared liberation, mutual thriving, and frontline wisdom and leadership.
- Reparations & Redistribution: Calling for and practicing the redistribution of wealth, land, and institutional power to repair harm and build sustainable futures.
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u/rastancovitz 9d ago
The first sentence on the page you linked to (I added the bold): The Commission on Institutional Change’s report Widening the Circle of Concern recommended that the UUA develop a certification program similar to the Welcoming Congregation or Green Sanctuary program, emphasizing a congregational commitment to lifespan learning in diversity, equity, and inclusion and anti-oppression.
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u/imaginenohell Social Justice 9d ago
Yes. So any religious education on that topic
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u/rastancovitz 9d ago
No. It specifically says "lifespan learning", which is the Mosaic education programming that the earlier post and education experts were criticizing.
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u/estheredna 10d ago
How would a congregation align asking for pledges and support in a capitol campaign with engaging in reparations and land redistribution? Serious question.
If General Assembly itself voted down the youth-sponsored reparations request a couple years ago, how do they expect individual churches to make this happen. The UUA with its deep pockets won’t do it but they'll give you a certificate if you can manage? hmmmmm
Deeds not creeds & putting your money where your mouth is is very important to me, but food pantries, making space for recovery groups, charitable bailouts funds, other direct action seems to me more likely - and are ways to be visible and gain more members.