Actor Paul Newman did not need steady film roles to stay in the spotlight. Choose your favorite Newman: unpretentious neighbor in Westport, Conn.; octogenarian race-car driver; entrepreneur and philanthropist; political activist and financial supporter of The Nation. One chapter has proven more difficult to flesh out: When and why did he become interested in Unitarian Universalism, and what did it mean to him?
Those questions come our way through reader Robert Johnson, who submitted this story idea to GetReligion:
The death 26 Sept of actor Paul Newman has not received much coverage overall, but there’s a major ghost in the little coverage there is: Newman was a Unitarian Universalist. No one is exploring the role that his faith plays in the Newman’s Own practice of distributing all profits to charity.
This is another important story about Unitarian Universalism following on the shooting in the Knoxville church in August (which has also slipped from the public radar).
I realize the theology and politics of Get Religion are conservative, but if you mean what you say about covering ghosts, the ghost in the Paul Newman’s obituary is a pretty major one to address.
There’s little in the Web-accessible record to establish that Newman’s interest in Unitarian Universalism was the subject of any reporting. It did not turn up in this passage from a Time cover story, published in 1982 when Newman starred in The Verdict:
He was the second son of Arthur S. Newman, a prosperous Jewish partner in a sporting-goods store, and Theresa Fetzer, a Hungarian-descended Catholic. By the time Paul and his brother Arthur, now 58, a film production manager living in Lake Arrowhead, Calif., were children, Theresa was a Christian Scientist. Paul’s exposure to that faith did not make any lasting impression (he has followed no religion as an adult, but calls himself a Jew, “because it’s more of a challenge”).
The Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations lists Newman among several other famous UUs (including Christopher Reeve, Pete Seeger and Kurt Vonnegut). A UUA-distributed songbook, Singing for the Green, includes this verse, set to the tune of “Give Me That Old-Time Religion”:
Well, it don’t take much acumen to rejoice in being human,
Especially when you know Paul Newman is a Unitarian too.
What’s surprising is that Newman’s beliefs were not mentioned in multiple settings in which it would have been appropriate: John Nichols’ witty tribute for The Nation, the official obituary (as it’s identified by the Westport News), a public statement by Newman’s five daughters, or the fine collection of local tributes published by the Westport News (including this, this, this and especially this story by Brian Lockhart (with contributions from other writers).
Lockhart’s story includes this wonderful story about Newman’s effort to help Ned Lamont Jr. in his bid for the U.S. Senate:
Newman was one of Lamont’s early supporters and made phone calls and commercials for the upstart candidate.
“At first he just wanted to voice his private support,” Lamont said. “He had been public on behalf of a number of candidates … and he remembered that a Wall Street Journal columnist had been so outraged they suggested boycotting Newman’s salad dressing.”
Lamont said a week later Newman changed his mind.
“He called back and said, ‘What the hell, let’s do it,’” Lamont said, recalling how Newman wrote his own robo-call script.
“It was the funniest thing,” Lamont said. “He then called around the state just to test it out and pretended he was a ‘robo call.’ He called me back up a day or so later and said, ‘Ned, two people hung up, I got two answering machines, and the fifth person yelled to his wife — ‘It’s some quack pretending to be Paul Newman.’”
Here’s hoping that Newman’s funeral will be open to journalists, and that it will shed further light on what he believed.
Image: From the trailer for Exodus, via Wikimedia Commons.
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Comments (16) |
September 30, 2008, at 7:41 am
I watched this video of one of his last interviews. He mentioned ‘el dios’ when I believe he was asked about his success in life (forget the actual question). This was near the end of the interview. This was the first that I heard anything about him believing in anything. I remember thinking ‘I would like to know what faith he adhered to’.
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=5914756&page=1
September 30, 2008, at 9:20 am
In true UU fashion, it’s hard to say anything definitive about his faith.
September 30, 2008, at 9:30 am
I attend a Unitarian Universalist church. Near the start of each service,the pastor says,”What you believe is not inportant,what you do is”. Unitarian Universalists are not big on belief/creed.
September 30, 2008, at 9:37 am
UUs do not have creedal tests for church membership, but do have a set of seven Principles as guidelines for behavior and goals. Newman’s charitable works are certainly consistent with the Principles.
September 30, 2008, at 9:38 am
RW & b harper,
My frustration is less with a lack of theological precision than with a poor sense of how, in any clear sense, Paul Newman was a Unitarian Universalist.
September 30, 2008, at 4:02 pm
Taking the phrase out of context and speaking specifically about UU theology, I’m reminded of one of my favorite Alan Watts quotes:
UU people seem pretty “gooey” to me!
September 30, 2008, at 5:14 pm
Over the years, some UUs have claimed various folks whose connection was tenuous at best. Not sure if Newman is in that category or not. Here’s a blog entry from a journalist who is a UU discussing the phenomenon…
http://freeandresponsible.blogspot.com/2007/12/whos-not-famous-uu-lately-ive-been.html
I don’t think it is a conscious decision by the UU hierarchy to claim folks who can’t really be said to be UUs but rather overzealous members claiming folks with admirable traits. The UUA website has biographies of claimed UUs, often detailing ambiguities that exist in the claims. The bio of Thomas Jefferson is a good example. http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/thomasjefferson.html
There are plenty of real UUs (or predeceasor Unitarians and Universalists) worth admiring. I say this as a former UU. What is really important to me is whether a claimed adherent can teach important things, not what religion they called home.
September 30, 2008, at 5:33 pm
Thank you, Jay, for the excellent link to Free and Responsible Search. A link like that makes writing this post worthwhile.
October 1, 2008, at 11:07 am
Douglas LeBlanc wrote:
“What we have here is a failure to communicate.”
October 1, 2008, at 5:03 pm
A lack of precision seems to me a PERFECT illustration of his UU faith, by definition.
October 6, 2008, at 1:13 pm
This article in one of the main Spanish Protestant websites also says that Paul Newman was a Unitarian Universalist.
October 6, 2008, at 1:37 pm
[…] Sin embargo, otros no lo tienen tan claro, y el blog sobre religión y medios de comunicación GetReligion duda que exista una conexión clara entre Paul Newman y UU o cualquier otro grupo religioso. Y frente al rumor de que Paul Newman asistÃa a la iglesia UU de Westport, Connecticut, un antiguo miembro de esta iglesia niega en su blog haberle visto nunca en ella, aunque sà se encontró alguna vez a su famoso vecino. […]
October 7, 2008, at 1:10 pm
Paul Newman lived near the Unitarian Universalist Church in Westport, CT. The UU congregation that I attended in CT had many former members of this UU Congregation and they would often mention chatting with Paul Newman while his children attended the Children’s RE program there. Whether he or his wife actually joined the church is not known by me. One does not need to be a member to have their children participate in the RE Programs. And one can continue to identify as Jewish in our non-creedal faith. Blessings, Rev. Fred L Hammond
October 7, 2008, at 9:59 pm
Excellent comment, Fred, and you provided the very sort of details that would have made news reports more satisfying.
October 11, 2008, at 3:11 pm
The year I was acting DRE at the Westport, CT, church, I was aware that at least one of his children, Lissy, attended the Sunday school. She was around six at the time and the day I spoke with her, her uncle had dropped her off.
October 13, 2008, at 12:19 pm
it’s hard not to admire Paul Newman for putting his money to work in such productive ways, such as his Newman’s Own line—high quality stuff and the proceeds go to good causes… very smart.