The December issue of Atlantic Monthly is running a list of the 100 most influential Americans, compiled from responses from several super-historians. As you might expect, we Unitarians fared quite well, getting ten or twelve out of 100, depending on how strict your criteria are.
3. Thomas Jefferson (in belief, if not membership)
25. John Adams
33. Ralph Waldo Emerson
38. Susan B. Anthony
40. John Dewey
45. Samuel F. B. Morse
53. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
55. John Quincy Adams
64. Jane Addams (in belief, if not membership)
65. Henry David Thoreau
76. Frank Lloyd Wright
100. Herman Melville
Two honorary Unitarians received honorable mentions. T.S. Eliot was raised by a Unitarian minister but later emigrated to England and converted to Catholicism. Sylvia Plath was raised Unitarian and professed Unitarian sympathies as an adult, but never joined.
In a separate list of the 34 most influential living Americans, there are no Unitarians. Which raises the question: Who is the most influential living Unitarian?
Matt Groening
Adlai Stevenson, my personal hero.
Oh shit, you meant living.
in that case:
Keith Olbermann.
CC is right- with the defeat of the only UU congressman, that puts Matt at the top of the heap. Actually he was probably was already in real influence, but this makes it official.
After Matt, I would put Philocrites, who has received national notice, then the rest of the UU blogosphere, with CC herself topping that list. The other contender for top of the second tier would be Jason of “The Wild Hunt”, as his readership extends beyond the UU world. I, too, am read by non-UU Pagans, to judge by emails I’ve gotten.
Not to disrespectful of anyone mentioned above, but quite a comedown from the old days.
A UU friend, recently moved back from Westport, Connecticut, says that Martha Stewart attends that church. Martha is number 31 on Ross Douthat’s list. However, after Googling, I couldn’t confirm any faith for Martha Stewart. Anyone else know?
Very interesting on Martha. Anybody have Westport connections?
Isn’t Kurt Vonnegut Unitarian?
I’m going to go with a few different possibilities for influential:
Rev. Scotty McLennan (inspiration for Gary Trudeau’s comic strip character and current minister and director of student religious life at Stanford)
Robert Fulghum-author and also minister
Rev. Bill Sinkford has a certain level of influence due to his standing as our president.
Rev. Schultz likewise was the UU president and ran Amnesty Intl.
I can think of a lot of well known ministers (Kim Crawford Harvey comes to mind), but not sure they are well known outside UU realms.
Likewise, I can think of some musicians in our midst (Carolyn McDade) that might have UU following, but not sure if they would be considered known outside UU circles.
We have local and state politicians that are UU in many places (CA’s newly elected secretary of state for instance, Debra Bowen). Again, can’t come up with the national level.
We can thank Tim Berners-Lee, among others, for this here intarweb thingy.
[…] Contact « How influential we are! (…er…were) […]
I left the Westport church when I was 7. I don’t think Martha had moved to town yet.
PeaceBang’s memories of Westport are more current.