From the Trinity to Unitarianism

Some years ago I took a social work survey course taught by Scott Brier, then dean of the U of W School of Social Work. He emphasized to us that social workers believed there were three "great institutions", the Family, the Church, and the State, so firmly and long established as not, in their basic structures, to be challenged.

That was then, this is now. More children are now born out of wedlock in the US than are blessed by holy matrimony, and that's just the beginning- everybody divorces and then remarries, creating numerous mixes and remixes. The nuclear family, if it ever existed, if it ever should have existed, is toast.

Nor is support for the church that solid. It seems that if you ask people how much they drive, instead of whether they attend church, you get a church-going population that always walks to church- or a whole bunch of people who don't get out on Sunday as often as they think they do.

For better or worse, it looks like- maybe not too long from now- there will be only one Great Institution- the state. And won't that be fun.