I don't believe I'm confusing Unitarianism and Universalism. They share so much in common, of course, that in the USA they merged years ago to become the UU church.
They used to say that Unitarians believed man was too good to be damned, and Universalists believed that God was too good to damn man. Not a very precise definition, but interesting to contemplate.
Original Unitarianism shared a common thread with Arianism, in that Jesus was seen as quite special but not God, hence focusing on the unity of God rather than the trinity. Early Unitarians in America, such as Channing and Parker, were liberal Christians who emphasized the teachings of Christ while skeptical of or outright rejecting the idea that Jesus = God.
There is evidence that millions of mainline Protestants are 'Unitarianish' more or less as Channing, Parker, Emerson and others were. They seek to be loyal followers of Jesus but have basic doubts about what they suspect are man-manufactured myths (especially miracles) associated with him.
It always has amazed me that Unitarianism never made more headway numerically here in America, though a disproportionate number of early reformers, poets, etc. had Unitarian connections or tendencies. Some were Unitarian Quakers (Hicksites) such as John Greenleaf Whittier. And, if I recall correctly, three presidents were Unitarian - the two Adamses and William Howard Taft. Perhaps it is a bit too cerebral for most Americans and too rational, lacking an emotional component which most people seem to need.
In any case, while I would feel discomfort as a Unitarian I admire its emphasis freedom of thought over the comformity required by traditional Catholicism or by evangelical Protestantism. There are an amazing number of free thinkers among Catholics, more and more of them, who stick with their church for a variety of reasons, such as family ties, friends, ethnic identification, etc. The estimate is that 30,000.000 US Catholics have left that faith, most of them to become liberal Protestants, evangelical Protestants, or nothing. UU congregations, while normally rather small, seem to include a high percentage of former Catholics, also.
