Most Religious Groups wouldn't embrace the label "heretic," but for the Unitarian Universalists, whose religion is founded on the concept of choice, this designation is in keeping with their faith. The group asserts that its members have always been heretics, which is how they explain their commitment to religious pluralism and their respect for and acceptance of all belief systems. This isn't because they desire to be rebellious, but because they want to choose their faith. Heresy comes from a Greek word that means choice.
Although the Unitarians and Universalists began as separate groups, both developed as a reaction to accepted religious creeds. The Reverend Thomas Starr King, who served both Unitarian and Universalist churches in the 1840's and 50's humorously defined the difference between the two faiths in this way: "Universalists believe that God is too good to damn people, and the Unitarians believe that they are too good to be damned by God." Either way, societies of the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries were less than accepting when it came to the idea of choice in matters of religious faith. Consequently, early Unitarians and Universalists faced persecution in their countries of origin (Transylvania and America, respectively) and elsewhere.
In spite of the persecution, the freedom to make religious choices eventually became central to both Unitarianism and Universalism. As early as the 1830s, both groups were studying and promulgating texts from world religions other than Christianity. By the middle of the twentieth century, it became clear that the groups could have a stronger liberal religious voice if they merged. So in 1961 they formed the Unitarian Universalist Association.
