The problem with these fine ideals is that they are undermined by UU prejudices. When UU people speak of upholding "reason," they mean reason employed in the defense of the false presuppositions of rationalism and humanism. When they speak of "moral freedom," they mean freedom to choose one’s own morality autonomously, which often results in moral license. When they speak of "intellectual honesty," they mean freedom to believe whatever one wants to believe, regardless of contrary evidence or the cost to society. When they refer to "perversion of truth," it is a perversion of their total faith in humanity.

This UU "deity," however, is seriously flawed. Gomes points out that as far as their first principle, religious freedom, is concerned, there is more here than meets the eye. Religious freedom is already embraced by almost everyone in America, so why do UUs preach to the choir and proclaim it so adamantly that an outside observer might suspect that we live in a totalitarian society? The reason is because, for UUs, "religious freedom" requires support for religious diversity based on the premise that all truth is relative. Since truth is relative and not absolute, it must change over time. By definition then, no religion can logically claim absolute truth, and equally valid religious truth can be found in all religions. Christianity is made wrong and demonized merely because it claims absolute truth. The evidence for such a claim is never fairly considered, only the truth of UU premises. Citing well-known UU author Philip Hewett, in The Unitarian Way (Toronto: Canadian Unitarian Council 1985, p. 89), "No person, no faith, no one book, no one institution has all the answers, nor ever any patent on the way of finding answers." "Another major Unitarian affirmation is a belief in universality, which excludes all exclusivism."⁸

Thus, hidden in the UU concept of "religious freedom" is the expectation and even the requirement that everyone else accept the "truth" concerning UU views of relativism and pluralism. Gomes points out:

Further, the UU concept of tolerance is flawed because it is self-serving. UU is not unique; it behaves like every other belief system, excluding some beliefs while affirming others. Thus, "UUs are ‘free’ to believe anything they want, so long as it does not contradict what UUs are allowed to believe! How this differs from other belief systems—including that of the dreaded ‘religious right’—is difficult to see."¹²

The truth is that UU followers are especially intolerant of religious exclusivism, in particular Christianity, labeling it hateful, divisive and narrow. In the words of James Luther Adams, "It [Unitarianism] protests against the idolatry of any human claim to absolute truth or authority."¹⁴ But UUs are just as 1) hateful, 2) divisive and 3) narrow for 1) attacking absolute truth claims unmercifully, 2) describing believers in absolute truth with such negative terms and then excluding them from the community of the tolerant, and 3) proscribing all belief in absolute truth and ruling it void by mere preference. Really on what basis, other than personal subjective preference, are some beliefs excluded and others accepted?

Regardless, if it is arrogant and intolerant to believe one is right and others wrong, UUs are just as arrogant and intolerant as they believe Christians to be, since they believe that they are right and Christianity is wrong. "Arrogance" is not the issue with exclusive truth claims, only whether those claims are true. When Christ claimed that He was the only way to God, this is either true or false. If it is true, when Christians affirm it they are telling the truth. If it is not true, Christians, as Gomes points out, are guilty of having been deceived, but hardly of arrogance. If Jesus’ claims are true, then UUs are condemning themselves and being exclusivistic:

Concern for the salvation of all people is a biblical mandate¹⁷ because the evidence for an eternal hell is no less persuasive than that for Christ’s resurrection.¹⁸

UU does not even have a logical basis for its cherished social programs. Christianity, which UU condemns as hateful and divisive, has done far more for the world than UU ever will. Indeed, the social benefits alone that Christianity has given the world are in almost infinite excess to those of UU. (See for example D. James Kennedy, What If Jesus Had Never Been Born?) Christian social action is powerful and permanent because it does have a logical, objective basis for condemning many of the same social evils UU does—racism, hatred, violence and so on. However, because UUs teach (as an absolute truth) that all truth is relative, its moral condemnation is powerless in that it can only be based upon an individual subjective preference. As Gomes points out, there is a great difference between being able to objectively declare something morally wrong and merely personally finding something reprehensible.

Further, UU has to admit that the very ideals it now cherishes as absolutes — even though absolutes do not exist — may one day be rejected by UU on the basis of expediency. Certainly, one could envision a time when its current "tolerance" of Christianity would, given the proper social climate, succumb to hated persecution. Because UU ideals are not based in absolutes, they are permanently subject to the vagaries of social convention or "political correctness." But politically correct views are only infrequently life-affirming; to the contrary, they are often repressive "politically correct death," whether it results from abortion, sexual license or religious persecution, it is in no one’s — least of all society’s — best interests.

Also, an inter-house poll among UU leaders determined that most believed top priority had to be given to determining just what UU does believe! Hence:

But in the subsequent two decades, more UU committees only ran into similar problems. Until they recognize that the real problem is their most cherished ideal, humanism, little will change. It will always be true that the "urge to save the world [socially] has cost many denominations dearly, and especially the Unitarian-Universalist Association."²⁶