Editorial Note: In the podcast we discuss reviewing the UU Principles every 10 years. The numbers mentioned were incorrect, the Bylaws state every 15 years, not every 10, the most recent in 2009, and appearing to be 1987 before that.

Welcome to The Fourth U Dimension, the official podcast of The Fourth Universalist Society in the City of New York. This podcast is managed by the Religious Education team, and exists to help dive deeper into the important questions of our moment.

Today's podcast features Bruce Pollack-Johnson and a discussion of justice, confronting white supremacy, and the proposed 8th UU Principle.

​Bruce Pollack-Johnson grew up in a suburb of Boston, studied Sociology and Education at Brandeis University, and earned a Ph.D. in Operations Research from the University of Pennsylvania, with a dissertation about educational planning. He was a professor at Oberlin College in the 80’s, then moved to the Philadelphia area as a professor at Villanova University, where there is an active Peace & Justice Education program. Bruce has created a course for undergraduate students called Math and Fairness, and a research seminar for upper-level math and statistics majors called Math and Social Justice, both of which count for Peace & Justice credit. He is also on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committees of his Department and of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. Bruce is currently Assistant Moderator and Chair of the Justice Council at the UU Church of the Restoration in Philadelphia, which led civil rights work against blockbusting in the 60’s and in 2017 was the first UU congregation to pass the 8th Principle, which Bruce co-wrote with Paula Cole Jones. Bruce can often be found singing at protests and rallies in Philly, and at the weekly Black Lives Matter vigils Restoration has held since 2014.

Learn more about the 8th Principle at https://www.8thprincipleuu.org/