The results are in. The most influential living Unitarian is Keith Olbermann.
After an early lead, Olbermann sank to third place while Matt Groening and Tim Berners-Lee vied for first. Meanwhile, a write-in campaign put Pete Seeger in the race as a late entry.
But then the Olbermanniacs got involved, and it was over for Groening and Berners-Lee. Olbermann took 51 of 140 votes. Keith Olbermann, we bow before you in awe of your Unitarian influentialness. Verily, we are not worthy.
What’s so influential about Keith Olbermann, ye dare ask? Probably editorials like this ten minute excoriation of Bush:
Here are the full poll results:
Um, that’s a rather grandiose headline, Chutney. Fifty-one people voting for Keith O. is interesting, but not exactly “results.” If we wanted to know who the most influential living UU is, we would probably need to ask the members of the member congregations, at the very least…
And they would invariably ask, “Influential to whom? Influential among us? Influential for being a Unitarian Universalist?”
The truth is, I can’t think of one person in the United States who has anything like considerable name recognition for being a Unitarian Universalist. If you asked the question to 99% of Americans (“Who’s the most influential Unitarian Universalist?”), they’d resoundingly respond, “Huh?”
The second question would be, “What a Unitarian Universalist?”
If you asked who the most influential UNITARIAN is, you might get a few mentions of Emerson, Thoreau, John Adams or other long-dead persons who may have, at one time or another, sat in our pews or signed their names to our books. Someone like Susan B. Anthony, whose life work was crucially important and influential, but whose time in our congregations was minimal and who was raised in another tradition entirely.
We are indeed grasping at straws in this endeavor. Maybe Keith O. was raised UU. When was the last time he went to church or actively participated in Unitarian Universalist congregational life?
Oh poo. Next thing you know, you’ll be telling me Santy Claus ain’t real. Or that none of my other headlines are grandiose.
As I said here, there are a lot of ways to do influence, and I’m not going to pick one. The question of influence itself is more important than defining it.
I’ve not been impressed with our “proselytizing of the dead,” as Garrison Keillor puts it, the idea that we’re important—and not strange—because we have important dead people in our ranks. It’s sad, and it keeps us stuck in 1850.
[aside]We do ourselves no favors, by the way, by setting up Emerson as the model of influence. How many Emersons can we expect to have? (How many can any movement expect to have?) Why does influence need to be defined as a single-person cultural tour de force who reoriented of our movement while being widely known as a Unitarian? [/aside]
When was the last time Olbermann was in church? Who cares? If he’s Unitarian, he’s Unitarian. Good enough for me.
The fact is, we are still influential, albeit in non-Emersonian ways. Influential enough, anyway. We don’t have to hang our heads in shame because we don’t have any more Presidents. We can go about being who we are.
Grasping at straws? Really? If I was claiming we’re important because one of ours created the Simpsons, that’s would be grasping at straws. Ask the entire membership of the UUA? You do realize this is still a blog, right? Not the PR office of the UUA? Who’s grasping at straws?
Amen chutney.
Peacebang – see, we “common folk” down here among the masses [that aren’t raised up on a pulpit form on high] like to have a little bit of fun every now and then, shockingly enough. We do find things interesting and fun other than knock out drag down fights about what Emerson meant in line 23 of his obscure but earth shattering poem. I’m terribly sorry if we aren’t cultured enough to appreciate the minute details of the theology of Thomas Jefferson. I shall be certain to offer an Adult Religious Education Class on the theological ramifications of Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase in the Spring to atone for this monstrosity.
I shall also be sure to form a committee within my church to discuss such ramifications. I’ll make sure we have workshops at UUA with titles such as “Fun vs. Unitarian Universalism: Why one is never allowed with the other and how to redefine the UU blogsphere voting rules to incorporate such ideals” and “Why New England stuffiness should be the defining social characteristic within our congregations and personal blogs, and what Emerson had to say about it.”
I can safely say I learned something form this contest that we even mentioned in RE today. The middle schoolers were talking about the Simpsons and how its funny how UU is made fun of a lot. Another teacher chimed in with me why, which we knew solely due to this blog event, and we burst out laughing at each other. The kids were shocked someone so cool could be a UU. If you mention that Emerson was a UU to 99% of our middle school YRUU kids, they’d resoundingly respond, “Huh?†The second question would be, “What’s an Emerson?â€
And as an aside, I don’t think you should deride the votes of 51 people.
I would imagine that most of our congregations/fellowships/etc. have fewer members than that amount in them.
But after all, I might have been having fun with this post! That’s certainly not allowed under the new Stuffed-Shirt-No-Fluffy-Fun-Allowed rules of Unitarian Universalism. And since I’m just a puny little lay person without a MDiv and no pulpit to bully from, my opinions must, of course, matter to no one. So sorry for the wasted space, and I shall be certain to recycle an appropriate amount of blog space elsewhere to atone for this.
Wow, that’s some special kind of crazy hate spewing.
Got issues, fellas?
God forbid someone critique the validity of something that certainly looks to my notoriously humorless and un-hyperbolic eye to have fairly grand aspirations.
I don’t think it matters whether someone still attends church so much as whether his UU upbringing still informs his life & work. In that sense, Mr. Olbermann certainly qualifies for this honor.
-Dorrie
Shame on me for having the gall to criticize a comment made from the preacher from on high! I shall flay myself with barbed wire to atone for this monstrosity.
See, funny thing about comments and blogs. When you make a rather stupid comment, you leave yourself open for a rather sarcastic response. Thats kinda what writing in a public space is all about. If you didn’t want your comment to be lambasted, then you should have sent an email and not posted it on here.
Your original comment was seething with a “holier than thou” attitude that needed to be made fun of and pointed out. I seriously doubt I’m the one with issues who posted a comment on this thread.
You’re a loon if you think that this is meant to be a scientific poll, let’s publish the results on the UUA website and insert it into RE curriculum kind of poll. Look up “having fun” in the dictionary.
I obviously can’t speak for Chutney, but I would wager that if he actually wanted to a scientific poll that would fit with the credentials of being worth of the all mighty preacher, then he would have done things a tad differently.
Get over yourself, and learn to have a little blogosphere fun.
Next you’ll be telling us that that little survey Chutney put up to see what kind of heretic you are should be taken literally and people burnt at the appropriate stake.
At least we haven’t lost our famous UU flair for dissention and hyperbole! :-) I am a Unitarian (UUC of Norfolk) and proud backer of Keith Olbermann–we actually cooked your books, smoked your poll, even though we had to slip in some Baptists to do it.
Olbermann, while working from NBC, a wholly owned subsidiary of General Electric, got on the television last night and decried the waste of Human Life in Iraq and implied that a lot of it was driven by Corporate Profiteering, of which his own employer is clearly one. You guys should hear that sermon! (And sermon it was, better than anything I have heard from a pulpit in YEARS.) Moral Courage, guys. This man is a credit to us, he is freaking a national Treasure.
Video here: http://keitholbermann.org/page4.html
When I started my Olbermann site I had a Unitarian section, but no one ever posted to it, so I folded it in to General Discussion. The point being we are so rare, I tend to want to be friendly to any UU’s I meet on the net. People would never act in person they way they act on blogs and forums, you know?
-Michael